..this was meant to be a serious review...

 The other day, whilst visiting my beloved parents, I roped my sister in to help me decorate some ceramic tiles for coasters.  Baker Ross had sent me some fab glittery pens for porcelain (and the tiles) and it was time to test them.  We had a tile each and a bunch of sparkly coloured pens to play with. Well, talk about blank page syndrome. A plain white 4" tile and you'd think we'd been asked to churn out an essay in quantum physics! 

So of course it got very silly and giggly and after a sensible start (with some nicely drawn Holly), Mama was recalling some childhood Christmas triumphs....when you could draw an Angel without taking your pen off the paper, when you spelt it Angle by mistake, and the Lord would have a host of heavenly Angles.  We even got to giggling about angles in funny hats.  Well, mitres to be more specific. (Angles, mitres..geddit.......) And the Pope's hat, to be truly specific.  So then Sissy set about recreating our angles, with hair and hats and to be honest, we couldn't see for laughing....

And instead of scrubbing the tile clean and starting something sensible, I brought it home with me and cooked it (that sets the ink) and I have permanent evidence of my sister's silliness.  I love it. 
At some point I did get sensible and reverted to type - literally.  I am unable to draw.  I stamp.  But I can always write, and the pens had a nib that was just about fine enough to write legibly in my most contrived and wonky handwriting.  

I have cooked these too, but am going to use the pens to colour the edges, they look a bit stark and unfinished.  They can be re-cooked - it's a cool oven for not very long, see. The hardest part of making these was coming up with that many drinks and trying hard to remember to graduate the size of the text. Hmmmm.  Still, Miss Dunnit and her Squeeze will like them, on the basis that they don't have any coasters!
The coasters come in a pack of six, and because I wanted to keep Sissy's work of art, I had one to play with.  This is proof of several things.  The colours are really nice and glittery. 
The cooking process sets the ink and makes it permanent.  It does not melt the ink and flood over flaws.  What you create is what you get, unless you have the good sense to wipe clean and rectify mistakes.  

Now all I have to do is find the little stick on pads that came with them and hey, they'll look like real coasters!  

Have a lovely weekend y'all.