Last night I said I'd do a more formal comparison of possible blending agents for magic colored pencil. Here it is. But first, a disclaimer! I'm not a great colorer/blender to begin with, so keep that in mind when you look at these images, okay?I stamped a Rhonna Farrer/Autumn Leaves image four times on a piece of Beckett Expressions cardstock using Archival Jet Black ink.
Next, I pulled out my Prismacolor colored pencils and tried to color each of the images similarly.
I then blended the colors of each image using one of four different blending agents: Goo Gone Mess-Free Pen, Icky Sticky Stuff Remover, Orange Plus, and Sansodor. Like last time, I used a blending stump. Well, except for with the Mess-free Pen. I've listed them alphabetically, not according to the order in which I used them.
In the above photo you can see the results of the blending phase of my experiment. I'll show you which image was colored with which agent in the following photo. Scroll down when you've had a chance to do a bit of independent and unbiased judging of the blending. Or just scroll on down.
Now again, I wanted just a bit more of a comparison. You'll notice that each image has a free flower--the one where I used blue at the center. I colored that one with a different blending agent. To keep things simple, and I do like simple, I just blended that part of the image with the agent that I'd used on its left. So, the single Orange Plus flower was blended with the Goo Gone Mess-Free Pen, the single Sansodor flower was blended with the Orange Plus, the single ISSR flower was blended with Sansodor, and the single Goo Gone flower was blended with ISSR. I hope that made sense.Let me say now, that I'm not going to review the Goo Gone again since it's been the subject of a couple of posts here already. You can find links to those in my colored pencil sidebar menu. The Orange Plus did move and blend the pigments, but not as well as the other three. It was also trickier to use. Too much and it tended to break down the cardstock--NOT a good thing! Too little and you had to work at it to get the color to move. There was a small window of opportunity where it worked well, but it wasn't easy to consistently use that correct amount of fluid. It also had an annoying tendency to make the stump squeak when coloring. I think I have a new, more environmentally friendly cleaner that I'll be using here in the kitchen. The Sansodor did its job as usual. I will say that compared to the others, it definitely was the worst as far as fumes. Nothing else came close to being so... aromatic. ;-)You can see a closer side-by-side comparison of the Sansodor and ISSR below. I didn't compare these two directly when I mentioned the ISSR before as an alternative, so here's that comparison for you. The Sansodor is upper left and the ISSR lower right.
Both worked as far as moving the pigments. The ISSR colors look a bit more vibrant in the photo. This is true in real life, too. In retrospect, I think I'd laid down a bit more color in that ISSR image to begin with though. And don't forget that the single flower in the ISSR image was blended with the Sansodor, so there's a bit more of a comparison that you can make.My conclusions after all of this? Orange Plus--probably a good cleaner, but not a good choice as a blending agent for MCP. The Goo Gone Mess-free Pen was by far the simplest and easiest to use. No stumps, no dipping, no odor. I'll add here that the lack of odor does not make it safe necessarily, eh? It's still better to use this in well-ventilated areas and not hover directly over you image for long periods of time. But for ease of use, it's hard to beat the pen. The Sansodor, like Gamsol, has been the agent of choice for this technique. These odorless mineral spirits are not completely without odor though, and despite keeping only a small amount of the stuff exposed to the air, the fumes were noticeable. Then there are the safety issues and environmental issues with those products. The ISSR with its ability to move and blend pigments, its lack of odor, better safety profile, along with the fact that it's more environmentally friendly seems to make it the best choice, at least of these four that I tested here. I found it in a local grocery store. I'm not sure how widely available it is, though at least you don't have to order it from abroad.Lastly I should mention that Zest-It has been used for quite a while in the UK by artists as a safer alternative to odorless mineral spirits. A year or two ago I read a discussion about folks using it but couldn't find a vendor for it here in the US. Still can't. It's a citrus zest-based product, but you'd have to order it from the UK at this point. That's still something to keep an eye out for should it become available on this side of the pond though.
Edited to add: I posted an update to this that might be worth looking at if you're interested in using Goo Gone in place of odorless mineral spirits. You can read that post HERE.
Okay, so maybe technically this should just be included with creative Cuttling, but I thought it was kind of neat and deserved a "spot" of its own. I can think of a number of ways to use this. Here's one example:
The stamp images are by Rhonna Farrer/Autumn Leaves and stamped with chalk inks that I colored and accented using Copic Spica glitter pens. The flowers are Brides flowers with Liquid Pearl centers.
Now for the spotlight part of this--I used the Cuttlebug A2 Swiss Dots folder in my Big Shot to make the three embossed "spotlights" in the border. I used the technique that I described in my creative Cuttling in detail post--take a peek there for photos and step-by-step instructions that you can adapt to your machine. For this look in particular I used some of those Bazzill Basics chipboard 1" circles that were popular a couple of years or so ago. I stacked them in pairs, which made them conveniently the same thickness as one of the two clear plates that I use to make my embossing sandwich for these folders. This meant that I simply eliminated the bottom plate, put my folder (with the cardfront inside and the rest of the card tucked behind it) directly on my platform. I put the chipboard circles on top of the folder where I wanted the dots to be embossed, covered that with my clear plate and ran it through my Big Shot. That was it! I accented with score lines using my Scor-It.
Now you could use just one pair and run it through several times, placing the chipboard circle pair wherever you want the embossing each time. Alternatively you could use several pairs and put them all on the folder at the same time, cover them with your clear plate, and emboss them all at once. I did glue my circle pairs together, by the way. I didn't want them slipping off each other as they went through the machine. I also did this using some of the Bazzill Basic chipboard squares. I'll post that card when I've finished it. I was having a tough time calling squares spotlights anyway. ;-)
I needed to make a card today that had bright, sunshine-y colors since it's gray here. Now at least it's not actually raining, but I still wanted to make something upbeat.
The border design was made using my Fiskars Lacy Days of Summer border punch. I just offset the two colors for a different effect. I also used the same border punch to accent the corners of that smaller layer. Dunno why it hadn't occurred to me to use my border punch that way before. It's an easy enough trick if you use the punch upside down so that you can see exactly where you're punching.The images are by Rhonna Farrer/Autumn Leaves and were stamped using the Kaleidoscope Melon inkpad. I embellished the images and the punched borders with Diamond Stickles.Happy Spring! :-)
Today I was inspired by some patterned cardstock that I came across in a grab bag. I thought this made a great non-traditional Valentine's Day card. Since I didn't put a sentiment on it, it could probably be used for an occasion other than Valentine's Day, too.
I embossed the patterned cardstock with the Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls embossing folder. The stamped images are by Autumn Leaves Rhonna Farrer.This next card used the same technique of embossing patterned cardstock. I used the Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers folder on this one.
The stamped image is by See D's. The border punch is by Fiskars. I'd been thinking of spring today because it was so pretty outside. I love the spring colors of this card! Now I just have to face the reality that winter isn't finished with us yet. I can wish though! :-)
There's a midweek challenge on daring cardmakers. This week's has to do with romance and, of course, the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday. The challenge is to create a romantic card and use red and black ribbon--love is in the air. This is what I came up with.
The embossing was made using the Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls and Perfectly Paisley embossing folders. The stamped hearts are Autumn Leaves Rhonna Farrer stamps.
I'd taken a couple of weeks off from challenges. I got back into them with this week's Wednesday Stamper challenge,
Grunge. Here's my card....
The images for the main part of the card are all by Non Sequitur. There's stamping on the large brad that didn't show up in this photo, but the design on it mirrors the letter "I" at the figure's waist. The background swirls are by Rhonna Farrer. Hm, this could probably be more grungy, but maybe it's okay for a first try. :-)
I decided to work on something besides cards. Still involved stamping, but I was ready for a change of pace. I don't recall now where I originally heard of this idea, but I remember liking it and thinking that it had possibilities. These are post-it holders, but the kind that you could keep on a desk. I was browsing through Michael's the other day. Their frames were on sale. The acrylic kind that can be a lot of fun were included, so I picked up a few 5 x 7 landscape frames. I didn't have any of those. Here are a couple of examples of what I ended up making with them....
As I said, these are acrylic frames with the stamped designs in place of a photo and a post-it type notepad attached to the front. They're incredibly quick and easy to make.
For this one used Hero Arts sentiment stamps and a Posh pansy stamp. I used markers, direct to rubber, for the pansy, gave it a light spritz and stamped the image. There are also some Autumn Leaves Rhonna Farrer flowers stamped in the background in Versamark.
This holder has the cyclist by Stampington, a Vap stamp "fun in the sun" sentiment, and the "remember" is by Ma Vinci.To give you a better idea of how the frame works to support the post-it pad, here's a view from the side....
Put the stamped cardstock in upside down, or opposite of the way you'd normally insert a photo, and then lay the frame down on its back. It's best to keep the design fairly simple. The frame can only accommodate so many layers of thickness. I also found out that even eyelets that have been set fairly flat will not fit, no matter what you do. If you noticed that I managed to use a couple of big ones near the 'remember', that's because the acrylic backing ends before it gets to that point--there's about an inch of leeway.
This is a fun and easy project and you just may have most of the supplies that you need already. :-)
