Hi friends! Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there. I am writing this post at the tender hour of 6:30am (apparently my dog did not get them memo that I wished to sleep in LOL!) I will be visiting my mom this afternoon, I can’t wait! My kids love to see their little cousin and we all just chill out at mom’s PLUS she has an enormous lilac bush in the back yard that is always full of flowers on mother’s day so she always sends me home with some. I adore lilacs, always have but could never get them to grow at my house. Every mason jar I own will be full of fragrant flowers tomorrow, yippee!
So, I have been asked A LOT about the Chameleon Color Tones Pens since they came out at CHA 2014. I loved the concept but resisted buying any because I have hundreds of alcohol markers already so it seemed a bit foolish to buy more. On the other hand I know i have the means to try out more supplies than many crafters because I make my living in part by my videos and reviews help you guys decide if a product is right for you. Every product is not useful to every crafter. Chameleon generously sent me a set of their pens to review. Here is a demo and first impressions. BTW I had a duplicate in my box and they have shipped me the missing pen, they are very nice people over there!
Video!
The full line of pens come in 22 colors plus a blender. My kit also had a black pen you could draw with and color over and not bleed. There are 22 reinkers and blender solutions that each come with a refill needle and reinking seems to be easy and neat.
I think these pens would be most useful to someone without many markers already or someone wanting a kit to take with them on trips or vacation. I like the limited palette but it is more work to get the exact colors (by layering and blending) and there is a learning curve just like with all markers. These are best for small images (in my experimentation) but larger blends can be achieved by practice but if you already have a large collection of markers I think you would turn to them first.
Often coloring with alcohol markers is slow going and the additional time waiting to charge the pen with blender might be frustrating for some. I did not mind it because I do coloring projects while watching TV or listing to a podcast. That is why I did not speed up the video, I wanted you to know how long it took to realistically color an area. If you want to pick up some of these pens for yourself you can at the Chameleon website and get free domestic US shipping with the coupon code: SASFS
Are these markers for you? Let me know what you think in the comments! Happy crafting!
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