Wednesday, September 14

Ink Applicator

Hello crafty friends!  For a while, I've been hanging out in the message boards at SplitcoastStampers.  I know a lot of stampers have been unmouting their rubber stamps, and I know somebody would like to get rid of their stamping blocks.  And a few weeks ago, I found somebody from California (Thanks Ching!) and she gave me her wood blocks.


And that's what I want to share with you today.  I figured these stamping blocks can be good ink applicators with the aid of the following materials: Velcro strips and felt.


I bought this box of Velcro for less than $8.  It's industrial strength, but the regular Velcro should be cheaper.  The white felt is leftover from a previous project.

I have a Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink Applicator and I love how it works.  But with all the ink pads I have, buying an applicator for each one is just not cost effective for me.  Even with coupons, it would take me forever to buy the applicators for all my ink pads.  That lead me to this idea.  I'm sure with the many creative stampers out there, a bunch of them have already been doing this.

Basically, I just cut the rough strip of Velcro and adhered on one side of my wooden block.  I did the same with my felt, attached it to the velcro and voila!  I have a new ink applicator.  For the first batch of twenty applicators, I used the 3/4 inch stamping blocks, originally alpha stamps:


Now I have an ink applicator for each of my Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads:


And guess what?  They work just like the one bought in stores.  And for less than $10, I now have a big lot of ink applicators.  They are easier to store too.  Can't wait to do this with the other stamping blocks.

'Til next blog!

1 comment:

omathgoddess said...

Great idea! I have a bunch of blocks I don't know what to do with!