Experiments and Eye Candy

Greetings from Freezing Florida!

Last night (whine) it was 35 degrees! We are huddling together to maintain body warmth. LOL. I don't know how people live in frigid temperatures all the time!

On to serious stuff! I've been dabbling in colored pencils on fabric to accentuate my applique. Got the idea from Sandra Leichner and it's been a blast "playing with my crayons". I thought it'd be smart to make a chart of different techniques and how they affect the color. So, here is my chart, drawn on white Kona fabric with the results: (you can click to enlarge)

Each row compares three Derwent Inktense pencil colors with three similar colors from Faber-Castall watercolor pencils.

The first row is just straight coloring of the pencil on fabric.
The second row is wetting a paintbrush and collecting color off the pencil. The triangle is a shape I made to see if the colors bled outside painted lines.
The last two rows are straight coloring on fabric followed by Marvey Blender Pen Le Plume (which I got at Michael's Craft Store)  in row three and the Prismacolor blender in row four.

My impressions:

• Forget the Prismacolor blender. Didn't work. I probably didn't use it correctly.
• Love the wet paintbrush colors, but they bleed outside desired area
• The Marvey Blender pen is a keeper. Rich, deep colors and didn't bleed.

There you have it folks! Straight from the lab!

Now for some eye candy. These came in the mail:

Two 3.5" Dovo scissors (one for paper, one for fabric) and a set of Roxanne's applique needles and #11 sharps needles. Just wait until DH gets the bill!

Have a warm evening!

Melanie