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Friday, June 28, 2019

Copic Storage-DIY

This post is all about how I made my own Copic Storage container. I apologize for in advance for how long it is. I started out a single purchased storage container that held 72 markers. I thought at the beginning of my journey into Copics that I would be more than happy with 72 markers. At the time I was using Spectrum Noir markers and I was only adding Copics in color families the Spectrum Noir didn't include.

I soon found that I loved the Copics so much that I was rapidly acquiring a large amount of them and getting rid of the others. I loved the color variety and the fact that I could refill the markers whenever needed. I added another 72 marker case and then a 120 marker case and I was forever trying to figure out which case was holding which color. I needed my markers portable so I couldn't just put them in containers on my desk. I searched the internet and found some options. I combined a couple of ideas and added a twist of my own to accommodate my OCD tendencies.


I started with the 17 liter Really Useful box that many use from Office Depot. Most people that use these add the egg crate louvers for ceiling lights to keep the pens upright. No one in my area carried those and I would have had to order a ten pack for around $80.00. This was way more than I wanted to spend when I only needed two. I kept looking around and came across someone that had used clear plastic boxes for card packs. Their boxes were A2 size and 1" deep. They filled the 17 liter box with A2 card boxes and just filled them up with the pens. This seemed almost perfect, but I NEED my pens to stay in numerical order. 

Fortunately I found the clear boxes on Amazon that were only 5/8" deep instead of the 1". Exactly the width of a Copic Sketch marker. The boxes measure 4 1/2"x 5/8"x 5 7/8" so I ordered the 50 pack. I started assembling them when they came and I filled one with pens. I realized that as I pulled pens out to use, the remaining pens would tilt and move around. I knew this would drive me crazy when I tried to put them away in numerical order.

I played around and discovered I could make little pen sleeves to fill the card box and then they would hold the markers perfectly in place. Eleven fit exactly in each card box.

Below is a step by step tutorial with a small video of one of the steps.

Start by folding the clear card box and assembling it as meant to be used.


Once you get it folded, open the ends up and cut one long edge in half. I then used a paper trimmer to cut those edges off to make the opening of the top of the box. 

I placed 1/4" double-sided tape on the two end flaps of the box and reassembled it. The tape keeps the flaps from pulling open, making the box much stronger since we had to cut the top open.

This tiny flap is trimmed off the top edge where the box is open. I found that it got in the way when I was inserting the pen sleeves. I finally just started trimming it off both sides. If you aren't going to add the sleeves, then I would just put a tiny bit of tape on this as well to keep it in place.

The next step is optional. 

This step was to make the pen sleeves. This is time consuming. Only do it if you really can't stand your pens tipping or being jumbled around. It's pretty easy and a couple of evenings of Netflix and an afternoon of YouTube and they were all done. There are 42 clear boxes inside my 17 liter box. Each clear box can hold 11 Copic Sketch markers. There are 358 Sketch colors. I knew that I would never buy the 8 fluorescent colors and the 110 black. So I only needed 349 slots for my Copics. I filled 32 of the boxes with the paper pen sleeves, giving me 352 spaces for markers. The remaining ten clear boxes are left without sleeves and they hold six Various ink refills perfectly. 

I cut 352 pieces of Georgia Pacific 110# white card stock (the cheap card stock from Walmart). I cut them to 4" x 2 1/2". Each piece is scored with four fold lines (see photo above). Score at 1/4", 3/4", 1 3/8" and 1 7/8". Fold along these lines. This will make a 1/4" flap and two sides that are 1/2" wide and two sides that are 5/8" wide.  Run a piece of 1/8" double-sided tape along the outside edge of the 1/4" flap, bend it to the inside and fold the box over at the half-way mark and stick together. (you can see this step in the video)

I altered one of the extra boxes by cutting down one of the sides a couple of inches. I used this to assemble all eleven of the sleeves so they could be taped together for strength.

Fill the altered clear card box with eleven sleeves and then fill those with markers. The markers give the sleeves some strength and helps them hold their shape while finishing the box assembly. Make sure you push the sleeves all the way to the bottom of the clear box and that they are even at the top. I cut a length of 1" double-sided tape and placed it on the sleeves in the altered clear box. 

Remove the eleven sleeves from the altered box and slide them into their permanent card box. Make sure they go all the way to the bottom of the box, you may have to adjust this again after pulling off the tape backing.  Lift up the edge of the box and remove the backing of the double sided tape. Carefully make sure the sleeves are all the way down and push the clear side of the box down onto the tape.

I felt that adding tape to the other side would give the sleeves more stability. I cut two much smaller pieces of the 1" double sided tape and carefully slid them between the clear side of the box and the sleeves. Pull the backing off and stick down like the other side. There you have it, one box done. Only 31 more to go.  Below is a video of these steps.



I lined up sixteen filled boxes and five empty boxes on each side of the 17 liter Really Useful Box.


The rest of the box assembly is pretty easy. This box brand is awesome because the sides are not slanted like so many other plastic boxes. This makes it perfect for this type of storage but it does have slightly rounded corners. This meant that the boxes on each end wouldn't fit flat in the box without hitting the edges. There is also just a bit of extra length in the box that lets the inserts move somewhat. 

I solved the rounded corner and extra length problem by cutting 2 pieces of foam core board that were 4 1/2" x 11". I placed double-sided tape on one side of each of these pieces.

I just slid those pieces into the box on each short end with the tape side toward the side of the box. It keeps the inserts in perfect position.

Voila, perfect for my Copic storage at an extremely reasonable price. It has a locking lid so I can carry it around the house and to the long summer car shows I go to with my husband showing his car. 

Supplies used:
17 L Really Useful box-mine came from Office Depot. You can also purchase it from Amazon for slightly more.
Clear Plastic Greeting Card boxes-I bought the 5/8" thick ones but you can also used the 1" thick ones if you don't want to put the slots in. 
1/8", 1/4" and 1" tape- I had this on had but you can get it from Amazon or most online craft supplies stores.
Georgia Pacific 110 lb card stock from Walmart. This is inexpensive card stock 
Foam Core board

If you are interested in my original  storage containers, they can be purchased from Amazon. I loved these and would continue to use them if my marker collection hadn't gotten so huge.

Meeden 72 piece marker carrying case-this only has a handle to carry it by on the lid.

Meedeen 120 piece marker carrying case-this has a handle on the lid and a removable shoulder strap to carry it with. 










Tuesday, June 25, 2019

May you Never Outgrow Bubbles

I got this darling little girl blowing bubbles because it reminds me of my granddaughter. I then needed a perfect sentiment for it and it came today.

I started by coloring the image up. I used Copics for the girl. I then used a water brush and the 3 colors of Distress Oxides that I used for the background to watercolor the bubbles. I die cut the girl down with a stitched rectangle die and mounted it on black, letting just a thin outline show. I popped her and the sentiment up with black fun foam.



I have a swatch book of Copic color combos to reference so I can make quick color choices. Some of the swatches are from Jennifer Dove's series of Copic Color of the Day. I have most of these pinned on Pinterest but as I get marker colors, I add them to my swatch book. I also have a lot of swatches of different colors I play around with to see how they blend. I make these on 2" x 2 1/8" Copic friendly paper and them keep them in coin sheet page protectors fastened together with rings. 

Copic Colors Used:
Hair-E25, E27, E79
Skin-E000, E00, E11
Dress & flower-R81, R82, R85
Outline-BG70

I used this Bubbles template to create the background. It is only an A6 size so I did half the background, moved it, lined it up the best I could and did the other half of the background.

I used make up brushes to blend Distress Oxides in Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch and Mowed Lawn through the template. I also smooshed some on my glass mat and water colored the bubbles with them.


I was pretty happy with this card and am sure my little 3 year old granddaughter will love it. She always tells me my cards are "pretty pictures".

Supplies used
Little Bubbles-girl image
Bubble Chicks-sentiment.
Bubbles A6-stencil
Make up Brushes from Amazon
Distress Oxides
Clear sequins.


Sunday, June 23, 2019

Wishing on Butterflies

I have a new butterfly stamp set. I resisted buying it for a long time because I already had so many butterflies. But I loved them so much, I had to get them. I am pretty sure my card doesn't do them justice. I have seen so many great cards using them. 

 I stenciled a background using Scattered Straw Distress Oxide ink and trimmed it down and mounted it on black card stock. I colored the butterflies and fussy cut them out. I stamped the butterflies again onto the background and layered the fussy cut images over them. The sentiment is from the same kit.

I wanted to try an ombre look for coloring these butterflies. I started with B29 and flicked it up about 1/3 of the wing.

I then flicked B24 starting in the darker color and flicking into the uncolored space.

The last color was B12 and this time I flicked down into the B24 color.

I used a .5 pigment pen to fill in the stripes with black. When I fussy cut them out, I went ahead and cut off the antenna because I knew I would just stamp them onto the background.



Supplies used:
Moments of Bliss-butterflies & sentiment
Scattered Straw Distress Oxide


Saturday, June 22, 2019

Getting Old Birthday Card

I found a a stamp company that has some really fun stamps. It is The Rabbit Hole Designs. I had to buy the Sassy Sentiments set right off the bat. I has the best sentiments. I paired this one with the old lady stamp from Unity Stamp Co.
I used some patterned paper and then I layered up a couple of colors of Copic markers to make the dress color match. I colored the entire dress with Y28 and then covered the whole thing with Y26. Then I went back in with Y28 to add shading. I used a white gel pen to give it polka dots.

Copic Colors used:
Dress-Y26, Y28
Skin-BV20, E00, E11, E21
Hair-BV20, N0, N1, N2
Purse & Shoes-C2, C4
Ground-E43, E44

Supplies Used
Sassy Sentiments-Sentiment


Patriotic Cards

My favorite stamp company, Unity Stamp Co, had the best Show & Tell board on Facebook. They have weekly mini challenges and this week it is Independence theme cards. I couldn't resist making two. They were so fun to make.

This card started by taking a stamp that was a group of three stars and repeat stamping the background. I trimmed it down and mounted it on blue card stock. I stamped the heart from the Ragged Ol' Flag kit by using mircropore tape to mask off the star section and inking the stripes with Candied Apple  Distress Oxide ink. Then I reversed the mask and inked the star section up with Chipped Saphire Distress Oxide ink. The sentiment and heart are popped up and I used string to "hang" the heart from a blue button.

 I used the same Distress Oxide inks and micropore masking to stamp the flag from the same kit. I stamped some extra stripes and punched a heart & star and cut the letter I out of them. I inked the edges of all the sentiment pieces and used a distress tool to distress up the edges of the flag and the USA.


The sentiment in the kit actually says Handmade in USA so I used the tape to mask off the top and stamp just the USA.



Supplies used:
Ragged Ol' Flag-flag, heart & USA sentiment
LOL Looking Up-stars for background
Distress Oxide in Candied Apple & Chipped Saphire


Friday, June 21, 2019

Vase of Flowers Card

I colored this image awhile ago and messed up the background around it. I fussy cut it out and then couldn't decide what to do with it. I am still not in love with it, but I am trying to use all the colored images I have laying around on my desk.


I made the ink blended panel using Distress Oxide inks in Wilted Violet, Hickory Smoke, Victorian Velvet and Spun Sugar. I actually blended the Hickory Smoke over the Wilted Violet to tone the purple down a bit so go better with the flowers. Once I had it blended it, I misted it with water.

I cut a white panel 1/4" smaller than an A2 card and embossed with with Swiss Dots embossing folder. I also cut a white panel using a scallop die and cut my blended background to fit inside the stitched lines. I will add a sentiment inside when I need to use this card.


Copic Colors used:
Flowers: N2, BV0000, BV00 & BV01
Leaves: G20, G21 & G24
Water: B21 and colorless blender




This card isn't my usual style but it was quick and easy to make.



Supplies used:
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots-embossing folder

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Just My Type card

It's been a while since I posted. I had a lovely mini vacation on the Oregon coast and came home sick with a sore throat. 

I didn't have a lot of energy but I really wanted to make something. This card is what you get when you can't decide what to use so you use all the things. A new paper pad, charms, string, brads and more.

I started with some simple coloring then I die cut the panel and distressed the edges with Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide ink. I mounted it on black. I trimmed the patterned paper down 3/16" on the side and the top and mounted that on black also. I threaded a heart charm on the black string and wrapped it around the card front 3 times and taped it on the back. I mounted my typewriter panel onto that and added the toggles and brads. 

Copic Colors used:
Bird-BV20
Typewriter body: N0, N1, N2
Typewriter keys and accents: W00, W1, W2, W3


Supplies used: 
Type Write-image
Thin black string-Impress
Charms-Amazon
Toggles & brad 


Sunday, June 9, 2019

Glitzy Floral Hello card

I had the urge to make something shiny so of course that meant playing with the homemade glitter paste again. I pulled out a stencil and supplies and went to down and made a beautiful background.  I didn't showcase it with the card I made as well as I could have but it was fun making everything shiny.


This card is so shiny. It gave me fits and this is the 3rd take on it. The sentiment banner hides some nasty black bled from the first sentiment I tried to put on there. The picture below shows the glittery background and the shiny flowers I made with a fun little product I have had forever and hadn't used.


The sentiment strip was made by cutting the largest rectangle in a die set, cut the ends off leaving three scallops and then putting the die back over to get the height I wanted and cutting it again.




To make the background I started with smooshing Picked Raspberry and Tattered Rose Distress Oxide on a scrap piece of acetate. I then squirted out some Glossy Gel Medium on each color and sprinkled lots of clear, extra fine glitter onto the piles. I mixed each one up and then started applying it to the prepared card stock that had a stencil taped to it. I originally was planing on trying to make stripes but my first glob went onto the stencil wrong, so I placed the lighter color in the center and then the darker around the outside edges.  I made more than I needed to I scrapped the excess over 2 pieces of A2 size card stock in a marble pattern so I have two more backgrounds to use. Next time I will have a second stencil set up just in case.

I colored up the flowers with my Copic markers and fussy cut them out. Once they were cut out, I used some rolled purple tape to hold them to some scrap paper and I painted a thin coat of FolkArt Extreme Glitter paint over them. This makes them shiny and glittery too and it so fun to use. 



Copic colors used:
1 big flower and the small one, B93, B95, B97
The other big flower, B 21 & B23
Centers: Y19
Leaves YG61 & YG63


This card is 5 1/2" square.

Supplies used
Blossoming Beauty-large flowers
Choose What to Become-small flower
Oh Hello-sentiment
Glossy Gel Medium
Petite Looped Lace Rectangle-dies for sentiment



Friday, June 7, 2019

Forever Fabulous Granny card

This minute I saw this wonderful new granny stamp, I had to have her. This is one of a pair of new stamps from Unity Stamp Co.

Isn't she fabulous? I had so much fun creating a side panel for her and coloring her up.

I picked a flower sprig from the set called Happy Places and repeat stamped it on a two inch panel, turning it different directions as I went.


I stamped the granny on another piece of card stock close to the side. I colored everything up using the colors listed below and then trimmed them down as needed. I mounted the granny on a piece of the pink card stock so that it showed just on the left side. I then placed the flower border on an A2 size piece of the pink card stock and put the piece with the granny on so that there was a slight border all the way around.

Copic colors used:
Flowers and dress: RV 11, RV 32, & RV 34
Necklace & earring jewel: B18
Purse: C3 & C5
Hair: C0, C2 & C3
Skin: E00, E11 & E21
Ground: E43 & E44


Supplies:

Demand a Re-count-granny & sentiment
Happy Places-flower sprig
CarpeDiem Markers-my favorite place to order Copic markers


Thursday, June 6, 2019

Rainbow Butterfly Birthday card

I've been seeing rainbow cards every where so I had to make one of my own. I thought watercolors would be the easiest medium to use for what I had in mind.



I love how colorful it turned out.



I started by using my Gansai Tambi watercolors to make the background. I used purple tape to tape off every other strip and painted the. Once it was dry, I removed the tape and filled in the missing colors. This panel was trimmed down 3/16" on the top and side and mounted onto black card stock.


I stamped two of the butterflies onto watercolor paper and used the first 3 adjacent colors on each one. I fussy cut them out and then drew in the antennae on the back ground. I glued just the bodies down so the wings would pop up. The sentiment strip was stamped and mounted on black card stock before adding to the card.

I sprinkled clear sequins around the card for sparkle.


Supplies used:

Good Things with Wings-butterfly and sentiment
Clear Sequins.