Can happiness be found in a big box of pens? If the box has “Sakura” on it, then YES!  Just hold a Sakura pen in hand and see what happens!

There are so many varieties of Sakura pens that will suit all of your arts and crafts projects.  Let’s take a look at some of them.

The Gelly Rolls are very popular for hand lettering, colouring, doodling….and so on. The gel ink rolls onto paper smoothly and beautifully.

There are 5 types of Gelly Rolls. The ink in Gelly Roll® Classic Medium and Fine Point pens is archival, waterproof, fade resistant, and chemical proof, making it ideal for  scrapbooks, cards, and any illustration where permanance is important.

The Stardust Gelly Rolls will add glitter sparkle to your projects. There is a Clear Stardust pen that lots of stampers enjoy using to add sparkle to their stamped images.

Moonlight Gelly Rolls are fun to use on dark or black papers, and some of them glow in the dark under a black light! Some colours are fine point and others are medium point, and come in archival and flourescent colours.

The Metallic Gelly Rolls have a beautiful, distinctive reflective sheen. This shiny, opaque Gelly Roll® writes on both light and dark papers as well as glossy and matte surfaces.

The Gold and Silver Shadow Gelly Rolls are very cool!  When used on a porous surface, like most regular papers, they have an outline of colour along the silver or gold edges of the writing. There are 5 colours of each of the Gold and Silver pens.

How can you resist all of these wonderful Gelly Rolls?  Even the name is the cutest!

Another pen that creates beautiful metallic hand lettering and drawings is the PenTouch Calligrapher.

Pentouch® Calligrapher™ has a chisel tip and creates stunning, decorative text for all types of hand lettering projects and surfaces. There are 5 colours: white, black, copper, gold and silver and 2 chisel tips: medium and fine point.

Let’s take a look at some Sakura pens used for illustrating: Pigma Sensei, Pigma Micron and Koi Coloring Brush Pens.

The Pigma Sensei set is perfect for all those illustrators who draw comics and manga.

This set has a mechanical pencil, 4 sizes of nib pens, plus 2 chisel tip pen sizes.  Use chisel nib inking pens for sharp lines and filling in large spaces. Use fine lines for facial expressions, lettering, and detailing, or bold lines to add impact and drama.

I tried my hand at a quick manga drawing by copying the illustration on the Pigma Sensei package. First I sketched the outline with the pencil.

Then I went over my pencil lines with the various pens.

Not bad for my first try at Manga! ha ha

The Pigma Micron pens have been a staple for illustrators and artists for a very long time. Scrapbookers and crafters appreciate its archival quality for preserving memories.

The Pigma Micron Pens come in a huge range of colours and sizes. Here is one set option of black Micron pens.

The Koi Coloring Brush Pens come in a range of 24 colours and can be used for watercolour as well as colouring.

Using the Pigma Micron Pens and Koi Coloring Brush Pens, I created this fun card.

I cut a piece of Creative Scrapbooker Superstock, and then sketched out the basic design with the Sakura mechanical pencil.

Then I used different sizes of the Pigma Micron to draw over my sketched design.

I added different doodling and zentangle designs to create more interest.

Then I hand lettered a “HI” in the centre, first with pencil, then a Pigma Micron.

After erasing all my pencil lines, I started colouring with all the beautiful Koi Coloring Brush Pens!

The brush tip of the Koi Coloring Brush Pens allows you to colour both detail and larger areas.

After I finished colouring, I used some Core’dinations cardstock to create the card base and a ‘frame’ by embossing a piece of  Colors Chalk Core cardstock with a Sizzix embossing folder.

Colors Chalk Core cardstock by Core’dinations is so cool because it is black on one size and colour on the reverse, so you can expose that colour for wonderful effects!

I chose this piece with the blue on the reverse.

After embossing it with my Sizzix Big Shot and embossing folder, I sanded the paper to reveal the blue colour.

Then I adhered it all together using Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L E-Z Runner and Crafty Foam Tape.

The folded card base is the reverse blue side of the same piece of Core’dinations Colors Chalk Core cardstock.

I could create with all these pens for HOURS!

For more product information, inspiration, tips and techniques using Sakura pens, please click HERE to visit their website.

Happy Crafting!