Product Reviews

A little while ago, the kind folk over at Chalkola sent me some of their chalk markers to play with, and life has been so busy recently that it has taken me a while to share this post with you guys.

When I used to work in a craft shop, paint pens were a big thing, and they were so popular. This was really before the chalkboard craze took off, so I imagine these days chalky paint pens are even more popular. The first thing I noticed about these pens was the range of colours – how fun! There were a range of sizes and in the pack there are even 6 skinny ones which have a gorgeous metallic sheen.

These pens are really designed to work on slick surface – so I decided they would work great on glass! I picked up a frame at a local hardware store and fancied it up using some scrapbook paper and stamped images from the adorable Lil’ Painters stamp set from Mama Elephant.

This was a quick projectso I turned on the video camera and took a little video so I could share this with you. I am so in love with the final result, and I have already made an extensive list of Things To Do on my home-made dry erase board. Although so far, Princess Pi has come into the craft room twice, erased my list and left messages of love on there instead! But how can a mumma complain about that, huh?

You will see from the video that the pens work brilliantly. They are smooth, easy to use and give a great result. After about a minute the ink is dry on the surface and won’t budge – until you use a wet wipe to remove the ink. The best thing about them is definitely the fact that they don’t smell bad. So many times paint products can be smelly and they can give me a sore head – but not these guys.

Because I had these pens to hand, I also used them as a project for Piper’s birthday party. I bought some blank wooden doorhangers from eBay, and the kids had a blast using the markers to draw on them. Technically the pens are made for smooth surfaces, but the pens are robust enough that the wooden surface didn’t damage the nibs or anything. It was a great way to get great coverage, in a wide selection of colours. Of course, because the wood is absorbent, the ink wont wipe off the wood – but I didn’t want it to wipe off anyway.

A huge thank you to the folks over at Chalkola, and they are so generous that they are offering a discount code for Hungry Heffy Crafts viewers. Isn’t that sweet!
To take advantage of the discount code, simply use the discount code 15OFFSTR over on amazon or the Chalkola website.

Happy Crafting, Friends!

Hello my sweet friends!

For Christmas, hubby ordered me a Marvy Uchida Snow Marker – but unfortunately it didn’t arrive on time! Lucky for me, this means that I got a surprise crafty gift! YAY! But of course, the holiday season is over now, and I am not much in the mood for snow on my projects… at least not at the moment. So I had a think about how else I could use this funky product, and I decided it could also be used to look a little like frosting!

So I grabbed my apron and started making sugar cookies! Well… paper versions at least! LOL

I used the large heart stamp from the Beautiful Life stamp set, and I stamped a few hearts with tan coloured ink –  I used distress inks in Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Frayed Burlap. Next I used the Snow Marker to add some frosting – on most I simply added some dots, but on one I added a whole layer of frosting. When you heat this with your heat gun, the magic truly happens, as the ink expands and turns into a foamy texture, just like liquid appliqué or puffy paint.

Once my cookies had cooled, I stamped them with some sprinkles using some of the confetti stamps in the same Beautiful Life stamp set -this time I used two tones of pink dye ink from Simon Says Stamp. After a few minutes, I dabbed on some multi medium matte with my fingertip, and sprinkled my cookies with some of the Honey Bee Stamps Ice Chip glitter! OHHHHH ….it looks so gooooood! It really is a fabulous substitute for sugar! Teehee! I left these to dry whilst I worked on the rest of my card.

Although the ice chips glitter is really beautiful, I have found out the hard way that they can be rather sharp! They almost look like tiny shards of plastic – so I didn’t want any curious kittens reaching out and touching the cookies incase of potential ouchies! So I decided to add a fun transparent panel to my card so my cookies were vacuum sealed for optimal freshness! <3 I used a scalloped rectangle die, and using the partial die cutting technique, I manipulated exactly where I wanted the die to cut. This way I was able to cut a sweet narrow panel in two pieces of cardstock, which would form the front panel of my card.

First I stuck a piece of acute on the inside of the front of my card, then I assembled the cookies back to back using glue dots. Before sticking another layer of acetate on top, I sprinkled some pink and clear sequins inside from the poinsettia sequin mix.

I then only had to add a few strips of pattered paper to the front of my card, some washi tape over the fold, and then stamped the word Hello from the Hello Gorgeous set onto the front using Simon Says Stamp Hollyhock pink ink. Once this was dry, I white heat embossed the words ‘My Sweet’ from the same stamp set, and used a pink pen to drawn in a slight shadow.

Thank you for joining me today, my sweet friends! And if you are anything like me, you are seriously craving a sugar cookie right now! 😀

Have fun crafting!

Lesley