Gab about COPIC Ciao Markers Refills

Hello and welcome to another crafty chat on my blog. Today I’m talking about ways to get more life out of your Copic Markers; my Copic of choice is usually a Ciao marker. I chose Ciaos because the come in 180 colors at a lower price point than the Sketch version. Quite frankly, those are enough colors for me and it allowed me to buy more colors when I was starting out. Ink refills are available for all of the Ciao colors as well as replacement Super Brush Nibs. But how to refill them?

You will need:

-Your dried out markers

-Matching refills

-A gram scale

-Some patience  

To check all of my markers (approximately 105) and refill the ones in need (approximately 10) it took me about 1.5 hours.

I found many videos on the Sketch markers, but not much on Ciaos. The technique is the same, but the amount of ink needed varies. For a new Ciao, I weighed it with the caps on and found it to be between 10-11 grams. 

I then weighed a marker I knew was drying out and got a weight of 8-9g. I put those to the side and then weighed my refill with the cap off, a full refill weighs about 26g with no cap.

Next, I removed my chisel nib from my marker and added 10-15 drops and the reweighed my refill, as the value decreased, I knew how many grams were transferred to my marker. I continued until I had added 2g to each dried out marker or brought the weight back up to 10g. A word of caution, 11g proved to be too much ink for my markers and I had to do some coloring on a scratch pad to run off the excess, I would stay as close to 10g as possible so you do not waste ink.

I also noted the markers that weighed in at 9g so I would know which refills I need to pick up soon! 

I hope this tutorial was helpful for any other Ciao artists out there, until next time, stay safe in these crafting streets! 

Happy crafting,

Gaby

CAS (Clean and Simple) Card with no stamps.

Hi everyone, Gaby here with a CAS card using some dies I like, layering, and markers.  I wanted to challenge myself to make some nice cards without using stamps.  I started by die cutting the hearts out of two pieces of cardstock, one pink and one white.  Then I ran a coordinating piece of cardstock, one in white and one in kraft and ran them through my Xyron to use for layers.  Then I placed the leftover piece from the die cut onto the sticky side of each layer and replaced the die cuts into the opposite color paper, like an inlay.  Once that was done, I cut the paper at an angle and then adhered it to a pink piece of 4.25" x 5.5" with foam tape.  I had some additional die cut words that I covered with Glossy Accents and let them dry.  Once I attached those, I added some Nuvo Glitter Drops and some faux stitching with a Copic Multiliner and a white gel pen.  Once that was all dry, I colored the inside of the hearts using a Spectrum Noir Glitter pen.

The heart die is from Simon Says Stamp and the words are die cuts from the Lawn Fawn heart envelope die.  I will be posting more cards like this in addition to my regular projects that use stamps, stencils, inks, embossing powder, and the kitchen sink! I just think it's nice sometimes to use some of your supplies that you might forget about because of all the new products. Until next time, happy crafting!

Gaby

How to Make a Magic Slider Card

Hi everyone! Today I will be showing you how to make a Magic Slider Card using some supplies you already have around.  I am using nesting heart dies from Spellbinders, Neenah Solar White Card Stock in 80# and 110#, Copic Markers, Staz-On Ink, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, and Distress Ink; all things I have in my craft room.  These cards are super fun to make and they allow a lot of room for creativity.  You can use the traditional shape of a rectangle, or you can use any other shape you have in your die collection.  It would even be fun to do one of these with a jar stamp/die!  Check out the video below for how to make one of your own.  

I did not include the dimensions for this because unless you are using this exact set of dies, it will not be very helpful.  The main thing to remember is that you need enough space on each side of the window for the slider to fit in with about 1/4" left for the edges of the stopper, so your slider does not come out of the card.  I wanted to be sure that my coloring did not show through even though I wanted the card to open like a regular card.  

I hope you enjoyed this video and I will be trying to get on a regular posting schedule this year with reviews and craft ideas.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting! :) 

I Love You - Want2Scrap and Quick Quotes

Hi everyone, Gabriela here today and I finally made a page I've been thinking about for a while. I thought it would be fun to make a page with a shaker window, so I tried it out. I used a chipboard cutout from Want2Scrap along with some of their bling and of course paper and ink from Quick Quotes. I scrapped a picture of my husband and I on vacation in New Orleans a few years ago, it's one of my favorite pictures of us and it seemed like a good fit for this page.

Me and my hubby on vacay! 

​Check out the video below!

Quick Quotes Products Used:

Urban Oasis - 101
Honeycomb - 105
Powder Puff Chalking Inks - Barn Board, Pixie Pink

Want2Scrap:
I Love You Chipboard
Self Adhesive Bling

Thanks for stopping over and happy crafting!  Please ask any questions below. 

Lettering on a Wacom Pad using Adobe Illustrator

Hi there! I wanted to pop in and give you guys a quick tutorial of how to jazz up your hand lettering.  I have an Intuos Wacom Pad that I really love for digital drawing and I wanted to do some lettering on it as well.  I used Adobe Illustrator for this project; a simple graphic of my web address. You can play around with some of the settings, I settled on a Calligraphic Brush at .75 pt.

Then once I finalized and smoothed everything out, I sent the image to my toner printer and printed it on 2 sheets of cardstock, a purple sheet and a white sheet. 

Then to apply the foil I used my trusty Minc with fuschia and holographic foils.

Holographic on purple. 

Fuschia on white. 

These were so fun to make! I can see myself making lots of prints like this and experimenting with more brush types and techniques and doing more digital stamps.  See you soon, happy crafting!