I learned to Color!!

 
So Sunday was a really exciting day for me because I got to spend the whole day learning how to color!  I took the Copic's Certification class that was taught by Sally Lynn MacDonald and am now a certified teacher for Copic Markers.  I am proudly displaying my badge to the left! Heehee!!

If you know anything about Copic Markers, you know that they can cost a little money, that they can be intimidating but that when mastered, they can help you to create some of the most beautifully colored projects!!  Over time I have been gradually increasing my stash of Copics! I signed up for Gina K's Copic club and bought six new markers every month until I had three of the 36 marker sets in my collection.  Then, I realized that I just had to have the rest of them and went out and purchased the last set of Copics in the Ciao version.

Here is a picture  of all my Copics!  I store them in Ikea buckets that hang from a rod at arms reach.  They are directly in front of me as I sit at my workspace.  I love having them accessible like that!  I own all the Ciao markers for a total of 144 markers, plus I have recently purchased the set of 12 Quad Zeros to use with my Air Brush system for backgrounds and such.  Dare I say that may not be enough!  Now that I understand their coloring system a little better, I will probably go through my collection and decide which Sketch markers I should add to my family for the proper blending and shading!

I have a lot of theories for using Copics that I will share with you over time.  I may start doing some teaching for a LSS named Whim so Doodle.  That was a great lead I got from attending this class. 

Here are a few of the notes I took from class.  First we listened to her teach and then we got to play after every segment.  I really learned so much but still need to practice, practice, practice!!!

One of the best parts of the day was getting to hang with my peeps from Stamp TV's Florida Group!  I sat next to Sue Morris of Sue's Sentiments and Cathy Clark (blog coming by March 1st, LOL!!)  They are fabulous ladies and we had a lot of fun together!  Thanks gals for making the day so special!

Here is a shot of us right after we got our certificates.  Sally Lynn (the instructor) is in the front, then from Left to Right in the back is me, Sue and Cathy!

I also got to meet a great gal named Naomi Chokr who turns out was already a Follower of my blog.  We laughed about that!!  She is a little sweetheart full of energy and passion for our craft.  She also has an amazing blog called Naomi Space that you should definitely check out.  In a recent post she has spent a lot of time compiling some of the new releases coming out for many of our favorite companies at CHA!  Hugs to you Naomi... it was so fun getting to meet you!

Well I can't leave you without a project for today, so I will share with you a card I whipped out for yesterday's Clean and Simple Challenge CAS49 called Cut it Out.  We had to add something that we cut out to our card.  I couldn't resist using one of the ten new pre-released Unity stamp sets coming out at CHA this month.  It is called Along for the Ride and was designed by new friend Heather Rolin!  It is so cute and is the perfect size for cards or layouts!!

In following through with my journey to do all the sketches in the SCS Sketch Challenge Forum, this card uses SC03.  I like how it came out!!

I cut out two cars and the arrow pointing to the right to meet the requirements of the challenge.  Kind of cute, huh?  I think I will try and scrapbook with this one sometime!  I love it!

Of course I colored with my Copics, but don't look too closely I still have a lot of practicing to do. It is just really nice knowing what the techniques are to improve on my coloring!

The DP is from Cosmo Cricket's The Boyfriend line.  It was all such a fun, fun, fun card to make!!

If you stuck with me all the way to the end of this long post, then Thank You!!  Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with lots of color!