Getting on the Copic Bandwagon

It seems like many of the arsty - fartsy - crafty people I know have jumped on the Copic Marker bandwagon. I've resisted - mainly because EK Success has had a full line of markers that I've always fallen back on when I need to add some color to a stamped project. Now that they don't have the Brushable line anymore I've been missing that spot of color here and there.

Back in May when we went to the Brimfield Antique Market we stopped at Absolutely Everything in Topsfield, MA. The salesperson (she was a REAL help, but I can't remember her name) showed me everything about Copics, and even stamped a couple images for me to play with coloring in the store. Every possible road block that I had in my mind - the reasons I had come up with not to buy them - she broke down. Replaceable tips, refillable, hundreds of colors.....well you get the picture.

So, I ended up coming home with some. When I finally got around to playing with the 6 that I had - I realized that that really wasn't enough to do anything with. So I got a small set from Dick Blick. Then I realized that I didn't have the right kind of ink to stamp with - and I kept forgetting to pick some up on my trips to JoAnn's - and now I'm finally getting to playing around with my new investment, LOL.

When I got a huge box of all the new InkaDinkaDo inks, tools, glitter and flocking powders a couple of weeks ago - I decided to have a little experiment.

I had been told (by a couple friends and the lady at Ab. Everything) that that the only stamping ink that works with Copic Markers is Memento and that because Copics are solvent markers StazOn doesn't work that great either.

This is simply NOT TRUE! But with a disclaimer on the StazOn! If you check out the image below you can see my examples. I'm a little embarrassed to show these, they are a little elementary - and the colors that I have is limited....but you gotta start somewhere!

I used an InkaDinkado Black Dye Ink Pad (top row of images), a Coffee Bean Dye Ink pad (middle row of images) and StazOn (bottom row of images).

Since I have a background in watercolor painting I approached this experiment with that in my mind - thinking the colors would mix and move around like watercolors but they don't. I did however figure out that if you want to lighten the background with a blending pen that you should apply the background color first and use a blender over the entire image, the one I like the best, and that shows this is the one on the top row in the center.

This is my favorite from my experiments, I love the way the background looks.

You can see that two of the StazOn images are ok and the butterfly on the bottom right is a little fuzzy. It appears that if you have a gentle touch with the markers on the StazOn, meaning that if you don't do a lot of blending with a blending pen or try add a lot of color to the image - the StazOn holds up to the gentle application of color using Copics, as shown in the other two images on the page. If you go crazy with the blending pen and coloring - well forget that. The solvent from the Copics causes the ink to bleed on the paper - because they are both solvent based.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that if you want to try a new kind of ink, the new DYE inks from InkaDinkado work perfectly with Copic Markers. I can see why everyone has so many of these markers though - I need to get some more so I can get the look I am going for....LOL.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy what's left of your weekend!