Happy Thursday! Sorry I have been so quiet. I have all these great cards to show you and have had zero time during "daylight" hours to photograph them. Even with a lightbox I feel my photos come out horrible if I take them at night. In lieu of a project, I thought I would share with you some Copic charts I made. The topic today is "To Ciao or Not to Ciao"! The chart above is inspired by the Copic Club that Lime Tart offers which contains a combo of Ciao and Sketch markers. They are a really great online store in Australia that sells the cutest monthly scrapbooking kits and their selection of Washi tape is awesome. They do Marker Mondays on their blog and have really great resource material for Copics. If I was down under I would have joined their Copic Club just to get the binder of handouts. It is so well put together! "To Ciao or Not To Ciao" I have said numerous times before that I am an advocate of mixing Ciao and Sketch markers in your collection. Reasons To Ciao- I like Ciao markers a little bit better because they are easier to hold (just like a pen) and they are lighter in your hand and easier to maneuver. If you are not OCD I think it works to your advantage to mix and match and get the most for your money. Copic Ciao markers hold less ink and cost less money so it makes sense from a budget approach if you want a bigger collection, to fill your Sketch collection with Ciao markers. Reasons Not to Ciao- Only 180 colors available. Some people prefer a neat looking collection, all their markers in the same kind of holder with a uniform look. Some people don't like them because they are round and can roll off the table. They don't fit into the Airbrush grip directly. (I use mine in the ABS grip with a piece of double stick foam to hold them in, works just fine.) I recommend investing in Sketch markers for lighter colors that you will be using more often to blend and to get your darker colors or ones that you will use less frequently as Ciao markers. Suzanne on Splitcoast Stampers was looking to purchase Copic markers, but for budget reasons, she wants to get all or mostly Ciao markers. She sent me a list of colors that she was thinking about purchasing and I tried out the combos for her to see how well they blend. While some of the combos work really well together, there were some that I found a bit challenging. Below is a picture of how those color combinations turned out: BV000 BV13 BV17 while you can make this work, a smoother transition would be: BV02 BV13 BV17. V01 V05 V09 works but blends better if you add V06 to it. R20 R24 R29 works also but blends better if you use R22 R24 R29. YR000 YR31 YR68. I was not fond of this combo. I would suggest YR61 and YR68 together instead. G20 G14 G28 would be nice if you were coloring an apple but if choosing Ciaos from the G family I would suggest something different like G00 G02 G05 or G82 G85 G95. B000 B93 B97 was a mess for me. I would suggest investing in a B91 Sketch marker since it is a light color and you will use more ink overtime. B91 B93 B97 would be a much smoother blend and is perfect for coloring denim. To summarize- I Ciao all the time! You should to if you want to! Blank chart for you: