Review of the Mepxy Brush Markers

Recycled Soda Tab Earrings colored with Mepxy Brush Markers

I really enjoyed crafting with the Mepxy Brush markers (from the U.K.) because of their versatilty, ease of use, quality, and excellent color selection.  Above is a pair of recycled soda tab earrings that I made using the markers to color the metal.

The Mepxy markers are now being sold in the United States in art stores.  The markers bring Anime artists, calligraphy artists, and crafters a new choice in alcohol ink markers.  Mepxy even has a blog dedicated to anime artists with a fun gallery and ideas for using the markers.
The set that I got is the Mepxy 12 colors basic set which includes:

• B06 Peacock Blue
• L07 Natural Green
• 006 Cadmium Orange
• V06 Iris Purple
• C05 Cyan
• M09 Magenta
• P04 Lavender
• W07 Light Mahogany
• G07 Vivid Green
• N18 Sepia
• R08 Vermilion
• Y06 Bright Yellow

and separately, I purchased:

• 00 Colorless Blending Pen
• Marker Blending Palette

I had a opportunity to test them out and here are my findings in using this product.  The colors are high pigment that makes for a very rich color.  I made a color chart so you could see how they look on ivory card stock.

The inks are also translucent which makes blending the inks very easy to accomplish.  I did a sample blending using two of the colored ink markers and the colorless blending brush.

They all worked very well together and I was quite pleased. The dots pattern on the dress was done with the colorless blender pen.

 The colorless blender pen is used to remove excess ink from the image or to blend colors.

Like the other quality alcohol ink markers in the market place, these markers come with two tips.  The marker has a fine brush tip on one side

and a wide chisel tip on the other.

Shading with these markers is pretty easy.  You can add color by going over the same area with the marker or use a darker color.  The colorless blender pens are great for lightening up areas to create more dimension in a picture.

I read on the Mepxy website that the ink is toner friendly and won't react to it nor would it remove images from it.  So I did my own test on this.  I used five colors and none of them lifted the image from the paper.

I decided to test the markers on different surfaces to see how they looked.  I started by testing them on metal soda tabs.  I used the markers to color the metal soda tabs.  These have recently become popular in recycling craft projects but are often hard to find in nice colors.  So I colored a few with the markers and as you can see some of the colors are more opaque than others.
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I also tried the Mepxy markers on wire hooks.  I used the markers to color the wire in various colors and it worked perfectly.  This also worked well on plain metal staples.

Then I tried it out on a cut up piece of aluminum soda can that I had run through my Big Shot machine.  This also worked really well.

Note:  When working with metal, allow the ink to dry in between coats of different colors.  Also use a toothpick to hold the metal during the painting process to avoid smearing the ink while it dries.   I decided to heat set the ink to ensure that the ink would remain colorfast and permanent on the metal.

For my First Project, I decided to make some simple Soda Tab Earrings with materials I had on hand.

Next, I decided to try test them on some plain cloth flowers.  I took apart the flowers and used the yellow color to paint the center of the petals.  I let them dry for about a half hour. Then I proceeded to wet the outer surface of the petals (one at a time) with the colorless blender pen which was immediately followed by inking the surface with the orange marker.

The finished flowers looked great.  I liked the vibrancy of the colors and I think the colored flowers are much cuter than the original plain flower.

Then I decided to see how these would work on canvas that has been prepped with gesso.
      For my second project, I used the markers to make a page in my altered art journal.  First, I colored the background with the markers.  Then I stamped several designs onto the page. I  filled in the color on the skull with the Mepxy markers.  I could layer the ink without blocking out my stamped images by doing only one coat.  I quickly finished off the page by adding some simple embellishments.

Mepxy Alcohol Ink Markers used in Altered Art Journal Pages

My third project was to use the markers over various card stock to see how it would hold up.  As you can see in the photo below, it worked great on the canvas, card stock, and the various trims that I combined to make a fun wall hanging for my daughter.

      The Mepxy Alcohol Ink Brush markers worked well together with all the different elements that I tested them.  I certainly got the results that I wanted from them.  This product seems to work on so many surfaces that the possibilities for crafting use are vast.

      The Mepxy Alcohol Ink Brush markers also work great on shrink plastic, air dry clay, epoxy clay pieces, lace, assorted papers, various metals, and more.  I enjoyed the versatility of these markers and the intensity of the pigmented alcohol inks.  They are very easy to work with, however, I can not stress enough that once the ink is applied to a surface, it will dry quickly.   Make sure to plan your project with this in mind.  Personally, I love that it dries quickly because it lets me move on to the next project phase.

    The markers are also sold individually at around $10 (but I found them online for less) which makes it easy to collect the colors you like.  The sets retail for $72 to $74 but again, a google search listed them at several retailers for various prices.  These markers would be great for the art students, journaling, or crafter's.  My kids love them for doing Anime drawings because of the smooth flow of the ink and the double ended tip.

Tips:

• Immediately place tips back onto markers so they do not dry out.
• I was told by the rep to store my markers horizontal.
• Do not use with Staz On ink, because it can react to it.
• These are rich colors and will seep through cheaper quality paper, so take that into consideration when planning your projects.
• If you decide to color soda tabs with alcohol ink pens, you have to clean them and sand them to get alcohol ink to stick.  Then you need to heat set it (I use my embossing tool).  The intensity of color you get depends on the amount of ink you use and the brand of ink you use.  
• I found the ink adhered differently to different types of metal.  So I recommend you do a test first to make sure the alcohol inks will work on the metal you are planning on using.

New Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Mepxy Brush Markers, however they did provide these markers to me to do a honest review on my own blog and on the Craft Critique blog.  If you want to read the pros and cons, then go to the Craft Critique blog post and scroll down to the bottom.  The I do Craft Critique Reviews, they like us to post both the pros and cons of a product. I just do not have room to do that on my own blog posts here.

Additionally, I am an Amazon associate and will earn a few cents (literally) from your clicking on my Amazon links and make a purchase. This year was my biggest earner, I earned a total of $9 from my Amazon associate link. Every penny helps when trying to get supplies to do reviews and tutorials.   However you should know that you do not have to use my links. You can do your own Google search and find the best price for your budget.

A review of the Letraset AquaMarkers

The "Letraset" AquaMarkers are markers with a water based acid free pigment ink.  

The list price for one marker is $2.75 .   They are also sold in a set of twelve colors for $29.95.  A google search found several great deals on these markers, so the price can vary according to the retailer.

This AquaMarker Set includes 12 markers with the added bonus of ProMarker Blender pen.  These water based pigment inks are very vibrant.  The colors in this kit are:

• Flame Red
• Sepia
• Gold Ochre
• Straw Yellow
• Bamboo
• Celery
• Fern Green
• Aquamarine
• Twilight Blue
• Royal Purple
• Rose Carmine
• Lamp Black

The kit also includes a handy guide that gives hints on how to:

• blend with water
• achieve colour graduations
• a handy color chart
• how to use the blender marker
• what types of paper work best with the markers
• brief description of the nibs

The AquaMarkers have double nib tips like the other line of markers that Letraset carries.  However, these come with a fine tip nib on one end and 

medium brush like nib on the other end. 

These two nibs can be used to create a variety of effects with the inks.  The fine nib is used for drawing and small areas.

The medium brush like nib, is for filling in larger areas.

Because the inks blend easily, you can achieve similar effects to watercolor paints with color tone and washes as you would traditional water colors.  You can also soften the bright pigmented colors by adding water with a paint brush or  

Sable Paintbrush

using the ProMarker Blender pen.

AquaMarker Blender Pen

You can blend the colors by using either the ProMarker Blender or a water brush pen filled 

Waterpen

with water.  This can be done without leaving a hard edge which can be a problem with some of the water color pens on the market today.  The colors can even be blended after they have dried.  

The manufacturer recommends using a hot pressed watercolor paper.  Since all that type of information in available on their website, I decided to test the markers on cold pressed watercolor papers to see what type of results I would get.

Here are the results I got:

1.  The first paper I tried was "Canson" cold press 140lb fine grain paper (XL Series).

The inks worked well with that paper and spread without any problems.  Here is what the project looked like.

2.  The second paper I tried was Strathmore Watercolor cold press 140lb paper from the 300

Series.  I got a fairly decent watercolor effect with these, but I did have to wet the paper a lot.  

Here is what the project looked like with this paper.

3.  The third paper I tested these inks on was Biefang Watercolor 140lb paper by Speedball.

The color soaked into the paper.  The best way to work with this paper was to wet it well first, 

and then add the inks (working quickly before it had a chance to soak in again).  I would not

recommend using these inks on this paper.

4.  The fourth paper that I tested the inks on was Arches Watercolor cold press 140lb 

fine grain paper.  The inks spread well using just the brush (wet with water).

It was an easy paper to work with and the inks were easy to control just by controlling the 

amount of water I used to create the watercolor wash effect.

5.  The fifth and final paper that I tested the inks on was Strathmore watercolor cold press 

140lb paper (400) series.  Once again, I encountered no issues.  The watercolor wash looked 

great and was easy to do on this paper.

I should point out that getting the stamped image to come out dark was a bit of a challenge. The Staz on ink virtually sunk into the paper and faded out a bit.  I had to go over the stamped images with the Aquacolors to get in dark enough to photograph.

Anyway, the first project which was a tag worked well for testing out the inks on cold press paper.

First Project - Tag

First Project - Tag

First Project Supplies:

• Letraset AquaMarkers (Aquamarine, Twilight Blue, Straw Yellow, Flame Red, Bamboo, Fern Green, Lamp Black, and Gold Ochre)
• Rubber Stamp
• Staz On ink pad
• brush pen filled or a clean paint brush 
• heavy weight watercolor paper
• water

Instructions:

1. Stamp image with staz on.  Heat set or let air dry.

2. Then using a paint brush that has been dipped in water, brush it across the image.  Be careful of how much water you use, because it could buckle the paper and affect the finished product.

3.  This will help to blend the inks for your wash.

4.  Take the marker and brush in the image.  Then using the wet brush, you can blend it out.

5.  Then just add color to achieve the finished product.

For the second project, I decided to demonstrate how to do a "Watercolor Wash" with these inks.  A warning on the video below, it is shot with an iphone and we were having technical issues in getting the screen to work right.  However, it will work enough for you to get the idea of how easy these markers are to use.

The project came out looking like this.

Another plus, is the fact that since the AquaMarkers are a pigment ink, they can be directly applied to rubber 

stamps.  An experienced rubber stamper friend of mine told me to work fast and to blow on the inked stamp, for some reason the moisture from one's breathe keeps the ink moist. .  

The ink will not stain the stamp, if you clean the stamp immediately after using it.  I used this stamp and applied the ink directly to the stamp to decorate this pillow box.

The Letraset AquaMarkers are very versatile and fun to work with.  Additionally, the Letraset website states that the Aqua Markers ink are acid free, so they are considered to be safe to use in your scrapbooking.  

Disclaimer

My experience with the Fab Badge Maker by Alex Crafts

Alex Fab Badge Maker Review

My children and I got to spend time with our cousins this past holiday weekend.  The girls love learning new kids crafts, so we decided that testing out the "Fab Badge Maker" kit would be a fun activity for a nice summer day.  The bunny to the left is wearing a  bunny bow pin that my daughter made with this kit.

The Alex "Fab Badge Maker" kit recommends the "Fab Badge Maker" kit for kids 7 years old and up.  The list price is $21.99 and an online search found that the actual retail price varies.  What makes this kit different from so others badge (pin) kits, is that that it so easy to use and with a lot less parts.  Additionally, you can use fabrics and other ephemera with it.  This is not a traditional pin making kit since the designs of the pin are for utilizing fabric and not  the traditional paper.

The instructions have good simple step-by-step drawings on how to assemble the badge.  The "So-Easy Badge Maker" was a little tricky for my eight year old cousin to figure out.  There is a small learning curve for little fingers to learn to use it correctly.  However, once they play around with it for a bit, it gets easier.  The twelve and fourteen year olds, did not have any problems figuring out how to use the badge maker.  It is not time consuming and will hold their interest for the short time it takes to create a fun little badge (pin).

The Box of Supplies includes:

10 Badge parts ( 10 each of the tops, backings, and snaps)
1 So-Easy Badge Maker
12 Fabric Circles
12 Glitter Stickers and Gems
1 Instruction sheet

So-Easy Badge Maker

Fabric circles included in kit.

Floral Planter Badge Project

For my first project, I decided to make a flower plant stick that one of my daughters could use to give to a teacher aid at school.  The supplies for most of it were in the kit, I just added some floral petals, a glass container, dirt, moss and a small plant.

The first step is to take one of the pieces of fabric circles and place onto the "So-Easy Badge Maker".

You will push one of the badge tops like you see below into the "So-Easy Badge Maker".

Then you need to push down all the fabric to flatten it a bit.  If any of the fabric covers the small center circle, just remove it and start over to get it centered. Watch your layers, if you cut things just right you can add layers of various materials to the pin. The snap will not hold if there is fabric covering the center circle.

Then add the floral petals. If the center hole on the petal is too small, just cut a hole big enough to fit.

The next step is to push the backing piece into position and hold the layers of material in place until you

can put the back snap piece in place and snap it in securely.  Listen for the snap sound to be sure the pin backing are on securely, otherwise it will fall apart when you remove from the "So-Easy Badge Maker".

Next, you will carefully remove the badge from the badge maker.

And it will look like this.

The kids thought it looked a bit boring so they voted that we add one of the cute stickers included in this

kit.  They were right, it did look cuter.

Next I added a stick and placed into the planter.  It was so easy and very fast to make.

Ribbon Accent Project

I saw some really nice gift box ribbons at the gift counter at my local department and thought how nice they were.  However, at $7 for one ribbon, that was a bit steep for my budget.  So when I saw these badges, I realized I could make my own version of those ribbons.

I took the ribbon and cut about a 3" piece. Then I removed the wiring that ran on both sides of the

ribbon.  I also trimmed any excess from the ribbon.

The remaining ribbon fit well into the badge maker.

The ribbon was a bit stiffer fabric than the fabric circles that are included in this kit.  So I had to hold

them down until I could put the backing and the snap piece onto the badge maker.

I carefully removed the badge.

I made the rest of the bow with the same ribbon and pinned the badge to the bow. It looked just like the ones at the store.

Bunny Pin On Hat

My daughter loved the bow idea and decided to make the third project.  Her bunny needed a hair accent to go with her ice skating outfit.  So we looked at the supplies and figured out what we need and added to it from things we had in the craft box.

 We added ribbon, lace, and a few other small items.  My daughter was very proud of her finished piece.

Below are a few other pieces that the kids enjoyed making.  They went through my scrap drawer and found some different items to add to their badges like:

We are still working on my daughters mini altered scrap book, so she made a badge (pin) to put onto the page below.  The pink and blue pin has some beads, ribbon, floral die cut, and a butterfly glued onto it.

The next badge is made with paper die cut flower, I had left over from a scrapbooking project.  The petals were added in the same way I that I added the silk flower petals.

Paper Flower petal Pin

Next we went through the bead box to see what would work with these cute pins:

The pink ribbon ribbon bracelet made with some ribbon and rhinestones.

A happy face pin which is very simple and takes less than a minute to make.

The black and orange flower stick below is made from an old black t-shirt, paper leaves,

and folded paper (using the Martha Stewart Scoring Board).   Then the kids just glued the pin onto a stick.

All of these were easy to make.  As you can see, there was a range of different looks reflecting the different personalities of each girl.  There was a short learning curve for the younger girls but that did not stop them from having fun with these badges.  Another plus is that the pins spin, so you can easy add googly eyes or something similar to take advantage of the spin affect.

Disclosure