Since I am on a budget and cannot really afford to buy multiple ink blending tools at a cost of $4-$5 each and I don't like changing the foam pad for every color I use, I decided to make my own. A while back I took all of my rubber stamps off their wooden blocks for space so I have a ton of wooden blocks of just about every size. I went through and found the ones that I figured fit me perfectly and went to work. I cannot take full credit for this idea as it came from luvleescrappin on youtube. I did make some modifications so it would work bettter for me.
I started out by picking all of the same size blocks. For now I just made 8 for the colors, black, brown, blue, green, red, yellow, orange, and purple however I do plan on making more for additional colors in the near future.
I took off the foam padding since it was partially damaged from taking off the rubber stamp. I used a box knife (but you could use any kind of razor blade) to scrape off as much of the glue residue as possible.
I then took a piece of sandpaper and sanded the sticky area to dry out the glue and took the box knife and scraped again. Sometimes, depending on how stubborn the adhesive was, I had to go over a second time. I'm sure it probably didn't matter but I preferred to have the block as clean as possible.
Once I was happy with the block, I went to measuring and cutting double-sided foam tape, velcro (the rough side only) and ink applicator foam blending pads from RangerInk. I measured these to be a little smaller than the blocks to ensure they would fit nicely.
I added the foam first and to ensure extra hold, I used a little Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue in addition to the adhesive already on the double sided foam tape. Once I adhered the foam tape, I set it aside to dry.
Next I added the velcro to the foam tape and again used the Aleene's glue to added strength. Again I set it aside to dry.
Once everything was dry I added the ink applicator foam blending pads. Now I don't have to change the pads for every color I use. All in all it was a very simple project and I had all of the supplies needed right in my craft room. I hope I have given you inspiration to try and make your ink blending tools.
I also ended up making small (1"x1") blocks for quick applications of small projects like flowers, etc. They are much easier for me to handle on a consistent basis. To label them I used my Dymo label maker and inked each label with the color of the tool. They color did not turn out to be a perfect match because the label tape is plastic. I may have to redo this part with paper labels. I will update and let you know if I decide to do it.
