I have used the Golden Threads paper, and I liked that a lot. Only hangup was in tearing it off in heavily stitched areas sometimes you get little pieces of paper stuck that you have to pick out with a pin. I use the air disappearing purple marker, but sometimes that goes away too fast. I have used pencil, but didn't think it was very effective for my setup. I have the Crayold washable markers but haven't tried them yet.