Pebeo Fantasy Moon Discovery Kit Review

The Pebeo Fantasy Moon paints caught my eye because they are so glossy and have such an interesting effect.

The discovery set that I purchased includes 6 different colors. They are Turquoise, Veil of Smoke (grey), Carmine (red), Metal Blue (dark cool blue), Apricot and Gold. 

The back of the packaging briefly explains how to use these paints and what the consumer can expect. It states that it is " Solvent based effect colours which can be mixed together. Opaque, textured and pearl finish. Easy brush application in thin or thick layers. Immediate effect. Can be applied on all surfaces. Used with freshly painted Vitrail colours, marbled effects can be obtained. Mix well before use." 

Here's what the colors look like outside of the packaging: 

They are so beautiful! I love how iridescent they are. 

I took the cap off the top of one of them and took a picture of the inside of the bottle. 

It already has a textured look to it just sitting in the jar. I pulled out a brush and just used what was on the cap to do some swatch tests on a piece of 140lb watercolor cardstock. First I did a thin layer and then a thick layer. 

The thicker layer is the top of each labeled color. The thinner layer is on the bottom. If you go too thin then you won't get the cool hammered effect. I had trouble with the color Carmine for some reason. I may have needed to shake up the bottle more. I got it to do the effect a little bit when I went back in with a thicker coat. It's there but it's not showing up very well in the picture. 

For the most part I was super pleased with how instantaneous the effect was and how rich and shiny these paints are. They dry pretty quickly to a beautiful glossy coat. There is definitely a chemical smell to them since these are solvent paints. I didn't find it too strong but you don't want to be putting your nose in the jar. Also I noticed that the paints are very sticky. I had to really scrub my brush to clean it between colors. These dry to almost a varnish type of finish and they get very hard. I tested it out on watercolor paper but these will also work on non pourous surfaces such as the Pebeo Liquid Art Panel shown below. 

This panel has a raised edge on a gessoed surface. It makes it so you can pour your medium on it and not worry about it running off the sides. I purchased these paints to use for small accent areas on a much larger canvas that I will be working on soon. It's actually 4 canvases that will make one image. These paints will add a lot of interest to a few areas. One reason I would never use these as more than an accent paint is the cost. I purchased these 20 ml bottles in a 6 pack for $19.99. That breaks down to $3.33 per 20 ml. That's a bit on the high end if you plan to use these paints for large areas. They are sold in larger jars as well and that may or may not be more economical. I have not done the math on it. Another idea I have is to use these in my card making. I can totally see painting these on a flower or other stamped image for some major wow factor!

I hope you enjoyed my review of the Pebeo Fantasy Moon Discovery Kit. I definitely recommend getting a set of these if you are looking to add something that makes an interesting effect to your stash of paints. There's also a slightly more expensive set that comes with other types of effect paints. It's called the Mixed Media Discovery Collection.  For about $30.00 you get twelve 20ml paints.

If you have any questions or want me to review something, please leave a comment below. Thank you!

Review and Techniques with Prima Water Soluble Oil Pastels

I recently ordered some Prima items and among them were the Water Soluble Oil Pastels. Since one of the boxes came dented up I decided I would keep that one for myself (since the contents were likely damaged- and they were) and write a review about it. 

These pastels come in a box of 24 and retail for $20.00. Simon Says Stamp sells them. We also sell them but by the time this blog post goes up we'll probably only have a couple left! 

Once I opened my box I got right to work seeing what these worked well for and maybe not so well for. 

First technique was general coloring. The pastels are very creamy and would even draw on the tip of my finger. I tried scribbling on a thin sheet of non primed paper and it easily took the pastel. I added some water with my paint brush and it easily made the numbers I had written disappear. They are very soluble even on a non primed surface. 

Second technique was mixing with a gel medium. I chopped off the end of one of the pastels with my palette knife and smashed it into some Prima 3D Gloss Gel Medium . It's not as creamy as a gelato so it took quite a bit of smashing to get it mixed in. I used the red color and you can see the result of me applying it through a star stencil on the picture below on the right. 

On the left side of the picture you will notice some light green dots over a purple wash of color. The purple wash of color was added on top of some dried Prima 3D Gloss Gel to see how it would react. I wanted to see if the water soluble oil pastels would stay on that medium or if it would act as a resist. It dried and stayed on it just fine. Then I was able to scribble the oil pastel on a non porous surface and mix in some Liquitex Gloss Gel Medium to create another colorful mixture to put through a stencil. This blended much easier than chopping off the end of a pastel. 

For my next technique I thought it would be fun to see how they worked on enhancing texture. I added some Golden Molding Paste to my journal and dried it with a heat tool to create some bubbles and get a lunar type of texture. Then I lightly scribbled on top of the texture, squirted some water on it, and blended it out with my finger. Here's the effect: 

It really gets into all of those small nooks and crannies and really accentuates the texture! 

Next I wanted to see how these worked for stamping. This one of my favorite techniques with these pastels and it's enough to make me happy to own them! All you do is scribble on the back of a stamp and give it a few mists of water and stamp down. You can then use a waterbrush to draw some of the color from the edges to the inside or even grab color directly from the oil pastel to add to your image. Here's how it came out on 140 lb watercolor cardstock using a photopolymer stamp: 

Lastly I tried it on a rubber stamp with 3 different colors to see what would happen and that came out nice too. Here's what that looked like with a woodgrain stamp: 

If you like these techniques then I definitely recommend checking out the Prima Water Soluble Oil Pastels! 


Here's a video I put together showing all of these techniques in action! 

Best Tools for Getting a Perfect Stamped Image

In today's high tech world we have so many options to chose from even in the crafting world! Today I am going to run through some of the various options we crafters have to chose from to get a crisply stamped image. I'll briefly explain the best situations for each tool and why you may want more than just one of them depending on the type of stamp you have.

• Standard Acrylic Block. 

This is the cheapest option but it can also be the most frustrating. Regular acrylic blocks are great for stamping images that you will be cutting out later or the placement is unimportant. They're also good if you are stamping something that you will be adding to your card. I do not recommend using a standard acrylic block to stamp something on a card base that you have put a lot of time into. The reason is because it can be easy to stamp the image poorly and it's hard to place your stamp directly back on top to re-stamp it. It's also hard to stamp sentiment stamps perfectly straight when you are basically eyeballing it. 
Apple Pie Memories makes some good acrylic blocks. There's have grooves in them that makes getting a grip easy. They also have a grid laser etched in them which makes lining up your stamp easier. 
Inkadinkado also makes a large one which is the one I own. 
Prima makes one that has a handle. Many people like that but I actually feel like that gives me less stability. 
If you get an acrylic block I highly recommend getting one with an etched grid and finger grooves. There's some cheap ones out there without these features and I feel that they are far less superior. 

Prima 4 x 8" block with handle $17.24: 

Apple Pie Memories 4 pack $18.68: 

Inkadinkado Extra Large Acrylic Block $11.94: 


• Fiskars Stamp Press and Martha Stewart Stamp Mount. 

Both of these are offered in a smaller and larger size. 
You can use these as your one and only stamping block if you want but there's other ones I'll mention later that have benefits in certain situations. I personally own the larger Fiskars Stamp Press and I like it for sentiment stamping. Even with some of my other stamping tools, I still use it for stamping large sentiments on the inside of my cards. The benefit of these type of stamping blocks is the foam feet provide height and stability so you can line up your stamp perfectly over your paper and then press straight down when it's in the perfect position. This also makes it easier to get stamps really close together without overlap such as when you are stamping a garden of flowers. You can even put all of the stamps on the stamp press and get it done in one shot. The large surface area makes this possible.
Compact Stamp Press at Simon Says Stamp $13.99: 


Large Stamp Press at Simon Says Stamp $22.99: ( This is the one I own and it's $14.07 on Amazon)



Medium Martha Stewart Stamp Mount at Amazon $9.24:


Small Martha Stewart Stamp Mount at Amazon $5.72:



• Stampamajig

Stamp a whaaa? Yeah it's a mouthful but this little tool is a major help with wood mounted stamps. This 2 piece set includes a plastic bar and a clear plastic sheet. All you do is put the corner of your wood stamp in the corner and stamp straight down onto the plastic sheet. Then you take the plastic sheet and put it on the area you want to stamp and place the plastic bar on the sheet. Now you remove the plastic sheet, ink up your stamp and stamp down exactly where you wanted to. This is the best tool for getting straight stamping with wood mounted stamps. 

Sold at Amazon for $7.19: 



• Crafter's Companion Rock a Block
The Rock a Block is supposed to make it easier to avoid smudging or over-stamping by stamping in one smooth motion. You roll the stamp from bottom to top. I haven't used these myself because I already have many ways to get a good stamped image, but if I didn't already own a ton of stamping tools I'd definitely give these a try. I may even buy them for my Mom since I think she'd enjoy them. 

Sold at Simon Says Stamp for $14.99 for a pack of 4: 



• MISTI & Stampaholic

These bad boys are new to the scene and they cost a pretty penny! 
Both of these tools use the letterpress technique to stamp clear or cling mounted stamps (just remove the foam when using cling). This unique system makes it incredibly easy to re-stamp perfectly. You can also lay down an entire scene and stamp it at once. Grid patterned paper and rare earth magnets to hold your paper in place make this a fool proof way to get straight stamping done. There is a metal plate on the back that the magnets are attracted to. You also get rulers around the outside for extra precision. 
The MISTI (stands for Most Incredible Stamping Tool Invented) comes in three different sizes depending on your application. The Mini MISTI is perfect for card makers. The original MISTI is larger and makes stamping directly on the inside of a card base possible. The Memory MISTI has a 12 x 12" stamping space which is perfect for Scrapbookers! The MISTI's range in price from $49.99 to $110.00. This is an investment in your stamping and not a cheap tool by any means. There's also one called the Stampoholic which is around the same size as the original MISTI and it's $54.95 which is about $25.00 less than the MISTI. However, there is a patent on the MISTI which the Stampoholic may be infringing on. I am not a patent lawyer so don't take my word on it. Patents are expensive and normally get built into the cost of an item to make some money back. Many people own the MISTI and are completely in love with it. It's extremely useful when you are stamping multi-step stamps such as Altenew's Vintage Roses. I am a little cheap and have spent more than my fair share on expensive crafting tools (Silhouette Cameo 2 and the MINC machine to name a few!), so I did it as a DIY which we'll talk about next! 
Mini MISTI for $49.99 at Simon Says Stamp:



Full Size MISTI for $79.99 at Simon Says Stamp :


Memory MISTI for $110.00 at Simon Says Stamp:



• DIY Letterpress Style Stamping Tool 

I found this video on YouTube and thought "Wow, what a great idea!"

There was a link below the video to the store that carried all of the necessary supplies. I recently went on their website again and it appears they have everything but the metal sheets by Darice. 
Here's what you need: 
DVD case  $2.99( or you can get a 10 pack here and store your stamps in them too!) 
Rare Earth Magnets $2.49 x 2 = $4.98 (or get an 8 pk here for $5.08)
Little B Perfect Positioner $3.99 (or $2.79 here)
Craft Foam $0.69 ( or $7.49 for a 10 pk and use the left overs with adhesive as full back foam adhesive on cards!)
Metal Sheet $9.67 ( this is more than you need so find another project to use the rest!)

Total cost for the DIY stamping tool is $22.32 if you buy everything you can from Hallmark Scrapbook and the metal sheet from Amazon. The Darice metal sheet was smaller and less expensive so hopefully those come back in stock some time. I've used mine more than a handful of times now and I really like it. I especially like being able to double stamp when I'm working on watercolor paper. 

• Stamping Pad

A stamping pad can help you get a nicer image than stamping on a hard surface. It lets the stamp sink into something. You can use a cheap mousepad or fun foam for this but there are special stamping pads out there that are a little thicker. Darice makes a rubber one and it has great reviews. Obviously you won't need this when using your MISTI or DIY stamping tool. 




That covers it for the best tools to get a perfect stamped image. I hope I have enlightened you today and you learned something or found a new tool you didn't know existed that will make your stamping a little easier and more fun! If you have any questions, please leave me a comment and I will be happy to help you out! 

Almost 50% off Silhouette Cameo 2!

I can't believe my eyes! I so wish I waited for a sale like this to buy my Cameo 2, but I honestly NEVER thought one would come along. This is just crazy!

A brand new Silhouette Cameo 2 for $179.98. The bundle I purchased did come with more stuff, but this is a killer price!

 < It says $234.99, but click on it and you will see it's $179.98! This sale ends in just 13 more hours!!

Just to compare, this is the bundle I bought which is a regular good deal if you happen to see this blog post after the above sale has ended:

10 Must Have Items for Begginer Card Makers!

I've been making cards for a few years now and there's definitely a few items that I see myself reaching for over and over again. It's tough to narrow it down to just 10 items, but these are absolutely must haves! This list will not include items such as stamps, dies, stencils and embellishments. I'll do a more in depth list in the future of other items I recommend.

Listed in no particular order: 

• Scotch Advanced Tape Gun (or ATG Gun) 

This is the EXACT one I purchased almost 5 years ago! The adhesive that comes with this gun is SUPER sticky so you know your card won't fall apart in the mail. It's very easy to use, just pull the trigger and run the gun across your paper. Refills can be bought on Amazon or in your local craft store.

• Ranger Craft Mat or Ken Oliver's The Best Ever Craft Mat




I've had my Ranger Non-Stick Craft Mat for probably 5 years now and it's held up pretty well. I love the non-stick surface which allows me to use glue, resin, and paint with easy clean up. The mat is pretty thin and can get creased rather easy. It is heat resistant and can even be put in the oven if you like to work with clay. Since the mat is brown, using it as a palette won't give you the true color result. It has a slick, teflon like surface.


Ken Oliver's "The Best Ever Craft Mat" is new to the market and has its own special properties. This craft mat is thicker than the Ranger mat. It is also non-stick as well. It can be crumpled into a ball and released with no creasing. The mat is white which makes using it as a palette enjoyable. This mat has a slightly sticky feeling surface. It kind of grips your finger when you rub across it. This property gives it a non-slip ability on your table surface, but it can also make clean up a little more difficult. This mat is also heat resistant.

• Embossing Heat Gun or Heat It Tool



The embossing heat gun that I own is actually the Marvy Uchida one, but it has bad review on Amazon so I listed the above one. It looks just like the one I have. An embossing heat gun is an impatient persons best friend. It's also the only way you will get embossing powder to dry. I know you might be thinking "Can't I just use my blow dryer?". No, you can't! The embossing heat tool will emit heat without the extra "blowing" that a hair dryer does. This is important so you don't blow off all the embossing powder. I also recommend letting the tool heat up for a little bit off the paper before you try to emboss. This will give you better results. I use my embossing heat tool to dry watercolor paint, dye based inks, and even acrylics (shh, you're really not supposed to dry acrylics that way!).


Ranger's Heat It Craft Tool is another option. Ranger has a reputation in the industry for quality. This tool looks a lot like a compact blow dryer but it still has the gentle air flow of an embossing tool. This tool can also be used for melting embossing powders, shrinking plastic and helping dry inks. I can't really recommend one over the other, but I've been told this one is much quieter than traditional embossing guns.

• A4 Envelopes



This might seem like a silly recommendation, but it is seriously helpful! I have a Martha Stewart Scoreboard that allows me to make my own envelopes if I chose to. However, by the time I get done making a card, I am either too exhausted or too time crunched to make a custom envelope for it. I like to work in the A4 card size because I can get 2 card bases out of one standard 8.5 x 11" piece of paper. Most stamps and embellishments will also fit nicely on this size. Just take my word for it and make sure to have some envelopes on hand!

• A GOOD Black Ink. Either StazOn, Versafine or Memento


StazOn ink is a specially formulated solvent ink that can stamp on many surfaces. It is also permanent and water resistant. Some surfaces include metal, glass, plastic and other semi and non-porous surfaces. You may be thinking what this has to do with card making. StazOn is a great ink for water techniques. It dries quickly and the water will not re-activate the ink since it's permanent. It stamps nice and crisp. Beware that is does stain stamps though, so you may want the solvent cleaner that StazOn offers. It's the only thing I've found that truly cleans the stamps up.



Versafine Ink by Tsukineko is known to be a great ink for detailed images. It is a unique pigment ink that is also waterproof. This ink can also stain stamps and StazOn cleaner will clean that up. Since it's a pigment ink, I would recommend drying with a heat tool before moving on to water techniques.



Tsukineko's Memento Tuxedo Black Ink has been one of my favorite's for a while now. These fade resistant dye ink pads are fast drying. These ink pads also capture fine details quite well. Though they are not listed as water resistant inks, I have had good luck using this ink with watercolors and alchol ink markers. Just dry with a heat tool before adding water. This ink does not stain stamps either, so you can easily clean up with baby wipes or a paper towel and water.

• Sizzix Big Shot Machine


If you're new to card making you may be very curious about embossing folders and die cutting. It's for good reason to! These products are a lot of fun to use and can add some serious style to your cards. Even though I have an electronic die cutting machine, I find myself pulling my Big Shot out time after time again. There's other manual die cutting machines on the market, but the Big Shot normally does the trick. Its heavy duty design means it will last for years to come. It also has the force it needs to properly emboss and cut. It's compatible with many different types of dies and embossing folders since there is a multipurpose platform included. It can cut the older design of steel rule dies and the newer design of wafer thin dies. I 100% recommend this machine over any of the others out there UNLESS you are considering either the Big Shot Plus, which is a larger version of this or the Tim Holtz Vagabond 2 simply because it has a motor and can help with large projects. I love my Big Shot and I'm glad I chose that machine.

• Craft Spinner


Hopefully you have some dedicated space in your home for your card making hobby. This is where you can put your spinning organizer. I have one that looks very similar to this one and it's quite useful. It helps to have your items out where you can see them. It make them get used more often. You're also maximizing your space since this is a carousel that spins.

• Multi Medium Matte and a Fine Line Applicator

This is THE BEST combination for embellishment setting. Intricate die cuts, rhinestones, sequins, and large glitter are all easy to add to your card when you have these two! Ranger's Multi Medium Matte is a great all around glue. It dries quickly and it's clear and matte which means oozed out glue goes unnoticed. However, since you scooped your Multi Medium Matte into a wonderful Fine Line Applicator, the odds of oozing is quite minimal. The fineline applicator gives you ultimate control of where your glue is going. Get this combo and never look back!

• Paper Trimmer


This Fiskars Paper Trimmer is very similar to the one I have. I really do like my paper trimmer, but I think it's a bit of overkill and sometimes it seems just a little too bulky. Fiskars is known for making quality scissors and puts a great blade on paper trimmers. The arm on this trimmer expands for measurements up to 15" and then folds away for easy storage. I've tried rotary, blade, and guillotine trimmers and I've found that I prefer a straight blade, but not just any straight blade, a really good and sharp blade. This trimmer has a patented triple track system that eliminates any wobble to ensure a straight, wobble free cut. The Sure Cut wire line shows you exactly where your cut is going to be. Seriously, a paper trimmer is something you don't want to skimp out on. I started out with a super cheap one and ruined designer papers with jagged cuts and rips. It can really put a cramp in your crafting when that happens.

• Tutorials! 

Not only is this the only FREE thing on this list, it's also one of the most useful. You Tube has an array of card makers that share their infinite wisdom for free! You may have to watch an ad every once in a while, but it's totally worth it.

Here's a few of my favs:

Intoxicating Arts (LOL, that's actually me!)
Kristina Werner
Jennifer McGuire
Sandy Allnock
Carissa Wiley
Catherine Pooler
Darlene Devries
Laura Bassen
May Flaum
Michelle Short
Amy R - Prairie Paper & Ink

I hope this list was helpful for you and I welcome you to the crafting community! Please note that this post includes affiliate links. If you click on it and purchase something I will get a small commission. It's your way of saying "thanks for the suggestion" if you decide to purchase any of these items.

Is the Silhoutte PixScan Mat Worth It?

In one word, Yes.

Here's a video of me using the PixScan Mat with Stamped Images:




Here's a video of me using the Pixscan Mat with Patterned Paper:




Both of these videos show me using the mat for the FIRST TIME with each technique. There's actually some things I did in these videos which I later found out was the Long way and there's short cuts to be learned. For instance, the patterned paper video shows me taking a lot of work to get those cut out but I could have adjusted a few settings and got it done much quicker. Also, the calibration was never done so each image is cut slightly too far right and too far down.

Even with these few short comings because I needed to learn some tricks, I was still very happy with how well the PixScan mat works. Not only can it cut images out of some very busy patterned paper, but it can REPLACE die sets that would normally cost me $20.00 each! A lot of people like to buy the die set to cut out their stamp set and before they know it, they're spending $35-50 for a set of stamps and dies. That's a pretty high price especially if you want dies for all of your stamp sets. Having the Silhouette PixScan mat means NEVER having to buy die sets for your stamps ever again!

You can also trace an image from the internet and BOOM! You have a cloud, bird, sun, flower, etc. The PixScan mat is not needed to trace images off the internet, but I just wanted to mention another great function of the Silhouette. I actually used it to turn a stamp into a die cut. Pretty cool if you ask me.

If you want to buy the PixScan Mat, Amazon has it for a great low price.

    

I personally purchased a Silhouette Cameo 2 using this great bundle on Amazon: 

Un-Boxing The Silhouette Cameo 2 Bundle from Amazon

Here's a video of me un-boxing the Silhouette Cameo 2 Bundle I purchased from Amazon.



It was extremely easy to get set up and make my first cuts. I immediately dove in to using the included PixScan Mat, which I forgot to show in the video.

Even though I haven't had much time to play with this electronic die cutting machine yet, I can already tell you that it is pretty amazing. I will be trying to cut various materials in the near future to find out exactly what it can handle. It cut my 140lb Watercolor Cardstock with no hiccups. The machine is not what I would consider quiet, but it is quieter than my SLICE Machine. It is pretty light for how large it is and that is nice since it does not have a permanent spot on my desk and I have to slide it in and out of a little cubby in my IKEA Kallax shelving unit.  ( LOVE that shelving unit with desk attached by the way!). When I first got the machine out of the box I actually dropped it from maybe 1-2 ft onto my desk. I was terrified! However, it still works just like it should. I'm considering getting the Silhouette Designer Edition of Silhouette Studio to unlock more design potential, but I haven't made any final decisions on that quite yet.

I'll be back with some videos of the PixScan mat!

Welcome to the Craft Review

Here's what you can expect to find here:

 Honest and thorough reviews of art and craft related items such as :

    a. Tools

    b. Media

    c. Designers

    d. Companies

    e. Stamps 

    f. Dies and Embossing

    g, anything else art or craft related I want to review! 

I wanted to start this website because I have an online store, Intoxicating Arts, where I sell what I consider "the good stuff". I only carry items that I would or have personally used. This review website will allow me the chance to show you an in depth review of some of the items I carry in my store as well as other items that I purchase off of Amazon for my personal use but do not sell in my store. Occasionally I may link to other websites that sell products I love and are not available for purchase in my store or Amazon. 

My rating system will be based off of ease of use, value for your money (which includes quality and uniqueness), fun factor, and how often I would use the product. This rating system may change if I find a better way to fairly evaluate products. 

I hope you'll join me for my very first post which will be the un-boxing of a brand new Silhouette Cameo 2 Bundle!