Coloring Pastel Colors with Copic Markers

I hope your week is going well.  Mine has been very busy but I wanted to post an extra card today so I could link it for Stamping Bella's Bellarific Friday. Every Friday (and sometimes Sundays) the Stamping Bella blog hosts a challenge - sometimes it is a sketch, sometimes it is color or a photo - it varies.  Last Friday they posted an inspiration photo along with colors.  I chose to use the colors of the macarons as my inspiration.

The colors reminded me a bit of sherbet and it was tempting to use an image with ice cream.  But I hadn't colored this little girl yet so decided she would look great in soft colors.

The challenging thing about making pastel colors with Copics is that it is very easy to get too dark.  You'll see by my marker list that I used a lot of double, triple and even quadruple zero markers!  And my darkest colors were often threes. But I was able to get good shading even with those light markers.

For those unfamiliar with shading using Copics, a general rule is to pick a light, medium and dark marker and blend those.  Markers whose number ends in zero is lightest, nine is darkest.  So a typical blend might use markers ending in two, five and eight.

Once I finished coloring her I worked on the layout.  I had just purchased the stitched dome frames and they worked perfectly with the asymmetry created by her wing.

Being a fairy, she needed LOTS of sparkle so I used several coats of clear Wink of Stella on her wing and the mushroom.  After I added the clear sequins, I still felt it needed something, so I used Nuovo Jewel Drops to give the impression of some fairy dust.  The jewel drops are very light and translucent, other Nuovo drops are more opaque. One thing I love about Nuovo drops - they dry round and even without that little "kiss" top some drops have.

I hope you enjoyed this card.  Supplies are listed below.  (I'm amazed that for a seemingly simple card I used so many products! Aughhh!)

Stamps - Stamping Bella Tiny Townie Fairy Garden and Unicorn Sentiment Set
Copic Markers - Blouse YR000, YR00, YR02; Skirt/hat BG10, BG11, BG53; Tights YR30, Y21, Y23; Leaf/grass G0000,G12,G14; Mushroom R11, R12, R14, R17, E40, E70, E71; Skin E0000, E000, E00, E50; Hair E53, E55, E57; Wing BV0000, BV00; Background Warm Grey 0
Paper - Neenah Solar White, My Favorite Things Homespun Gingham and Dots & Stripes Confection, Stampin' Up! So Saffron and Sahara Sand
Dies - My Favorite Things Tag Builder, Stitched Dome STAX, Stitched Dome Frames
Other - Pretty Pink Posh clear sequins, Nuovo Jewel Drops in Rosewater, Limoncello and Key Lime, Clear Wink of Stella

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