I am getting prepared for my first Disney cruise to Mexico in the near future. I thought it would be cute to dress up in a Chiapas blouse for the photo at embarkation. These type of blouses have extensive colorful hand embroidery and I needed a sombrero to match. A sombrero?? "Umm, that's not how the song went," scratching my head as random thoughts crossed my mind. Oh yes, it was a Senorita with a flower in her hair, that's right! Now where do I find a flower for my hair to match my Chiapas blouse unless I custom make it myself?? Eventually I answered my own question. Enter Mr. Sketch to the rescue!
This 12-pack of Mr Sketch markers was originally earmarked for my upcoming Disney cruise, but it is still a couple of months away. If we bring 12 markers in different colors and a pillowcase and turn them over to Disney Cruise Line staff on embarkation, every character on the ship will sign the pillowcase (or your canvas tote bag) in "their" color and return it to you on your last day!! Mr Sketch and his team of 12 colorful markers WILL DEFINITELY be boarding the Disney ship with me, oh yeah!
So I brought all 12 of my Mr Sketch markers to work with me today to test out during my lunchtime but I didn't bring anything else like paper with me. Finding a matching flower for my hair was still in the back of my mind as well. I wondered how I could put these Mr. Sketch markers to use to help me design my hair flower to match my Chiapas blouse. I grabbed a coffee filter (the next best thing to watercolor paper) and started coloring it in with every color in the 12-pack of Mr. Sketch markers. From there I sprayed it lightly with water while on a plate and the colors started to merge together like tye-dye or a stained glass window. I allowed this to dry then folded it once, and then again, and then held it up like a "V". I twisted the bottom, wrapped a tie around the bottom (this was now my prototype) and whala! I had a paper flower for my hair. Of course I would late add bobbie-pins and clips. But this prototype showed me that I could make something to match EXACTLY to my blouse. From there I made two more, one with the Mexican flag colors. When my Chiapas blouse arrives by mail, it will take me less than an hour to design a paper flower for my hair to match using Mr Sketch markers and a coffee filter! So happy because I did not want to wear anything bulky in my hair since it may be so hot when we are in Mexico. The paper flower goes perfectly with my themed Mexican attire. I can make enough colorful paper flowers in advance of the cruise for each outfit I wear.
I work in a Safety-Sensitive environment yet I found myself sniffing markers today! I got a lot of weird looks from my co-workers. We've been trained to not go around sniffing things for safety reasons; we have analyzers to handle that. I wondered if I SHOULD BE sniffing these markers, I mean, is this SAFE?? There was nothing on the box that indicated ingredients, however, I did recognize something familiar, an ASTM rating. This product conforms to ASTM D-4236. American Society for Testing and Materials is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards.
There is also an ACMI (The Art and Creative Materials Institute, Inc.) rating with an AP seal (deems this children's art material is certified non-toxic) on the front of the box. You can read more about the safety of this product on the ACMI website.
This product is also assembled in the United States of America (Super-Yay) and is manufactured by Newell Rubbermaid (a well known household name).
I rate this product 5 Stars for ingeniously engineering a marker that could smell like so many different things. I had a great time with these today, will sport my Chiapas-matching Mr Sketch Spanish coffee filter hair flower proudly aboard the Disney ship and can't want to hear back how Mickey, Minnie and Friends loved signing their names with these markers!
In closing, I have one question: Mr Sketch has been around for many, many years and there has been no mention of a Mrs Sketch. Maybe its time?
