Copic Color Throwdown

I made this card yesterday and decided to get out something I hadn't used in a while: my Copics. A few days ago I found this sweet Lockhart stamp at my LSS and thought it would be great with Copics. I was thinking about it yesterday and realized it would work well with this week's Color Throwdown: lavendar lace, garden green, and so saffron. Two of these are colors I rarely use - guess which ones, LOL - so I thought it might be a tough challenge for me but hoped that using Copics would make it more fun!

What I didn't think about when I bought this stamp was that I probably wouldn't want my rocking chair just out in the middle of nowhere. There is a bit of grass drawn on the image, but clearly it was going to need more. And that is much more advanced coloring with the Copics than I had ever attempted. I did a bit of poking around on blogs to get some advice, and then just decided to go for it. I used a whole bunch of colors - sorry that I didn't get a picture, but I think I can give you the numbers.

I started with the smaller parts. I love how the apples turned out. I used YG03 and YG05 with just a bit of YG00 to show where the sun would be hitting them. For the chair frame I used E35 and E37. The basket is Y21, Y23, and Y26, and I colored the tiny butterfly with the lighter two yellows. The quilt and chair cushion (which were harder than I imaged they would be) are BV000, BV00, BV02, and BV04.

Then I had to tackle the grass and sky. I started with YG63 and colored the areas under and around the chair, then shaded with YG67 and blended again with YG63. I kept blending until I was happy with how it looked, and then I went over the grass that's sketched on the image with YG67 one more time. The sky was done with BG000, blended with the colorless blender to smooth out the edges and make it look a little mottled. Tip of the day: You don't want the line around the area you're coloring to be too exact. At first I ended up with a grass- and sky-colored oval, which just looked silly, so I had to go back and rough up the edges.

OK, now tell me, how did I do for my first attempt? I really want to know the honest truth! I do not have any art training so most of the time I feel like I'm winging it. If you are like me and are looking for tips on using your Copics, Marianne Walker's I Like Markers is invaluable. This tutorial from Michelle Wooderson was also really helpful - I think I'll spend more time browsing her blog and see what other tips she has to offer!

Okay, I guess I should just tell you about the rest of the card and get on with my day, LOL. The background is the Cornish Heritage Farms pretty pattern BG (now retired, I believe) stamped with lavendar lace CS/ink. I added a strip of saffron dot paper, and I also wanted to use this card for the Ways to Use It challenge to use two of something, so I added two strips of white crochet trim from JoAnn's. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations, stamped in garden green and oval punched. The finishing touch for this card seemed to be... buttons! I am loving buttons these days and I'm seeing them everywhere on cards so I must not be the only one. The flower button is saffron from Button Latte and the green ones are from JoAnn's, and I tied them with hemp twine. I layered everything on Bazzill Tokyo CS - it looked good with the color of the chair, and I just felt like I needed a darker color to ground everything.

Thanks for reading all this blabbing and visiting my blog today - I hope you have a great weekend!