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Thumbs Down for Blendy Pens

November 14, 2016 by michelle meehan

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I went to a Kids’ Crafts Workshop (see – I told you I see a lot of kids’ crafts 🙂 with my kids this weekend.  It was held at a craft store here, and it featured several different stations with a different product/activity at each station so the kids could get some hands-on experience.  One of the stations featured Blendy Pens, and I have to admit that I’m baffled by the entire product.  The basic premise is that you twist a double-tipped marker so that the two felt ends meet in the middle chamber, thus creating a marker that is now two colors instead of just one.  Supposedly, twirls and swirls of color ensue when the marker is used on the paper.

Wrong.

It was difficult for little hands (and even my much bigger hands) to twist the pens to the point where the tips actually touched and blended the colors.  Plus, what’s all the fuss about “blended” colors, anyway?  Couldn’t kids get a similar effect just by using two different markers on the page? When you were in school, did you not try specifically to avoid letting your marker tips touch one another so that the pristine tips wouldn’t be sullied by a different color ink? (or was that just me?  is that just one of my quirks?  say it isn’t so…)  I was completely unimpressed by the Blendy Pens.  I’m betting they’re one of those ideas that sounded good on paper, but once they passed from theory into reality, it just didn’t hold up. Most importantly, my kids were unimpressed as well, so they get thumbs down from both mom and her child testers, who were bored and just looking out for the next activity.

I remember my daughter wanting to buy a generic brand of these pens at a local fair,  we didn’t buy any but I did buy some online from ebay for 1/2 the price. She used them one or twice but then decided that blending pens didn’t actually do all those wonderful things, it was the lady who drew all those wonderful things.

Personally, I think these are better suited to older kids such as teens who need to work on creative titles for school projects etc.

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Bookmark Cross Stitch Patterns

It seems like there’s no end to the available options when it comes to cross stitch bookmarks, which is a good thing because they’re perennially popular to stitch as well. This time I thought I’d share some colorful cross stitch bookmarks to get you ready for the new school year or to make meeting your reading goals a little more fun. 

I love these retro floral designs from The Stitch Patterns. This set of four patterns is rated as very easy, and each bookmark measures 2.5 by 6 inches (or 6.35 by 15.25 cm) on 14 count fabric. 

These cute ones that look like mosaic tile would also be fun to stitch. This set includes five designs from EmbroSTyle Designs, and they call them folk art but they mostly look like old mosaics to me. Either way, the bookmarks are 25 by 101 stitches, and to stitch the full set uses 12 colors. 

If you’re looking for more of a challenge, you can stitch up a work of art with this set of 16 bookmarks designed to look like famous paintings. Stitch some sunflowers or a great wave or a starry night. Most of these are between 14 and 20 colors (the great wave is only 8) and the bookmarks are totally covered with stitching at a count of 35 by 100 stitches. Grab this set from Sunset and Sea Design.

Or how about some bookmarks inspired by books (or by movies inspired by books)? This set of Lord of the Rings bookmarks includes four landmarks from the books/movies. Each one is 35 by 115 stitches and uses between 8 and 17 colors. You can find them at byCountryMagicStitch.

These don’t quite all fit the description of being colorful bookmarks to cross stitch, but a few of them do, and speaking of book-themed bookmarks I had to share this set from Mama Geek inspired by Heartstopper. There are seven designs in all that should be quite familiar to readers (or viewers of the series). 

25 Christmas Bookmark Cross-stitch Patterns [Cross-Stitch]

25 Floral Bookmark Cross Stitch Patterns

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