Barely Copicing

I hadn't found my cropping mojo and in view of my promise to join Jan and sell a few cards on her stall at the month's end, I thought that Saturday's Crop would be a good time to start! It also gave me a chance to play, in daylight, with the neglected Copics.

I know there's always a story - but this one is relevant. Truly!

I don't, generally make cards for anything but workshops these days. Everything stamp related that I buy is with an eye on the bigger picture - if I use this, does/can the shop where I workshop stock it, if the workshopeers want to buy it? Can it be bought in quantity? Can I afford to let it be used in a workshop? If necessary, can I supply it in multiples so that sharing between 8 or more people is kept to a minimum? Now, to be honest, the Copics fall outside lots of my workshop criteria. They were a spontaneous purchase - I was seduced (OK, suckered) by the box full of pretty colours and the potential for all the beautiful things I could make with them. Yeah, where was that inner 'sophisticated consumer' on that day, huh! Despite a generous discount from Shopkeeper Gal, they cost enough to even now make (even) me wince. And I didn't have a clue about them. So I took a lesson from Scrap Lady Ally who also runs workshops at Kraft Crazy. And decided that really, they weren't practical to use in workshops as a colouring tool unless it was a specific Copic workshop. And that's Acrap Lady Ally's department anyway. To further bury the idea - there would be multiples of some colours required. Not going there, thought I. And to be honest, at the price, not sure I want everyone using my Copics for their first time attempts. The result of this logic ? I have a set of largely unused colouring pens!

I've alluded recently to the fact that although I've got 72 (seventy-two, for goodness' sake), they aren't the ideal colour range. And they aren't. In order to follow Copic's recommendations and use numbers two or three apart for blending, I would definitely need to buy more.....this set has numbers in the same colour group, but up to 30 shades apart. Feeling a tad ripped off? Yah. But also feeling a tad foolish? Hugely, actually. Wouldn't it have been grand if, instead of being seduced by the look of the things, I'd done some research, discovered that one set is a bit lacking and actually taken the time to choose my own colours from the for-sale-individually-stand? Yeah it would. And I won't make that mistake again.

I don't do a lot of colouring in, although I do like it. I always feel that sitting at my work desk colouring could be construed as a huge waste of time - and y'all know how busy I like you to think I am. Guilt, of course. My preferred medium is Pearl-Ex or Twinkling H2Os when it comes to sloshing colour about for good effect. So I was incredibly surprised to have not only enjoyed my handful of hours in the company of my friends and my Copics, and equally surprised to find myself digging out the colour chart - Scrap Lady Ally gave us one at the class to fill in, and of course I didn't. But now I have, and now I know pretty much which new colours I need and which I'd like. In that order of course! Because, despite the 'fool me once' story, I really liked the Copics and will probably use them more. Probably.

Meanwhile, after I've caught up with the shocking fact that my family have robbed me of a day by being at home and making things untidy and creating laundry, I have to find some faster way to colour so that the cards I make for Jan's stall aren't quite as labour intensive! In the unlikely event of my ever needing to be told to slow down, prescribe me some Copic colouring!