Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Zep Cleansters Sampling

I wouldn't say I love to clean. It is more a love/hate relationship. I hate to clean but I love a clean house.  So I jumped at the chance to try Zep cleaning products. Crowdtap sent me 5 total sample sizes of Zep Quick Clean Disinfectant and Zep All-Around Oxy Cleaner and Degreaser for free.

Lets start with the Zep Quick Clean Disinfectant. I like this product because it cleans, deodorizes, and disinfects. It worked rather well in my bathroom and it is great to have it on hand with flu season trying to bust through my front door.

I really liked the Zep All Around Oxy Cleaner and Degreaser. To test it out I decided to try it on the one place in the kitchen that has been irritating me for a while. The exterior oven glass door. Some how the glass had gotten dirty inside between the layers of the door. Dismantling it to get to the glass was easy if not terrifying.  I kept imagining the glass falling and breaking. And then having to explain to my husband that it gotten broken because it was dirty and I had to test some cleaner. Anyway, no broken glass and the Zep cleaner worked well. 

Here is the before:
Here is the after:
All in all, I have had a great experience with this product and I would recommend. I am definitely going to have to buy a full size bottle before these little bottles run out though, because I want a spray trigger. I am too lazy to use a pump spray. :)

*All opinions in this blog are mine and mine alone. I received this product for free from Crowdtap to try and review*

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

DIY Type: 50+ Typographic Stencils for Decorating, Crafting, and Gifting Review

I am a big fan of typography. There is just something great about words being used as art. It is an art form that looks so simple, yet an artist can spend hours making the piece. Typography catches the eye and holds it. With that being said, you can understand why when I saw  DIY Type: 50+ Typographic Stencils for Decorating, Crafting, and Gifting by Dana Tanamachi on the Blogging for Books site I just had to have it to review.


The description of this book looked like I was in for some fun. After reading about the author and visiting her site,  I was expecting a book full of fun projects and amazing artwork. I was sorely disappointed.

I wince at having to call this a book. This "book" contains two sets of stencils. One big alphabet and one small alphabet. All capital letters. It also contains a few little designs. Even the cover is actually a stencil. All the little swirls seen are stencils. The book part of this book contains about 12 pages, with at least half of that being pictures. The projects in this book are basic with little instruction. 

This "book" is little more than a stencil set and it is not a great stencil set either. You have to cut the stencils apart. For the big stencils it is 2 to a page. For the smaller stencils, 4 to a page. Luckily for me. I have a nice Fiskars paper cutter that made quick work of the task. If you are stuck having to cut them apart with scissors, I pity you. The stencils are not see-through. Solid white card stockish material. I also feel like the smaller size stencils have too much material to each side making it rather difficult to just lay them side by side to form a word because the letters will be really spaced out.  The projects seem like something you might find on one of those tear-off pads hanging on the shelves at Hobby Lobby.

In my honest opinion, if you are interested in trying some typography projects you would be better off just buying a set of stencils. It would definitely be cheaper and probably of better quality.  For projects or ideas, Pinterest would be a bigger help than this book. 

So in short, save your money and skip this book.

*I was given this book for free by Blogging for Books for this review.*
** Besides the free book, I was not compensated in any way for this review.**
***All opinions on this blog are mine and mine alone.***