Make a Wish
Inking is fun! But it can get messy, so how do you go about using your inks without having to worry about scrubbing later? Try our sponsors, ScraPerfect's Best Cleaner Ever!
It will change your life, just like the eBosser! Check out how Denise used the best cleaner ever below!
Today’s post is different than most of my posts. If you have been following me for awhile then you know that I experiment a lot. I am always willing to try new things. I thought it might be kind of neat to show you one of my experiments…the good, the bad, and the ugly. This month our sponsor 
Scraperfect.com sent each of us a few products to use and last week I focused on the Perfect Crafting Pouch and the Embellie Gellie. This week I wanted to focus my post on one of their other products, the Best Ever Cleaner. Why would I want to focus my entire post on a cleaning product? Well because it is awesome, that’s why! It is a new staple in my crafting supplies, and I am about to show you why. Warning…there are a lot of pics ahead!
Scraperfect.com sent each of us a few products to use and last week I focused on the Perfect Crafting Pouch and the Embellie Gellie. This week I wanted to focus my post on one of their other products, the Best Ever Cleaner. Why would I want to focus my entire post on a cleaning product? Well because it is awesome, that’s why! It is a new staple in my crafting supplies, and I am about to show you why. Warning…there are a lot of pics ahead!
To get started, I pulled out one of my 
Craftwell embossing folders (Whimsical Wishes). I picked this one because there is a lot of blank space which works best for the technique. I started out grabbing an Archival Ink Pad by Ranger. This ink is waterproof. Which means when I use it, I cannot clean it with water. The advantage to this type of ink is that if you spraying anything on it (as you will see later) the ink will not bleed or wick. It will stay in place and be as clean as it was to begin with. The other cool thing about this ink is that when you apply it to an embossing folder, it will stay wet for awhile, so you don’t have to rush to do your embossing. So to start, I used a brayer to apply the ink to the embossing folder. I added ink to diagonal sides so that the ink is on the inside of the card as well.
Craftwell embossing folders (Whimsical Wishes). I picked this one because there is a lot of blank space which works best for the technique. I started out grabbing an Archival Ink Pad by Ranger. This ink is waterproof. Which means when I use it, I cannot clean it with water. The advantage to this type of ink is that if you spraying anything on it (as you will see later) the ink will not bleed or wick. It will stay in place and be as clean as it was to begin with. The other cool thing about this ink is that when you apply it to an embossing folder, it will stay wet for awhile, so you don’t have to rush to do your embossing. So to start, I used a brayer to apply the ink to the embossing folder. I added ink to diagonal sides so that the ink is on the inside of the card as well..jpg)
After that I grabbed another ink (this time a darker color) and using a stamp, I stamped directly on the folder. This is where “the ugly” comes in. I realized that this stamp is defective as I could not get a clean impression…uggghh! But in spite of this the experiment continues. Now when stamping on an already inked folder, you have to be VERY careful. The folder is slick and if you lose your grip on the stamp block, the stamp will smudge. I think that next time I will use a stamping press to see if that will make this process less nerve wracking.
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Next I added a light colored cardstock into the folder and folded it over. Here you will get an idea of what your card will look like. Now it is eBosser time!
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And here we have the card after embossing…pretty cool look even with the bad stamp. But I am not done with it. Before I move on though, I need to turn my attention back to the folder. Here is what it looks like after the embossing.
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Time to crack open the Best Ever Cleaner! Spritz away right on the ink. You can actually see the ink start to swirl around.
Wipe the folder clean and then I also spritzed some water on it and wiped it down again. You could also use a baby wipe. And here we have a perfectly clean embossing folder….
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If you have ever tried to clean any kind of waterproof ink off of an embossing folder before, then you know how difficult this can be. On top of that, the odor of some cleaners is horrendous. There is a smell to this cleaner, but it is not in any way offensive, so another big plus!
Moving back to the card, I decided to do a little more experimenting. (Disclaimer Alert…normally when I do something like this I will tape off the area that I want to make sure it staya clean like the back of the card, since I already knew that this is not a card I am going to give someone, I didn't bother.) I got out a Distress Ink pad and sponged on some ink especially focusing on those areas where there wasn't enough coverage from the Archival Ink. I wish on this step that I used a color that was more contrasting like a yellow because I don’t love how the dark blue ink detracted from the embossing. Another lesson learned. I also used my Black Archival Ink to stamp my sentiment in the non-embossed space.
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Next I decided to heavily spritz the card with three colors of Perfect Pearls Sprays to add a shimmer to the card and also to get that Distress Ink to blend in a little better. Here is the card as it is wet and you can see how that Archival Ink completely holds up under all of the spray.
After drying the card, this is what I was left with….not the best I know, but I sure learned a lot. Next week, I am going to do a project using this technique so you can see how this entire project would look like if I did it the right way! I will also be incorporating the Perfect Crafting Pouch and the Embellie Gellie along with the Best Ever Cleaner. Hope you all enjoyed my experimental post today! Please let me know if you would like to see more posts like this.
Denise O'Connor
Thank you Denise! Are you on board with the inking techniques? What is your favorite one?
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