In the package:

• 3 packs of Jstory Index Fun Tab Stickers – Rabbit (you wouldn’t believe how many people I’ve gotten addicted to these things)
• 10 colour pack of Dong-A Miffy Scented Gel Ink pens
• Deep Red and Lavender Purple Dong-A Miffy Scented Gel Ink pens
• Apricot Orange Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.4mm gel pen

I’ll get the review of the Dong-A scented gel ink pens up soon enough. For now, I’ll just say I wish they came in a 0.4mm nib and I’m in love with both the lavender purple and deep red colours.

I also like that the company is promoting Sharpie art and providing lots of new colours to that end. There’s just one BIG problem: they don’t put the name of the marker colour on the Sharpie or even on the packaging.

Back in the dark ages when Sharpies were primarily used for labeling and such and only came in the typical 4 colours (black, blue, green, and red), not having the colours stamped on the markers didn’t much matter.

But it’s a pain the backside when they start putting out colours with names like “argyle green” or “tangerine” or “boysenberry” and leaving us to guess how much more or less green an argyle is or orange a tangerine is or how a boysenberry looks rendered in ink.

Bic understands that such funkily named coloured markers need to be labeled. Hell, NewellRubbermaid (Sharpie’s parent company) even labels its Prismacolor art markers…so why not the Sharpies?

No self-respecting person should have to resort to ghetto-fabulous colour labeling…

Yes, that’s masking tape:

You’ll note the question mark after the word “boysenberry” because, since I was basing it on the ridiculous colour splotches that they have up on the website, I can’t be sure whether or not the colour really is boysenberry.

To whomever may be listening in the Sharpie-verse: it’s time to redesign your packaging.

Even if you don’t, I’ll still like and use Sharpies, but I (and possibly many others) will also still be annoyed every time I come across a colour that I’ll (probably) never know the specific name of.

Sigh.

With a bit more searching I saw many tips, techniques, and tutorials for making your own glimmer sprays. A lot of the tutorials used metallic liquid acrylic paint—the kind you can usually pick up for about $1-2 each at Wal-Mart or craft stores—and water. Some used the paint and alcohol. I knew I had to try them out.

First, I went to local Wal-Mart and picked up a bunch of 2oz. travel-sized spray bottles ($.97 each) and a large bottle of isopropyl alcohol (aka rubbing alcohol) and a couple bottles of metallic liquid acrylic paint.

After much experimenting I came up with a recipe that I absolutely adore using a 3:1 ratio of alcohol to water. It’s quick drying (about 10 seconds/5 with a dryer) and doesn’t buckle the paper as badly as straight water. Plus, I’ve found something even better than liquid acrylic paint: acrylic ink. Specifically, FW Pearlescent Liquid Acrylic Ink by Daler-Rowney (which I already had in my art trove).

The acrylic ink ($4-6 per bottle) is more expensive than the acrylic paint, however, you can get away with using a very small amount, so a single bottle of ink will let you create many many bottles of glimmer mist. And you get a beautiful diffuse mist that results in a lovely lightly coloured sheen.

(I used two colours: Silver Moss up top and Birdwing Copper below. Sorry my photos suck.)

Here’s the recipe:

• 5-10 drops of pearlescent acrylic ink (adjust for colour saturation preference)
• 0.25 oz of water (about 1/8th of the bottle)
• 1.5 oz of isopropyl alcohol (a bit more than half the bottle)

Please note: You do NOT need to use any glue or adhesives if you use the pearlescent ink or metallic paint.

Combine all the above in the travel-sized spray bottle, put the spray nozzle back on, and gently swirl the mixture around. Your glimmer mist is ready to go. Test it and add more ink if the colour isn’t bold enough for you. In between uses, the ink may settle at the bottom—just give it a good swirl and it’s ready to use again.

(BTW, this recipe can also be used to make alcohol inks—just swap the acrylic ink for india ink and double the amount of ink used.)

Now a few cautions:

• The alcohol can be quite strong, so if you’re using a lot of glimmer spray, make sure it’s in a well ventilated area;
• The glitter (the stuff that gives the mist its glimmer) will readily rub off on your fingers, hands, clothing, hair, whatever, so when you’re finished make sure to seal the project (I use a clear acrylic sealer—you can even continue painting over it afterward);
• This should go without saying, but I’ll say it just in case: Your glimmer spray is inflammable, so don’t use near open flames.

Even with my love of the acrylic ink recipe, there’s still a place for using the acrylic paint when you want a bolder colour. And this is a random tip if you do decide to make your glimmer spray using metallic paint instead of ink: Make sure you don’t use too much paint in the mixture. It’s the reason some mixtures will be more of a stream when sprayed rather than a light mist.

While going through boxes and cleaning off bookshelves, I realized that I have a lot of journals. Yeah, I know I have a lot of journals, but I really have a lot of journals. And most of them are blank.This made me reevaluate some of my goals, especially where journaling is concerned.

When I was younger I was pretty good at keeping a regular journal, marking down important life events and exploring my feelings and so forth. As I got older, however, and more busy, those ruminations become fewer and further between.

Since I enjoy journal and need an outlet, I’ve been exploring different forms of journaling. And I think I’ve found one I can live with (at least, for now): Art Journaling. It’s all about expressing yourself through images and words. The best part is there really aren’t any rules.

In the coming weeks and months I’m hoping to find a solid groove—a balance between my artistic style and freedom of emotional expression—and maybe I’ll even start sharing some of these pages here on the blog. (Right now I’ve barely gotten a couple pages gesso-ed, much less completed.)

I saw these pens when I went into Staples the other day and couldn’t resist. They were colourful and used the words “Extra Bold” on the packaging.

Plus, I’ve used the Staedtler Triplus Fineliner series of pens with success in the past. I figured I couldn’t go wrong with these. Unfortunately, these pens were somewhat of a letdown.

First, I didn’t much care for the grip or its location. I like the pens which allow me to grip close to the nib, and these did not. Plus, the (I assume, ergonomic) grooves were oddly placed and too narrow; maybe someone with small hands wouldn’t have a problem.

Next, the pen has issues both with posting the cap and recapping the pen. When posted, the cap wobbles and although it’s secured, it feels like it might fall off. Then recapping the pen can be a pain in the butt because it’s not actually recapped until you hear the click and getting to the click requires a bit of patience and strength…of course, the grip gets in the way.

But those detriments could be overlooked if the ink quality and flow were above par. Unfortunately, not the case. The pens need to be started on a scrap piece of paper, and as far as flow goes, sometimes the ink wants to flow too much, leaving splotches, and sometimes it wants to flow too little, stopping completely. Those splotches tend to be visible on the other side of the paper, and at worst, completely bleed through (especially black).

As far as the colours go, the black is nice and deep, and so is the blue. Surprisingly, I loved the richness of the red (I tend to like few red pens). I never much cared for teals, so I’m ambivalent about it here and I wish the green were a bit darker. Purple was bright without being overly bright. My main problems were with the orange and pink (which should be clear from the writing sample above)—both of those colors seemed washed out and far too pale.

The line thickness is nowhere near as bold as the packaging would have you believe. For me, it’s only slightly thicker than the line a medium point (0.7-0.8mm) pen would produce.

But these pens aren’t completely worthless. I had fun doodling with them, so they’d make great journaling and block writing pens.

Except I used good old fashioned garden twine for my thread rather than braided plastic. Here’s the result:

I can’t wait to make another one!

Why would someone need a template for journaling? Okay, maybe it’s not that odd because some people do need prompts — what happened today and how did it make you feel? — to get going, but I wonder if those prompts are taking some of the organic creativity out of journaling. There were no places for doodling or gluing snippets from a great magazine article or anything like that.

Hmm, maybe I should create my own journal template for nurturing organic creativity. It would still contain the prompts — hello dear, tell me about your day – but it would go a step further by asking for images, clippings, music, or anything else that made that day what it was.

(This is a perfect example of me thinking out loud.)

Comb through each page of your journal and each time you come to one of these epiphanies (better known as life lessons), write it down on a sheet of paper. Get into the essence of that life lesson and note any patterns you find. If you continue coming across a particular lesson over and over again, then maybe you should be closer attention to it, because you continue repeating the same mistakes.

When your collection of epiphanies is complete, you’ll have an easy reference chart that you can use on a daily basis. Read through it often and see whether you’re about to start repeating mistakes which will lead to one of the life lessons you were supposed to have already learned.

Like anything else, journaling needs to be kept in moderation and perspective. It should never become a chore or a job or a task that needs to be completed. Journaling is about releasing and balance. When it becomes more than that, your journal is no longer being a good friend and it’s time to take a break.

In time, if it’s meant to be, you will be drawn back to your journal.

Though, I’m still trying to figure out what all the fuss is about, I do thoroughly enjoy the paper. The page color is very forgiving on the eyes, the texture is smooth enough that a pen can glide without hindrance, but there is just enough grip to it to maintain ink control. Very nice, indeed.

In a few days, I’ll probably be in love with Moleskine, but for the time being, it’s all about learning the hacks. Some of the ones I’ve found actually look interesting.