Make you own Ink Blending Tool Tutorial!!

Hello Everyone,

We all love distress inks and the beautiful results we get due to its blending properties. It is totally worth to buy the vibrant shades of distress ink or any water based inks as their usage is multiple. However, in order to get those beautifully blended shades, we need to buy those expensive ink-blending tools as well. More the number of inks, more the number of replacement pads you need. And well! technically its just extra expenditure...(Not that they are bad, just plainly expensive!!) 

I had seen the ink blending tool and I am sure all those who have seen it must have noticed that it is not a very complicated or complex tool. In fact it is made of a very simple phenomenon. And so I decided to do a bit of research as to what options can we have to make this tool without spending a good deal of money on it.

So I went to ask my best friend, i.e Google (world's best friend :P) and spent a couple of hours researching about the options. There are many many ways and methods of making your own ink blending tools spread over youtube, websites, blogs etc however, after much experimenting with different mediums I have discovered the most comfortable, easy and extremely cheap method of making your own ink blending tools. 

Here is how I started-

Material required - 
Cosmetic sponge (Any shape or size) - Available at any shop selling cosmetic/ toiletries
Foam tape
Scissors
In order to stick the cosmetic sponge and to make the 'handle' of the tool, you can experiment with things lying around the house, such as old nail polish bottles with a wide base, An old fashioned stamp, Kid's playing wooden blocks etc.
Distress Ink or any water based ink

Method-
To start with, I have used wooden blocks as 'handle' of my ink blending tool as I found them here very cheap. They were found in the DIY section and are used to make toys. For $2 I got about 20 blocks but you can use anything.

Since my cosmetic foam sponge is bigger in size I cut it into half.

Take the foam tape and cover one side of the block fully.

Stick the piece of the cosmetic foam on the tape side and trim of the excess using a pair of scissors.

Make as many as you like. One sponge gave me 2 parts so I made 2.

Thats it!!
Your ink blending tool is ready..Now its time to play around a bit. I made 2 scrap portions of white card into tags using this very tool and distress ink and thats how they came out to be-

(Sorry about the bad quality pictures. My hubby had taken the digicam with him and I did not want to wait another time to make this tutorial so just took pictures using my phone..:P)

Well, I am totally new at distressing/ ink blending and my results are far from perfect. But it served my purpose and I am very happy about it.

Hope it helps you too. :)

Please do let me know what you think about this tutorial. Your comments are always appreciated. :) :)

Much Love,
Just Love Crafts xx

A New card...A New trick too :D

I am feeling soo proud today...And that's coz I have kept my promise...Promise of putting up crafty posts soon and here I am, in less than 24 hours...soo happy!! :P
Well, I so hope that I continue with this promise of mine and hopefully don't take a Loooooong gap like last time :(
Anyways, I can always blabber later..Let's come straight to the point.. This is a card I came up with 2-3 days back while fiddling with the strips. Its primarily made of only 3 colors (blue, pink and red). Well, no special reason, just that I have been able to shred only 3 colors so far and my table seemed to be full so I thought of using some before shredding a new color...
Have a look

This is the first time I have used 'Construction Paper' for Quilling. Actually, I didn't have much of a choice as this is the only kinds which is available for my purpose.. I like this paper, its like that though its only 110 gsm, I find it much harder to shred as all the ends do not come out fine. But guess, I am not in a complaining position as of now as even after trying I couldn't find anything apart from this, so I'll just stick to it..


A close up-

Now, The title says 'A new trick too' so here is the trick that I would like to share with all of you. 
(Disclaimer- I am not sure if it's entirely new, it's just I haven't seen it before and the idea came to me out of sheer desperation!)
I wanted to 'raise' the level of the part that holds the sentiment and since I have literally just moved to Singapore I am lacking of all the essentials of crafting apart from the very basic ones.. So as expected I did not have the required foam tape which is generally used for such purposes. But I was soo desperate to finish the card that I had to raise the level of the sentiment strip by any means and Whoooshh!!! I saw my quilling strips lying right in front of me and I made 3 tight coils and stuck them to the back side of the sentiment card and placed the whole thing in its right position. 
A closeup to show what I actually did..

This is the final outcome, and you can notice the raised part too easily..

I believe no one can actually make out the difference by just looking from the top that I have not used foam tape for it. In fact, I happen to notice one more benefit..
When quilled coils are used in place of foam tape, the 'raise' is more discreet and firm, as foam tape tends to squish due to its softness, where quilled coils are sturdy and keep the card in place..


*Caution- Make sure the paper which is being used for the 2-D effect (my sentiment card in this case!!) is thick and sturdy in itself, the pink base here is 140 gsm and on top of it i have stuck the same blue piece as the strip color which is of 110 gsm making the whole thing quite sturdy*


Well, I seem to totally love this card for its simplicity and freshness. Here is one last pic I would like to share..:D:D

If you like it, do lemme know. Your appreciation is my motivation.


Love all,
Just Love Crafts xx