Ink Edges Easily!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Inking can be a problem for me (Apparently I'm ink-impaired). Messy. Time consuming. Messy. Time Consuming. Messy. You get it!

For some people inking is not a big deal, however, I LOVE making things that are usually made out of chipboard and always need to be inked and it's the TIME CONSUMING that bothers me the MOST (even more than messy). I find that I spend a good portion of my time just doing prep work so any time I can find a solution to speed along the process ... I MUST pass it on. Now, some of you may already do this ... and if you do ... I wish you would have shared it with me sooner! LOL!

Okay. The first thing I usually do is take a craft knife and cut up my chipboard albums. Then I sand the cut edge to POLISH it up a bit. Then I would normally pull out my inkpad and stipple brush and start 'coloring' the edges.

Well guess what I discovered this past Thursday ... I can hear the Angels singing ... no ... it's nothing new ... it's something most of us already have! In every color it comes in (that's eight if you need to know RIGHT NOW) WALNUT INK!

So the first thing I did was spray a piece of chipboard. What a mess! I don't have time for messes and I'm not really into messy processes so this spray thing didn't work for me, however, I LOVED how the ink soaked right into the edges of the chipboard so effortlessly. And then I remembered ... the DAUBERS ... the ones that we have that you can screw right onto the bottle of ink. The Angels are singing again!

No mess, no over-spray, no ink residue within a 3 foot radius. PERFECTION!

This is my dream come true! I threw away the spray nozzle on every bottle I had and put a dauber in its place! This is my WALLAH moment of the year ... I think!

The ink absorbs into the chipboard so beautifully! And quickly!

I go around all of my edges ...

And then just around the inside edge ... in case I cut my paper a wee-bit off.

Then ... I use my dauber ink on my paper! With the browns and blacks this isn't such a big deal, however, with the colors ... this is AWESOME! If you squeeze out some ink onto ceramic or plastic it stays wet. You can go pick up the kids, make dinner, do 2 loads of laundry, bathe the kids, finish homework, tuck the kids in bed and then pick up with this ink where you left off! How cool is that!

I use my stipple brush and I tend to use more of a dry-brush technique. Less is more! I use this ink on the edges of my paper (to camouflage the white edge) and on the paper itself!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these inks with our black and white coasters ... so easy to use! I have both of the collections (8 inks total) and really had never used them much. (WAY too messy for me). Now, I'm going crazy! The pastel colors are SOOOOO gorgeous and I'm saving so much time with just a SIMPLE SOLUTION ... take off the spray nozzle and put on the dauber!

The Willow color is off in this photo, however, look how GREAT the ink covers this coaster! With just one sweep over it! We all need these time savers in our busy lives don't we! And ... they DRY FAST! Life is good!

If you need to replenish your supplies, have questions with a product, technique or are interested in one of the products I've used here please contact your ANGEL and she'll be happy to assist you! If you don't have an Angel yet ... click on SHOP NOW on our homepage and find one in your area today!

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