Run, don’t walk! To Hochanda.com to see the latest episode of Stamp Addicts!
Sarah and Vicky will demo some fun products and brand new stamps to dress up your Easter cards and crafts!
Stamps by yours truly will be featured, as well, so EEPA! EEPA! EEPA! ONDALAY! Over to Hochanda I’m on my way!
I’m a dumb bunny.
That’s what we say here at our house when we do something stupid.
We live out in the country next a river, surrounded by farm fields. Wéve also got a bun-load of bunnies! Darling brown cotton-tail bunnies with little white tummies and tails that bob up and down when they take off across the fields. Those little tails look like bouncing cotton balls.
We call them “runny bunnies.”
See those sets of Prismacolor pencils up there? All three of them?
The complete set of 150 colored pencils, the complete set of 36 Verithins, and the set of 36 watercolor pencils? Yes, those.
I don’t have them anymore…..Because I’m a dumb bunny.
I sold them in one lot on eBay because I wasn’t using them. I do everything on the iPad – drawing and coloring – so I can send things to my stamp company and upload on social media. I don’t have time to color by hand.
I didn’t want to have expensive art supplies just laying around gathering dust and decaying with age when I’m not using them.
I thought, “Hey, how difficult can it be to learn to color with alcohol markers? Everyone colors their stamps with those, so I should use the same coloring methods on my stamps so I can produce samples they can relate to.”
How hard is it? Oh, just mostly impossible…for me.
So, after I wasted a bunch of time and money purchasing alcohol markers, trying and struggling to learn to use them, and finding out it’s well-nigh impossible, I went back to what I CAN use…colored pencils.
I CAN’T color with alcohol markers.
I CAN color with colored pencils….except for the fact that I got rid of them.
And then I had to buy them….AGAIN.
And THAT would be why I’m a dumb bunny.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with bunnies. We all love bunnies.
But dumb bunnies are a different animal entirely.
Your lesson for today is: Don’t be a dumb bunny.
Would you like to have a complete, good-quality coloring kit that won’t cost an arm, leg, kidney or plasma, but don’t know where to start?
Here are my quick, cheap recommendations, followed by the longer, more expensive versions, all of which I have, use and highly recommend.
Crayola is my go-to brand because I’m a mom and have kids who like to raid my art supplies, all while I’m working on professional art projects, lol, so it keeps them from destroying my expensive stuff.
Artists can and do produce good artwork using Crayola products, believe it or not!
Surprised? Yep, me too!
First……Go to Crayola.com.
Give them your email, and sign up for their newsletter.
You’ll get an immediate 10% coupon, as well as 15% and 20% coupons from time to time, and free shipping.
Before I buy, I compare prices on Crayola.com, Walmart.com, eBay, and Amazon, then I buy the cheapest.
If you want to get started but have a very, very limited budget:
DOLLAR STORE SHOPPING LIST
TOTAL $15, plus or minus
If you have a bit more to spend….
BASIC COLORING SUPPLY LIST FOR ADULT COLORING AND STAMPING
TOTAL $70, plus or minus
You can take a trip to your nearest Walmart and get almost everything you need.
This is where I regularly purchase…
USE WHAT YOU HAVE
Use baby oil, petroleum jelly, rubbing alcohol, gamsol, or mineral spirits to create a wash or blend regular colored pencils with QTips, cotton balls, paper towel, rags.
MY GO-TO COLORING KIT
TOTAL $200, plus or minus
Note: Walmart doesn’t carry Crayola Tri-tone pencils, oil pastels, pearlescent pastels, watercolor pencils, fine-tip markers, Color and Blend pencils or product lines, or gel pens. However, Walmart.com does. I purchased mine at Crayola.com, EBay, and Amazon.
These are my go-to coloring supplies when I’m not creating on the IPad. I also have the more expensive stuff, but I’m afraid to use it, lol.
DUAL PURPOSE PRODUCT
These Crayola products are all watersoluble and can be used as paint, as well as pencil, markers, pens and pastels, so each one is dual-purpose!
Draw a line, use the waterbrush pen or a paintbrush dipped in water and it becomes a painted line!
I recommend the largest sets of colors in the markers and pencils because you need the full range of tones for skin tones for portraits – pets and people – as well as for shading.
Otherwise, a basic set of 36 colors is a good set to start with, and these colors can be blended to create new shades.
Scribble a marker or pastel on a plastic lid or plate, dip a wet paint brush in the color, use it as watercolor paint on mixed media or #110 cardstock.
DO YOU REALLY NEED EXPENSIVE ART SUPPLIES?
It’s not the product you use, it’s your ability to use it. I can draw with a burned matchstick, and it looks as if I had used a piece of charcoal produced by a well-known art company.
Expensive art supplies DO have better pigmentation, lay down, ease of use, etc., but it really depends on the skill of the user.
Crayola products are so solid in terms of quality, color, vibrancy, ease of use, lay down and cost that it’s a great product for beginning and intermediate colorists.
SAVE MONEY ON PRINTER INK
And while you’re at it, sign up with HP Ink to save money on printing off coloring pages and stamps! $2.99 per month!
Purchasing an HP ink cartridge for our printer runs about $45 for the black and white and color.
For $25, you can buy a new HP printer at Walmart, then sign up at HP.com for their amazing ink savings deal: $2.99 per month for 50 pages. And if you need to print more than that for some reason, it will cost you only $1 per every 10 pages over that.
Go to:
https://store.hp.com/us/en/cv/instantink
We did, and it’s awesome! The printer is great, and so is the savings!
HAPPY ART FOR A HAPPY HEART! 