Fresh Cut Sunflowers With Zig Markers

Hi Everybody,

After discovering watercoloring and Zig Markers, I asked myself the question, why would I want to color with Copics when I can put a wash of color over these flowers in one minute's time?  I'm kidding of course, I love Copics and Prismas but when you don't have a lot of time, this is one way to do it.  I've done three previous blog posts on scribbling the Zig Markers on the Bristol Smooth paper and spritzing with water and I had planned on moving on to a new technique but I've been busy the last couple of days so I find myself turning back to this quick technique. 

Someone asked to see what this looked like right after I finished scribbling before the water and here it is....  I kind of scribbled the colors where I wanted them on this one but I think everyone liked the first I did where I scribbled all over the place but both ways look good I think. 

Again, you don't have to even scribble the ink how you would normally color, put it anywhere because when you HEAVILY spritz with water, the ink will run all over anyway.  

I spritzed heavily and moved the paper around

I took a flat paintbrush and put some of the ink that had dripped off around the corners and edges. 

That's it!  If you aren't happy with how it looks at this point, spritz it again and you can even add more ink and spritz again. Make sure you are adding darker colors or they won't show up because the paper is already saturated with the water. 

Here's my card... I probably should've added some light blue that would flow around on the background.  I can do that next time lol.  

I love sunflowers and this set by The Ton Stamps called Fresh Cut Sunflowers is perfect, especially if you love masking and making bouquets.  I was going to make an actual bouquet and decided to stamp and mask it out this way.  I should've put a little space between the middle flowers but that's okay and where is the stem for that top sunflower LOL!  

I used Zig Real Brush Markers on Bristol Smooth Paper, spritzed heavily with water after scribbling on some color.  I had embossed in white using Hero Arts white embossing powder.  I embossed the word hello in Zing Chestnut embossing powder.  The greeting is from The Ton Stamps called Large Peony 1. I lOVE the huge peony in this set.  Check out this card I made with it in a previous post, here's the LINK

 I distressed the sides of the paper with a Tim Holtz distressing tool. This works so easily because the paper is weakened from being wet.  I went around the edges with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink and the corners with Gathered Twigs to make them a little darker. 

I finished it off with some dew drops from The Ton Stamps and I put Glossy Accents in the middle of the sunflowers to give them some dimension.  I thought the card stock I used was pretty with the wood grain texture, from Close To My Heart. The brown layer is from Gina K Designs called Chocolate Brown.  

I hope this inspires you to know that you can make a card even when you don't have a lot of time using Zigs and water.  You get a colored look without coloring.  Nothing in the world wrong with coloring!  Just do it when you have time and can relax.  

By the way I do take Copic and Prismacolor coloring classes from www.KitandClowder.com  Check out their website.  There are even some free classes on there if you want to see what they're like.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!


Regina

Oxide Inks and Copic Markers - What A Pair!

Hi Everybody,

I have been having so much fun today!  It's about 90 degrees and humid so I'm in the house in the A/C playing with my Tim Holtz Oxide Inks.  I thought I loved the Distress Inks (and I do) but
OMGosh, these oxide inks are so easy to work with and so easy to blend that you can make a masterpiece without even trying.

I'll show one of them here today and I've got a couple others in the works.  I used 4 Oxide Inks and a few Copics....  The stamp set I used is from The Ton Stamps called Large Peony 1.  I'm in love with this large flower.  I also love the sentiments included.  They now have 5 of these Peony stamp sets.  If you love to color, check their site out.

All I did was tap out the pads on my craft mat, spritz several times with a little spray mister bottle and dabbed the watercolor paper in the ink where I wanted it.  I started with 2 colors.  I used Arches 140# cold press watercolor paper and dabbed it in 2 different colors.  I started with Worn Lipstick and Wilted Violet and I used my heat gun.  Then you can turn your paper around and put colors on opposite of where they originally started, so put the pink where you originally put the purple, etc, or you can add more colors altogether.  So then I added the other 2 colors, Broken China and Cracked Pistachio just placing the paper over the inks and lightly rubbing or dabbing and heat set it and wow, I thought it looked so cool!  You really would have to just play and try this yourself to understand what I mean.  It's very easy and I can't wait to start making videos so I can show instead of tell lol. Basically just add ink until you like the look of it.

Then I stamped the large peony with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and I masked and put another flowers and 3 leaves.  I did have to stamp the flower 3 or 4 times since I used watercolor paper.  Then I took a few Copics and did a little shading, very little because you don't want to cover up the ink.  I'll list the colors I used below.  When you use Copics over this oxide ink, they blend so easily.  For example, on the leaves, I added BG15 and BG11, but just a little.  You don't even have to do this and it will still look great. I went around the entire thing with C3 Copic Marker.  I used a Spectrum Noir Shimmer Glitter Brush Pen in Clear on some of the center petals and around the edges of a few outside petals.  *Please note, I normally do not use Copics with watercolor paper/inks and I normally do not use Memento Black ink on watercolor paper but since the watercolor part of the background was finished, I could use this ink and Copics without worrying about it.

I stamped the greeting with Versafine Onyx Black ink and embossed with WOW Clear Embossing Powder to make it a little shiny.  Finally, a few clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh finishes it off.

I haven't seen one of my friends in about 3 months.  She always says, Hey Girl!  We live in Mississippi, everybody says Hey Girl so I knew I had to have this set because of that in addition to the awesome flower.  Her favorite color is pink so I know she will love it.  We meet for lunch about once a month or two so I want to tell her we need to do that soon in my card.

I hope you'll try these inks, they are so much fun and use your Copics with it and see what kind of a masterpiece you can make.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!


Regina

Copics Used:  RV34, RV32 and then I went back and added R59 for a little darker shading.
V15, V01 and I used V17 for darker shading.  BG15 and BG11 on leaves