Category Archives: Let’s Talk

Let’s Talk Schmincke Horadam Swatching and Review

Posted in Let's Talk, Review, Schmincke, Uncategorized by

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven’t been around I was crazy ill and am just no starting to feel normal again. On top of it all I dropped my mic that I use for voice overs and can not record any of those till I can pick up a new one.

What that means is I have finally filmed a swatching and light review of my 48 half pan set of Schmincke Watercolours. These are expensive paints they sell for $327 USD at Dick Blicks online store.

I researched and saved my pennies for almost two years in order to pick these up, stamps and things had to be purchased too so it took me a while, and when I had the money there were a few reasons why I picked these. Schmicke watercolours have been around since 1881 that is well over 100 years, and are still owned by the Schmicke and Horadam families. There are 110 colours in the professional series of paints, 69 of them are single pigment colours, they are all available as half pans, full pans, 5ml tubes, and 15ml tubes.

Schmincke is the only watercolour manufacturer that uses the same formula in their tubes and pans (most other companies extrude their paints for their pans), they pour their paint into the pan in small incraments, it takes 3-4 pours in order to fill the pan, allowing it to dry in between pours. This means it takes quite along time (3 to 5 months) in order to make a single pan of colour but the paint is consistent with the tubes all the time.

Schmicke swatches.jpg

I will have more light reviews coming up in the near future, I do have some Daniel Smith Colours and am slowly building that collection. For a person who is just doing cardmaking this is not a necessity to have by any means, but I do LOVE it and use it all the time.

Thanks for stopping by,
hugz,
Jess

Let’s Talk Inktense

Posted in Derwent Inktense, Let's Talk by

Derwent Inktense pencils are a water soluble pencil, that dry permanent. These pencils are an amazing creation, the ability to add the colour onto the paper in pencil form, touch it with water and create this lovely vibrant paint, and then when its dry being able to glaze over these colours without having to worry about making mud is truly a great thing! Note, the pencils must be completely dissolved by the water for them to dry permanent.

inktense pencils

As a cardmaker I love what I can pull of with these pencils, being able to create depth in the folds of clothing, adding backgrounds with different colours. I just really love being able to layer colours without having to worry about mud, just make sure to let them completely dry before adding a different colour.

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This image is from Mo’s Digital Pencil – Angelina’s Balloons

The pencils allow you to be able to get a sharp point for adding the colour exactly where you want it on these small stamped images, also being able to lift the colour directly off the pencil to apply, I use both techniques as I have the full range in pencils but only the 24 range in the blocks. If I ever get my hands on the full range of the blocks I will use the pencils for colouring on the paper and the blocks for applying the colour by the brush.

I would not recommend these as your first dive into watercolour as you do not have the ability to lift colours, or move them around a bit after they are dry like you can with traditional watercolour. We will talk about those a little more another day.

Thanks for stopping by,

Hugz,

Jess

Let’s Talk Kraftin’ Kimmie New Clear Stamps

Posted in Kraftin Kimmie Stamps, Let's Talk, Review, Uncategorized by

Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps now sells clear stamps. I am not talking the cheap acrylic $1.50 (I live in canada) Michaels stamps you buy. I am talking high quality photo-polymer clear stamps.

kks clear

Aren’t they just wonderful! You can see through them, no more having to buy mounting foam or taping them to a block (on that note if you want any of the rubber stamps Kimmie has produced over all these years, grab them while you can, as they are no longer in production and are ALL being retired!) That is why it is so awesome that these stamps work so well!

These photo-polymer stamps are such great quality! I can not emphasize that enough, they are nice and solid, not flimsy and rubbery. Which is great for stamping, you do not have to worry about squishing out these stamps and ending up with funny lines that are too thick in places because the actual stamp compressed too much.

When you first get these stamps there is a little bit you should do to them to get them seasoned, so that you don’t have to worry about how they will stamp. There are many different ways people get their photo-polymer stamps ready to use.

Personally I wipe my stamps with a damp rag (a cloth rag with just water on it) this will remove any slick residue from the stamp that may be left over from manufacturing. After that I sand them, now don’t get crazy here. I am a painter (residential and commercial by trade) we have sanding blocks, they are a foam block with sand paper wrapped around it basically, I use an old one that is no longer good for work, I wash all the dust off of it and then lightly rub my stamp with it to scuff up the stamp and allow the ink to stick to the stamp better (I do this with all of my stamps including rubber I personally find it gives me a way crisper image)

Other people rub the surface of their stamp with an eraser to prep, I have also seen people use Ranger archival black ink and stamp off with it till no more ink comes off the stamp in order to season it. Rubbing on jeans is something else I have heard people doing. Again, do what works for you! They are your stamps and it is your crafting.

With clear stamps, for any of you that have used rubber in cling, or wood mounted form know that something is missing with these stamps, and it is the layer of foam for cushion. When I stamp I stamp on top of a piece of craft foam, that adds that added cushion you are missing when you stamp with these stamps, you can also use an old mouse pad. I understand that companies are out to make money, but seriously do not waste you money on these “magic stamping pads” or “stampers secret weapons”. Take that extra money and buy more stamps (an extra Kraftin’ Kimmie set by chance).

The only time I actually clean my stamps is when I use Stazon, and that is because it is an alcohol based ink and it will eventually eat your stamp and could ruin it. When I use stazon ink I clean my stamps with the Stazon cleaner and then wipe them with a baby wipe. Otherwise my stamps get stamped off on scratch paper and are lucky if they get wiped with a baby wipe or a wet rag.

You will find the greatest bonus is these stamps is the ability to make sure you stamp your sentiment exactly where you want it without the use of something like a stamp positioner or guessing where it will go. It will also come in great handy when you are using multiple images together because you can see see exactly where you are going to be stamping! looking right through the block and the stamp knowing precisely where you are going to stamp is a wonderful feeling!

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Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps – Snow Days

You will not be disappointed in the new direction Kraftin’ Kimmie has gone! It’s the same great images it always has been and now they are in a great new format!

This review has not been sponsored, the clear stamps I own from Kraftin’ Kimmie stamps have been purchased by me. If you would like to see more reviews of things like this consider becoming a patreon.

Thanks for stopping by,

Hugz,

Jess

Let’s Talk Coloured Pencils

Posted in Let's Talk, Luminance, Polychromos, Prisma Color Pencils by

*First things first this review comes from a cardmaker (crafter)*

I personally, at this time, own two brands of pencils complete sets, and have a couple of pencils from a third brand I will touch on these at the end.

Prismacolor Priemer Pencils 

prismacolor-150

Prismacolors are probably the most commonly known pencil brand, they are readily available in online stores, as well as locally. Prismacolour pencils are available in sets as well as in open stock (individual pencils, so you can replace the pencils as you need without needing to purchase an entire new set). In terms of artist grade coloured pencils these are at the lower end of the cost spectrum.

These pencils are wax based and have a very soft lead, unfortunately due to the way they are currently manufactured the leads have been knows to fall out of their wood casings, and to be not centered causing breakage during sharpening. The lack of adhesion to the casings cause the leads in these pencils to break at the slightest bump of the pencil. Sharpening can be difficult causing pencils to be eaten faster due to leads breaking during sharpening.

Wax based pencils cause “wax bloom”, which is when your work gets a milky white haze on the surface of your work when you use lots of heavy layers with your pencils work. Waxy pencils layer easier and tend to have more brilliant colours. The white and cream in prismacolours are fantastic and fairly opaque with the wax and softness of these pencils!

To remove wax bloom you can wipe your work with a soft cloth, just make sure do wipe it lightly as using lots of pressure with the rag could remove some colours or if you have not brushed off all of the loose pigment could cause your image to look blurred by rubbing that loose pigment into the paper that has not been coloured.

To prevent wax bloom you can purchase a coloured pencil fixative, and use it in light coats between layers on your work.

Wax pencils also tend to leave loose pigment behind because they are such a soft pencil and break apart so easily, make sure to brush your work off using a soft brush or canned air so as not to make marks on your work with that loose pigment.

Faber-Castell Polychromos

polychromos pencils

Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils are an oil based pencil (soy bean). There are 120 different colours in this brand, again they are available in sets as well open stock. These pencils are not as common as the Primacolors but they are still easily accessible in online stores.

With these pencils being oil based they react especially well to Oderless Mineral Spirits for blending, I tend to do this for my base layer just to get the colour nice and smooth to start, they do blend well with just layering the pencils, but being as they are oil based and are a harder lead take your time and let the light layers do their work. The bonus in these harder leads is that these pencils hold their point a lot longer then the softer wax based pencils. The white and cream in this collection is not nearly as opaque as the wax based pencils and they tend to be more translucent. But the black is amazing! Oh the black!

Just because I am referring to these as oil based with a harder lead do not let that fool you, they still feel soft and lay down their colour wonderfully, but the hard lead makes those details easy to achieve without constant sharpening.

These do have a fair sticker price on them! They are on the more expensive then the Prismacolors, but, considering how much pencil I lose do u breakage of my Primacolors I find that they cost me about the same in the long run.

You will not experience “wax bloom” with these pencils as they are oil based! There is also not as much loose pigment floating around my page with these pencils.

I find these pencils play nicer layering over my copics then the Prismacolors, this could be because there is no wax laying on top of my alcohol markers.

Caran D’ache Luminance 

Luminance doos

These pencils basically the top of the line wax based coloured pencils. Their price tag could make you fall over. Currently I only own white and buff titanium in this range. But I absolutely love them! They are still the soft pencils with the smooth consistency you expect from a wax based pencil. But they do not break as much or fall out of their casing and all of those issues me, and many others, experience with the Prismacolors.

I can not speak from personal experience about working with this range on its own, as stated above, I do not have them all. Yet. But the two colours I own are absolutely magnificent. They are so opaque and play well with my Polychromos.

Many artists that use these pencils exclusively say that the “wax bloom” is not there with these pencils like it is with Prismacolors. I will test this for myself if I ever get a larger range of these pencils.

Thanks for stopping by,

Hugz,

Jess