Colored Pencils review

I will be posting more reviews and projects on a more regular basis later on in April. Hope you will stop back and visit me often.

So many colored pencils out there, how to choose? Hopefully I can save you some time and crafting dollars by being the Guinea pig here. I tested the Prismacolors, Derwent Inktense, Lyra, and EK Success ones today. My favorites were the Prismacolors and Lyra, they went onto the paper so smoothly with a soft creamy feel that I loved. I used Whisper White thick card stock to try these out, I found this to be my favorite for alcohol markers and general coloring.

The Derwent were nice but not as creamy, they seem to be a bit more waxy and shiny for my personal taste. I'll most likely use these when I travel, if I lose them or leave them behind I won't be as sad. (Have to always have a portable craft, right?) 
The EK Success were really not great, you have to go over and over it to get decent color and they left shreds of pigment on the paper. They kind of put the suck in Success.

I would recommend just buying a couple of Prismacolor pencils to start. They sell them separately in most large craft stores. Maybe some greens to practice leaves with, you can always use these colors! I know it's tempting to buy whole sets of things as it is usually less expensive this way. Test first if you can, it's not a bargain if you're not going to use it or are always on the hunt for something that works a little better for you.
The Lyras are lovely too, I'll be on the lookout for some deals on them while I am in Germany.
Happy coloring, y'all!

Great Glasses, Batman!

There was an unusual challenge today over at Splitcoast to use glasses/sight images of any kind for your project and I had the perfect stamp for it! This large eyeglasses stamp is an older one by JudiKins that I have had for a long time and had never used yet. Didn't quite know what to do with it.
I used Stampin' Up!'s heavy Whisper White card stock which is great for extra stability and coloring with alcohol ink markers. I used a doodle flower stamp set from Sizzix (don't know the name of it but it came with a bunch of sentiments, some flowers and a set of frame dies). You could easily doodle your own flowers, these look pretty basic. I added some extra little circles with my Micron fine tip marker pen. The sentiment is from Our Daily Bread and is called Missing You, which is the sentiment I stamped on the inside of the card.