Friday, July 23, 2010

New Products CHA Summer 2010, part 1

Finally! Here's the first sneak peek at the new releases for CHA Summer 2010. If you stop by our booth during the wholesale show, or the Splitcoaststampers booth during the Supershow you'll get a chance to use and see these fabulous new products.

X Press It Blending Card
This has us very excited! I mentioned a couple months ago that we recommend this paper to anyone living in Australia, and now it's coming to the United States!!

Why did Lori and I fall in love with this paper? Because it blends beautifully, it bleeds less than our old favorite, Neenah Classic Crest, and it has a nice, bright white color. If you have ever tried Bazzil Simply Smooth paper, the Blending Card is like a hybrid between Neenah and Bazzil.

This paper is now available for stores to purchase. It comes in a large pack with 125 sheets of letter sized paper. It is about 92 lb. paper- just a little heavier than the Neenah, but it is a much tighter grained paper, so it doesn't feel too thick.

If you look at this close up on the pink popsicle, you can see that the Neenah is a much softer paper, and it easily feathers if you don't let it dry a little between layering colors. This gets to be a big problem when you're working with intense reds and other dark colors.

The Blending Card, however, gives nice blends without bleeding and I don't have to wait or be careful! I love it! Because it is not as soft as the Neenah, it takes less ink to color on so your marker lasts longer before needing to be refilled.

Please stop by the booth to try it out, or, if you can't make it to the show, ask your favorite Copic supplier to bring some in for you. Trust me, you'll love it!

Coloring Grays more interesting
Something you may not notice on this final picture of the ant trying to run off with the popsicle is the subtle tones in the gray body.

I did not want the ant to feel too flat, so I started with a C5, a nice cool middle-dark gray. Then for accent I blended in some V17 as shadows. The purple is just barely visible within the grays (see the middle of each body section.

Then, I added faint reflections on the bottom of the ant by layering on some BG09. Why? Because the gray is blue-toned I can layer a purple (which has blue in it) and add contrasting accents with a Blue Green (which also has blue in it). Because Blue-Green is far away on a color wheel from Violet they have more contrast. However, the ant has a base gray, which brings both colors closer to each other in tone. So now, my gray has subtle tone and interest, even though it could have easily remained a plain gray.

This is a great way to add a hint of tone to a neutral image to make it coordinate with other elements in your composition. The subtle purple makes the ant match the pink popsicle a little more. OK, I need to get back to work. Stay tuned tomorrow for more sneaks from CHA!

Image: Life's a Picnic by Our Craft Lounge, X-Press It Blending Card. Colors used: RV02, RV06, C5, V17, BG09, C3, 0

14 comments:

♥Rach♥ said...

Ohhhh, I LOVE my (formerly) Prism Simply Smooth so I can't wait to try this out, it sounds wonderful! A hybrid between the two sounds like the perfect mix :0)

♥Rach♥ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nora said...

Would love to get my hands on some & try it...that red bleed/feather can really eat your lunch! *LOL*

Cool coloring trick! I've been doing something similar using blue instead of purples to extend my cool gray range a bit (stinks being limited on colors right now!). Nice to know I've been on the right track! *LOL*

Have a great weekend!
♥hugs♥

♥♥RubyM:)♥♥ said...

UHHH WOW!!! I wouls love to try that paper.That is a difference.I'll be at CHA THRUSDAY HOPEFULLY THERE IS SOME LEFT.Thanks for the tips very cool!!!RubyM:)

Unknown said...

Wow, looks like some awesome c/s! Can't be at CHA, so I guess I'll have to wait to see who gets it locally! Thanks for the preview!

Kathy Jones said...

WOOHOO!!! So cool to see that you can now get our favourite paper over there!!! Now I can let all my US friends know!!! Enjoy playing with it!!

Cindy H. said...

I'm looking forward to locating and trying some of the new (to the U.S.) cardstock from Australia. It sounds great!

I always study your coloring so I can learn from a pro and was so happy to find that I did notice the subtle color changes and really like it. Thank you for explaining the hows and whys.

Candy said...

I am looking forward to trying this new paper. When will we know who is carrying the paper?

Tina W. (TeaDub) said...

OMG...can't wait to get my hands on some Blending card!

Unknown said...

Hopefully this will be available in Canada as well. There are some great things available but cost too much to order online. :-(

pnkgeeni said...

I live in New Zealand and just got some X Press It card yesterday. I came here looking for help on how to refill a Ciao marker. I've dripped on about 20 drops but it still seems to be empty (the nib is light/dry). Can anyone help?

Joynana said...

I would love to buy this paper and give it a try, where will I be able to get it in Alabama...

Beate said...

Hi Marianne! It was so good to hang out with you in Chicago. I can't wait for that paper to hit the stores. I think there is a whole realm with my name on it just waiting for me. LOL

Hugs and grins

Unknown said...

I ordered some from the website you listed (they didnt ship to canada but when I emailed she said they would!) so I got my pack of 10 sheets in the mail yesterday and played with it! It's fabulously white, and very smooth! much like Aquabee marker paper but a little heavier and the colours come out much darker than the aquabee. I like it very much.

I'm an illustrator so a lot of the time the stuff for card making isn't suitable to illustration (however there are no copic blogs for illustrators that I've found :( ) so much, but I like to try everything out and see it from a different perspective.

Very awesome :D