Monday, September 5, 2016

Crowdsourcing Success and Two Cool Christmas Card


If you missed my very wordy post about "fast-dry" pigment inks that aren't drying for me, it's here. Two readers made suggestions that have proven to be extremely helpful, and I recommend you give them a try.

Solution #1

Julia's solution is hairspray. Donna warns that some hairspray can turn the card yellow in a short period of time, but Julia has never had that happen. I suggest experimenting with aerosol cans of cheap hairspray. Joan shared that she has used Aqua Net and Tresemme with success.

I had a pump bottle of Suave hairspray and tried it just to see. The bottle (of course) spat blotches of spray on the card, but once it dried, the ink didn't move. YAY! An aerosol can will spray a fine enough mist to avoid blotches and will be much less likely to warp the card than a standard spray bottle.

My conclusion is that, essentially, hairspray works like the fixative, only without the toxicity and need to go outside where there are kamikaze bugs intent on destroying your work.


Solution #2

Bev sent me an email suggesting that I use an Embossing Buddy to pre-treat the paper before stamping, with the idea that the chalk would pull the moisture from the ink and dry it. For those who don't know, an Embossing Buddy is a fabric bag filled with chalk. It's marketed to be used to prepare paper before heat embossing. You pounce or rub the bag on the paper before stamping, and the embossing powder will stick only to the ink, not the surrounding paper. It works great for that, by the way.

Sadly, pouncing before stamping didn't work to dry the ink, but when I pounced the Embossing Buddy over the image after stamping, it worked GREAT!!!!

Embossing Buddy helps ink dry!


Instead of rubbing, I did lightly pounce, with the suspicion that rubbing would cause the ink to smear before it had a chance to dry. After pouncing, I blew the dust off and then wiped gently with a tissue to remove any residual dust.  I've tried this on a number of cards, and it worked every single time. What a relief!

And for those of you who use these inks in scrapbooks, chalk is used to neutralize acid, so I suspect it's perfectly safe. It's certainly not acidic. But I'm no expert on archival matters, so you might want to consult one.



Many, many thanks to Bev and Julia for giving us two workable solutions to this pesky problem. But please remember, individual results will vary. Donna's experience proves that hairspray isn't always a workable option, so definitely experiment before using hairspray on anything important. And my experience with the Embossing Buddy may also not work under all circumstances.

Now for the Christmas cards. The problematic pigment inks used on both were successfully dried with the Embossing Buddy.

Fresh Ink Sicilian Blue and Island; Memento Luxe Teal Zeal
and Tuxedo Black

Avery Elle Sea Glass; Hero Arts Mint Julip; VersaMagic Turquoise Gem;
Memento Luxe Tuxedo Black


How lovely to have a problem solved!


Supplies
stamps: StampinUp Endless Wishes, Hero Arts Holly Days
ink: listed in captions
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: craft foam, glue, silver metallic marker

11 comments:

  1. I love the solutions! I live in a humid area and non-drying inks will definitely not dry here so I need the assistance, haha! Gorgeous cards, Susan!

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  2. Great to know this and I will keep in mind.. Love those cards too, so simple yet very eye. Catching..

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  3. Thanks for sharing the solutions. Such pretty cards - especially like the green/turquoise colours.

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  4. Thanks for the tip regarding the embossing buddy! I'll have to give this a shot, I never thought of using it that way!

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  5. Ok I would like to use embossing buddy but am allergic to talc so as chalk is out for me since it is made from talc. Any suggestions?
    Thanks

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  6. Lovely cards - and thanks for the tips.

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  7. Thanks for sharing all the tips. Never thought of using my embossing buddy 'after' I stamped an image. Always fun to learn a new trick.

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  8. Thanks for his idea. I don't have many pigment inks, because of the smear thing.
    Hey! My husband made me one of your video stands for my birthday! He even painted it! (That actually turns out to NOT be a good thing, but it's the thought that counts...)
    My phone won't store any videos, so I am waiting for some thingy from Amazon that will store them for me. Videos soon, I hope! Thanks to you!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!