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Ruined my Stuff, Waste of Money. DO NOT BUY THESE unless you want them to be permanent. They ruined my chalk board wall, and a magnetic metal board my grandma got me for Christmas. I called customer service, and they told me to use alcohol, which made it worse. Then the guy pretty much said they'd refund me for the markers, and hoped I could resolve the issues myself. If I had seen the warning hidden at the bottom of the description about porous surfaces, I wouldn't have used them on my wall, but since on the first page it says, "Can be used on any surface", I didn't look much further. But it does say you can use it on metal, and that's just not true. I'm going to attach some pics and toss the markers. Don't waste your money. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Didn't work for me. The airbrush worked well enough the first few times I used it. Even though I cleaned it thoroughly after every use, it became clogged during the fifth or sixth session. I disassembled the unit and cleaned all the parts individually, but I was unable to unclog it. Thinking that the needle was to blame, I purchased a replacement needle from the manufacturer. But even after I installed the new needle, the airbrush still would not aerosolize any fluid (paint or water) from the color cup.
Add to this the fact that the airbrush is extremely difficult to reassemble, because it contains some incredibly small parts (the lever guide and trigger) that must be maneuvered into position inside the unit - a maddening task.
I regret buying this product and certainly would not recommend it. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
High quality nylon brushes that won't shed. This is an excellent set of Nylon brushes which are perfect for a professional or novice painter. I needed more detail brushes to add to my paintbrush collection and these have worked out perfectly. I'm able to add fine details to my paintings. The best part is that they do not "shed" like other paintbrushes. If you have been painting for any amount of time you know that the shedding can ruin an otherwise perfect piece of art.
The long wooden handles are ergonomically correct and comfortable to use. The long handles allow for better control while painting. The nylon bristles clean up well with just water to be stored for the next use.
You get 9 brushes in different sizes with this set in sizes 2-16.
I love this brushes and would recommend them to others.
I got these for free in exchange for providing my honest thoughts and opinions in this review. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great set of brushes. I received this brush set yesterday. It came packaged nicely in a sturdy box. The brushes themselves were protected with end caps and wrapped in plastic. I was happy with the care taken with this aspect of the purchase because I have received brushes in the past with no protection. I was somewhat concerned about this purchase as I saw a negative review before I received them. I'm a little puzzled by this negative review. It occurs to me that this purchaser may not have known to rinse out the gum arabic that is in the brushes for shipment. The brushes need to be soaked for a while to remove this glue-like mixture. All of the nice brushes I have purchased over the years come with this in them. Once that is removed fully, the brushes are ready to use. These brushes are soft and limp like a squirrel brush should be. If you want snap, this isn't the best choice, but if you want a squirrel brush that will hold LOADS of water, this is a great deal for a set of three. I compared these brushes with other synthetic squirrel quill brushes that I had in my supplies. To compare, I used plain water and Kraft paper to see how much water they would hold. You can see my notes in the photo. The large #5 brush held so much water it could wet an entire letter size page with 17 full rows (8" across) of moisture. The medium #3 brush wet 6" of the sheet and covered 11 rows. The smallest brush, a #1 covered 4.5" of paper and had 9 rows. I compared these with a Princeton Neptune Round 12 and an Icon #2 and got substantially less coverage with them. The brush that was most closely comparable was my Davinci Casaneo brushes. The #2 quill covered 6 rows and 3", and #4 quill covered a bit more. These are without a doubt the wettest brushes in my arsenal. The handles are varnished for protection. The handles are a 1/2" shorter than the Davinci. After removing the gum arabic, I lost 2 hairs from the smallest brush, none from medium and none from large. This is well within normal range. All in all, I couldn't be happier with my purchase. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great starter set. I decided to resume a hobby I had dropped decades ago--sketching & drawing. Of course, that meant I really needed more than your standard #2 pencil and eraser, since I had been pretty serious about it all those years ago. I'm also old enough to realize that poor tools make any hobby less-than-fun, so I wanted decent tools without spending an inordinate amount of money.
Amazon came through--the day I started shopping for a sketching kit, they had this one on a lightning sale, with a substantial discount too. It came as fast as usual with Amazon Prime, and I had this in my hot little hands long before the holidays. Now, I can spend the day pretending to be a serious artist with my pencils and erasers and charcoal. I have additional sketching/drawing tools, as these aren't all-you-need (I bought smudgers, paper, watercolor pencils, and color pencils separately) but this was a good set of starter pencils and erasers, and the charcoal was a bonus.
While professional artists may not be thrilled with this set (I'm not one) I find it perfect for someone who has had numerous college level drawing classes in the past and is resuming an old hobby. It would be a great set for teen artists to start with as well. (Most of the younger set are just as happy with a decent eraser and #2 pencils, along with an ample supply of paper and coloring pencils). It's a great gift as well. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
martin gallery artist 72-piece soft pastel set. these are chalky and definitely create alot of dust pile up. then i take the dust while its still on the paper and use my fingers to swirl it around even more, making sure as much as possible gets pushed into the paper. since these are so dusty, i wouldnt use them for details. but they are great for large background areas and large areas to be filled in with color.
when using chalky pastels, remember, you can still see the paper underneath the color you put down.
in my opinion, these are very dusty and still alot of waste, but,every product has its qualities about them. im not sure about their lightfastness or fading? i did not read the pamphlet that came with the package.
for artwork, i first use pastel pencils by mungyo and those are lightfast, and then the background i put the martin pastels. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great Product Overall, Definitely Recommend. Found out that there wasn't a more detailed review on this product and thought I might write one for one to use as reference.
I will start by saying that don't expect the packing of this product to be exactly like the picture. Mine came in a normal plastic bag much like the one in the picture but without the fancy drawing on top. It not a big deal really. Just thought that I might point that out.
With that said, here is the review of the product.
There isn't anything really special about this paper, considering it is machine made. It is a standard 6x4 grid paper and it comes with 100 sheets of paper, which is more than enough for the occasional hobbyist.
I would say that I couldn't really complain about the quality because it feels and looks the same as other papers I've used and the price of this makes it a bang for you buck.
I would also like to say that since this would be a great practice tool for the beginner and novice alike. Since it isn't made as traditional calligraphy paper is made, the amount of ink it soaks up will be substantially less. Less as in a good way. With tradition paper, the amount of ink you use has to be just right or else the ink will spread almost immediately after the word is written, turning it into a blob of mess. There isn't that much of a problem with this product though.
Also, it should be noted that since calligraphy paper is extremely fragile, some of the paper might be ripped or curled up when you receive the package. Mine arrived not in the best state, with about ten pieces of paper not intact. However, I feel like they are still usable so I have decided against returning it.
Last of all, I would like to recommend another great product for practice http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004G7HV5K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have also written a review for it. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Provided a list of colors. Love these pencils! They work wonderful as other reviews have remarked. Buyer should know that they may not get the same colors as others do there are more than 24 colors available however you will only get 24 in a pack. I have bought several packs and never get exactly the same colors. I do have many duplicates but keep looking for different colors.
Here are some of the colors you may get:
703 Blue
704 Brown
705 red
706 purple
707 green
708 Orange
709 White
710 pink
711 lemon yellow
712 light blue
713 yellow
714 light green
715 black
716 heliotrope, purple pink
717 yellow ochre
718 Carmine, Rosy pink
719 terra cotta
720 light Brown
721 teal
725 cobalt blue
739 straw- flesh tone
755 Spring Lake, light teal green
760 Gray
761 sea green
762 olive green
763 Prussian Blue
764 Brown ochre
767 Vermillion, red orange
768 sepia
769 light olive
770 French blue
771 brick red
775 lavender
If you have different colors I have not listed please let me know. I am trying to make a chart of these. Unfortunately they don't sell these individually or in larger groups. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Stick with Rit Dye for cotton--this isn't good. Really, really bad. I have used Rit Dye for lots of fabrics of all types, but I bought this special one for rayon/nylong for my outdoor patio cushions since that is the material they are. They were already a khaki color that had faded, so I decided on brown. They were so blotchy and messy and awful looking when they came out that I am so upset I spent the time and the effort of taking the covers off, buying this, dying it, etc... because now I just have to buy new cushions. I can't dye them again--there is no way something could cover up the horrible blotchy-ness of these cushion covers. Don't buy it. I always recommend the regular Rit Dye for cotton--it has served me well. But this? Nope. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Small palette, but did the trick for me. This palette is SMALL. If you're looking for a standard sized palette, this is not it. I've seen many reviews complaining about this, and they aren't lying. This palette is barely bigger than a hand with outstretched fingers, it will not go over your wrist or forearm, it's strictly a hand held type of lightweight palette. I found it perfect for what I needed it for, because I needed it to fit into a shoebox sized polymer clay kit for painting my clay bits. It has plenty of wells to stick paint in and an adequate amount of space to mix a few colors.
This would be great for small projects or something for kids to use because a regular large palette might be too hard to manage with tiny hands. It's sturdier plastic than I imagined it would be, which is a plus, and has been relatively easy to clean after use. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Purple is Misidentified as Blue On This Wheel. I've been looking for a CMY color wheel for years. However, there are two fundamental problems with this printed color wheel:
1: The blue depicted on the color wheel is purple.
2: The naming conventions are inconsistent. To the left of Cyan is Blue Cyan. To Cyan's right is Green Cyan. That's logical. But, to the right of Magenta the wheel identifies a color as "Violet" instead of "Blue Magenta."
The science of the wheel is also wrong. It identifies CYB as "primary." They aren't primary. This is a secondary color wheel which places the emphasis on the secondary colors because they make a wider color gamut in printing than primary colors do. But, using secondary colors doesn't magically transform them into primary colors!
As is, I can't use this color wheel for the simple fact that it has no true blue printed on it. Hopefully, my photo demonstrates this problem. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Tips and Suggestions Before Your Purchase Of The Cameo. I am someone with a Graphic Design background and the fact that I did not know this machine existed until six months ago is truly shocking. I stumbled upon the Silhouette Cameo when researching how to make stickers for my Erin Condren planner. After some research I knew I just had to have this and my boyfriend purchased the starter kit for me off Amazon for Christmas.
I am BEYOND THRILLED with this machine and how many things it can do. So far I have used it to make scrapbook paper cut outs and signs for a celebration of life, to make favor boxes, to make a holder for my sketch pens and so much more.
That being said, DO YOUR RESEARCH before you pick which starter bundle to buy. In my excitement about this machine I just randomly picked a starter bundle and sent the link to my boyfriend. Hindsight 20/20, I wish I had really taken my time to comb through the dozens of starter bundles to pick the one that really had the items that I wanted with it.
The things I have used the most so far:
-Metallic Sketch Pens (These are amazing)
-The small spatula tool (You will absolutely need this, without a doubt)
-The extra cutting mat (I actually wish for larger projects that I had more than 2 so I could multi task better)
-Extra blades (You will need them, I promise)
I received the vinyl starter kit with my bundle but honestly I am so overwhelmed with just learning how to use the machine that vinyl is not even on my radar right now. I think I could have waited to purchase that later. I also have the marker holders, the sticker paper, and some stuff for making cards, all of which has not been touched yet.
Another tip for those designers out there, I bought this machine with the intention to immediately purchase Adobe Illustrator Connect because of my design background. I am so happy that I held off purchasing it and saved my $40. There are so many designs in the design store that are just $.99, my time is worth something and taking the time to design things myself that already exist seems kind of pointless. I suggest waiting on the connect software until you really dig into the Silhouette Studio software and all it can do. I was expecting that after using Adobe products for half my life that I would laugh at whatever "studio" Silhouette has to offer and I haven't, it is actually pretty impressive.
Overall this machine is the greatest gift I have ever received. I have already talked two of my designer friends into buying a Silhouette Cameo as well! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
SPECIAL GIFT FOR MY SISTER. My only sibling--15yrs older than I am--was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. At first the doctor told her there was nothing really wrong with the mammogram and not to worry. After the biopsy the panic and fear set-in as it was much worse than expected. CANCER, that tricky evil had touched my beloved older sister. I live more than a thousand miles away with a disabled husband and it's not an easy thing to leave him and go to her. I wondered...how could I make her laugh, really laugh, from so far away? Then I saw this magnet on a car at the grocery store.
When I was little and couldn't pronounce my sister's name I called her "TaTa" so this was The Perfect Gift for my sister. It made us both laugh and cemented our hearts together again. A REALLY SPECIAL GIFT! Thank you. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
I don't recommend this brand. I bought FolkArt chalk paint in Sheepskin from Joann's. It was a terrible experience. I noticed red/orange and sometimes blue streaks every once in a while in my project. I actually found a 1/4 inch piece of a orange chunk in my brush that looked like a softened crayon. I have stirred and stirred but can't get it to mix properly. I applied wax after letting it dry over night and as you can see by the photo it lifted 3 coats of paint leaving jagged edges and wood showing through. I know how to chalk paint and have never gotten this type of result from any other paint. Now I have to start all over. I should have just bought Annie Sloan. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Lovely for the price. This is a rather nice brush for the price. The Princeton Neptune line is the best full synthetic squirrel line of watercolor brushes I've tried so far. The hairs hold paint and water well and don't dump as much as cheaper brushes do allowing paint to be applied fairly evenly. The handle size is good along with the overall weight of the brush. No hairs have fallen out so far and it keeps it shape well. Though I found this size 18 brush to be the same size as a size 24 round from master's touch (bought at hobby lobby). On another note this type of synthetic squirrel hairs do not have as much snap as cheaper non squirrel synthetic hair brushes do which some have complained about this mostly has to do with how soft the hairs are, personally I don't have an issue with it. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Awesome Product. I bought a different light box first that was a little cheaper and came with the stand and a few other bonus items but it was to thin and easily scratched. It would often bend a little here or there while I was drawing or coloring and I found it annoying!
I bought this one and it is amazing! The power cord never falls out which was another issue I had. It is pretty think which means it weighs a little more then the thinner ones but it doesn't ever bend while Im drawing or coloring which is a huge deal to me! It also seems a bit more scratch resistant then the one I had before not that I am tough on them or using an x-acto knife over them or anything like that but just from daily use. It is bright enough to see through 2 or 3 pieces of 140 lb water color paper depending on how much light is in the room you are using it in at the time.
I also like that the rulers on the side are in inches not centimeters which was the other thing I didn't like about my old one.
I would recommend this one because of the quality over the slightly cheaper thinner ones. So unless the slightly extra weight is just that big of a deal to you this one is totally worth the price!!! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
1/3 great, 1/3 good, and 1/3 poor quality. If I could, I'd rate these 3.5 stars, not just 3. About 1/3 of these pencils work like a dream, 1/3 are good quality, and the other 1/3 are hard to work with and of pretty low quality. The pencils that work great are AMAZING. But the others were disappointing. For the price I'm enjoying this set, because there are quite a lot of colors to use, even if there are colors that I won't be using. But it looks like there are some quality control issues, if so many others gave it 5 stars. Or maybe I just got an old/somewhat defective set. I say go for it for the price, but don't expect all the pencils to work in a consistent way. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great on a green chalkboard. These are really nice chalk markers. I feel like I have been testing out various brands to find the best. This brand is a close race with the Bistro brand. I really do like the chisel tip. The tip can be turned around for a chisel or a round tip. It didn't take very long to get the markers started. One push down on the tip, then shake for about 20 seconds, push down several times to get the liquid to fill the tip and the marker was ready to start. I use a green chalk board at school (I am a teacher) and write the students homework on it daily. I normally stick with a brighter color like yellow, pink or orange. I have attached a picture to show how those colors show up on a green board. I haven't tried it on other surfaces yet. I really like the vibrant colors. I will definitely buy these again. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Good Size Budget Sketch Pad. For the price, these are okay, but they are not super high quality. The book has a totally different cover (mine are black with horses) than the photos and the cover clearly states it is a Drawing book. Spiral bound on the side and the pages are not perforated or easy tear, so trimming would be necessary for any pages you remove.
Pen and certain inks may be fine on this paper but, as others have stated, the pages are awfully thin for much else. Even with pen the other side of the paper is not usable as it would show through.
Again, for the price I paid I am not sad about this 9"x12" drawing book, but if you want something nicer for your sketches, it might not be a bad idea to spend a bit more to get a bit better quality. It was really a fair price for this budget sketch book. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Sticker Maker a lot of fun to use. I had a lot of fun with the Xyron Disposable/Recyclable Sticker Maker. I had a bunch of cigar boxes I wanted to decorate and this is a great idea if you have kids and don't want to deal with too much glue. Any flat (or embossed) thing up to 3 inches wide goes in one side and comes out the other.
I noticed the teeth for cutting the cellophane took a little getting used to. Also, if you put something in upside down, there is just about no way to remove the glue. It seems to be a one-sided glue also, so rubbing it from the cellophane on to something else was a bust. I think this would be great also for scrap-bookers because there is no cutting involved, you just peel the items from a paper backing and stick them where you want them. (They are not repositionable--just saying.)
Over all, I love the Sticker Maker. It would thrill me even more to find out they made refills for this. I haven't come to the end of mine yet, but think it would be great to take on trips, in the car or for the babysitter who likes to have crafts with kids. Of course it's great for adults too and clean up is easy. Toss the extra papers and you're done. I'm looking into more products from this group myself! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Works perfect for drafting my projects. I found this table to be just right for an architecture student on a budget, like we all are I'm sure! Set up was not bad at all, about 30-40 minutes. I'm 6' and the height of the table seems to fit well which I was thrilled about! I looked at glass tops before finding this one because I really like the glass look but was worried about the paper (transparent as it is) that I use being too transparent with blueish glass as the background, so I chose this one and picked the white top with the thought being that I need to think of how this is going to effect my drafting paper in the foreground, not the look of design. Well, I was surprised after setting this one up. I love it! I have not gotten a chance to break this baby in yet, but have sat and fiddled around on it some and am really happy with my purchase. It was in my price range, has storage and tilts 0-30 degrees. The only cons I really think are the two storage compartments. As mentioned in other reviews as being questionable is true. They could be built better, but do work fine for now, just put together carefully. The only other con is the table top. It has some texture to it when drafting on thin paper. The pencil kinda goes in a very small zigzag pattern when drawing. I will probably purchase a piece of white construction paper to fix this minor problem. Overall, the table seems to be built well, does not wobble when drawing and looks good. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Served a purpose, but not as expected. The first thing that you should know if you are contemplating a purchase of this item is that it is NOT a paint by number kit. Fortunately, I had purchased the kit for a refresher in mixing oil colors, and so the drawing on canvas was acceptable for my use. I did miss having a large colored drawing sufficient to allow me to color match easily, and the drawing suffered somewhat because of it, but I used a downloaded picture that sufficed to a degree.
I found the product acceptable, I just either didn't investigate the description sufficiently, or was misled by the description. Anyway, doesn't matter to me now, and this is a heads up for you. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Good kit for beginners or travel. I was really torn between leaving 3 and four stars it mainly lost the star because I dropped the brush from a short distance and it somehow bent the point that connects the airbrush to the tubing that goes to the compressor rendering it useless also the directions were poor quality. Before I damaged my airbrush it was of average quality for a beginner but I would recommend something nicer for intermediate and advanced users, it never did clog on me which was nice. Now as for the the compressor itself I love it I am able to use it with my temptu airbrush when traveling which saves me a ton of money and space it works great has not overheated on me at all is a bit noisy but that is to be expected when running a compressor. overall the airbrush met my expectations and the compressor exceeded my expectations. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Very satisfied. After reading the reviews on these pastels, I wonder if some of them weren't for some other pastels.
Some of the reviews stated these pastels were a hard substance and not very blendable. I found just the opposite to be true. I found these quite soft and very able to blend.
I work quite a bit with oil pastels and am always trying out new products.
I found these to be well worth the price. They are just as good as some others that I paid more for. The colors are rich, apply nicely, and blend quite well.
Here's a tip for those who might have trouble blending the pastels. Try using gamsol or even a little thinner that might be used in oil painting. Just be careful not to use too much. You'll find blending is very easy with some practice. Also, I find that putting down a coat of gesso, makes the application of the pastels much easier and they look better.
So the price is right and the quality is just fine.
I highly recommend this product for the thrifty artist. There are higher quality oil pastels, but you'll pay quite a bit more for them. Enjoy! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Good to start and discover of you like water coloring, then move on. If you're starting with watercolors, these are really great to try.
But, I've had these for nearly a year, and I've discovered watercolor to be my favorite medium, and as I have grown as an artist, I feel as if my paints are having a hard time keeping up.
A few of the colors are great, a lot are just okay, abut some, like the brown, and black are so chalky and almost look like there are little granulated something in the paint.
I read in a great watercolor book that you should always start buying and stay with artist/professional grade watercolors paints. I read that book after buying Reeves, so I may have not bought these.
But, for student grade watercolors, I think these are great. They are great to discover the land of watercolors.
And although I have not tried other student grade watercolors, like Koi and Cotman, which people seem to love, especially Koi, this is cheap than them both and seems to do a fair job.
I just bought Holbein watercolors on Amazon, I have yet to try them, but they receive rave reviews, are professional grade, and I think they will be able to keep up with me more as I progress as an artist.
There will probably be a few colors of Reeves that I will continue to use
I purchased Reeves after seeing Mandy Wang (lovemandywang is her facebook I believe) used them and seemed to really like them. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great brushes but plastic coating cracked after one day of usage. I loved these brushes. They had a nice feel when you held them and the quality of the brush hairs were the best I've used. They are definitely affordable and have all the brush tips you need (flats, rounds, filbert, etc). I typically use long brush for acrylic, and the brush held moisture and paint very well. Although I loved these brushes,I did have to return them because the plastic coating started cracking over one day use. It really was a shame, but I can not stand feeling the soaked wood underneath the plastic of the handle; And from there on I know they will continue to crack off. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Perfect tabletop light-pad for artists. I needed a light-up board or table that I could afford to help with my artwork. I found this and figured what the heck, let's give it a shot. I did, and I love it.
One, it's ridiculously easy to use. Plug in the USB cable, press the power button for a couple seconds, and you're good to go. It lights up bright without being painfully so, and it seems pretty well built. In fact you could probably use it for a portable drawing pad as long as you treat it well.
Also, and I don't know if this's intended, but the thing generates a mild static charge which helps paper stick to it. Not 'glued to it' levels, but enough to help paper stay in place if the boards tilted.
Here's a few pro tips to get the most out of it.
1) Ditch the included micro USB for one with a right-angle plug. Otherwise the plug sticks straight out and can be a royal pain in the rear. Get a right angle plug however, and problem solved.
2) If you're worried about the cord breaking off, you can use black tape, like electrical tape or duct tape, to hold it in place. Just be sure you want to make it a permanent addition, because the black parts aren't plastic, they're painted on. If your tape's too sticky, you'll pull the paint off (Which I discovered the hard way. My fault, not a product flaw)
3) The non-battery model isn't portable... unless you get a battery pack like you'd use to charge a cellphone. Make it one with a 5v output and presto, you're good to go.
The only complaint I have about it's a mild one. The back part doesn't have rubberized feet to hold it in place. It's not a problem for me, I'm setting it on my computer desk and leaning it from the keyboard shelf to the actual desk so I can use it at an angle. For people with an actual art table however, you might wanna invest in some stick-on rubber feet like you'd find at a hobby crafting shop or something. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Lots of cutting and gluing is needed. Cottage Cutz sells an amazing variety of decorative dies. This particular example, Autumn Centerpiece yields 18 pieces of paper, and you are going to have to run the die through your die-cutting machine three times in order to cut three candles.
This Cottage Cutz die comes with a thin piece of sticky-backed foam that you fit over the die face. That's all the preparation that is necessary to use the die. I cut this die with my Sizzix Grand Calibur machine, and used a metal shim to get a clean cut. You will be doing quite a bit of gluing with your 54 bits of paper (remember, you need to run the die through your machine 3 times). It is quite a bit of fuss, but the end result is very nice. Please see customer image for an example of an A2 (5.5" x 4.25") Thanksgiving greeting card that was made with this die. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
LOVE LOVE LOVE THESE. I just recently discovered liquid chalk markers. I have no clue why I didn't know about these before. I do crafts and I have kids. I am not sure how these have eluded me. I wanted these after I saw a mom post that she used these to leave messages to her children on their mirrors. I thought that sounded like a great idea. So I have probably been driving my family nuts leaving notes all over the mirrors in the house. I love having a reminder note in my boys' bathroom about how long to brush their teeth.
These markers are super easy to use. These work like a paint pen. To "prime" the pen, hold the marker with the tip down and press onto a piece of paper until the tip fills with ink. It's that simple. If it stops writing as well, then press again on paper with the tip to let it fill with ink again. They write very nice, thick dark colors. These colors are very bright and you get a nice variety. You can be as creative as you like with these and encourage children to encourage each other with these. They are also very easy to wipe off when you are ready to change your message. I use a wet paper towel to wipe them off.
Product purchased at a reduced price in exchange for my evaluation and honest, unbiased review. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Used to make wedding favors. I used these to make wedding favors for my daughter's beach wedding. This is the first time I've ever etched glass, and I was very pleased with how easy it was. These stencils multiple times were used multiple times. I didn't experience any seeping under the stencil, but I did rub them down firmly. The only complaint I have is that the dolphin stencil tore (the nose and tail are very close the edge and didn't withstand my not-so-gentle handling.) On the plus side, my husband ordered a second set (along with the other sea set) so we were able to get a variety of etchings. I would definitely order again. I think I have a new favorite hobby! Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year ... | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Low quality paints. I do not like to call myself an artist, but I have been painting for several years now. I was in a pinch, low funds and low paint so I ordered these for a total price of 5.00. I opened the blue, because that was the color that I badly needed, and when I punctured the top of the tube and began to squeeze some blue paint out, nothing but the mixing agent came out and it went everywhere. I even tried to shake the tube up (which I have never had to do with other paints) and it just kept pouring out the mixing agent. Finally, after half of the tube was empty, blue paint started coming out. Alone, the paint does not go far but mixed with higher quality paints it actually turns out quite beautiful. I suppose it is like a guitarist, a true guitarist can play no matter how bad the guitar or strings are, a true painter can paint no matter how bad the paint or brushes are. Namaste. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
This machine (Awesome. I cannot give an actual review on how awesome it will be, I ordered the silhouette and many extras with it, the machine came as expected, I have watched hours of videos on all the different things this thing can do.
I hooked it up and typed out some words, sent it to the cutter and was amazed at how well it cut, I thought well, time for some vinyl, I made a wall decal and sent it to the cutter after all adjustments, the machine would not do anything right again, the thing would not load. then all hell broke loose.
it started doing things all on its own, it loaded and unloaded by itself, started cutting when nothing was there. after that the screen would only read pause. I called support, went through the motions, they said they have never had one right out of the box do anything like that, gave me a return order # and off it went, all within 3 hours of opening the box, $28 shipping later and up to a 3 week wait after they receive the machine back, its been a week in route, they should receive it today 3/5/15. so when I receive it back in 3 weeks and start using it I will give an actual review.
I'm not disappointed yet, lemons are going to happen on anything.
Update:
My replacement arrived ahead of schedule. Hooked it up and repeated the same projects to see how it preformed. It works like a charm, cut a vinyl wall stencil out of dollar store contact paper. Stencils out of copy paper and used it to silk screen on shirts. Used it with and without the mat. Did everything you could ask for. Will definitely recommend the silhouette cameo. You couldn't ask for anything easier, importing any pic and using the tools to do anything you could imagine. I make my own cutting mats out of cutting sheets from the dollar store, 2 per pack. Just draw the corner lines in the same amount from the outside and spray with releasable adhesive and let dry a few minutes. Cheap and easy. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Good Compressor but airbrush is a junk. Bought this on last March from TCPglobal (worst support service ever, go buy from another seller), the airbrush came with the trigger broken and is clear that is a cheap material they did with the only objective of sell the parts for 1/3 of the total value of the complete airbrush. Compressor works fine.
AGAIN BUY FROM ANOTHER SELLER TCPglobal ships fast but DONT HAVE ANY SUPPORT, THEY DONT ANSWER EMAILS AND PHONE.
PLEASE BUY FROM CHINA IF POSSIBLE BUT NOT FROM THIS SELLER.
AIRBRUSH IS A BIG TRASH DON'T WASTE YOU MONEY WITH TCPglobal they don't value costumers and don't honor the warranty.
I will buy another airbrush from someplace more serious.
I'm DONE WITH TCP Global. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Much improved gun sights. I am pleased with the kit. I was pleasantly surprised that the kit includes a vial of thinner for thinning the paints as they dry out, and to clean up your paint brush. The included paint brush is junk. I wish it included a fine tipped art paint brush, but it is one of those little plastic ones with a wide blunt tip. I bought a set of these, and they are awesome: <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Heartybay-10Pieces-Round-Pointed-Tip-Nylon-Hair-Brush-Set-Blue/dp/B00V4EG6D6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Heartybay 10Pieces Round Pointed Tip Nylon Hair Brush Set, Blue</a>. The sites on my Ruger LCP were almost non-existent little black bumps. Now they are very rapidly acquired. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Lovely set of features, with poor instructions and several design problems. This digital cutter boasts the capacity to cut both paper and fabric, and also work with your sewing machine to transmit directions for stitching fabric cut-outs into applique. The machine is impressive-looking, but once I unpacked it, I discovered several surprises.
First of all, the set up is a bit clunky and slow, and the manual is utterly inadequate. The directions are almost non-existent. By accessing the Artistic Edge's website, and more particularly their YouTube videos, I was able to begin using it. Of course, no one thought to include the URLs for any of their "official" websites in the manual!
The description of this cutter emphasize that it is useful for both paper crafts and fabric crafts, but the directions in the manual as well as the Janome videos, focus on fabric and provide almost no information on paper cutting. Furthermore, most of the directions rely on experimentation rather than specific instructions, particularly on blade depth. My paper sample initially did not cut out sufficiently so, following the directions, I slightly increased the blade depth, which resulted in cutting a scar in the mat! The mat is, unfortunately, not self-healing. That was disappointing. Further, it would have been nice to place some usage information on the machine itself, such as the chart of blade depths and which mat to use, or provide a small laminated card. Otherwise, you need to consult the manual or attach such a chart yourself.
There are some features that would make this machine easier to use. One is to have a built-in storage area for the accessories. They took the time to make the USB cord a sparkly silver, but there is nowhere to keep the spare blades. It would have been nice if there was a little storage shelf on the side of the machine, or even a little Janome bag or box to keep them in. As it is, there are ballpoint ink cartridges, pen holder, blades (in a tube), the blade holder and its tube, and two hexagonal wrenches (not listed in the contents section). It also encourages the use of, but does not include, a scraping tool. At the price of this cutter, it would have been nice to throw that in. It doesn't appear that this is sold on Amazon, and it's not clear where to buy replacement blades or pen cartridges, or any other parts you may need after use.
The adhesive mats are actually sticky, which means that they should be kept in their original packaging (a shiny paper overlay and thin plastic envelope). Neither seems very durable, and this is of concern for the durability of the mats' adhesive.
My machine emits a high-pitched electric whine when on, which I find mildly annoying.
I have a safety concern for the cutting blades. The manual warns the user to be very careful, but then instructs the user to take the cap off and insert the non-cutting surface into the hole of the blade cutter. It is rather hard to do so without touching the blade. Aside from the safety issue, the only obvious difference between them is the color of their cap. Obviously, the caps could become mixed up, and a marking on the blade itself would have been much smarter.
There is a light inside the machine that is very bright and helpful. It isn't clear to me how long it will last or how to buy a replacement.
Additionally, before buying, be sure you have room for this machine. It is approximately 26 inches long. That happens to be longer than the width of any table I have in my crafting area, so be sure you'll be able to dedicate sufficient space to it when you use it.
The machine, therefore, strikes me as problematic in its actual usage.
I received this for review in the Vine program. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great paints, packaging could use better work. I am giving this five stars mostly because of the colours themselves, not so much the way they are packaged.
I love the small white case it comes in, it's about the size of an altoids tin so it's great for on the go watercolouring. However, I was greatly disappointed in the way the colours are packaged inside (aside from my green being noticeably smaller). There is a cheap plastic holder for the colours and the brush, taking up most of the tin. For compact traveling, this felt like a huge waste of space, so what I did was I bought empty half pans and transferred the paints to the half pans, and tossed out the cheap plastic. It immediately gave my tin a bunch of space, to add in more pans (currently I have three mid sized pans, and six half pans, for a total of 9), put in a waterbrush/brushes, pencil, a sponge, paper towels, and a small piece of plastic with the swatches and for mixing. I have included of my new setup. So while the case right off the bat isn't as portable as I'd like it to be, it's definitely customizable.
As far as the colours themselves, I LOVE them. I have tried several watercolour brands and I LOVE love love these. The colours pick up so easily, they lay on the paper super smooth, and they remain fairly moist because of the honey. I bought this along with a Windsor Newton cotman set, and this just blows the W&N out of the water. The colours are super vibrant, layer easily, and have a wide range of depth to them. I see many people complain about the lack of vibrancy at first, but where Sennelier shines the best is in it's layering/glazing abilities. Layer the paints over and over and you'll begin to see the depth and details that these can achieve.
My test for how much value these colours can get is to do a monochromatic piece, which I did using my favourite colour in the set; Payne's Grey. I was absolutely impressed with how much I was able to push a single colour, and this continues to be my favourite watercolour brand yet. This set is great introduction to these paints, especially before splurging on a bigger set like I later did. This is still my go to set because of the compact shape, and the vibrancy of the colours.
EDIT: I see many people complaining about the mix of pigments in these colour choices. It's my biggest pet peeve, when people complain about nothing being "pure pigment". If everything was pure and exact, then there would not be variety in paints and in art itself. I have found that I can get a huge range of colors from the original 8 included with the set. Personally, I would not recommend these to beginners, and it's also not good for teaching basic color theory. It would be well for advanced color theory, but not for beginners who don't understand why these paints are a mix of paints or why they behave the way they do.
Even after using dozens of other watercolors (including the "top" brands), I still come back to my sennelier set, which I have expanded to 30ish colors, because I just love the creaminess and layer-ability, which is great for portraits that need that translucent feel to the skin and hair.
In the end, these are not for everybody. I have met far too many people who bash on these too much, all for the same stupid reason of "these aren't pure pigment", the way people bash on the mijello golds. If you are looking to try something new, try a new color palette setup, or overall just give these an open minded try, then this might be what you're looking for. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Not what I expected. Had I read the entire description of this product I probablly would NOT have bought it, was not at all what I was expecting. With "branding iron" in the name I expected it to be metal not a chunk of carbon. The image looks very nice and all, however I am almost afraid to use to for fear it might crack or I might drop it and break it. I am sure once I try it, it will work fine, if I can get it hot enough have tried a couple times and the little torch I am using isn't doing the job. Might want to make it very clear what the product is made of instead of having it the last line in the description. Will update if my opinion changes once I use it. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Perfect for tracing patterns without the hassle of carbon paper. I love this tracing wheel. It really is as pointy as others I have seen that look like they have needle point spikes. I get a very deep clear dotted line that I can use to easily trace in my grainlines or to cut along. This is the only serrated edge tracing wheel that I have seen that lets you guide your tracing by holding it close to the wheel. All of the others I have seen have a wooden handle far on the end of a metal rod, so you are holding it far away from the wheel. I think that I have better control over exactly where the wheel is going because I have my grip very close to the wheel. It is also smaller than the others and easily fits in my sewing box. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Good, but not great. I get these every so often as a present from my grandmother. There's several different options with it, of course, but the BEST products in here are definitely the oil pastels and watercolors. I say that because the colors for the watercolors are hard to make yourself and the wide variety allows for great mixability with other tube varieties. The oil pastels are also a very different texture from normal. While they tend to be a bit more waxlike, when you heat them up a bit (in your hands or via another method) they can be used like a normal one. They mix well and are much lighter than the normal heaviness of "good" oil pastels.
The pencils usually break. A lot. I have never had a set where an entire pencil was fine and didn't break. What's worse is that the pencils take a long time to get to a point and are usually much shorter by that time.
The short of it: don't waste your money on this unless you have the patience for the "low" quality of the materials inside. There's several other places that offer cheap, student-grade oil pastels, watercolors, colored pencils, etc. in sets that would be more cost effective in the long run. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Good solid brushes. Recommend. Well-constructed, nice brushes! I foresee myself going through a lot of these, so I'll probably be buying these again. I've been using them for about a week, and they're holding together quite well, despite the fact that I am not gentle with my brushes, and these get scrubbed more vigorously than most when it's time to clean them.
That said, my experience is with the 1" and 2" brushes in this package. The 3" one is a little bit too big to use easily at this point (my wax cans aren't wide enough to dip it into), but I'm confident that that will change in the future. I would like to see about getting smaller ones now, too, though, since these are working out so well. I don't think hakes come much smaller, though, so I may be hunting for an equivalent for a while!
Good solid brushes. Recommend! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Casual watercolor painters...here's the paper you've been looking for. Decent AND affordable watercolor paper is hard to come by. Some of the best watercolor paper is above $20 dollars for a small amount of sheets. If you want satisfactory watercolor paper, but you don't want to spend a lot of money for it, Strathmore Cold Press paper is the perfect match for you. While it WILL buckle on you if you use a lot of water, taping the paper down to a hard surface is very helpful to help alleviate that. The paper itself has some tooth (feels rough), and colors mix well while painting. I am a beginner watercolor painter and I have attached a picture that I painted on this paper. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Fantastic Customer Service Horrible Product. I purchased this item a few weeks ago and spent about 20 hours with it before giving up and sending it back.
Before you hit the buy button here please do go to their website and look at the tutorial videos available. There are a few you can watch prior to purchasing the machine and 20 or so you can watch after registering your product. I have used Photoshop and Illustrator for nearly 10 years and none of my experience with drawing or editing programs left me prepared for their software. Words simply cannot describe how terribly bad this software is. And unfortunately there is no workaround. You may THINK there is a work around because it says you can import other file types but trust me getting your average bitmap file into .svg then into their proprietary extension is not a straightforward process. Also please note that only after spending an additional 99$ for the upgraded software can you then import .svg. The option shows up on the standard software but does not function.
Their official forums are full of helpful people that will tells you all the workarounds for getting your machine to actually work and the customer service is amazingly good. For instance the pen adapter ships with a plastic screw that 9 times out of 10 does not work. All I had to do was email the customer server rep once and they posted me a replacement metal screw. Great customer service but really I'd rather not NEED customer service at all especially if they know they are shipping a faulty product. Oh and yes, about the pen adapter if you are thinking of using this to draw, the Pazzels version does not hold anything thicker than a ball point pen so no sharpies allowed even the fine tip ones, or for that matter any other of the 10 or so brands of markers I tried.
I could go on and on. Watch the tutorial videos, read some reviews by some people that did not drink the pazzel cool-aid. The product does not function as advertized, the library of images is a joke, and the software is so bad that even simply typing words requires an instructional video.
Buyers beware. After all is said and done you will have spent 500$+ on an item that has cheaper better alternatives. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great cards, great value, great quality. These cards are great. I'm the type of person that likes to write a little something personal inside a greeting card and often find the pre-written ones do not convey exactly what I want to say. If you have the penchant for being wordy, these blanks cards are for you. The stock is quite heavy and sturdy, the colors are vibrant and the array of styles are quite nice. Each card comes with it's own envelope and the box they come in is sturdy enough to maintain the lot while you use them. For the price, you simply can't beat it, coming in at .20 cents a card. Even at the dollar store where you can get two (flimsy) cards for only a $1, it's still costing you more. Plus, you don't have to leave your house to run to a store at the last minute when you've forgotten to pick up a birthday card! I will definitely purchase these cards again when I run out. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Oil Painting Set. This is what I got to read before choosing this item for review as a Vine member:
>>The Darice Studio 71, 27 Piece Oil Painting Set, is a comprehensive set of art supplies that is ideal for the beginner, student or artist. This set features a variety of supplies needed to create an oil painted masterpiece.<<
I was able to receive a larger set of Darice professional art Set as well as this one. While the larger set implied that it was comprehensive, This smaller set contained more items that I would have thought should have been included in the larger set as well. The wooden boxes that these sets come in are really more like wood looking objects. To my husband who works constantly with real wood, he thought they were made of hard cardboard with a thin wood looking paper veneer. The construction quality is very poor. Items are supposedly held in place by thin plastic inserts, but if you don't hold the box a certain way as you open it, the tubes of paint all fall out since the plastic doesn't hold them very well. The entire set was made in China. There are no instructions for anything nor are their any ingredient lists for the acrylics and the oil medium that is liquid in a plastic bottle. Since the kit won't tell you, I will: Keep out of reach of Children!
What is in the kit:
-16 12 ml tubes of acrylic paint (4 each of two colors and 8 other colors including lamp black and titanium white)
-2 40 ml tubes of titanium white and lamp black. Not sure why they included a 12 ml tube of them as well, why not 2 more colors?
-1 wooden palette
-3 long brushes with flat heads in increasing sizes from about 1/16", 1/8" and 3/8" wide. The bristles on three of the brushes are stuck together like someone spilled glue on them. Is that the kind of brushes you would use with oil paints? I would think not.
-1 black sketching pencil
-1 small palette knife
-1 bottle 25 ml oil medium. What does one do with this?
-1 palette cup with lid
For someone who wants to learn oil painting, the paints themselves might be a good deal to start with, but undoubtedly you would need to get better brushes before starting and double check with another artist or a good art instruction book on how to use the paints, how to clean up etc. I'm not sure that there is enough paint for one masterpiece unless it was a small one. I've never used oil paints like this before, so I will give them credit that they might be passable paints. I do want to try using them when I have the right supplies, like a canvas and the right brushes. This definitely is not a set that any professional would want to use. It reeks of being a low quality set.
This review is almost identical to what I said about the acrylic set and the professional set. I wouldn't buy these as gifts nor am I convinced that the paints are of a decent quality. Since I didn't get decent brushes in three different sets, falling apart 'wooden' boxes, nor any instructions about the use of these items, I haven't been able to yet try them out, but what I tried out of the larger professional set (which included the same type paints), was that everything was of the lowest quality. It would seem better to let a beginner have a couple decent paints and brushes to start with than an 'all in one kit' that will drive them to frustration and making them think that the problem with the painting is them, not the lousy quality products. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
lovely pen - not for photos. I won't give this product a bad review since it's actually a very good product. It writes great.. on paper! I guess I'd misunderstood a few blog reviews when I was looking up these pens for use on photos. I like to scrapbook and write directly on my photos occasionally. These pens didn't end up drying, even over night. I ended up rubbing the writing off of my photos (yes, like a dry erase pen!) and found another pen to use directly on my photos that dried immediately and was still scrapbook worthy (American Crafts Slick Writer). But these pens are still good for journaling so I still like them. Hope this helped someone because I had no idea these pens would rub right off a photo (1hr from Target) when I used a tissue. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
BEST PRODUCT ON THE MARKET. This machine is amazing!!!! I am an avid Cricut user and waited in suspense for this new machine to come out. I could not be happier with it. The projects you can do with this are ENDLESS! The design is sleek and clean and it is now a piece that stays out on my desk and does not get put away because it doesn't create a cluttered, bulky look. It also comes with the best travel case with handles so you can take it on the go with you. It's the little details that Cricut nailed with this machine that I appreciate so much as well as the rest of the amazing features it has. I'll be taking this machine to my sister's next week so we can both "project" together. I could never say enough good about it and I'm just getting started. It's worth every penny! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Flows nice through my airbrush. Flows nice through my airbrush, as with all paints some colors are thicker/thinner then others.
Coverage is great, nice selection of colors I find it to be a great set doesn't matter if your a beginner or a seasoned pro it's a great set to have in the arsenal.
The Ghost tints are by far my favorite out of the entire set with some experimentation you can get some amazing effects with them.
The metallic colors are not great they do work well as a base for some of the better ones available elsewhere and used in conjunction with the ghost tints offer up some interesting effects.
Overall I am extremely satisfied with my purchase. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Very well constructed. I ordered 10 of these cute little easels and was pleased at how well they are constructed. I love the little wood peg at the top securing the three pieces of wood. I have two other small easels, a tiny bit larger, which have a small nail but they're not easy to open. I have several miniature paintings of various sizes that I've been working on and they fit nicely but unlike my other two easels, these don't have anything to prevent the paintings from slipping off the front of the little ledge. I decided to glue some square wooden toothpicks, tips removed, and they work perfectly. They're almost the same color as the easels which are a bit lighter than pictured. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Fantastic. Crayola Art Studio is an excellent product. I purchased it based upon the reviews I read on Amazon. A qualified practising artist of traditional media I have for some time been exploring the creative process digitally and so am well aquainted with the potential of other such programmes - Painter, Photoshop etc. Crayola Art Studio is just amazing. Offering a wide selction of brushes, and media - acrylic, tempera, watercolour, pencil, felt marker, oil pastel, crayon, spray paint, charcoal and chalk. My six year old has found both the tool box and tool bar easy to understand and utilise. There are a great selection of image Stamps to include in and enhance paintings/drawings. There is an undo facility which when tried out undid fifty steps - though it may do more. My daughter loves this programme. I would recommend to any parent considering buying their child an introduction to the digital world, Crayola Art Studio. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
BEWARE! The caps come off the barrels, and company ignores the problem!! I do NOT recommend. BEWARE!! I got a full set of Spectrum Noir pens about a month ago to add to my other brands. And guess what....so far, 2/3rds of what I've used have caps that do NOT pull off...and instead, the entire cap to the barrel pulls off with the cap to the tip.
And it doesn't matter how many ways I try to remove the cap...off comes the cap WITH the part that seals the barrel. The first picture shows you what happens.
And for some, I have to forcibly use the edge of an xacto knife to pull open from the other. Second photo.
I even wrote the makers about this...to be ignored. NOT pleased that a barrel problem this bad would be ignored. And turns out others are reporting the same in groups. AVOID. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Only okay. I was not particularly impressed with these. I did not find them to make as crisp a line as the other brand I usually get (Prang & Prismacolor). I'm not sure how colored pencils are made, but it seems like the lead may be harder than the other brands or maybe just don't contain as much pigment... because if I press harder, I do not get as rich or vibrant of a result. Overall they were alright pencils though. If you want a large variety of colors, these are suitable. I did find it odd that colors like a yellow orange were absent, while there would be three pinks or blues _very_ close in color. The colors are described by a number only and have no name to go along with them, so good luck deciding which is a true blue, for example.
I'd give the pencils a solid three stars for being average imo. However, the way they came packaged was a bummer and makes me consider giving these a two star review. I know packaging shouldn't really be a part of the item review, however, I had issue with it _twice_ & it negatively affected the product unfortunately. They came in a bubble wrap envelope seperate from other items both times. The first time, the pencils were all spilled out inside the envelope and about a third arrived broken. I contacted the seller and they sent me a new set, which initially impressed me. Thanks to the seller response, I upped these back to a three star review. Unfortunately, the second set arrived in the same broken condition. Due to this packaging issue, I really wouldn't recommend them to others until that gets fixed. After testing them out and seeing the quality was not as nice as my other colored pencils, I wish I hadn't gotten them and stuck with the brand I already knew I loved. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
I LOVE THIS LINE- the finish on the brush is beautiful. These are and I will include the student line, in this praise, wonderful brushes all. Granted the dark wood and gleaming black of the handle does not have that much of an effect but it has some. And certainly the stainless steel or nickle plated brass does effect the performance of the brush, other brushes will rust where the hair or fibre meet the ferrule.
These are a brush that you will use for a long time and any artist knows Da Vinci has mastered the way the hairs are layed out to cause a desired effect.
California is part of the great American Car Culture and you will find many detail artists using DaVinci brushes, they are also a favorite of sign painters another rapidly fading craft. WE HAVE BECOME A disposable country, from razors to pens we use it and through it away.
These brushes are part of a culture of building something well and building something that lasts. More than 30 years ago I went with a Mexican co-worker to a hardware store near his mothers home. I don't care what it was in aisle after aisle American Made Products at prices in some cases a bit more $ then in U.S., I asked him about and he replied, "that Mexicans buy things made in America because are quality, and they don't have the money to afford to replace it, it has to last for years".
Some years after that I was going through a break up and she got custody of the ironing board, and I needed an ironing board because I had to press certain things, we had had an Americn built ironing board that we must have recovered 4 or 5 times but the frame was still steady and good. I went into several stores and could not find anything that was not woobly and made in Chine or China. My next visit into Mexico I went into a local Dept. Store Chain and was able to purchase a board Made in Chicago.
I am not sure if that would be true today or not. Even my house painting brush's I go to our local paint store and purchase a brush recommended by the professionals there. I have many brushes that are 20 years old or more, I even have some made in Brazil that have held up very well in particular the watercolour and the hog hair brushes for Acrylic Paints.
Paint brushes are tools, I have a 12" Mac Tools Adjustabile wrench I bought for nuts bigger than my normal wrenches range and that is at least 30-35 maybe older. And I have some Klein pliers and electrical tools I have from the 1960's they work alot better than me.
I picked up about a dozen or so of these brushes to fill out some holes in my kit, even if I used this brush everyday with good care I know it will outlast me and maybe the next owner.
Probably most people don't know that these have been made in Germany since 1890, I can remember it because the Germans finally established medical care for all residents in 1888. I think Spain or France one or both of them had done so first, I remember this because my Swedish born grandmother told me this.
She thought it was criminal that we did not take care of the veterans that returned from WW1, she would go on to say how they treated veterans in European countries. Great Britain I know has done better by their veterans and it is nice that we have started to take care of ours, but we still lag behind other countries in taking care of all people. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
So far I love it. I just received the cutter a few days ago. I have taken it out of the box but have yet to set it up etc. I just wanted to comment on how durable this cutter feels. A few years ago I got a cutter for 100$ less and it was all plastic. This is VERY sturdy and it feels like the way a cutter should feel when you pay $400 + for the item. Just wanted to leave my initial review of the product. Will update as it gets used.
Update - 11/3/2014 I'm really in love with my cutter. I've used it for almost a year now without any complaints. Completing projects with a wide variety of mediums to work with (please keep in mind you may need to buy additional blades depending on what you'd like to cut). From fabric applique cutting to vinyl. It does an amazing job. There is a bit of a learning curve to know which blades to use and the pressure you want applied to your material. After seeking the help of online knk forums I feel very confident in using it. Please don't let this machine intimidate you, it's really really worth the price for the quality of work it produces. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Good, but don't leave on some surfaces for very long. In general, I like these. They work well and having an assortment of autumnal colors is fun. The drawbacks are that depending upon the surface, some of the colors can appear darker than the cap indicates. I've also not been able to remove it from some surfaces with either water or an ammonia based cleaner (suggested on the packaging). This is probably because the surfaces are not true chalkboard, but some painted with chalkboard paint and because we left it on there for over a month. I'd used them for signs for my wedding reception and we left for our honeymoon the next day - cleaning the signs was not a priority. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
I would have been nice if one of those 25 bags of sticks had . I ordered 25 easels and imagine my surprise when I received 25 bags of sticks. That could be my fault, it could have stated somewhere that assembly was required and I overlooked it. I'm not going back to read it now, that's too much effort. I would have been nice if one of those 25 bags of sticks had included some assembly instructions though. I'm over that now that I've put all 25 together by squinting at the small picture on the packaging. My real problem is now that I have assembled 25 easels with no instructions after one day of use they are falling apart. I do not plan on purchasing anything from this manufacturer again. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great addition to your Cricut. The Design Studio software runs perfectly on my Vista 64-bit laptop. To update the software to include the latest cartridges, you will have to go to the Cricut website, but the download works well.
As other reviewers have said, you must own the cartridge you want to work with in order to get the machine to cut it, but it's a great advantage to own the software so you can browse all the features of other cartridges -- it's really like a catalog in that sense.
It is tremendously convenient to have the features of this software available. You can turn any shape into a card, for instance, and most importantly, you can weld letters together into words very easily. It's great to be able to flip shapes. In other words, for the low price of this software, you will greatly increase what you can do with each cartridge. Though cartridges are widely available at reduced cost below full retail, they still represent a big investment, and Cricut Design Studio helps you get more mileage out of each one. I'm glad I got it. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Just a nice, soft Hum. This is a Gem! Worked out of the box, hose is great quality. The Most Important thing for me is the Noise Level, or lack thereof, as the case may be. I plugged it in, hit the switch, and signed in relief!! This is quiet! It's not silent, but the sound is in no way irritating, just a gentle hum, totally unlike my larger compressors, which are loud with a harsh sound. I watch Movies or listen to Music while working. To use an example, I would be able to hear my movies/music perfectly, from my tablet, without using any external speaker system, if that helps you. I DO use an external 2-speaker system when my studio window-A/C unit is running, if that gives you a comparison. I'll update my review in a month or so, to see how this product works with daily use over that time, unless it works perfectly, and I'm too busy to stop! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
A Great, Versatile, Basic die to have. Works great in Fiskars Fuse. This is my first Accuquilt die and I love it! I used it in my Fiskars Fuse machine with Sizzix cutting pads and was very pleased with the results. I cut each of the shapes on different fabrics just to try it out, then I really put it to work. I cut 560 scrappy half-square triangles in a couple of afternoons! WOW!!!! that would have taken me weeks to do with a rotary cutter or scissors because I have tendonitis in both elbows. I haven't started sewing them yet, but I compared many of the triangles and they are the same size!!!! No way I could have done that with a rotary cutter. Overall, it worked great in my Fuse with no pain in my elbows or arms. I am sooo Happy! Occasionally, it didn't cut completely through a thread here and there, but a quick snip with my scissors took care of that.
For the sandwich in my Fuse I used 1 Sizzix Extended cutting pad as the base platform, a shim of 2 layers of cereal box pieces taped together, the Value Die, the fabric, and 1 Sizzix Standard cutting pad on top. (I don't have the Fiskars Adapter Set). It cut 4 layers of cotton quilting fabric at a time. It could have cut up to 5 or 6 layers of fabric at a time, but that made it harder to crank and I didn't want that much work on my wrists and elbows. I did try to cut 5 or 6 layers of fabric at a time with only 1 layer of cereal box shim, but it didn't cut the fabric as well. Also, I used mostly scraps (this was a great little stash buster!) and I placed the fabric only over the pattern I was cutting out, so there was little fabric waste...mostly thin slivers.
Very happy with this die and plan to buy more as I find them on sale. I resisted buying the Accuquilt dies for a long time, but I love quilting and hate the cutting because it is painful for me and takes such a long time, it is so discouraging. These dies are bringing the joy in quilting back for me so they are definitely worth it. I plan to buy the basic dies in sizes I use the most...the 2 1/2" and 2 1/4" strip dies and the various square dies too. (Sorry Shape Cut Plus, I tried it and I still get wonky, curvy strips!). I probably won't buy the applique dies, cute as they are, because I don't make enough of each applique in my quilts to make it worthwhile. This is a considerable investment...but so is quilting...and I was doing less and less quilting because the cutting was so hard on me. The prices here on Amazon are great and that's a big help. also watch the online sales and you can get some of the dies much, much cheaper.
p.s. I am going to use the 560 triangles to make the "Button Box" quilt from the Leisure Arts book "Quick & Easy Scrap Quilts" and to make an "X-Quisite" quilt from the BH&G book "501 Quilt Blocks". I am going to use the 4" square on the Value Die to cut the background squares for both quilts. Can't wait to get quilting! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Fell apart as soon as I opened the package. Was excited to get this product, hadn't tried this brand of stamper before. When I tried to apply the interchangeable stamp to the apparatus, it promptly came apart in my hands. The black silicone mat which is supposed to hold the stamp so that it can be inked came away from the holder. It seemed that the glue had melted, or dissolved, or maybe it wasn't glued on correctly. Then a little piece of the plastic housing broke off. Seems it was only cosmetic in nature, but since the whole thing won't work, I really have no way of knowing. VERY disappointed. I do really like the three interchangeable stamps, however, so I guess I will keep them and trash the rest. Bummer. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Beautiful paints - not for kids anymore. This was my first foray into tray paints, and I was nervous. I have many memories of painting out of little watercolor trays as a kid, with the little brittle pans of weak color. And to be honest, when I opened up the package, I felt a little like a kid again, wetting my brush and swirling it around on the paint cakes. But I became completely convinced once I applied the paint to the paper. So beautiful and rich, these colors are nothing like the watery food coloring of your youth.
The cakes are creamy to the touch and yield a wealth of liquid once wetted. The range of colors is good and I have been able to make a huge variety of blends so far, and I suspect there is an infinite number of color blends yet to be discovered. The case is put together well, and should be easy to carry for people who like to bring their paints on the go. I use mine at home, and I still love the compact case for storage purposes. The mixing tray lid that comes with it? Meh. The wells are tiny and there's barely any room for mixing colors, but there's only so much you can do with that small space. Also, once you're done, you have to clean and dry the lid before closing up shop, because it's the lid - you can't just have it dripping down onto the cakes. I just bought a cheap, plastic butcher tray for mixing, and that works great for me.
All in all, a great buy for the price. Do not let the elementary school format turn you off - these will not disappoint. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
I have 2 daughters who love arts and crafts. I have 2 daughters who love arts and crafts. I just happen to come across the Cool Cat Chalk Markers by chance, and I'm so thankful that I did. The markers have been awesome for them as they play pretend teacher all the time. They work super well on the closet mirror that they use as their chalk board. My girls usually use a sharpie and the sharpie always makes such a mess when they try to clean it off the mirror. The Cool Cat Chalk Markers have been one of the best purchases I have made for them. My girls love the colors and I love the paint can container! It helps with storing the markers and makes for easy cleanup. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Replaced my Luminess. I bought a Luminess Air in December 2017 and it broke a couple weeks ago after I disassembled it for cleaning and then didn't work quite right when I put it back together. I hated to buy a new brush from them for 60 some dollars. I was irritated with their shady auto subscription service (they wouldnt let me opt out of it until the package was on my door step in 2 weeks, probably hoping I would forget and get an extra charge out of me) and didn't really want to give them any more business. Ive bought this one from Amazon and it works great! All the components of an airbrush seem pretty standardized. I don't see what could possible make one airbrush cost 3 times more than its identical twin besides paying more for the name brand. I wouldnt be surprised to find out they were made in the same factory. Its sounds like these types of air brushes tend to need replacement every year or 2 and I will happily pay 20 dollars a year for nice make up. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Good, but wonky light bar connection. Will require some forethought to ensure fumes are properly vented. I'm a novice airbrush user who bought this for scale modeling applications. It works mostly pretty well, apart from one end of the front LED light bar, which never seems to want to plug into its socket very easily or securely. If you're working in an otherwise unventilated area, you will need to give some thought as to how you will vent the exhaust fan output away from your work area. In my case, I am airbrushing indoors, in a spare bedroom, so I fabricated a fiberboard insert which fits in my bedroom window and provides an outlet for the spray booth exhaust. I cut a hole in the fiberboard about the same diameter as the spray booth's exhaust, made an adapter to fit into the hole out of dryer vent parts, and sealed everything up with metal tape and silicone sealant. Now when I want to airbrush, I open the bedroom window, insert the fiberboard piece, and connect the rubber exhaust hose from the spray booth to the adapter. Paint fumes are exhausted to the outside with no leaks or blow-by into the bedroom. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Easy to use through the Cricut and transferring onto the surface of your project. I've used vinyl and transfer paper before but I always had it from a roll which isn't always the easiest to get flat and/or to work with. With the price and the amount that you would get with it, I just stick with what I knew. Well, I'm sort of upset that I never just bit the bullet for the convenience of flat sheets for they work so much better and are so much easier to use! I have a Cricut and have absolutely no issue with using this within the machine. When those designs with a bunch of detail - the vinyl is able to pick it all up with ease. So fun for those personal crafts from mugs and machine jars to the bigger ones of plaques with sayings - the vinyl helps give a much more personal touch than anything else! I did receive this at a discounted rate for my unbiased review. My opinion was not influenced by the discount that I received. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Customer Service Fail.... Machine okay- but check your welds. While the machine has done a lot of work for me in 9 months, I am highly disappointed in the construction and the lack of customer service.
I was told it was normal that the mat had already come unglued upon opening the box. The machine was also not smoothed down properly and it took a huge chunk out of the surface it was sitting on. The representative, 'Kevin" just said oh yeah, that happens... Put some cardboard under it... So with in 10 days, I was told to do 2 modifications to a brand new machine, because they did not do a quality check? Thanks Kevin.... No, it was only one corner that wasn't smoothed out it wasn't just 'slipping' as he called it, that's not normal Kevin.
I was ignored by Kevin, in another email, when I told them that 3 of the welds holding the machine together, had completely snapped in a mere 9 months. Because they did not get back to me, I had to have a welder fix my machine, and he explained how poorly the welds were completed and some were pretty much less than a band-aid would hold.
I understand this seller is not the manufacturer, but I am highly disappointed in their lack of customer service to fix these issues. I emailed them over 2 weeks ago and still have gotten no response from them.
The machine heats up, and presses items.... But be careful of the welds snapping ,it's an extremely scary noise! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
40 Variety Set Gel Pens - Pretty colors, nice ink flow even in the glitter pens - many colors to choose from in this set. I have many coloring books, for adults and children (since I babysit my nieces). I have found these pens to be great for colorful and beautiful pictures we create while spending time together.
The 40 gel pen set has different varieties of pens, my favorite are the glitter pens! These babies are packed with glitter and the ink flow was not disrupted even with the pieces of glitter in the ink.
We can now doodle and draw pretty pictures to hang on the fridge. Each pen has a good amount of ink in it also, which I love! Super cute colors in this set! Sample provided for evaluation and review. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Love it. Very reliable machine! Easy-to-use, easier to understand... the software programming it comes with only takes a few minutes to begin to understand. If you are computer-savvy, you should have the whole program engrained within the hour. If not computer-saavy, you will definitely understand it by the first day. I like the simplistic buttons on the physical machine itself. Everything else is done by the computer (including settings for the type of material you are cutting and their recommendations as to what blade setting you should have for that particular material, etc). You do NOT have to be limited by the 12x12 typical board. You do not even NEED the sticky board... the machine will cut just fine without it, you just need to adjust the fact that you are not using one on the program settings. Very useful tool for crafts! I personally use mine for cutting vinyl to place on cups and walls. Love it! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Waste of money and time. This product has never cut right, and I have had nothing but problems with my machine. The print and cut feature is a joke. After printing the design, the machine never cuts on the lines of the design. Calling customer care is a pain as well. I repeatedly stay on hold for over 45 minutes before anyone answers, and emails to care take several days before getting a response. The customer service people offered advice to help, but as soon as I get off the phone, the machine stops working again and I don't have the time to call back and wait another hour for someone to answer or a recording to leave a message.
I have only used my machine a handful of times because it is always a frustrating experience, but now the blade mechanics do not even work at all. The blade does not go up and down to make cuts. I called their customer service and asked for a replacement, but they told me my only option is to have it fixed for over $100 or buy the newer model that works better for another $250. I am glad I didn't buy the other machines (curio and mint) like I wanted. I would have just wasted more money. I wasted so much money buying the machine and various products like all of their starter kits, paper and extra designs, and have not been able to use any of it because of a faulty machine. I had two birthday parties for my kids get ruined because I could not make all of the designs I had planned with this machine. I am so frustrated and mad about this purchase. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Conceptually nice kit, but the quality overall is very poor. Never having done acrylics before, I thought this would be a relatively inexpensive way to try my hand at it. I bought this kit thinking this would help determine if it is hobby I wanted to take up since it was a decent value for about 15 bucks.
Things I do like: It is a kit with everything you need to get started
Things I don't like: The brushes are junk. The hair was falling off as I was doing the strokes. Then the ferrule completely popped off in the first 10 minutes of using another brush. The quality of the paint is so so... I didn't realize this until I bought more acrylics to have a wider variety and used those. Holy Moly there is a huge difference in the way it spreads and coats on the canvas.
Because the only thing I liked about this was it was a kit and the value is decent, I can only give it 2 stars and no, I would not recommend it. I am sure there are other kits out there with better quality for the value. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Wonderfully smooth and affordable. I know most people don't read 5 star reviews but I am hopeful that you will read mine. I read another great review and it turned me around to purchase these. They are very smooth, highly pigmented and have a wonderful color selection. I really do love having 7 greys to choose from but I would have easily given one of them up for an extra white. Instead I purchased 2 white Sennelier oil pastels so that I have extra. If you want to stick with Mungyos and can't find single colors here you can always find them at Jerrys Artarama, who is the art store selling these via Amazon.
I purchased an expensive set of Sennelier oil pastels as well but like another reviewer said he uses both together. These would easily be great for my underpainting. but I will use these forever. Buy them. They are worth it. They are so affordable in a nice wood box, and are great pastels so how could you ask for more!! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Excellent for Photos, for Memory Books and for Scrapbooking . I have used "Pioneer Photo Albums Bund Top Loading Page Protectors with White Inserts, 12 by 12-Inch, 5-Pack" for photos and memory books for many years. The white paper insert is sturdy; it is easy to attach either photo corners or self-adhesive photo squares that will then hold your precious memories securely. If you have not space between photos, one-side of one page will hold six 4" X 6" photographs. The covering is similar to an acetate film, but it is not acetate and is safe for photographs. The three-hole border is reinforced and the holes have a small slit that allows you to use these pages in albums other than Pioneer products.
Amazon has the best price I have found on these "Pioneer Photo Albums Bund Top Loading Page Protectors with White Inserts, 12 by 12-Inch, 5-Pack". The pack is at least $2 more at hobby/craft stores and to get the same price Amazon charges from other online sources may require you to purchase up to 50 packs. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Finally. . .it's great. I was in the middle of making Christmas cards with a snowman illustration when I saw a video that used the Wink of Stella to add shimmer and decided it would work for my cards. Overall, I love the way it turned out, but there were a couple of little glitches. the first was I didn't see the instructions that said to remove the little black band so I couldn't get the pen started...finally saw that in a review! Then it was a little bit tricky to find just the right level of output for the glitter. It's a cloudy day and it was hard to see where it was actually going on. BUT if you squeeze too hard the blob of glitter is sort of goldish/brown on white paper.
Now that I have all of the bugs worked out I like how easy it is to add shimmer to the snowmen and I like how subtle it is overall. Good product, "operator errors". | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Faber Castell Pitt artists pens are terrific - I use gem mostly for black backgrounds on my coloring pages. 5 stars. I love Faber Castell Pitt artis Pens I always get the small brush pen for the little details in there great for backgrounds on my coloring pages - On most good paper they will not bleed through - they are India Ink - the small brush pen is great for details around the edges of illustrations (although Im sure you could do an entire page with the small one but I preferred to use a larger one for that) but I use both! b I also have many of the small ones in different sizes for different projects and I just adore them. They can also be bought open stock and in packages like I bought these black ones I have very many and I just love replacing them on their own good Amazon sales I stick up with them. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
I dipped my whole dam car with this thing and it turned out great. I Purchased this off the dyc website. I used it to paint my whole impala and it turned out great. There are some things about this sprayer that was pissing me off tho.. for starters, the only way to power it on is to hit the switch which is on the hvlp motor/compressor. There should be a way to turn on the sprayer on the spray gun, i that would be so much more convienent instead of going to where you set the motor and hitting the switch, then going back to the area you are painting...also, when the motor is on, is constantly blowing out air pressure through the spray gun, even when the trigger is not being pulled, so if you are in a dusty dirty garage, careful where you aim the gun when not spraying it, cuz it could blow dirt, debri, dust, whatever, onto your freshly sprayed surface. Lastly, the hose that came with it was ok, but it was a nuisance to deal with. But, i dealt with it better as i used it. You just have to organize the set up area and properly place the motor and hose in proper positions depending on which side of the car you are currently spraying..
Other than that, everything else was solid, the gun is ready to spray, has 3 different spray patterns, and a knob to adjust how much paint your spraying. Using this is much better than the aerosol cans f that. Get the sprayer...now i just need to buy paint by the gallon :) | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Perfect Performance. I have tested several brands of gel pens and these are the best I have found. Not too much ink either spilling out or spreading to connecting sections of the design, no bleed through with paper a bit heavier than copy paper, good colors and good coverage. I like to color mandala designs, so I'm always looking for more variety in colors to distinguish one part of the design from another and this set has several glitter colors that help accomplish that. This is definitely a five-star product! Now if I could find a large variety of colored markers that perform as well and are long-lasting my selection of pencils, gel pens, and markers would provide all the variety I'm looking for. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
It works, but needs help to work the right way. I wanted this so that I can disconnect my air brush for cleaning if I'm using varied media, but without wasting stored air. It screws on great to the brush and hose BUT.......... it leaks air very badly inside the coupling. And I mean very badly. I don't know if there is a washer missing or what but I'm going to have to poo poo this product.
Update. So I'll raise the stars from a 1 to a 3. It works BUT, ... but but but... plumbers tape is the only way to fix it. Basically the part that screws on to the airbrush leaks. It may be missing a washer. So a little plumbers tape over the airbrush threads will seal it up. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Pain in the butt. The program itself isn't bad. When you can get it to work, its fine. I seem to have all sorts of problems with it though. It's not enough to just buy the stupid thing and use, you need have all these other programs for it to work. The most frustrating thing I have come across is that it needs Quick time to run. But not the new version of Quick Time. So, every time my computer wants to update Quick Time and somebody says yes, then Memory Mixer won't work anymore. I have to go uninstall Quick Time and re-install it. It's a huge pain! Then, for whatever reason, when you are making a scrap page, it saves every little thing you click on into temporary files in your pictures or wherever you save your page to. I have to get into the photo file and delete a million papers and embellishments out of my photo folders and just leave the scrapbook page I made. When I was buying a digital program, I was torn between Memory Mixer and Craft Artist. Craft Artist has a free trial version you can download and use. I really liked it, but the review for Memory Mixer rated it 5 stars everywhere. I went with Memory Mixer and regret it, I think I'm just going to spend more money and get the full version of Craft Artist instead. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Cricut is awful and you should avoid their products. I will never buy another Cricut machine ever again, and neither should you. The company discontinues products and then expects customers to just throw out another $250-400 to buy the latest and greatest. If you don't, they force all of their machines into being obsolete by no longer offering software support. There were several companies that made software you could use with the older machines, but Provo Craft sued all of them so that there continues to be no support for their older machines.
DON'T BUY THEIR MACHINES. Seriously. They might be the latest and greatest right now, but as soon as something newer comes along, they will make your lovely machine a very expensive paperweight. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
of these pictures and I thought it was really cool looking. They said I could get them on . I saw one of the girls in my nail salon doing one of these pictures and I thought it was really cool looking. They said I could get them on Amazon so I came home and ordered one. I was surprised when it arrived because it came folded up and wrapped in plastic instead of in a box like the one I saw at the salon. I unfolded it and put it under some heavy books for a couple days to smooth out the folds which worked perfectly. The kit includes the picture, various colors of crystals, a tool for sticking them, and a little block of sticky stuff that put into the tip of the tool that grabs the crystals. There are no directions but very self explanatory just match the labeled crystal color to corresponding label on picture. Overall this is a great purchase; super cheap too! Therapeutic and fun way to kill some time. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
The Cray-Pen is a must have and one might call it the Zen Pen. The Cray-Pen is so amazing and FUN! Adult Coloring will never be the same with this new tool. You can use it to paint crayons (oil pastels do not work it has to be a wax product,) onto almost any surface! You can paint on canvas and get results like that of oil paints or watercolors. You can Cray-Paint on Wood (my favorite,) Copy paper, Plastic, Glass, Popsicle sticks, Ceramics, Cow bones and etc. If you paint a thin layer (fuse it to the surface,) then a thick layer it works best. If it chips off a little then just heat that area back up and bond it better. The Cray-Pen is a must have and one might call it the Zen Pen because you lose track of time and it is so relaxing. There is a Cray-Pen video on YouTube to show you more about it. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Didn't work for 65%/35% poly/cotton. I recently dyed a bright red pair of 65%/35% poly/cotton insulated coveralls using Rit Dyemore graphite from red to maroon and I forgot to dye the hood that goes with it. Store was sold out of the Rit so I bought a package of Tulip because it says it will dye poly/cotton bends. I done it the same way I did the coveralls,got the water to 180 degree's,added dye then added dish washing detergent and stirred keeping the water to 180 degree's in a big pot on the stove for an hour,didn't work,still have a red hood but it's not as bright as it was before. With the coveralls I had a big tub and used a propane camping stove to get the water over 180 degree's and 2 bottle's of Rit Dyemore. Can't believe I forgot my hood. Recon I'll just have to go and buy another bottle of Rit Dyemore graphite if I want the same maroon color as the coverall's for the hood. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Hard to work with. I bought this product knowing that it can be tricky to work with.
The sheets are quite easy to sand, I just used a nail file and it worked very well. It was easy to draw and color on.
That being said, I've tried so many things to prevent these from curling. I tried many different temperatures, lengths of time, cardboard on top of them, nothing on top of them, and so on. I even tried flattening them out while they were in the oven. They kept curling back up. I've spent too much time messing with them. I have one sheet left, and at this point, I'm done messing with them. Maybe more trial and error would work.
They're great up until it's time to bake them. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Not a drop of water wasted. As an artist, quite often I go outside to paint. When the weather is beautiful, I like to take my journal, some watercolor pencils and a few water brushes outside to be creative. It would be most inconvenient to take out brushes and a bowl of water.
These water brushes are extremely easy to fill and squeezing out the water is very simple. I have had water brushes that I am practically strangling to get a drop of water out. Also, the water seems to last a very long time because none is wasted suffocating the brush. What I also like is that the brushes come in different sizes.
I highly recommend these brushes, especially if you are painting outside and want to take as little as possible with you. Furthermore, they are also fantastic to keep in your arsenal of brushes to use in your art studio. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Twice shy. It's a big, soft brush, and it does hold a lot of paint. Until the bristles detach themselves from the ferrule, that is. I've bought this brush twice. Brush #1: the whole block of bristles fell in one piece out on the floor the first time I tried to use it. I brought it back to the store and got another one, thinking it was just defective. The second one lasted through four uses before entire rows of bristles started falling out in great, unglued clumps into my work.
To add inconvenience to injury, the handle unscrews so you can screw the brush onto a broom handle -- but it doesn't actually fit a standard broom handle. It's too big. I tried it with a half-dozen different broom handles, thinking I must be insane, because who would design a thing that way? But no. So I had to work by strapping the thing to a handle with tape, and anybody who does this for a living can tell you how wobbly and awkward that is.
Not impressed. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
what a wonderful set of colored pencils these are. Oh my goodness, what a wonderful set of colored pencils these are! The colors are vibrant, bright and beautiful. The pencils are deeply saturated with color, making it easy to control the resonance of color you use in your pictures. The lead itself is soft and easily manipulated when coloring. The barrel of the pencils are the same color as the pencil lead, so its easy to determine which color you want to choose. They come with the cutest canvas wrap that has puppies all over it. It has two ropes sewn in to the wrap to use to keep it rolled up. The wrap has a nice canvas flap inside to help protect the tips of the pencils from breaking. There are individual slots for each of the 48 pencils that help hold them in their proper place. Theres also a slot for a pencil sharpener, which is also included with this set. I just love everything about it. Its the perfect set for anyone that truly enjoys coloring, whether its for fun, therapy or just relaxing. It would make a fantastic and thoughtful gift for anyone teen or older. High quality and designed to last.
I received this product at a discount in exchange for my fair review of it. Like a lot of other prudent shoppers, I depend on reviews to help me decide which products to purchase. I take my reviews seriously and take pride in providing unbiased, honest reviews on all of the products I'm evaluating. If my review helps you in making a decision on a product I would greatly appreciate it if you would click on the "Yes" button below. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great product for UV protection. If you're like me and NEED UV protection in your clothes this is the way to go. Don't buy special UV garments in stores, where your choices are limited. Use your own wardrobe and wash it with this and your sensitive skin will be protected from the sun. So happy this product is on the market for people like me. Also great for babies and children who need UV protection. I searched many times to find this product and I'm thrilled I found it.
Please note: If you wish to purchase multiple quantities of this product:
I wanted to buy multiple packages of this product and the shipping costs were just too much. I purchased it at KidKraft.biz and paid only $6.95 for 20 packages. The price was MUCH less that way. I DID first try to go to the seller's site as shown on Amazon but could NOT locate the item on their website. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Impressions left behind by heavy handed sketchers. Masterclass's sketchbook is designed for all dry media including pen, pencil, charcoal, marker, pastels, crayons, and sketching sticks. When I buy sketchbooks I normally look for mixed media sketch books because I like to paint as well so I'm used to a thicker quality of paper.
I'm pretty heavy handed when I sketch pictures and when I draw in Masterclass's sketchbook the 2-3 pages behind my sketch have deep impressions. I like to keep my sketches in my sketchbook so I don't remove the paper before I draw. You can see an example in my photos.
Overall I like the quality of the paper and my completed sketch. I think Masterclass's sketchbook is appropriately priced for the quality and value of their product.
TL;DR
Pros:
Hardcover
Versatile dry medium paper
Twin Loop Spiral Binding
Permanent marker doesn't bleed through
Perforated paper edge
Cons:
Impressions left on pages behind each sketch
Dry medium paper, no painting
Ratings (Out of five stars):
Paper Thickness: *4*
Paper Versatility: *4*
Cover Protection: *5*
Quality: *5*
Value: *5*
Overall rating: 23 out of 25 stars / 4.6 Star Average
I hope you enjoyed this review. If you have have any questions about Masterclass Premium 9x12 Hardcover Sketchbook leave me a comment and let me know. I will be happy to answer any questions.
I received this product complimentary from Masterclass for testing purposes all opinions expressed are my own. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great little table. I am an architecture student and I wanted a simple table that did not cost too much so I could do some drafting at home. I think the price is very good for what you get. The instructions were easy for someone who has built other things such as bookshelves. The glass top with use of a lamp makes for a good tracing table. The table is very sturdy and everything looks like a good quality. I enjoy having all the trays but what I did was I left off one side of trays on the glass top for my T-Square and I still have lots of storage for my tools. I would suggest a table like this for a simple table. Although, having a parallel straightedge would be great, it would raise the price too high. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
it really fixes eyeglasses but ONLY if they are plastic lenses. There were pages upon pages of how this product can remove scratches from the anti-glare filter used in plastic/polycarbonate eyeglasses. And let me tell you, it does work! So here are some instructions and notes on how to do it.
First of all, it will ONLY WORK IN CLEAR PLASTIC LENSES....not glass lenses (it will destroy them), or sunglasses (it will strip the tint off). The way you do it is: You dab the lenses up and down (not side-to-side, like putting butter on bread) with a cotton swab or cotton ball and cover the lens entirely on the side it's scratched. Up and down, lightly dabbing until fully covered. Wait 3-5 minutes and rinse the lens off with hot running water. And that's it.....you might need to repeat the process twice, but what it does is, it strips the scratched anti-glare film. It's a good, cheap way to fix your glasses if they are out of warranty and the eyeglass store wants to charge you $100-200 for a new pair of lenses. It's especially useful if your prescription hasn't changed yet, and you want to wait til you see your eye doctor for a new pair.
If you follow the instructions to the letter, you'll get great results. But again, it's only for clear plastic polycarbonate lenses, and not for glass lenses or for sunshades. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Very impressed with the tiniest Cricut available. I had my doubts as to how well the Cricut Mini would perform, but was very impressed with it from the start. I own the Cricut Expression, the Cricut Expression 2, and the Cricut Imagine (my favorite). I didn't think I'd get much use out of the Mini, thinking it wouldn't be able to perform as well as the larger and more expensive machine, but after trying it out, I will definitely get a LOT of use out of it. It can be used with all of your Cricut cartridges, including the Imagine cartridges (although, of course it will just cut, not print like the Imagine does). It can also be used in conjunction with Cricut Craft Room (which is FREE from the Cricut website) without having to use any cartridges. It is very small and lightweight. Compared to the other machines which are large and more cumbersome, it is so convenient to carry, connect to your computer or laptop, and use when you don't have the time or ambition to get out your big machine. It cuts very precisely and is MUCH quieter than the other models. So easy to use without having to figure out all the settings, etc. It basically has a button to turn the unit on and off and another to insert and eject the included mat. There are simple settings to control the pressure and speed of cutting. It is a speedy machine, cuts perfectly in no time, does a great job with even the most intricate designs. The mat is smaller for the Mini than the Expressions and Imagine, so you can't cut extra large pieces, but for me, that's great because sometimes I don't want to waste an expensive piece of 12X12 cardstock to cut something small. With the mini you can use the smallest scraps to cut with great results, saving money and avoiding waste. I am very happy that I got this machine. I thought I would have no use for it, owning the other models, but I've used this several times and I really do love it. I've read that other people have had problems with theirs, but personally, mine was a breeze to set up and use. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
not functional. Made in China..... This easel looks good. Was not difficult to assemble, came with decent instructions -- except there were 2 holes on the back of the center mast which puzzled me for a while until I realized that these 2 holes had no function whatsoever.
The bad part about this easel: the center mast is not in line with the H-frame (the side posts), but is instead about 3/4 inch more to the front. I usually paint on canvas panels, and because of the 3 posts not being on the same level, the canvas wobbles to the right when I paint on the right side, and wobbles to the left when I paint on the left side. It cannot sufficiently be held in place by the top canvas support. I actually had to invent and construct a device in order to correct this shortcoming. However, if one uses canvas stretched over a wooden frame, it can be sufficiently clamped down with the top canvas support (I think).
Before, I owned a Shannon H-Frame Studio Easel which I terribly miss and I am thinking of throwing this China made Soho easel out. What a waste of money and time! | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Nice Quality Pencil Wrap. Having used a similar canvas pencil wrap, I thought I knew what to expect from this one. For the most part, I was right, however, there is a notable difference between the two--.5" to be exact.
This canvas pencil wrap is about half an inch shorter than the other one I'm using which means that some of my pencils--specifically, the unsharpened Prismacolor and Derwent pencils--are too long and a bit of the pencil peeks out of the top. (See uploaded image.)
That said, this is also a quality pencil wrap. It features nice, tight stitching; the canvas is thick and durable; and there's a flap along the bottom which protects the pencil lead. Fully open it's about 34" (not including the string closure), and is about 7.5" high.
Aside from the issue mentioned above with the pencil overhang, it held all 72 without a problem. There's extra room on each side for peripheral items, but found that unfortunately it wouldn't hold additional pencils (well...it *would*, but they would fall out if the case was tipped), but did fine with thicker/wider items and pens which featured a clip.
It easily rolls up and ties closed, even when completely full. If there is a complaint, it's that the lead protection section along the bottom tends to bunch up as you roll it, but it's a minor inconvenience. It even laundered well (used basic wash, cold water, tumble dry). Overall, this is another well made and quality pencil storage pouch.
Disclosure: Sample provided for review. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great for acid etching on concrete. My husband and I got a wild hair one day and decided that we wanted to make custom concrete yard decorations. We ordered the Silhouette Cameo, this repositionable vinyl, and got to work building forms while we waited for the products to arrive.
While the vinyl had some issues sticking to the concrete as it's repositionable, it stuck well enough for our purposes, and smoothed out without any bubbles or tearing. It cut well on the standard Silhouette Vinyl setting, and didn't have any issues with snagging during cutting, as we'd run into with non repositionable vinyl on our Cricut.
We have yet to try it on walls or glass at this time, but have plans to in the future. The only downside was one we anticipated - after spraying the vinyl on the concrete with the acid dyes, the vinyl did melt a bit and was stickier when we went to pull it off. However, it still pulled off incredibly cleanly, and left good, crisp lines in our design. We're going to experiment more with non repositionable vinyl to see if it works just as well, as it's slightly cheaper - but I imagine this would be just what folks are looking for when it comes to household decorating. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Good brushes for glazing pottery. Just what I was looking for to apply engobe and glaze to my pots! With a brush like this it is very expected to lose some bristles at first, the bristles are natural hair and I imagine that some break, and some may not have been caught in the ferrule properly in manufacture, so simply wash them really well, brush the bristles back and forth in the sink with some good soap or shampoo and then I always like to put just a small amount of hair conditioner on them and rinse well to keep the hair soft. Squeeze the water out and do not dry them on the bristle end, I like to dry them in the dish drainer, the slight angle allows the water to drain rather than sit at the base of the bristles. These are good brushes and properly cared for should last many years of constant use. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Extra Fine" point DOES NOT work properly. My experience with these pens was a disastrous mess. I bought these because I frequently use these paint markers in the "fine" point and I love them. However, the "extra fine" point markers don't work properly. To make the paint flow in these kinds of pens, you depress the point several times to start the paint flowing. Two of the pens worked fine the very first use, but when I depressed the pen tip a second time to reload the paint, the paint started flowing out from the connection between the shaft and the "cone" that holds the tip rather than filling the felt tip of the pen, and the paint went all over everything. The third pen didn't even work right the very first time--it just immediately started flowing ink from the shaft connection. If even one of the three had worked, I might have chalked it up to my just getting a defective pen. But the fact that all three were defective leads me to believe that it's an ineffective product.
As stated earlier, I love this brand of marker in the "fine point" style. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Really fun. This product was recommended to me by a furniture consignment store. When I purchased a painting there, I commented that I did not like the frame color and would need to have the painting re-framed. An employee recommended Rub 'n Buff. I tried to buy it in a local framing store, but they did not have my color (Spanish Copper). The store did not get the color in time for our departure, so I looked online and found the 12 color sampler at Amazon. I managed to redo the frame as my first project. It was a little intimidating, but I dabbed, brushed, and buffed and it turned-out as I had hoped. Since then, I have been experimenting with the other colors in a garden shed painting project. I have used stencil brushes and my fingers. Fingers work the best. Disposable gloves eliminate the "gold finger" problem. Now, everything is a candidate for a little Rub 'n Buff highlighting. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Itemized Review. I'm new to airbrushing. This set came with several instructional booklets that really helped me. I found the best way to learn was trial and error. Initially, I mixed too much paint thinner and had running paint. Once I corrected that issue I had to figure out the pressure and distance for the airbrush.
[Airbrush: ] With no prior experience, it's hard for me to gauge the quality of the airbrush itself. I feel as though the airbrush is a basic, introductory level, model. The paint cap doesn't screw on, it rests on the top. The trigger doesn't appear to have as much control as I'd expected. For me, it's very easy to go from 0 - 100. While as I've gained experience, I've improved at controlling the paint spray, I don't feel like this is 100% user error. For an introductory level model, though, I've really enjoyed it. Right now it works for my current skill level. As I get better I will invest in something with more trigger control.
[Air Compressor with Tank: ] This compressor and tank exceeded my expectations. For starters, I was surprised by the noise level. It's not near as loud as I'd expected. It has an auto shut off feature. When the air tank is full the compressor turns itself off. I can spend part of time spraying with no noise at all. Once the air tank is out of air the compressor will auto turn itself back on until the tank is full again. The compressor does heat up while it runs. The air tank doesn't heat up while in use.
[Paint: ] Wow, a little goes a long way! I'm surprised by how little paint is required for airbrushing. This airbrush seems super efficient with paint. The colors provided are enough variety to start your paint collection. The paint dries very quickly! I did a t-shirt for my daughter with this paint. I used an iron to help set the paint, as well as ran the shirt through the dryer for a few cycles. (By itself) I let the paint set for about a week before letting her wash it. The paint did set on the shirt and didn't come off after being washed. This paint comes with paint thinner and cleaning solutions.
[Accessories: ] When I ordered this set it came with, a hose, cleaning pot, universal airbrush holder, mixing cups, and tongue depressors for mixing. The cups are better quality than expected. They are like medicine dosage cups. They can be cleaned and reused, they have liquid measurements on them. The hose is braided and I had no issues with kinking. The cleaning pot is glass with a plastic lid. I had no issues with it. The universal airbrush holder is well made with no quality issues. The tongue depressors were convenient to use for mixing paint.
Ratings (Out of five stars):
Airbrush Quality:
Air Compressor with Tank Quality:
Paint Quality:
Accessory Quality:
Value:
Overall rating: 23 out of 25 stars / 4.6 Star Average
SUMMARY: This set had everything I needed to get started. I like that the air compressor has a storage tank and that it has an auto shut off feature. I think the airbrush could have better trigger control but it works well enough for my skill level. Inside the paint boxes are the paint thinner and cleaning solutions. This set came with an introduction guidebook as well as instructions for the compressor and air tank. It was enough information to get me started, as a noob to this art form.
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I received this product complimentary from Master Airbrush for quality testing purposes. When I accept review opportunities the product must provide a practical use for my family. I don't guarantee favorable reviews, all opinions expressed are my own and based on my firsthand experience with the product. All of my reviews are written based on how I would feel as a purchaser of the product and what I would want to know before I made my purchase. I hope you enjoyed this review. If you have any questions about my experience please leave me a comment. I will be happy to follow-up on my experience with this product. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Nice enough I'd buy again. This is well made. It is lined and the bottom flap is sewn down at each end so your pens won't fall out. The top flap folds over. When rolled up it is a nice size to fit in a purse or backpack. The cords to tie it are nice too. The elastic is thick and well sewn and the pens slide in and out easily. The pens that came with it all flow nicely and the ink is vibrant. If you can't find replacement pens here you can get the 36 count at Wal-Mart. It's a great price. My only complaint is the cloth has a chemical smell so I had to leave it open for several days to air out. I still gave it 5 stars because this is a minor issue. I'm getting another as a gift for my friend who liked mine.
Update: I had to put Fray Check on the top flap because it was not finished properly and the material began fraying up to the stiches. The Fray Check is a fabric glue for this purpose. I already had it because I sew. I'm glad I caught it before it came undone. I'm taking a star away for this reason. You can use Elmers Glue but you'd have to reapply if you wash it. I checked the bottom flap and it was properly finished. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
spring bunnies paint by number kit. has very few colors, colors are very cheap looking (like fluorescent colors) so not at all what it looks like on the picture. have to mix all colors for every bit of area. quality of paint is not good, too dried out and thick, so not easy to work with. as i say if you use the 6 colors the kit has it will give you a very gaudy look. hard to work w because the picture is filled w the mixing numbers all over, so it is hard to decipher what area the particular numbers are referring to. i have to use paints from my previous kits because these are almost unusable. i have painted several pictures before which turned out beautiful and fun. this a by far the most terrible. do NOT buy this, WAY TOO FRUSTRATING, not worth the work or the money. definitely would not recommend it to anyone. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
Great little kit of small artist paintbrushes for the price - lovely case. I am not a painter, I am in colors to using colored pencils - bought this set which comes in a really nice little case in would be great for a little watercolor artist and someone like me who bought it to use with watercolor pencils, ink pencils, and also for solvents. I think they worked just fine I don't think I know how to use them very well and that's on me I think I preferred to just use my pencils I will be giving these away to someone who can use them because she loves to use watercolors and her watercolor pencils I do have water/aqua brushes which I'm more comfortable with like I said I'm not really in "painter I think they worked just fine I don't think I know how to use them very well and that's on me I think I preferred to just use my pencils I will be giving these away to someone who can use them because she loves to use watercolors and her watercolor pencils I do have water/aqua brushes which I'm more comfortable with like I said I'm not really "painter" but for the price I don't think this can be be from what I was to use them for and I didn't really see much difference between the ones I used which were the slimmer pointier ones - I wish they were number and I was looking for a four and a six but I thought this it would cover all of them that I needed so I think it probably did I don't know for sure but I'm going to give it up for her because I don't know much about watercolor/paint brushes but I can say in the short time I use them that none of the Hair's came out they kept their shape very well and they cleaned nicely in my solvent so I used Gamsol. I may use the little case that they came in for my pencil sets that I just carry with me on the fly instead of my whole set of 150 120 pencils that I usually carry in my cases or storing my cases this would be - good little device for my uses. | arts-crafts-and-sewing_painting-drawing-art-print |
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