I hesitate to call these ink pens, but I don't have a better word for them. They're art pens, stained glass pens, neat writing pens, something more than just an ink pen.
I got a set of Glaze Ink pens at Blissdom'08 (PSA: you should be signing up for Blissdom'09). When I dumped out my swag bag, I was immediately drawn to them. I am not artsy at all, but I am definitely crafty, and these were right up my alley. I couldn't wait to get home and glaze pen something.
The recommended surfaces for the pens is plastic, glass, and metal. I knew my cell phone could certainly use some adornment, so I went to work. This was the result.
Tonight, I thought my new purchase from One Goodie could use a little sprucing up. When I'm at the grocery store and Maddie is no longer satisfied with the Cheerios contained in the One Tray, I'm hoping she'll start looking at the cute images instead.
This is what I started with:
I put the stickers on. They make gold and silver stickers, I got gold ones with my set. There was a sheet of "girl" stickers with hearts and flowers and kitty's and the boy set had sumo wrestlers and sushi.
Yes, I am a stereotype waiting to happen. I'm sorry. I waited a long time to buy a bunch of pink stuff and cover it with kittens and hearts.
Then you just take the pens and fill in the pictures. It takes A LOT of ink to fill them in, sometimes you have to go back and fill in as the paint shifts. It took me about 30 minutes to color in all of these designs. The pens are easy to use, I did mine in a tapping and regular writing method and it seemed to fill in nicely. I have the transparent set of pens, but they also make a souffle set that is more opaque.
I know my artistic abilities are staggering, but the flash makes these look darker than they really are. It makes a nice stained glass window effect.
The instructions say that you can gently peel off the stickers and stick them to something else. I haven't tried that yet.
These would be a perfect gift for a teenager. You could include a set of stickers and pens and a mirror, metal tin or some other teenager-ish item to decorate. They can do their cell phone or Trapper Keeper (wait, do they still sell those?) Just don't blame me when you refrigerator gets stickered.
You can use the markers freehand if you write slowly and steadily. The white pen can even be used on white paper and then markers or a color wash put over it to make the secret message appear.
Want to Know What I Think?
This is almost paint by numbers easy, but it's fun and unique. I personally tried to find things to use them on around the house, but I don't think my husband would appreciate me decorating his bathroom mirror with sumo wrestlers. They work better on lighter plastic with the stained glass pens. The souffle ones should stand out easily on any color background. Definetly worth $10-15. A great kids Santa exchange present, stocking stuffer or birthday party present.