New Catalog Means Ink Pad & Marker Maintenance

New Catalog Means Ink Pad & Marker Maintenance

I am always looking for tips, tricks and information to make your stamping experience the most fun and exciting thing you do!

I have noticed that numerous demonstrators are now advising their girls, that when the new catalog arrives that you should be performing annual maintenance on your ink pads and markers.

For the ink pads:

Open them up and use your small scissors - make sure they are nice and sharp - and trim off any threads that have begun to pull out around the edges. These can get out around the edges of your stamp pad case and leak causing quite a mess so it's good to keep them trimmed off. Don't pull on them they will continue to ravel out and you don't want to do that. So just snip them off.

 Then, to re-ink, just get out the re-inker and "scribble" the ink across the pad. By "scribble" I mean lines of ink rather than dots. You know, like you would do with a crayon. Do this first horizontally, then vertically.

Once you have done the re-inking  close your ink pad up and put it away, letting it sit for at least an hour so that the ink has time to soak in and distribute evenly,

For the markers:

As you do your maintenance it is a good time to examine the brush tips on the markers and make sure they aren't "smooshed," having lost their nice clean tip- if they are, these markers will need to be replaced.

Now, to refill, use a pair of tweezers and on the brush end of the marker and gently grasp the nib of the tip, as close to the marker as you can, and gently pull the ink nub out.

 Now you can use the re-inker to refill your marker. It will only take a couple of drops so watch carefully.

Make sure to have an old rag under where you are working with this and a paper towel handy too so that I can deal with any spills or overfills.

Once your marker is full, you can return the nib back into the end. Make sure it gets in all the way.

Wipe away any ink that may have spilled out when you put the brush back in.

You only have to do one end - the ink reservoir works for both ends of the marker.

Once you've filled the marker. Return it to the flat storage for several hours to let the ink distribute in the center tube.

There. You're all done. It takes a little time but it's worth the effort to take care of your investment. 

Now, make a list of the re-inkers you will need to reorder next class.