Playing around with new things.

 Close To My Heart has come out with colored pencils that are wax-based, and packed with pigment core. They come in Bright and Vivid Z7039, Perfect Portrait Z7037 and Natural Landscape Z7038.  You can get them individually for $6.95 plus tax and shipping or in a bundle Z5431 for $20.85 plus tax and shipping. 

I also wanted to play with the stencils from the National Stamping Month - Say it with Style.

I had some left over pieces and put together these cards. The top birthday card was done with the pencils.  They blend easily.  I also learned that when I used the Shimmer Brush, it does pick up the color you have used.  On the one with the chickees, the far left one has some green on his head. 

With the bottom 2 I used CTMH ink for the stencils.  The top one is the National Stamping Month new one and the gnomes had an older one.  

I has learned that the Tim Holtz website had a mat that was sticky on both sides so that you don't have to hold the ink pad when you are getting the ink on a brush.  I also learned that I could use a Pampered Chef silicone hot pad and it works well.  Many of the stencils have small intricate cuttings and I was having difficulty getting a clean image.  While working on ceramic tile coasters, as well as @cdtcreatives, I found that Pixie spray works really great.