Hello and happy Friday! I'm here today to share a soft look you can achieve by using Copic markers to color vellum, for this birthday cupcake card:
To get started, I stamped this fun Birthday Blueprint cling stamp by Tim Holtz with Versamark ink onto Bazzill 40 lb Vellum, then heat embossed it with Ranger White Super Fine Embossing Powder using the Heat It Craft Tool. You can switch up the embossing powder color to fit the image, season, etc. I thought the white looked nice for the brighter, festive birthday look I was going for:
TIP: Be sure to let the heat tool run just a little while, before applying the heat to the vellum, so it has a chance to heat up. The hotter your heat tool is, the less time it will take to heat set the embossing powder and thus, help to prevent any possible warping of the vellum. Also be careful to keep the heat tool moving all over the vellum, to prevent warping. Heat the vellum from the back to help counter react any warping.
Next, I tested my Copic marker color selections on a scrap piece of vellum, then placed the test scrap under my embossed image so I could preview what the colors would look like. After making my selections of BG45, BG49, RV32, RV66, Y38 and E57, I colored the BACK SIDE of the vellum. This does two things:
1. Creates a nice soft look with no streaking showing (since the vellum isn't porous, the Copic color will pool on the surface, which can cause streaky coloring). But when viewed from the front side of the vellum, any possible streaking isn't seen.
2. Prevents any possible damage to your marker nib, by picking up the embossing powder.
You can still do a little shading -- First I colored with my lightest colors and allowed those to dry (Y38, RV63, BG45):
Then I went back with my darker Copic colors (RV66 & BG49) and just dabbed or lightly flicked on the darker color where I wanted the shading. Dabbing helps to prevent picking up the color you already layed down and removing it.
For the candle, I didn't have a darker color to match the Y38, so I just applied a second layer of the same color and achieved some darker shading this way.
I finished the card by die cutting the vellum cupcake piece with the large scalloped frame from My Favorite Things' Blueprints 1. Bazzill Card Shoppe Cotton Candy cardstock was die cut with the stitched panel from MFT Blueprints 13 and layered onto a card base made with Neenah Solar White 110 lb cardstock.
TIP: Try the vellum piece over different card base cardstock colors, to see which color your vellum coloring looks best on. The base color can affect your Copic colors dramatically.
I attached some Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mixed Sequins to the vellum piece, using Glossy Accents. Once those were dry, I flipped the cupcake vellum panel over and applied SMALL DOTS of Glossy Accents behind the sequins and onto some of the heavier white embossed cupcake/candle lines, flipped the vellum panel back over and adhered it to the pink card front. The small dots of Glossy Accents are plenty to hold the vellum to the card base -- large amounts may cause the vellum to warp.
I hope you'll give Copic marker coloring on vellum a try! ~Sharon
