Interesting shopping day

I had a number of errands to run today. Since one of my stops was near Michael's, I dropped in to get a look at the new Martha Stewart border punches. That store only had one and since it was very much like my Fiskars Lacy Days of Summer punch, I managed to pass on that one. I'd heard that some folks had seen some of the new Primas at M's. Mine didn't have any. I did see those buckets of Brides flowers though, this time in pink and in blue. I talked myself out of those since I figure that I can color the ones that I have if I need them to be a specific color, but if you're interested in bright pink or blue flowers in large numbers, check that out.

So far I've only seen the Icky Sticky Stuff Remover that I referred to in an earlier post at my local grocery store. It's not a national chain, by the way. According to the ISSR site, hardware stores would be another place to look. While I was at World Market though, I came across Earth Friendly Products' Orange Plus Cleaner. I didn't even realize that they carried cleaners like that there! Now before I'd found the ISSR, I'd been thinking that this Orange Plus Cleaner had possibilities as a non-toxic blending agent for magic colored pencil from what I'd seen online. You can read the MSDS for the concentrated form. I hadn't followed this up because it looked like it was available mainly in health food type stores, and there wasn't one listed on their site that was close to me. Its main cleaning agent is orange oil, so again this seemed to have possibilities for breaking down the wax in colored pencils and allowing for movement and blending of the pigments. This is not an artist grade product, but it has a better safety profile than the odorless mineral spirits, so if the former isn't an issue for you, then this may be another possible alternative. I did a very quick test to see if it would work on Prismacolor pencils, and it did seem to. I'll try to do a more formal test with photos at some point for the sake of comparison. The 22 oz bottle of ready to use spray cost about $3.99, so I figured that I'd buy it and test it. Kitchen cleaner had been on my shopping list today anyway, so I was going to be able to use this whether it worked or not.

All in all, not a bad shopping day, eh? I may not have found what I originally set out to find, but I did manage to find something fun and craft-related to bring home with me when all was said and done. :-)

A better alternative - Icky Sticky Stuff Remover

Not too long ago, I mentioned a discussion on a stamping forum which started me thinking about possible alternatives to the odorless mineral spirits like Gamsol that are typically used for the Magic Colored Pencil technique. These chemicals are not without their hazards, particularly under conditions of prolonged exposure or for individuals with health issues. I didn't care for the alternative of using baby oil. I'd found that Goo Gone worked, but I mentioned that it still carried warnings similar to that of the odorless mineral spirits, i.e. use in well-ventilated areas. The Mess-free pen was convenient and cut down considerably on the smell, but certainly Goo Gone isn't specifically formulated for artist use, a drawback for some folks.

Today I was doing my grocery shopping and made a discovery as I pushed my cart down the aisle with household cleaners. On the shelf next to the Goo Gone was another product--this one called Icky Sticky Stuff Remover, made by the same folks (Orange-Sol) who make De-Solv-It citrus-based cleaners. What struck me about this was that the label clearly said that it would remove crayon and wax, among other things--this was good because it needs to be able to break down the wax to move the colored pencil pigments; it could be used on skin and hair--usually citrus oil-based solvents carry a warning to avoid exposure to skin because of hypersensitivity reactions; it has no harmful vapors--WOO HOO! for that; and it was artist formula--excellent. Here's a link to the Material Safety Data Sheet for Icky Sticky Stuff Remover (now a.k.a. ISSR on this blog anyway--I have to abbreviate this! LOL!). It's always good to read some of this info for yourself.

So this product sounded like it had potential, but would it work on Prismacolor colored pencils? See what you think.


This is a quickie card that I made this afternoon to try this out. I stamped the flower images by Hero Arts using Archival black ink on a Cuttlebug tag die cut. I then colored the images with my Prismacolor colored pencils and blended the colors using the ISSR and a stump. I added the fibers, layered it on purple DCWV cardstock that I embellished using a Fiskars corner edger then attached it to the cardfront. I stamped the Hero Arts sentiment and added some decorative score lines using my Scor-It.

As of now, the Icky Sticky Stuff Remover is my magic colored pencil technique "solvent" of choice. It's biodegradable and more environmentally friendly than Gamsol or Sansodor, has no vapors, is formulated for use in arts and crafts, and from what I've read is a much safer alternative to mineral spirits, plus it works. It also cost only $2.99 USD for the 4 oz bottle and is available here in the US, which is more than I can say for some of the other alternatives out there that I would have liked to try. Now I just need to find a way to replace this spray top with a regular screw top lid or dauber top. :-)