I have the pounce system and I also use a chalk mechanical pencil. I find if you pounce a few times on scrap fabric to get the chalk flowing first, and then instead of pouncing on top of the stencil, I wipe lightly downward and it seems to work much better and not be so messy. I use the chalk pounce on stencils that have sharp corners where its hard to use the mechanical chalk pencil.