Alcohol Markers and Blooming Branch (Technique Tuesday Greenhouse Society)

Hello everyone!

I've got some new additions to the craft room and I want to talk about one with you today. 

I've used them in this card so let's go ahead and have a look:

Actually, this picture shows all three new things, so I'll just tell you what I'm focusing on:

Alcohol markers.

I've done a bit of research into what they are, how they work, the best brands, the best prices etc.

I'm sure you've heard of 'Copic Markers' or 'Spectrum Noir' and the like. These are incredible pens which can do so much!

Alcohol markers attracted me because of the blendability between shades and colours. In researching what brands are good, you also find a lot of information in regards to what the numbers mean on each pack, how different brands stock colours and refills etc.

The alcohol markers I decided to purchase are from Tonic Studios, called the Nuvo Creative Pens. I chose these for a number of reasons.

1 - Their packs come with three pens of the one colour shade. Instead of having to purchase 36 pens in order to get three greens to blend with, I could buy one. I first picked a few packs that I could try out and see if I liked the blending. I went with a basic green pack, a grey and a red. These colours blended amazingly well as soon as I started and I immediately knew I would love more.

2 - The numbering system on these pens is a lot simpler than other sets. Instead of having a system like 'BG47' and 'BG24' look completely different, these pens only had three numbers - so three blues look like '348, 350, 352'. I then knew immediately which colours were lighter than others. 

3 - The colours all have names! They're very pretty names too, and match what you'd expect the colour to be. I haven't been disappointed in colour expectation vs reality.
4 - They're a great quality pen for very cheap prices. Instead of paying $400+ for a complete set of all released pens, I'm paying about $200. Fantastic! They don't have refills but I'm happy to re-purchase whole sets when I need to.

In short, I've fallen in love with these markers. I'm not against using other markers if they so happen to cross my path, but these are definitely the ones I'm happy to purchase.

This card features a number of other new items including a Simon Says Stamp Wonky Stitched Border die and a new Technique Tuesday stamp (Blooming Branch). You can see them in this card and in others I post so there's no need to wax lyrical about them right now.
I've used clear embossing powder on the background images, and Distress Ink blending for the background.
I've also used my new Dymo LetraTag label writer to create the sentiment for this one. Samantha from Coykoicrafting uses a label writer heaps and I've decided to jump on the bandwagon. I love it!


That's it for today! Do you use alcohol markers? What brand are you sticking with, and why do you love it? Do you subscribe to any monthly shipping programs? Let me know!

Until next time,
Shana xx