Catch-all post RE: Goo Gone and Cuttling

Okay, I've fielded a few questions that had been left in comments to various posts. I thought I'd recap some of the answers and other tidbits of information here.

1. where to find the Goo Gone Mess-free pen: I found the pen at Wal-Mart. They're also supposed to be available at Publix (in Florida) from what I'd read online. I haven't seen them elsewhere. You can also buy them directly from the Goo Gone site. They're more expensive though. You can get free shipping, but you'd have to buy $35 worth of stuff.

2. Along the same lines, a couple of things worth mentioning: Sue Nelson of Heart Prints recently did her own evaluation of Goo Gone as a blending agent. She used the spray gel form and found it to be a reasonable alternative, particularly for folks with concerns about using Gamsol or other odorless mineral spirits. Now SHE is a wonderful colorer/blender when it comes to the magic colored pencil technique, so her evaluation was great to read. You can see her take by clicking here.

3. I've mentioned the Mess-free pen in particular because of its convenience--easily transportable, no stumps, no liquid. It's also been brought up that if you're worried about spills in general, the pen eliminates that concern.

4. A question about how I use the Mess-free pen because of concerns that the colors will get muddy on the tip: I just swipe the pen a few times on scratch paper to remove the color from the nib and it's ready for blending again. I'd wondered about this myself when I first tested it. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how easy it was to move from color to color without accidentally carrying it on the nib and, say, contaminating a yellow area with purple.

5. Where to find some of those wood frames that I've used with those Cuttlebug embossing folders: I didn't say anything specifically at first because I'd just been using stuff that I'd found around the house. The look of the Cuttled frames seems to be very popular though. They can be found at craft stores and hobby shops. Michael's, Hobby Lobby, and Joann's all carry this sort of thing. They're usually very inexpensive, too. Don't forget to look in the kids' sections of stores because these are often stocked there as parts of art projects for kids, particularly this time of year with Mother's Day and Father's Day coming up, as well as the end of school and the possibility of using things like this for teacher gifts.

6. Again, along the same lines as above, you can make your own frames as well. I know that some have made them out of mat board. You could cut them out of chipboard, too. Again, I was just trying to get the wheels turning. There are loads of things that you can use for Cuttling creatively.

7. On cutting the Cuttlebug embossing folders apart: When I'd modified the folders, I'd done it mainly with those smaller folders in mind. This can be done with the bigger ones, too. I can see some situations where this could be useful:

~*~ One is when you're wanting to emboss a card front that's larger than A2 size.

~*~ Another is when you want to center your embossed design on an A2 sized card front, but the folder design doesn't give you enough leeway at the top of the folder--the Swiss dots would be one example. Eliminating the hinge would let you position the design so that it's centered nicely on the card front.

~*~ One more situation is if your folder ends up breaking at that folding point. That's a major wear and tear spot on those folders. You could repair it by making a new hinge of sorts with tape, OR you could take advantage and perhaps make the folder even more versatile by placing it inside a larger transparency folder which would allow you more freedom to put the design exactly where you want it to be.

Okay. I think that covers most of the questions and comments for now. :-)