I just made a fabulous discovery! I was "chatting" with Donna Layton a little while ago after she left a comment my previous post about the Copic Marker class I am taking. I was telling her a little more about them and the fact that they work on the same kind of surfaces as Alcohol Inks. And that is when the "light bulb" went off in my head! (Can you guess where I am going with this?) Donna did a tutorial on the Joli Paquet blog last fall on how to tint silver pipe cleaners using alcohol inks. (You can see that tutorial here.) Well, I wondered if the alcohol-based Copics would work on the pipe cleaners too. . .and Guess what? . . .THEY DO! 
Currently I only have light pastel colors of the Copic Markers, so the results don't show up the best in this photo. But if you use darker tones, I imagine your results will be deeper. On the example above I used "Ice Ocean - #BG72" on the left tail, "Mallow - #V15" on the right tail, and "Coral - #R35" on the loop at the top.
Now if you are tinting a whole batch of pipe cleaners, then I certainly would use Donna's technique. But in a pinch, if you only need to color one or maybe two, this method will work just fine!
NOTE: I think Prismacolor Markers are alcohol based too, so those might work on the pipe cleaners as well. Give it a try and let me know.
I just tried it!! I used a Garnet Copic and it is soooo pretty. I'm very glad to know Copics are alcohol based. No wonder I love the smell:) This opens up more possibilities than I can hold in my brain. I'm so excited!
ReplyDeletehow cool is that!!! i was just thinking about coloring some tinsel too!!!
ReplyDeleteWOW~~~i just love reading blogs. you can learn so much.. I love the coral color you used.. I will have to give this a try.. Thanks for all the great info.
ReplyDeleteGreat tip! I love those markers and have started with a few in my collection.
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