The Best Pencil Sharpener Ever and Other Colored Pencil Supplies I Love

I mentioned yesterday that there are some colored pencil projects I started solely for the purpose of testing out new supplies. Today I want to share some of my absolute favorite colored pencil supplies, starting with the best pencil sharpener I've ever used. All of these came from my colored pencil wishlist. 

The Kutsuwa T'GAAL Angle Adjustable Pencil Sharpener is incredible (affiliate link here and below). You can choose the angle for sharpening; the sharpest one is beyond anything I've ever seen. The point gets into the tiniest of spaces with ease. The sharpener feels great in my hand. It doesn't hold quite as much shavings as some other sharpeners I've tried, but I don't mind dumping it out slightly more often. I'm not sure how long the blade will stay razor sharp, but every sharpener dulls over time. And this is affordable enough to replace as needed. 

I love the Tombow Mono Zero Eraser. The precision tip makes it so easy to get into small places and the pen shape makes it much easier to grip than a standard rectangular eraser. The round version is equally spectacular. Get both!

I got a set of aluminum pencil extenders and they are fantastic. The red pencil below is one of my beloved Eagles and it is under 2" long, which makes it almost impossible to hold and control. By sliding it into the pencil extender, I can hold it comfortably and continue to use it until there's virtually nothing left!

My BTSKY Colored Pencil Organizer is everything I'd hoped it would be and more. There are 168 slots that each hold a single pencil securely, yet it's easy to get them in and out. The organizer zips and has handy carrying strap. When zipped, it can sit on a shelf like a book. I've grouped my pencils by color; it's convenient to see all my options side-by-side like this. 

Do you have any favorite colored pencil supplies that aren't on my list? I'd love to hear about them!

Using Greyscale with Colored Pencil

Even though I haven't been sharing it here on the blog, I've been working on improving my skills with colored pencils. I have a few projects in progress that I may or may not complete any time soon. Or ever. I started some of the projects solely for the purpose of testing out new supplies. I started other projects to work on specific skills, including shading, blending, and color matching. 

Here is one of my in-progress projects from the second category:

My sister-in-law gave me this pot of succulents for my birthday. The colors, shapes, and textures are very interesting, and thus a good project for coloring.   

But rather than sketching it myself, I created a greyscale version of my photograph, then printed it on vellum bristol (affiliate link). 

Since I don't have to worry about sketching, all of my focus is on matching the shadows, textures, and colors. Think of it like coloring with training wheels. It's easier, but it's still not easy. Far from it.  

It's fascinating how I think I'm seeing a certain color, when in fact that is not the color I'm seeing at all. For example, the shadow on the pot looked grey to me until I colored a light layer of grey on the paper and it didn't look right at all. By isolating the area on my color printout, I realized it actually has a pink tone.  

I still have a long way to go before I finish this project, but I feel like it's taught me a lot already. Like anything, improvement will come from practice and making mistakes.

Edible Numbers with Sprinkles

I have a new silicone number mold that I've been wanting to try out. (Affiliate link here and below). I made a set of chocolate numbers featuring the various sprinkles I had on hand. Each number is approximately 2" tall. Aren't they pretty?!

I'm glad they turned out so well in the end because I had major difficulties getting there. I thought it would work to fill each well in the mold with sprinkles, then pour the chocolate on top. Surely this would result in beautiful, sprinkle-covered numbers, right?  

Nope. Not at all. Total fail. 

Fortunately, I kept at it (skipping the lollipop sticks in case more trials failed, which they did) and eventually hit on a technique that worked perfectly. Read on for what did work. 

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Edible Numbers with Sprinkles

Materials:

• silicone number mold
• cocoa Candy Melts
• precision heat gun
• gold sprinkles
• red, pink, and white sprinkles
• star sprinkles
• silver pearlized sugar sprinkles
• rainbow confetti sprinkles

Steps: 

Melt the candy according to the package directions. Fill the mold with melted candy. Gently drop the mold from a few inches off the table to bring any bubbles to the top. Insert lollipop sticks, if desired. Let the candy set up completely. 

Carefully remove the numbers from the mold and set them on individual pieces of parchment paper. Working with one number at a time, hold the heat gun over the number until the top is shiny. It takes only a second. (If you hold the heat over it for too long, you'll melt the whole number. If that happens, put the melted candy back in the mold and try again.) Apply the sprinkles to the shiny chocolate. Let the candy harden completely while you move on to another number.  

Obviously, you can use whatever sprinkles you want. I tried a bunch of different ones to see what results I could get. I think the most successful are the chunky silver (1), the tiny nonpareils (3), the gold variety (5), and the rainbow stars (6). The jimmies (4 and 9) were fine; I had to trim the excess off the edges after the candy had set, so there's an extra step. While I like the effect, the rainbow confetti (8) was the most challenging to place without actually touching the chocolate. The fine sanding sugar (7) was my least favorite, at least on the chocolate base I used. The color would probably show up much better on a white number.   

So what am I doing with my set of numbers? Most of them will just be a random dessert option for whoever wants them, but I am doing something special with the 5 and the 0 that I made to match it. 

They will go on my birthday cake tomorrow. Yep, I'm celebrating 50 on March 12, 2022! I'm so excited for this milestone. 

My Days as a Special Events Coordinator

My first job in college was as a Recreation Leader for the City of Davis. I was assigned to Slide Hill Park, a large park with a great play structure, a basketball court, a baseball diamond, tons of lawn space, shade trees, a sand area, and its namesake, a huge cement slide. Along with two other leaders, I spent that summer playing sports, doing crafts, and leading games for a group of about 25 kids age 6-9. Each Friday, we left the park to participate in a city-wide special event with the kids and leaders from all the other parks. 

It was an awesome job. 

I loved that job so much that I continued to work recreation for the city right up until I was hired as a 4th/5th grade teacher. While I loved my time as a rec leader, I happily accepted promotions to Assistant Special Events Coordinator, then Special Events Coordinator. As Special Events Coordinator, my primary job was to plan the Friday events for about 300 kids. I also supported the rec leaders, subbed at the parks occasionally, and had to deal with paperwork and other administrative tasks that weren't quite as fun. 

There was one task I absolutely LOVED though, which was designing the weekly schedule template. Each week had a theme, which the rec leaders needed to incorporate in all their activities for the week. The template needed space for three AM and three PM activities for each weekday, which was not as easy as it sounds. Here's the first one I made: 

After I drew the template with the upcoming week's theme, I made copies and gave them to each team of rec leaders during our staff meeting. They filled in their names and park location, along with their schedule with each day's activities, and gave it back to me. Then I made copies on colored-coded paper for them to distribute to the kids registered for their park for that upcoming week. 

A few leaders just filled in the info, while others added their own decorations and details. Check out this example of my template for Hollywood Week, then compare it to how the leaders of Putah Creek Park decorated theirs:

There are so many fun little touches. My favorite is the guy standing on top of the Hollywood sign waving hi to me. :)

Here are the rest of my templates from that summer:

I also made the flyers for the Friday Special Events. Here are a few examples:

  

I have so many wonderful memories from my time in recreation and looking at these bring back even more. They're also a really fun snapshot of what my art style was in my early 20s. I am so glad I kept the originals and that they're now scanned and have a home on the blog. 

Summer Camp at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park

Last summer, I shared a layout with photos from our May visit to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park. Our family was there because Steve and I volunteered to put together a weeklong summer camp at Sugarloaf Ridge for the Scout troop. We needed to scope out all the amenities, talk with the rangers, and think through the logistics of keeping a dozen Scouts safe, well-fed, educated, and entertained for a week. 

Preparing for camp was a LOT of work. But it was all worth it. I'm happy to report that the camp we ran exceeded our expectations. The Scouts had a fantastic time. Here's the layout I made with lots of photos of the happy campers:

Sugarloaf Ridge (affiliate link)

To answer your unasked question: No, Steve and I will not be planning summer camp again. That was a one-time deal to allow our Scouts to go to summer camp during a time where COVID made it unclear whether traditional BSA camps would run. The camps are running this summer, and the troop is signed up to go to Camp Hi-Sierra. We're perfectly fine letting the professionals handle the logistics of feeding, educating, and entertaining our boys!