new paints

Have you walked down the paint aisle at Michael's lately? It looks totally different:


The paint aisle, mid-transformation.

The paints are all located on the lower half of the displays now, which means I will continue my habit of sitting on the floor to pick out colors, which I'm used to doing, anyway. The Ceramcoat line is gone (strange, it's good paint), the Apple Barrel line has been updated, and there is a whole section devoted to craft acrylic products from Martha Stewart.

I felt compelled, as a person who uses a lot of 2 oz. bottles of acrylic paint, to try it out, just as a public service.



There are five types of paint. I purchased one of each, and they all seemed to have good viscosity and opacity (well, the glitter was not opaque, but it's glitter paint, and I'll cover that soon). The photo above shows one coat of each type of paint. The gloss was great - it looked exactly the same wet or dry.

I did notice that some of the available "brighter" satin colors look a bit more muted than the color depicted on the label...it's hard to tell this without opening the paint and taking off the protective seal.

I decided to test the glitter to find out how many coats it would take to cover a surface. The display has a hemisphere of glitter and it seems a bit deceiving, because it's opaque with glitter. As seen below, opacity takes about seven coats of glitter paint.



The caps definitely seem like a higher quality than other paints - they close well, which is important. I am a fan of Apple Barrel and Ceramcoat acrylics, and you can tell the difference between these brands and the Martha Stewart brand below.



The coolest thing so far about this line, besides the extensive range of glitter paints, is that it's truly a whole line of products. There are four colors of chalkboard paint. There are many finishes and special effects products. And there are extensions to the caps, like rollers and daubers and texture tools, among other things.



Final thoughts: they were on sale, so I went back and bought more. Paint is fun!

marker test

i tested a few bins of aging markers while watching the grammys tonight. after making many, many little hearts, squares and circles, over many, many tiny notebook pages, i have determined that:

*pentel markers last forever. i think i have had mine for 17 years.
*mr. sketch markers are not far behind that, and they still smell awesome.
*crayola markers get goopy and crystallized with age. yuck!
*marvy le plume markers weren't consistent in their rates of decay. some were like new, while others were a faded mess. i think that is probably my fault.
*paint markers should have an expiration date.
*my american crafts markers are only a couple of years old, but are faring beautifully.
*i miss gel pens. i used to write with them so much!
*my permapaques are still fantastic, as well. i only threw away one of them tonight, after ten years. also, i am happy that they are still using my patchwork box on permapaque packaging. hooray for sakura!
*big smelly permanent markers tend to stink more with age.
*i have a lot of sharpies.

dear e-6000,

there you are, in the photo above. you hold my rings together so well. krazy-glue isn't even close - krazy-glue will hold for a while, and then fall apart as soon as i accidentally bump my ring into the side of a door. because of this, you have become an indispensable must-have on the craft table. the mirthmarket depends on you.

but why, why, is it such a trial for you to spill out of the tube in one tiny dollop? why can't you form a drop, with an ending, with excess that vanishes right back into the tube? you rebel against this...forming an inevitable sticky, elasticized string which is nearly impossible to remove. and equally disheartening, by the time i have reformed the adhesive area into a manageable heap, you have leaked twice as much glue out of the tip of the container, which i must clean up with the speed of the Concorde, before glue spills out all over the craft table and another stalactite of gelled fumes* emerges.

(if i don't react quickly, the glue sticks to the cap and dries inside the nozzle, which recently led to almost losing a shirt due to the glue exploding out the back of the tube, even though i used a really long needle to try to pry it out of the top. luckily, i know the power of Carbona stain remover, and happened to be wearing a shirt made of cooperative materials, so all is well.)

i know, i know, some recommend only the small bottles of e-6000, and i agree, they are better for avoiding most of the issues listed above. but the little bottles don't seem as cost-effective, so i bought larger ones. lesson learned.

it's just that sometimes i think the label should be changed to this:


*it seems like the fumes are usually the major rant about e-6000, but i rarely even notice them. is that weird?

my favorite supplies - #1

i'm back from the bummer that is strep throat...i've rested and enjoyed some sunshine and a baby shower and a movie. life is nice! i want to talk about wonderful things!

specifically, my favorite art supplies...

today, i am recognizing the amazing and tiny BEST TINY PAINTBRUSH IN THE WORLD...the Loew Cornell 18/0 Spotter. this tiny tiny thing...I can't even describe how small the tip is...paints entire trees on rings that are less than one inch wide.
seriously, here is the paintbrush tip compared to a dime:and yet, if you take care of these brushes, which are something like three to four dollars each, and you don't leave their wooden handles sitting in icky paint water overnight*, these paintbrushes stay intact, and offer weekends full of easy to control, fine, beautiful lines...lovely signatures...teeny tiny dots...itsy bitsy hearts...miniscule branches...
i used to frequent a charming paint-your-own-pottery studio, which has changed hands so much over the years that it makes me a bit sad, although it's still fun whenever i go...which is rare...it has been two years since i've been there, i think. anyway, the first owner considered me a regular to the point where he started buying tiny brushes and keeping them in his collection because he knew i'd want to use them. that was a good business tactic...i used to go almost once a weekend.

i really like working small-scale. these are the brushes that make it possible.

also, i ordered the fluffiest, most naptastic pillow from meg at whatever. she has one of the best blogs on the planet - i think you will enjoy it. the link will take you there. go.




*i have done this. bad idea.