Help with Pastels....

[mommaoftwo]

Hi ladies!

I need some help with my pastels and blender pens....:confused: When I go to use them, I take the blender pen and touch the edge of one of the pastels then go to blend..it comes out all blotchy and if I'm not careful it will get wet looking and all bally...I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. How much do you blend or touch the pen to the paper? What should the finished texture or look be???? Thanks so much.

Lesley

[Mahloumel]

Thank you for asking this question! I have tried to use my chalks and so far have had even less success than you. The stuff won't pick up on my sponge, and the one time it did it was all blotchy too.

[cbet]

Mel - instead of the sponge applicators that come with the chalks, try using a pompom (one of the cheap, fuzzy kind.) I wasn't happy with the sponge applicators either - seemed like the plastic inside the tip would poke thru and wreck what I was doing, and cotton balls were too big. Then I read somewhere about the pompoms and I made a couple of alligator-clips-on-sticks to hold them and now I love my chalk!

With the blender pen, I've only tried this with the chalks from Michaels, not Stampin Up!, but I would think it would be the same, I actually kind of swirled the blender pen around in a small corner of the chalk square to get some color on it, and then painted with it. It seemed a lot like coloring with a marker as I recall, but the color wasn't nearly as intense.

[Maisey-Moo]

This is why I passed on the pastels. I find that SU and other cardstock would pill or ball up on me when coloring in an image.

[imataloss]

This is my favorite medium. I have never had a problem. Maybe try to be a little light handed. The pom pom trick works great too. I love my pastels!

[lsasseville]

Hi Ladies,

I have had much success with my blenderpens and chalk, this is what i do....

take you blender pen and on one side of the chalk spin your blender pen on it, but do this with the pen tilted so that you get a sort of even coat. then wait just a second for it to sort of soak in and then color. I havent run into any issues using it this way. Also if you are looking for a good medium to use to pick up chalk for use with a versamark. cotton makeup pads either the circle ones or the square ones that you can buy either at the dollar store or in the cosmetics department at wal-mart work wonderfully!! make sure that they are the cotton ones though, they work the best and pick up the most.

well i hope this helps you all!!

Thanks!

[lsjoy30]

I agree with the versamark and eye make-up applicators. I'm making all the invites for my sons wedding using this technique. I've also found that I'm not having to rechalk so often.

[Helene333]

What is a pom pom? Hate to sound like a dummy, but I am a beginner. TY