Brilliant Colors and Excellect Clean-up
My colored chalk markers arrived!! So excited! I said that I didn't have anything to compair them with, but my children had your back. These Crayola Gel markers were purchased to use on a magic illuminated drawing board and also work pretty well on windows.<br /><br />Getting the inks flowing was strangely tricker this time. Maybe I was just having a "heavy handed" day, but all 8 chalk markers made big ole puddles in the process of starting the ink moving, and were extra juicy to write with for a while there after.<br /><br />Next I swatched the chalk colors and their gel counterparts. You can see that the chalks are infinitly more vivid. Sadly, because I'm borrowing my kiddo's supplies for this review, there is no white gel marker. The grey gel marker was a nice add, even on the black board. That will come in handy in October I'm SURE.<br /><br />I drew the header for the month using a combination of the two markers, which made a neat shadow effect where the coordinating colors were side-by-side. That said, for anything where legibility mattered (which is 95% of the calendar board.) Ms Celeste's CAS chalk markers were clearly superior. With a light hand, you could even layer the colors if you let the bottom color dry thoroughly first!<br /><br />Finally, CLEANUP review. I found that the white and colored inks cleaned up equally easily. I am using for my example an area where I had written fairly densly in the little box and let the ink set for about a week. First I used a wet, well wrung out washcloth and did one firm wipe, like a cheery housewife in a commercial. I did not expect a perfect result from that, but a surprisingly large amoung of ink came up! Then I wiped with the wet for 5 seconds and dried the area with a papertowel. This functionally cleared the area, though some fogging and shadows were left behind. 20 seconds of polishing with a damp papertowel removed most of that. Without using any cleaners at all I was able to clean the board back to an entirely functional clarity, though afterward the white ink was less inclined to adhere tidily. Next month I may finish the cleaning process with a mild cleanser to degrease the board.<br /><br />(MS CELESTE, what cleanser do you recommend for your boards? Vinegar? Windex? Rubbing alcohol? What cleasers should we avoid?)
Rating: 5 stars