Customize your Copic Markers and Make your own Sprinkles !

Hi Everyone!

It's my turn to share some tips on the Inspiration Journal where I and my super talened Inspiration Emporium teamies post new inspiration for you evey week. If you haven't been already make sure to visit right away  - lots of amazing and inspiring projects !

If you don't do this already I thought I'd inspire you to start customizing your copics. I often feel that I don't have exact the tone of copics color that I need but settle with something close and good enough, but what I've done a lot lately is to mix my own colors using my refill bottles. It's perfect because I can get exactly he colors I need. Copics has empty markers to buy but it works fine to use dried out markers in the same colorrange.

This is how I figure out how to refill my markers to get the color I want;

I use a metal palette and pour in one drop in one cup, two in the next and then three in the third. 

What I do next is that I take out the color I want to mix it with - This time I wanted some new shades of grayish turqoise so I poured in 3 drops in the first cup, then 2 in the second and onle one in the last one.

I then use a brush and try my new colors on a piece of paper; (I acutally added one cup while I was doing this ) and this is the result:

I just love all of these new shades, but decided I wanted to work with no 1 and 3 so when I refilled my copics marker I took the drops times 5 = 20 drops of G00 and 5 drops of B93 for the first color. For the second color I refilled 10 drops of G00 and 15 drops of B93. If you aren't satisfied you acn always add one of the colors afterwards to get it the way you want it.
If you have never refilled your copics before there are lots of tutorials out there. Here's one from the copics homepage;
 http://www.copicmarker.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Refilling_Markers_FAQ.pdf



Next I wanted to share how I make my own sprinkles.
I start out by collecting some different sizes of diecut small cirkles. These are insides of O's, , eyes and sequins dies. If you go through your diecollection I'm sure you'll be surprised at how many different sized dots you can actually cut. When I have the diecuts I want I tape some post-it tape to a piece of sturdy cardstock with the sticky side up and place the die-cuts face up on this. This will keep your dots in place when you color them and add the glossy accent.

I then color them. After coloring some I realized I wanted some darker ones too and added some B97 to my mixes. Just make sure you clean your mixing bowls right away so it doesn't get too difficult to clean them out.

After I've colored the dots the shades I want them I add Glossy accent to each one of them. I then store them in a safe place to dry.

Let them dry completely before you start adding them to your projects. I use gluedots to adhere them safely. This is also a great way to store the dots you don't use (-:

Here's another example of where I used these sprinkles: 

Supplies;

Most of the supplies I used for this card can be found at  ;  Inspiration Emporium.

Follow the links below and use my code peppermint to save 10% .

Post-it tape 

Glossy accent

Tim Holtz design tape 

Paper:    Echo Park  
Dies: Lawn Fawn   (stitched rectangles)
Stamps:  Paper Smooches 
Ink; Memento Ink
Paints or markers;  Copic Markers Copics refills G00, B91, B97, BG
Adhesive; Plus Glue tape  Glue Dots   Scotch Double-Sided Foam Mounting Tape

I also want to point out that US shipping is always just $5 and international shipping is ONLY $10! I just LOVE that!!!!

Have a great day, hugs, Karin