MFT "Saddle Up" | A Little Country Birthday Card with PrismaColor Premier Pencils

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I have a birthday card that can be used for either masculine or feminine, and those are by far my favourite kind to have on hand. I mean, who knows what you're going to need. I mean, those of your with calendars might know what you need, but for those of me that aren't quite as organized as we'd like to be.

This card features the "Saddle Up" set by My Favourite Things, I had done this panel a little while ago, and shared the picture but now it's finally a card and a post!

To begin, I stamped and masked the images, working front to back, with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 65lb Kraft cardstock.

I used me PrismaColor Premier pencils to color them in. I find that when I colour with Copic markers, my usual medium of choice, I start with my midtone, then go darker and then blend out lighter; but when working with my pencils I start with my darkest shade and blend out lighter.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Adding Dimension with Coloured Pencils | ft. Simon Says Stamp "Beautiful Flowers"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a card I created using Simon Says Stamp's "Beautiful Flowers" stamp set, Distress Oxide inks and PrismaColor Premier pencils.

The end result of this card is not what I had planned. I had just wanted to do an ombre background and stamp the image over top, just something super simple so I could get back into the swing of things. I've been having some serious issues getting over my creative block. I have a lot of ideas and I find that they build up but then I can't get any one of them out on paper. It's incredibly frustrating.

I began with applying Squeezed Lemonade, Ripe Persimmon and Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide ink to my panel. I then splattered it with clean water and then splattered again with Perfect Pearls in gold.

Once that was dry, I put the panel in my MISTI and stamped the large floral image from Simon Says Stamp's "Beautiful Flowers" with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink.

I had planned on leaving it at that (after adding the greeting from Beautiful Friend), but then I thought I would add a little bit of colour in the areas where I wanted shadows. Then down the rabbit hole I went. I just couldn't stop myself. I started adding darker and darker shades to deepen the shadows. Once the shadows were there, it occurred to me that the highlights weren't highlight-y enough.

When all was said and done, it was completely different than I had originally planned. I intentionally did not do anything with the leaves, I wanted just the flowers to really pop off the page. Kind of like a one layer spotlight technique.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Floral Thoughts Series Birthday | ft. Copic No-Line Colouring

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I'd like to share a birthday card I created using Clearly Besotted stamps and the no-line colouring technique with Copic markers.

To begin, I stamped the tulips image from Clearly Besotted "Friends Forever" with CTMH Linen Ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. The Linen ink is incredibly light and nearly invisible once it has dried on the paper. It is also Copic-friendly (as long as you don't go crazy with your markers) making it the perfect ink for no-line colouring.

I used a selection of yellow markers, starting with my darkest in the areas where I wanted the deepest shadows, then pulling the colour out with the middle shade then finally the lightest. I repeated the process for each petal, then went back after the entire bloom was completed to enhance the shadows as needed.

I used the same technique for each section of the leaves and stems, I didn't want to colour all the dark areas or light areas first as I would lose the lines and it would just look like a blob. Once I was happy with the Copic colouring, I went over some of the areas with my Prismacolor Premier Pencils to add some fine detail.

I masked off the floral images and smooshed some light blue ink on an acrylic block and watered it down. I then took a small fan brush and swooshed the blue back and forth across the background to create some interest.

For my greeting, I stamped the Happy Birthday with a blue ink to really bring out the blue of the background as well as create a contrast to the flowers.

I tied a piece of baker's twine around the front to create a bow, and then adhered the panel to a coordinating piece of shimmering cardstock. I then mounted the entire lot to the front of a top fold standard A2 sized card base.

Finally, because I just can't stop myself, I adhered some iridescent crystals from Studio Katia across the front of the panel.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Happy Birthday

Happy Heart Day Series | Beary Lovable ft. Gerda Steiner "Warm Fuzzies"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today's card fits in two different series', but in the interest of not having a title as long as the blog itself, I'll keep it to my Happy Heart Day Series today; though, as you can see it would also fit in the Coloured on Kraft Series.

Anyone who watches card making videos on YouTube has had to have seen stamps by Gerda Steiner Designs. This is the first time that I am trying them out and I have to say that I'm very much impressed. They have a bunch of sets and I'm very excited to get my hands on more of them.

To begin, I stamped this bear from Gerda Steiner's "Warm Fuzzies" with VersaMark ink on 65lb Kraft paper by Recollections, then coloured him with Prismacolor Premier pencils.

I used an inside out stitched rectangle to cut him from the centre of the paper. I then used an open heart stamp randomly about the outer frame and then coloured them with pencils as well. I adhered the frame to the front of a standard A2 sized card base and added the little bear piece back inside.

To cover the cut edge, but preserve the stitching, I laid down a line of liquid adhesive and sprinkled red glitter over it.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Christmas Haul - There's A Lot Coming for the New Year

Hi everyone, thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you are having a fantastic day.

First off, I just want to say Merry Christmas to all of you. I especially want to thank all of you who are reading this on Christmas Day. It means a lot to me that you want to spend your time here on the Holiday. It means a lot to me every day, but you know what I mean.

I don't have a card or a project for you today, but I do have a haul post. I've never done one of these before, and while I would love for it to be a video - I'm still not set up for that. That is the goal for the new year, to spread out into the land of YouTube and I hope all of you wonderful readers will also become viewers. I'll keep you posted!

Santa was extremely good to me this year, and I cannot wait to do in depth review posts on everything!

This is the whole lot of it and I am excited beyond reason. The older kids are at their other houses and the littlest is watching a movie. My hubby got new noise-cancelling headphones so he's lost in video game land, so I've had an opportunity to play with my new stuff.

First up, my wonderful Mother and Father in law gave me the Birds of the Americas colouring book, super different than what I usually colour in, but I'm looking forward to it. It's an identification guide so there's Latin (yeah!) a picture of the bird then a large picture to colour in. Definitely going to be a challenge! Oh that's right.... I also colour! I guess I don't really post about that here. LOL now you know.

Next up, is the full set of the Irojiten coloured pencils by Tombow. You thought these were pretty in pictures? Holy CRAP! These pencils are stunning. I can't even tell you how hard it is not to include detailed pictures here - but you have to wait for the official review. I still have to swatch them and touch them and get to know them... but I cannot wait. I've been gorging myself on video reviews of these for a couple weeks because I knew they were under the tree, and interestingly I have found they are either a love it or a hate it - I haven't seen any in the middle and I'm dying to know where I land on these.

Next I got two, that's right TWO 160 slot pencil cases. These things have four zippers each! One for my Prismacolor Premiers and one for my Faber-Castell Polychormos. The cases were actually my hubby's idea because he hated the tin that the 132 Prismacolors came in. Then I showed him how half my Polychormos were in a tin and the other half were in elastic bands and so that's how two ended up under the tree. So far the cases are fantastic, I'll have a quickie review of them probably next week (hopefully).

And finally the Derwent Inktense Pencils. These only made the list because Amazon had a killer deal, like less than 50%, otherwise I could never get this full set. I am so excited to try out this new medium and share my thoughts with you all. From everything that I've seen there's a steep learning curve that will go with these and I'm jacked to get started.

The Derwent water brushes were a little extra stocking stuffer from me. I have water brushes, but these were also on for a smashing price, so I tossed them in the cart as well - and they're Derwent, so they had to go together, like star-crossed art supplies....

So that's what I have for today and I'm super excited to get to work on product reviews for you all, not to mention play and organize all my new stuff!

I hope you like today's post, I would love to hear what you all got for Christmas - drop me a line in the comments section below and share your haul as well! If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Crafty New Year!!

Elegant Encouragement | ft. Technique Tuesday "Butterflies", Prismacolor Pencils and Nuvo Gilding Flakes

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

In case you haven't noticed, I am loving these butterflies from Technique Tuesday. It's kind of funny, I bought them a couple years ago and never touched them. I really only got them because they were on sale as the store was closing down, and thought "hey, these are okay ... but the price is amazing!"

It's a single rubber stamp with three butterflies. It wasn't until last week that it occurred to me to cut them apart - which is weird because I cut a lot of stamps apart. Like a lot. Since then, they've been on my desk - which is also weird because I'm crazy OCD about cleaning up between projects.

To begin, I prepped a piece of 65lb black cardstock from Recollections with my powder tool and stamped the small and medium butterfly with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with Sticky embossing powder by Ranger.

I've found that the trick to using sticky embossing powder is to remove the heat as soon as the powder is melted. I get the heat gun good and hot before bringing it to my paper and remove the heat as soon as the powder melts, if I keep the heat on the powder too long it seems to cook and not be sticky; that just defeats the point.

Once all the powder was melted I used Nuvo Gilding Flakes in copper over the sticky lines, pressing down firmly with my finger then burnishing the rest away with a stiff brush. I do this over a piece of clean copy paper, so I can funnel the excess back into the container, all the while trying really hard not to breathe. These flakes are lighter than air and the smallest current sends them flying all over.

I then used my Prismacolor Premier pencils to colour the butterflies. I have done a bunch of cards using these pencils on kraft cardstock, but I think this is the first or second that I have ever done on black and again I am amazed at the vibrancy of the colours.

I started with just a dark and a medium purple, but then brought in a light purple to brighten it up a bit. After I was done, I felt they needed just a little something extra so I pulled in the aqua around the edges of the wings.

Finally, I decided it needed a greeting so I prepped the lower right corner with my powder tool again, and stamped the greeting from a Color Splash set with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with Copper embossing powder by Recollections. I could have used the same gilding flakes, but was concerned about how small the font is in the first part of the greeting. Sometimes the gilding flakes don't all come away easily and I wanted it to be clear.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Product Review Series | ft. Prismacolor Verithin Pencils

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Recently I was in my local Michael's store, and I'm not even really sure why because their selection has gone down hill in the paper crafting areas and I'm always so disappointed; but I had just dropped my son off at soccer practice and it was right across the street.... you know how these things are. 

Anyway, I'm wandering about and I see that all the Prismacolor sets are on sale, like crazy on sale and I already have the 132 set so I don't need those, but they do carry the Verithins in the 24/36 pack, but for whatever reason they are NOT included in the sale stuff. So I take the 36 ('cause if I'm going to get them, I'm going to get them all) to the counter and the lady says I can use a coupon; this worked out exceptionally well for me because the price after the coupon was better than the price would have been if they were included in the sale! YAY!!

As always, this is going to be a lengthy post with a bunch of pictures, so grab a coffee and tuck right in. 

Unlike the Premiers that come in snazzy little tins, the Verithins do not. They come in these cardboard boxes that you have to open and slide then bend backwards to create an easel and then they stand up but then you have to do everything backwards just to put them away and .... really? SERIOUSLY Prismacolor? 

Okay, so here we have it standing up and as you can see there are a few things we're going to notice right out of the gate.

• Crappy cardboard box container - let's be honest, this isn't going to last.
• Unsharpened pencils
• 36 Vibrant colours - more on this later
• Hexagonal Barrels
• Contains a Silver and a Gold 

As you know I am a huge fan of the T'GAAL Multi-Sharpener, I was using a super inexpensive electric sharpener and that worked great but the amount of waste was killing me.... I was dying inside watching my beloved pencils be ground to dust  - well not really dying inside but it was getting very irksome. So after a few videos, I decided to give this a try and I am so beyond glad I did. It's ridiculously expensive and worth every cent.

These pencils sharpen very nicely, they have a harder core than Premiers so I was less worried about it snapping off (which has never even happened with this sharpener.... just sayin'). I also noticed that the core is much smaller than with Premiers. I tried to get a good shot to show you the ends, but that wasn't working out for me, so you'll just have to trust me, there's a difference and it's noticeable.

Here I wanted to compare the Verithins (bottoms) next to their corresponding colour in the Premiers (tops). As you can see here there is a big difference in both the size of the core and the size of the barrel. That being said, I have arthritis in my right hand from a sports injury back in school, I could tell immediately that holding these pencils for a long time would be a problem for me.

The name and number of the pencil is stamped into the barrel which is super handy, except while they use the same names for the pencils, they do not use the same numbers. I'm okay with that, I swatch by name - what I'm confused about is the half-numbers. As you can see in the picture above, the top pencil is Pumpkin Orange (one of my absolute favourites) it is numbered as 736 1/2. Not sure why. I don't see a reason for it at all. They clearly have enough numbers for all the pencils considering there is only 36 in the largest set and you cannot buy these open stock. So just a fun little quirk from the gang at Prismacolor.

For the purposes of this review, I have used 110lb white cardstock (my usual go-to for most projects), the image is from Lawn Fawn's "Our Friendship Grows" set stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. 

On the left I created a mini swatch using the same colours from each set. Pumpkin Orange, Goldenrod and Canary Yellow. 

• Premiers lay down more pigment
• Premiers are more vibrant
• Verithins are like softer versions of the colour
• Verithins hold true to the colour - it really just looks like I didn't press as hard with the same pencil

On the right I wanted to compare how they lay down individually then together (as they are meant to do); using the same three colours from each set as shown in the swatch on the left. The first flower is just Premiers, the second is just Verithins and the third is a mix of the two. 

• After laying down the Premier for the third flower I went over with the Verithins and it really feels like nothing is happening.
• You can feel a noticeable difference in the hardness of the cores, think spreading butter at room temperature then someone switching it out for frozen butter. 
• Once the Verithin pencil has been applied over the Premier the intensity is amazing. Without even feeling like I was doing anything the results were incredible.
• The Verithins seem to burnish the paper and flatten out the tooth, while blending the pigment from the Premiers underneath.

Overall, these pencils are nice to have; provided you aren't using them as your primary medium. I would never use these exclusively on a project, the hard lead doesn't allow for blending and there just aren't enough colours in the pack to do a project the way I like to work. And to be honest, if they didn't qualify for use with the coupon I would have put the right back on the shelf.

I could certainly live without them and unless you are doing crazy line work I wouldn't say that they are necessary in the craft room. But that's really the point of them. They say right on the back of the box they are for fine details and outline work. I think the "magic" of these pencils is to replace the blender pencil (which I never use anyway). 

The hard core lends itself well to blending the softer pigment already laid down as it helps in burnishing it down into the paper. Adding additional layers of colour over top of these is not an easy task, they have already pushed down the tooth of the paper and with nothing left for the softer core to grab on to, these are definitely best left to the very end of a project.

I probably wouldn't miss these if they were misplaced and I probably won't replace them when they wear down, especially since I'm not able to get them individually. I don't suspect that they will need to be replaced any time soon, as the hard core means the pencil will last longer so sharpening is infrequent. 

It is also important to note that there is a warning right on the box that the Gold VT754 contains copper and they don't recommend eating, drinking or smoking while using these. So keep that in mind if you are a pencil chewer. Metal poisoning is no joke. As with any art supply - keep out of reach of children and pets.

I hope you like today's review. If you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, please drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know. I love to hear from you. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products for review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I personally use, that I find interesting and that I have paid for with my own money. I get no incentive, reward or payment to write a review. All reviews are based off of my personal experience and are my opinions only.

Coloured on Kraft Series | Floral Thoughts of You ft. Stampin' Up "Birthday Blooms"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a floral thinking of you card, coloured on kraft cardstock with Prismacolor Premier Coloured Pencils. The more I work with these pencils the more I absolutely love them. I like to look back through my work and see how far my colouring has progressed. As with any other medium the key is practice, practice, practice.

This image from Stampin' Up is perfect for practicing in any medium, and if you don't have it, I highly recommend getting one, or one like it.

To begin, I stamped the floral image from Stampin' Up "Birthday Blooms" and the greeting with VersaMark ink on 65lb kraft cardstock. I chose this particular ink because it doesn't have the harsh lines that stamping in black has, and it is easy to cover up with pencil; creating this beautiful "no-line" look.

I then coloured the blooms with only three shades! All the petals are coloured with PC1032 Pumpkin Orange, PC1002 Yellow Orange and PC915 Lemon Yellow. I start with my medium shade in the areas where I know I want the shadows to be the darkest. I then go to my lightest shade for the for the rest of the petal with an incredibly light hand, finally I add in my darkest shade to deepen those shadows and start to bring out the depth of the flower.

I work back and forth, doing one petal at a time from start to finish until it looks just how I want it to. Each of these petals has 8-10 layers of colour so it is very important that you use a very light hand, as Prismacolor pencils are waxed based there will come a point where you just can't add any more layers because of the waxy build-up. So it will take a while, but with the layers you can get almost any shade between your darkest and lightest pencils.

For the stamen in the centre of the flower I used PC923 and highlighted with the Lemon Yellow.

All of the leaves are coloured with PC988 Marine Green, PC1096 Kelly Green and then PC1089 Pale Sage, working the same as the blossoms, one leaf at a time until it looks just right. Because many of the leaves have texture from the veins, I ignore those until I'm adding the final details, then I gently go over them with the medium and then the darkest shade of green.

I have found that I get the best results from keeping my tip as sharp as possible all the time. This typically means a lot of sharpening, so I use the T'GAAL Multi-Sharpener on setting one to keep a low but sharp point. I can avoid losing a lot of pencil material, because let's face it - coloured pencils aren't cheap.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. If you have any questions or just want to let me know what you think, please drop me a line in the comments section below. I love to hear from you!

Product Review Series | Baby Oil for Blending Coloured Pencils

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

A couple weeks ago, I reviewed Odorless Mineral Spirits, specifically Gamsol as a means for blending coloured pencil. In the hours and then days that followed I received a bunch of comments and mail and private messages about the post. Many people wanted to know how it compared to using baby oil, some of them wanted to know why I would promote such a dangerous chemical and some were so excited by the results, they said they were going right out to buy some.

I'm not here to tell you what to buy. I'm here to tell you about my experiences and hopefully share some knowledge to provide you with information if you are sitting on the fence about it. I will give you my opinions and my recommendations and I will happily answer any questions I can. Before we get right into this review, I want to clear a few things up.

Yes, Gamsol is a dangerous chemical; but when you get right down to it so are alcohol markers - if you don't use them correctly. So are oil paints and micro fine glitter. Anything can be dangerous if it isn't being used safely and carefully.

For those of you that messaged me to say they appreciated the information and will be picking some up, I cannot wait to see what you create with it. If it is something new, practice, practice and more practice is the key.

Finally, I've never tried baby oil as a blender. So today that's what I'm going to be talking about. This week, I put away my Gamsol and pulled out my baby oil. I wanted to give it a fair shake.

For the purposes of this review, I stamped these images from Lawn Fawn's "Our Friendship Grows" using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I will be using:

• Prismacolor Premier Pencils
• Life Brand Baby Oil
• Blending stubs or Tortillions (rolled, not compressed)

As with my review on Gamsol, I added the colour where I wanted the deepest shadows to be. I chose this image from Lawn Fawn because it has large spaces that are excellent for practicing laying down colour or shading. I used a separate tortillion for each colour to avoid cross-contamination.

I've numbered each of the points I want to talk about when working on this image.

1. Large petals. For these I used PC917 Sunburst Yellow. As with Gamsol, I dipped my blending stub into the oil and worked in little circles, starting on the pigment and pulling it out towards the tips. I found that the yellow moved surprisingly well for the most part. The petals on the right of the flower seemed to move better than those on the left even though I lay down about the same amount of pigment. I found I had to dip several times as the paper sucked up the oil very quickly.
2. Leaves and stem. I used PC908 Dark Green. I found that the oil smoothed out the pencil lines and filled in the areas where the tooth of the paper did not grab the pigment but it did not carry the colour into the unshaded areas - as you can see most prominently on the left leaf. To get an even blend, I had to work the area several times to move the green as much as I did.
3. The pot. I used PC937 Tuscan Red. The colour did not move at all. I ended up going over the red a bunch of times and finally added a second layer with a super light hand just to get some colour in the middle. If you look at the pot in the picture above and change the lightest areas to stark white, that's what it looked like before I added a second layer. As a side note, I didn't notice any problems when adding additional pigment to the image on top of the baby oil.
4. Smaller petals. I used PC917 and PC1002 Yellow Orange. As these petals are behind the main flower image, they will naturally be darker, so I added the second colour just at the very base of each petal to give it a bit more shadow. I found the baby oil blended the two colours nicely and as with the yellow in the larger petals moved the pigment to the tips well.
5. I had an oops and dripped baby oil to the corner of my panel. I've done this with the Gamsol and it dries right up and you can't tell. Not so much with the baby oil. It was there in the second picture after I lay down the initial colour, and I had hoped it would dry out, but as you can see, even after blending the colours in the image that "oops" is still there. Not cool.

Overall, this is not my blending solution of choice. I found it was way more work than it was worth. If this panel were going to be going on a card, I would have to scrap it and start over because of that drip in the top right corner. 

It didn't move the colour as well as I wanted and I found I had to make many extra passes just to get the colour to move as well as it did. 

I do not like the oily finish that it leaves. If I were creating a piece to look like stained glass for a window decoration maybe I would reach for this, but I don't really do those.

If you are uncomfortable using Gamsol for medical reasons or pregnancy or because you have a kitten or kids that have access to your crafting space then by all means, give this a try. As I mentioned in the previous review, I prefer using an incredibly light hand and allowing my pencils to do the blending for me. If I were in a situation where I had to use a blending solution, I'll take the Gamsol over the baby oil any day of the week.

I hope you enjoyed today's review. If you have questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, please drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future reviews or posts.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I am interested in and use, I receive no incentive, reward or payment to do so. All products are purchased with my own money and all reviews are based off of my experience and are my opinions only.

Product Review Series | Odorless Mineral Spirits; Gamsol

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I have received quite a few questions regarding Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS), which I use and how to use them. So for today's review I will be discussing Gamsol.

Gamsol is an artist's grade OMS that can be purchased at your local art supply store or online for a relatively low cost. While it truly is odorless there are still vapors and you must use adequate ventilation. Do NOT inhale, taste, swallow or get in contact with eyes. Avoid contact with skin.

• Relatively inexpensive. I paid $16.40 for 16 fluid ounces (1 pint or 2 cups) at my local art store in Calgary.
• Absolutely odorless
• Clear liquid
• Locking Top

It's not really practical to keep it in it's original container for small crafty uses such as colouring with pencils. I have mine stored two ways.

• The first (left) is in a top press bottle - this allows you to press a small amount for dipping and avoids terrible spills. 
• The second (right) is in a small baby food jar. I added a craft sponge to the bottom so I can just dip my blending stub. This is how I carry it when I am travelling.

Always keep you containers tightly sealed and away from children and pets. It really does look like water so please be smart and safe whenever you work with any type of chemical.

For blending, I use very inexpensive blending stumps. The ones on the left are my preferred type; they are basically rolled up paper and can be purchased for just pennies a piece. The ones on the right are more compact and will absorb a lot more of the OMS, this is good if you are trying to blend a large area in the background or a large image, I don't typically do that - but I have a couple. Just in case.

I prefer to have one blending stump per colour so that they don't cross contaminate. There is nothing worse than going to blend a light colour and having a different colour smear over because there was pigment left over.

If having individual stumps is not practical for you, you can always clean off the stumps on a scrap of paper or by using a piece of find sanding paper.

For the purpose of this example I have stamped the dog from Simon Says Stamp's "You are Pawesome" stamp set with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb cardstock.

The top image is coloured with Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils. These are a soft core wax-based pencil.

The bottom image is coloured with Faber-Castell Polychormos coloured pencils. These are a hard core oil-based pencil.

When using Gamsol with coloured pencils, I lay the colour down where I want the shadows to be the darkest (as you can see in the picture above).

Once I have my shadows places, I dip my blending stub in the OMS and work in small circles pulling the colour towards the centre. With both of these images I applied the Gamsol, then used a lighter brown and repeated the process, pulling the colour towards the centre again.

My observations:

• The Gamsol worked far better on the wax-based colour pencil (top) than it did on the oil-based (bottom). I found I had to work harder to move the colour with the oil-based pencils with less of a result.
• While the OMS did blend out the harsh lines in the oil-based image, it did not get rid of them completely and you are still able to see pencils lines even though I went over it a few times more than I did with the wax-based image.
• The colour stayed truer with the wax pencils, while it brightened the colour of the oil pencil. Handy to know if that's what you're going for.
• Does not leave a residue or "oily" mark on paper after it has dried.

Overall, I don't typically use OMS when working with coloured pencil. I will pull it out if I can't get the blend I want, or if I'm using a paper with a lot of tooth, but for the most part I use the colours themselves to get my blend. I don't use the blending pencils at all. 

If your paper has a lot of tooth (you can see this by the little white dots that get left behind after you lay down your coloured pencil) the OMS will help to get an even coverage by "melting" the pigment and allowing it to settle in those spaces.

If you're in a hurry to get something done or you just want to play around I highly recommend using the OMS - it will "dissolve" the waxy build up and allow you to apply more layers of colour. For me, I prefer to use a light hand and layer, layer, layer the pencil to get the look I want.

If you are going to purchase an OMS - go for the good stuff. Don't mess around with cheap products that give off an odor of paint thinner. You'll just end up with a headache and be unhappy with final result. Always work in a well ventilated area and close the lid of your container when you aren't using it. 

I hope you enjoyed today's review. If you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, drop me a line in the comments section below, I love to hear from you. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I use and that I have paid for with my own money. I am not rewarded, paid or provided with incentive to do so. All reviews are based on my personal experience with the product and are my opinions only.

Coloured on Kraft | Dogwood Birthday ft. Hero Arts "Dogwood"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a soft floral card featuring the "Dogwood" stamp by Hero Arts with Prismacolor Premier Pencils. This image has large florals that are perfect for practicing your colouring in any medium. My stamp is mounted on wood, but can easily be taken off to turn it into a cling stamp for an acrylic block or the MISTI.

I think this design would work for nearly any occasion and can be used for a top fold or a side fold card. Let's face it, stamps are not cheap and if it can be used year round, all the better.

To begin, I stamped the large Dogwood floral image from Hero Arts with VersaMark ink on a standard A2 sized card base made of 65lb Kraft cardstock by Recollections. I masked off the image and stamped again so there would be no overlap. I chose to use VersaMark ink as it creates a lovely tone on tone look without super harsh lines.

I then used white and cream to colour the petals. I added a soft yellow for the middle and a very light green for the leaves. I didn't colour in the stems or branches as there was enough texture in the stamp to look shaded and I wanted the blossoms to be the star of the show.

I stamped the birthday greeting with CTMH White Daisy ink, then cut that down to a banner and adhered that to the top right corner of the card. My original plan was to have the greeting straight on the card base, but there was an incident and it needed to be covered up.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Product Review Series | T'GAAL Multi-Sharpener by Kutsuwa

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I've done a lot of coloured pencil reviews and as anyone who uses pencils knows, they have to be sharpened.

There are dozens of sharpeners out there, by dozens of companies all promising the best results. Sadly, we know that this is not necessarily the case. They don't all provide excellent results.

Moreover, what works for one person may not work at all for another. For a long time, I was using an electric sharpener. When you have soft-core pencils (like Prismacolor Premiers) it can be very frustrating to get them sharp. The soft core means a higher chance of breaking, and when it comes to manual sharpening it is nearly impossible to hold the pencil still while sharpening and ultimately the pencil breaks.

I have seen numerous colourists and pencil artists talk about the T'GAAL sharpener so I thought I would give it a try myself.

• Quite expensive 
• 5 settings for pencil points
• Self contained - you don't have to hold it over the rubbish bin
• Comes in various colours
• Incredibly sharp blade
• Light weight

This sharpener fit nicely in the palm of your hand and is very light weight. It doesn't take up much room if you are travelling with your pencils. It fits a standard pencil as well as the slightly larger pencil (like Faber-Castell Polychromos). 

It comes in several colours - while not important to the function, it's always super fun to have choices.

Each of the five different settings allows you to change the angle of the point, depending on what you prefer. The first point is very much like the way most presharpened pencils come from the factory, and as the number goes up, so too does the angle of the pencil point.

When I was using my electric sharpener it resulted in what would be a five (shown above). While I loved the point, I found that if the tip broke because of how long the point was I was wasting a lot of pencil to get the tip sharp again. When you work with pencils that are upwards of $2.00 each, it becomes important to keep waste in mind.

Since I switched to the T'GAAL, I'm finding less and less waste as I personally only use setting number one. I like to keep my pencils very sharp which means I'm sharpening them often during the course of a project - setting one keeps a sharp point but short so that I'm breaking the ends less often. Many times it doesn't even feel like the pencil is sharpening and yet out comes a lovely point.

Overall, I'm incredibly impressed by the T'GAAL Multi-Sharpener, despite being (what I consider) ridiculously expensive for a small manual sharpener, I can honestly say it is worth every cent. When I purchased mine from my local art store I paid about $10 CAD, when my husband was looking for a new sharpener, I sent him to get the same one (because I don't like to share) and he paid double that at the same place.

Honestly, worth it. I will not hesitate to spend the same amount for another of these sharpeners. So if you are able/willing to use a manual sharpener for your pencils, I don't think you have to look any further than this one.

I hope you enjoyed today's review. If you have any questions about this product or an idea for a future review, please drop me a line in the comments section below. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss out on any future posts.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I personally use, that I find interesting and that I have purchased with my own money. I receive no incentive, payment or reward to review a product. All reviews are based on my experience using them and are my opinion only.

Coloured on Kraft | Troll Party ft. Your Next Stamp "Insanely Happy"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I'd like to share this super cute birthday card I created using the "Insanely Happy" stamp set by Your Next Stamp. This is a new (to me) stamp company with super cute images and clever sentiments. Given the popularity of the Trolls movie that recently came out, I thought that this set would be a perfect one to start with.

The images can work for both a boy or a girl; don't have to be for birthdays and are super fun to colour.

To begin, I created masks of all the trolls in the "Insanely Happy" stamp set by Your Next Stamp. I then used the MISTI to stamp the two outer trolls, masked them then stamped the third, masked her and finally the last troll.

I removed all the masks and coloured the images in with Prismacolor Premier pencils (you can see my review of those here). I'm still having trouble with natural skin tones when using the coloured pencils, so colouring these trolls was super fun!

I used three shades for each of the different colour skins, four shades for each of the hair and two shades for all of the clothes. Typically, I would use more shades for the clothes but these are very small areas and don't require as many shades to get a good blend.

Once I was certain I liked the colouring, I put the panel back into the MISTI and stamped the greeting. All of the stamping was done using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Not because it's required, but out of habit.

I then traced the "Have An Insanely" portion of the greeting with my Quickie Glue pen by Sakura and sprinkled Lawn Fawn's fine Prisma Glitter over the letters. Since the Trolls movie, all trolls must have glitter! Sadly, the writing is obscured in the picture, but in real life it sparkles and you can read it. WIN!

To finish it off, I used the Imaginisce i-Rock heat tool to add the coloured embellishments around the greeting. I've had this tool for ages, and I keep forgetting that it's around. Then adhered the kraft panel to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Seize the Birthday

Kraft Card Base

Coloured on Kraft | ft. MFT "Our Story"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Yesterday, I posted a review of the Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils and showed an example using them of Kraft cardstock. Today I have the card that I created using that piece.

To begin, I stamped the images from MFT's "Our Story" using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 65lb Kraft cardstock by Recollections.

I then coloured the images using Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils.

I adhered the panel to the front of a standard A2 sized card base using my tape runner.

I then put the card in the MISTI and stamped the greeting from the same set using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Product Review Series | Prismacolor Premier Coloured Pencils

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I have been promising this one for a very long time, and I'm happy to say I'm finally ready to deliver. Perhaps it is the cooler fall season, but I've been using the Prismacolors a lot more often in my work. I've also been using Kraft cardstock more often and honestly the two just go together like tea and biscuits.

Prismacolor Premier pencils have been around for some time, established by the Eagle Pencil Co. in 1938 in New York City.  The company has changed hands a few times since then and now has a total of 150 vibrant colours in it's palette.*

• High Quality - Artist Grade Pigment
• Widely available in stores or online
• Available in sets or open stock
• Soft core - allows for smooth application of colour
• Wax based
• Blending pencils available

I personally have the 72 set, and for the purposes of this review I will be using them on 65lb Kraft cardstock from Recollections.

If you shop around, you can certainly find a set that fits within your price range. Don't get me wrong, these pencils are not cheap. In Calgary, I can purchase them open stock for about $1.90/each plus tax. This is not a grade-school investment. I ordered my set off Amazon (Canada) in the spring as they were having a sale and I just couldn't pass it up.

The pencils come pre-sharpened, however there seems to be a lot of extra room in the tin so during shipping there was some damage to the tips.

I expected this. I have long been reading reviews from other colourists and pencil artist discussing how the quality of Prismacolor has been declining. Perhaps this is true. I bought my first set nearly a decade ago, and from my experience the quality is the same now as it was then.

I have personally had some trouble with a couple I have purchased open stock, as they get touched by people and knocked about by children and dropped on the floor.

These are a soft core, wax based pencil so they are more delicate. I found that with the few I had breakage issues with, by changing my sharpener I was able to greatly reduce my frustration. For a while I had been sharpening with an electric sharpener as it gives more stability and control - basically you just hold the pencil there; then I switched to the T'Gaal manual sharpener. I've since put away all my other sharpeners. There will be a review of this sharpener. (Spoiler - go buy it!)

I have also had one or two instances where the casing has split down the length of the pencil. Again, I expect something like this when you ship wood through dry areas. If you use a piece of thin washi tape and wrap it tightly - but carefully avoid as much overlap as possible - you can stabilize your pencil and still sharpen right through the tape. It may be annoying but in my opinion it is a small price to pay for the quality of pigment.

If you get a set and there are a significant percentage that are damage, split or broken then by all means send them back, that only makes sense.

I stamped these images from MFT's "Our Story" with Memento Tuxedo Black ink (out of habit) on 65lb Kraft cardstock by Recollections.

Each object has a minimum of two shades (for the books) and a maximum of four shades (chair and side table) for shading.

Observations:

• If coloured pencils aren't your typical medium they require practice. I normally colour my scenes with Copic markers and my technique for laying down the colour is completely different. With Copics I start with my medium shade, then darkest then lightest. However with pencils I start with my lightest and work to my darkest shades. You have to find what works for you.
• You must use an incredibly light hand. Unless you are working on high-end artist paper with lots of tooth, you have a limited number of layers before you just can't put down any more colour. The pigment in the pencil sticks to the little bumps (tooth) of the paper, once those are smoothed out - there is no more layering.
• Keep your pencils sharp. There is literally nothing worse than trying to colour with a dull pencil. I don't know how I used to do it. I don't know how my kids do it - I can't even look. Find a sharpener that works for you and stick with it. 
• If you are colouring stamped images such as this one, and you like that bold black outline, your multi-liner or pigment pen will not work over this. The wax and the ink aren't friends. They don't like each other and they don't want to play together. Use the black pencil and carefully go over your lines. I used this technique in the example above and you would never know that it wasn't the original stamped lines.
• Pencil colouring takes way longer than colouring with alcohol markers. I'd say this little scene took me about an hour to do. Had this been with Copic markers, I could likely have been done in 10 minutes. Maybe less.
• Do away with the blender pencil (in my opinion). Take the time to learn how to get the blend you are looking for with just the colours that you want to use. I found the blender pencil added an additional waxy bloom to the area with no real benefit. All it did was mash down the tooth of the paper and stop me from adding more layers. I tossed it and forced myself to learn how to blend without it and I'm happier and feel more accomplished for it.
• Pencil colouring is a labour of love. If you are in a hurry or have a lot of copies to get done this may not be the medium to choose at the moment. I don't mass produce cards that are in pencil. They are reserved for close friends and family members.

Overall, I feel Prismacolor Premier pencils have been getting a bad rep for no real reason. Sure there are a few out there that were missed by the quality inspectors but tell me a product that has never had a problem. I can't think of one. For the dozen or so sets and brands of coloured pencil (both wax and oil based) I have, I still reach for my Prismacolors first. 

They layer well, there are an amazing number of colours and they are easily accessible. I haven't come across a wax based pencil with a higher pigment quality, so really the price is not that ridiculous. Shop around. 

There will likely be one or two in the bunch that are damaged, maybe repairable but maybe not, but think about the number of pencils that are being produced. Should there be a tighter watch on the quality of the pencils as they come off the line? Probably, but that can be said of any company with nearly any product. 

Despite the shortcomings and horror stories that you read floating about the internet, these coloured pencils are a fine addition to an artist's craft room. My only regret is not purchasing a larger set when the sale was going on.

I hope you enjoyed today's review, if you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review please leave me a comment in the section below. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss out on any future posts.

Click here to see the card created with this example.

**disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I use, that I find interesting and that I have paid for with my very own money. I am given no incentive, payment or reward for a review. All reviews are based on my experience with the product and are my opinion only.

*reference

Floral Thoughts Series | ft. Prismacolor Watercolour Pencils

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Before I jump into Christmas, I thought I would share a card that has been sitting around my craft room for a while. We're descending rapidly into deep fall, yesterday it was t-shirt weather, today I sent my kids off to school in their winter jackets. That's life on the prairies. I'm sure tomorrow will be nice again, but today I wanted to extend the feeling of summer.

To begin, I stamped this floral image from Hero Arts (I don't remember the name of the stamp) on to 110lb white cardstock using CTMH Archival ink. I then used my Prismacolor watercolour pencils to shade in the areas where I wanted the most shadows and used clean water to pull the colour out.

When using water on regular cardstock - the trick is to make sure it is dry before adding more water. Luckily these pencils are fantastic for laying down layers and they blend so beautifully. If too much water is applied the paper will become gummy and your project will be ruined.

While that was drying I used some shimmering embossing paste through a stencil to create my background panel.

Once both panels were completely dry, I cut the floral image in half and used some super sticky two-way tape to adhere it to the embossed panel. I mounted those to a piece of silver shimmering cardstock from Recollections, leaving only the tiniest border and tied some yellow twine around them.

I then adhered those to the front of a standard A2 sized card base, and to finish it off I added a few enamel dots across the front.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss out on any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Coloured on Kraft | ft. Clearly Besotted "Forever Friends" Gladiolas

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

With all the Halloween and Christmas stuff being posted, I think I'm still longing for the lazy days of summer. The temperature here is still quite warm - which makes me completely not ready to post my winter stuff, and I need to spread out my Halloween posts so that we actually make it to Halloween. LOL.

But it is getting crisp, especially at night and most noticeably in the mornings as we are getting ready for school. Today I want to share the next in my Coloured on Kraft mini series - which to be honest is really turning into a "not-so-mini" series.

Working with Kraft, for me, is all about the warm feelings. There is such a difference between the stark white of my regular cards and the coziness of a Kraft card. This just feels rustic, which reminds me cozy days by the fireplace when it starts to get nippy outside.

To begin, I stamped the Gladiola (I think) from Clearly Besotted's "Forever Friends" using VersaMark ink on 65lb Kraft cardstock. I opted to not use the standard black ink as I find it takes away from the warm florals when working on Kraft.

I then coloured the image in with Prismacolor Premier pencils (review coming, I promise) in shades of yellow. It wasn't until I Googled the actual flower that I discovered that this can be how they really look. I just liked the combination. And really, that's what the art is all about. Do what makes you happy. If you start worrying about what everyone else wants, you'll lose the reason you started in the first place. Stay true to you.

I then stamped the greeting from CTMH's "Sending Smiles" set using Memento Tuxedo Black. I wanted a high contrast between the image and the greeting.

Next I used some orange twine to create a bow, then mounted my Kraft panel to a piece of coordinating yellow cardstock. Then I adhered the whole piece to a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Crafting from the Heart

Challenge #176

Coloured on Kraft Series | ft. Clearly Besotted's "Sunshine & Smiles"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

It occurred to me that I hadn't done a colouring on kraft in a little bit, so I thought today I would do that. I mean we were dangerously close to having a streak of Halloween cards. Like in a row; and while that would be fantastic, I can't put them all out now, there would be nothing left for closer to Halloween. So think of it as like an intermission; the first of many.

To begin, I stamped the floral image from Clearly Besotted's "Sunshine & Smiles" set with VersaMark ink on 65lb Kraft cardstock. I used this particular ink because I didn't want the harsh black ink lines of regular stamping. As we all know, Clearly Besotted is fantastic at keeping their lines thin and crisp, but even still, there is a difference. Maybe I'll show you one day (foreshadowing? Probably.)

Next I stamped the greeting from CTMH's "Sending Smiles" in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Then I coloured in the image using Prismacolor Premier pencils. These are a soft core, wax based pencil that lay down beautifully on nearly any paper. While I have my issues with this particular brand, they remain my favourite of the wax line.

Then, as I went to line the panel up on my standard A2 sized card base I discovered that I didn't line up my stamps at all. These images weren't even a little bit straight. Like I was on a canoe at the time or something. Maybe deep into the cups. I have no idea what happened. Initially I tossed it. Then I was sad about tossing it because I was really pleased with how the colouring had turned out.

So I fished it out, layered it at an angle on a piece of blue cardstock and then adhered it to my card base. Now, no one will ever know that I had messed up, right?

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me over on the right side bar. You can also follow me on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

CAS On Friday Challenge

#116 Color Me Pretty

The Flower Challenge

#12 Tic-Tac-Toe

(Sentiment, CAS, Colour - Blue)

Iris Birthday | ft. Prismacolor Premier Pencils

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a quick card where you can use the same image to create a repeating pattern. I enjoy simple images like this so I can make my own patterns and colour schemes.

To begin, I stamped the iris image (sorry I'm not sure what set this is from, it was at the bottom of the stash) using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb cardstock.

I then coloured all of the flowers in with Prismacolor Premier pencils. I trimmed the bottom down so that the panel could be raised up.

I used a fun washi tape along the bottom of the card base to add some contrast to the card.

Just a quicky today! But still super fun.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me over on the right side bar, if you are viewing this via mobile device, scroll to the bottom and click "View web version" first. You can also follow me over on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge 231

 

Featured member for Challenge #231

Mostly Monochrome Thanks | ft. Lawn Fawn "Love you a Latte"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

Sometimes when the challenges get to be too much (shocking, but it does happen) or I have spent hours working on a product review for an upcoming post, I really like to just play around with my favourite stamp sets. The "Love You a Latte" from Lawn Fawn is by far one of my most loved sets.

I also really like coffee. A lot.

I'm on cup #2. I've been up for just over an hour.

Anyway, today I thought I would share one of those cards that was just a play around and decompress after working on a lengthy DIY (you have to wait until Sunday!)

To begin, I cut down a piece of 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock so that I could use it as a strip across the middle. I then stamped the travel mug from the "Love you a Latte" set with Memento Tuxedo black ink. I wanted it to look like patterned paper.

I then coloured it with Copic markers. I knew this would be on a Kraft background so I wanted the little sleeve to match as closely as I could get it. Once it was coloured in, I felt it was a little bare, so I stamped the coffee bean to fill up some of those white spaces using CTMH Cocoa ink. Then I sent that aside.

I created an A2 sized card base using craft paper, and stamped the large mug in VersaMark ink randomly to get a great tone on tone look. Once again, I used the coffee bean to fill up the space.

Then I adhered the strip to the card base and totally realized I had no greeting. So I cut a piece of vellum using one of my Spellbinder Oval dies and prepped it with my powder tool. I stamped the Thanks from the "Love you a Latte" set with VersaMark ink and embossed with black embossing powder and used tiny little dots of liquid glue to hold that in place.

It then occurred to me that I have these awesome "Lift the Flap" dies, and it would be super fun to give a gift card with this! So I ran the largest of the dies through my die cut machine on a second piece of Kraft cardstock. I then used the little "Life the Flap" saying from the "Push Here" stamp set with the mini arrow, and stamped the mug (same as on the front) using the Lawn Fawn Black Licorice ink with the little steam sentiment "For You".

I coloured the mug in with PrismaColor Premier pencils to add just a splash of colour on the inside since the front is very monochromatic.

To make it so that the flap can be opened and reclosed I used a bit Tombow Mono Multi Glue (green lid) and let it dry. Once this glue dries it becomes repositionable; which is perfect for hiding a gift card!

To get the inside panel to stay inside the card, I used some 1/4" two-way tape to tape around the gift flap opening (wouldn't want to have the flap stuck for real!) and laid it in place.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me over on the right side bar so you don't miss any future posts, if you are viewing this via mobile device, scroll to the bottom and click "View web version" first. You can also follow me over on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.