Having a...

...bit of a play.

I found some stamped sheets that I'd done last year when I bought some of the "Betty Boots" stamps at Pinnacle Crafts. So I grabbed my ZIG 'Clean Color' pens and headed out to Barleylands on Sunday morning to make the most of the sunshine.

The pens are water-based and I haven't had much of a chance to play with them.

Here are the two colour versions that I completed...

...I think the "hair" on the second one needed more highlights but I picked a slightly darker base colour than I had intended.

I do love the very fine brush nib on these pens as you can really get into the detail of an image but I still struggle with skin-tones using water-based pens. Give me my alcohol-based Copics and I'm away but with the water-based pens I never feel that it is quite right.

Oh well, they say practice makes perfect so that is the perfect excuse to spend more time colouring LOL..........................................................

On Saturday I couldn't resist...

...some new stamps from Pinnacle Crafts.

Here is the first one that I have played with...

 ..."Winter Wonderland" from Woodware (JGS180). I loved the 'framed' look of the stamp.

So I had a play using the same sort of layout that I've been using with my "Cosy Cottage" stamp...

...and have tried two colourways...

 ...using flesh colours within the frame gives a slightly vintage look.
The other colourway is more traditional...

 ...with blues & greys used to give a more winter frost look...

...and a good amount of Cosmic Shimmer Sparkle on both cards gives a lovely shimmer.

The stamped image on each card was coloured using ZIG "Clean Color" pens - the very fine brush tip on these pens makes them so easy to use when colouring small fiddly areas.

I've made 3 of each colourway to help boost my stock of Christmas cards a bit more...........................

Pen storage...

...and some new additions to my 'pen' collection.

At the beginning of the year when Tim Holtz announced his new products at CHA, I was very taken with the storage tins for the Distress markers. As you can see...

 ...I now have three of them and they are perfect for what I am storing in them. In tin one...

 ...are my Distress crayons. Now you could argue that these are not 'pens' but they are pen-shaped so I think they "fit the bill". There are currently 18 crayon colours that come in 3 wallets - they fit very comfortably in the tin still in their wallets and there is plenty of space for the additional colours that Tim was hinting at.

My Distress markers have lived in the clear tubes that they arrived in and if I hadn't misplaced the 12 shades that came out the year of the "Four seasonal" releases, they wouldn't all fit (the 12 colours for 2015 have made the clear tubes very snug)...

 ...but here they are all together in a single tin and there is still room for my water brush and a few more pens should Mr Holtz come up with some new colours.

My third tin is home to my latest addition to my pen collection - the Zig Clean Color pens...

 ...which are a bit shorter than the other items I am storing in these tins as they are single ended. So far I have 20 (there are 80 colours in the range) and the brush nibs are lovely for fine detailed stuff right up to broader strokes for covering larger areas. The pens come as singles or in a variety of packs - 4pks, 6pk, 12pk, 24pk, 36pk, 40pk, 60pk. Unfortunately, although it works out cheaper to buy the pens in the pack configuration, there are duplicates of colours across the packs. I bought a 4pk (pales), the 12pk and 6 singles - and managed to duplicate two of the colours without realising.

I was surprised that I couldn't find a blank colour chart on the Kuretake website so went hunting on Google and found a link to Jennifer Mcguire's blog where she kindly offers some printables...

...these are arranged in colour groups and are a nice handy size for carrying with you whilst adding to your collection - they also fit nicely into the tins.

I've only had a brief 'play' with these pens so far but I do love the brush nib. I'll let you know how I get on when I put them to a bit more use..................................................................