Monday, August 22, 2005

Gel Pens and Prismacolor pencils

Current postcard count is up to 62 here...and about 70 if you count the ones down at People Places and Quiilts in Summerville where I will be teaching a postcard class and an atc class this weekend...

I never can leave well enough alone...just love coloring on these postcards with whatever is at hand...currently its gel pens, Prismacolor pencils and pigma markers...


I just went to sams and bought a tub of 100 gel pens for $18 ...best thing since hot butter toast...they say can be used on fabric...some of them are sparkly...a friend and I split them...and they are just great on the stamped/collaged/beaded post cards embellished and stitched with black core madiera....


All of the eyes and the butterfly are highlighted with gel pens on the kitty postcard...makes the cat eyes really show up and glow. Sometimes I used two or three gel pens on the eyes like on the large face at the top...used a blue, a light green, black and white. The noses and ears are also colored with white...Lettering on the my cat stamps is also done with a lime green gel pen.


The two face cards...the eyes are colored with the same gel pens...but what a difference the fabric color makes...oh yeah and the eyse are highlighted with a white pentel gel pen...one of my all time favorites.














The dog postcards...well the butterflies are done
with Prismacolor penils and gel pens...and veins were done with either purple pigma pens or brown gel pens OR black core madiera...









The funny mermaids and angel with wacky butterfly cards were all highlighted with gel pens....Hopefully sooner or later I will bead them...I think its very interesting how colors change so much on different fabrics...and several of these are all on the same yellow/pink/green batik which is great for stamping....Dont the devil cats eyes glow...and of course they had to be red...

I will say that the only way to know if gel pens are permanent is to test them ...so I
would do that before I used them on anything that would be washed..last year did a large needle turned applique block that had the pieces outlined with the WRONG gel pen...picked it up accidently...dropped a fudgesicle on it and had to wash it...well it bled....

I tested a lot of gel pens after that...the right gel pen that I thought I had used NEVER bled and the one that I did use bled like crazy...

A lot of the pentel pens ...pastel colors will also wash out...but I would still test if I was worried about them washing out...

Prismacolor pencils do not wash out...colored the center medallion in a blended quilt that I did two years ago...and the color still looks great. I am sure that I used Crayola pencils on it too...have quite a few of those and I will grab whatever pencil I have handy...

4 comments:

LoieJ said...

I jelous, 100 gel pens??? I have the impression that "regular" stores aren't often carrying gel pens any more. It seems to me that the ink runs out really fast. But I like gel pens. I should test mine. I've just assumed that they are water fast. I like the white when I need a precise mark on dark fabric. I've used them for the addresses on my fabric postcards. Have you tried the multi colored inks (swirrled in one pen?) Some of them are great. Also great on black paper.

Micki said...

Margaret,
I just love the work you have been showing. And the info about the pens and pencils is very useful.
thanks!

Ros Ward said...

Loved your postcards, you've made me want to go get gel pens. Lovely, thanks for sharing.
Ros

Tonya Ricucci said...

I am way jealous - you are having too much fun. thanks for pre-answering questions on fastness.