HELP! I OVERFILLED MY FOAM PADS!

[monsyd2]

When I refilled them, I pressed the color down into the foam (using a plastic spoon) and left them all upside down for a couple days. They looked good. Then, when trying to use them again, I realized that I overfilled ALL my Stampin� Up foam ink pads! They are so over-juicy now, when I lightly touch a stamp to them, there�s literally little pools of ink. I could kick myself since I did this to ALL of my ink pads!

PLEASE HELP! Any tips are appreciated!

[Angelnorth]

I guess you could squish out some of the extra ink by pressing the pad to paper. Maybe try some background techniques and make yourself a stack of BG papers to keep so you don't feel the ink is just wasted? Is it classic ink rather than craft? Let us know and maybe we can suggest some BG things to try. Do you have a brayer? Embossing folders?

[monsyd2]

It is the classic ink. I do have a brayer (never used, can't figure out how) and a big stack of embossing folders that I love to use

I hadn't thought about background papers. Any techniques come to mind right away?

[Angelnorth]

OK, here are a couple off the top of my head that don't need you to be a brayer expert!

Bouncing brayer - the tutorial here uses a Kaleidoscope pad but I've done it successfully by inking up a brayer with two or three individual pads. If you use three, it's easiest to ink up the centre of the brayer first to get a "stripe" then ink either side of it with the other pads.

Ink your embossing folder with your brayer before embossing it (tutorial for Faux Letterpress here is the sort of thing I'm thinking; Beate actually does it directly with the ink pad - I've had more success with even coverage if I use a brayer)

If you feel like getting to grips with the brayer a bit more, try some brayered skies (tutorial from the master - Michelle Zindorf - here).

You could also do some sponged stuff - maybe stamp and clear emboss some images for a resist pattern as well as just sponging "cloudy" backgrounds with a couple of complementary colours.

Maybe do some "wrinkle free distress"? (tutorial here) - although it's usually done with Distress ink your Classic ink should work OK.

I'll come back if anything else pops into my head!

[monsyd2]

You are awesome! Thanks for so many ideas and the links as well

[shazsilverwolf]

Just a thought, but as you've too much ink in the pads, could you maybe drag something like the back of a butter knife across the surface, fairly heavily, then transfer the ink that oozes up back into the re-inker bottle?

[Sew It Seams]

Thank you ANGELNORTH for the great tutorial links!

I, too, have never mastered the brayer. It sits in a drawer, but I will have to try the brayered sky technique - looks easy!

[shazsilverwolf]

Another great video on brayering I found on here, This is the link. Its all in how you hold and use the brayer. Hold very lightly, just fingertips, and not with your finger along the handle, like a pencil. If you do that, you can put too much pressure on the brayer. Also the 'flick' as you come off the edge is crucial. I could not get the hang of using a brayer, watched this ladys video, and did my first successful piece afterwards.

[LYP]

I use a bone folder to lightly go over the foam SU ink pads when they are over inked, then use a paper towel to clean up my bone folder. The bone folder looks funny, but works great. If you stamp several of the same image, your foam ink pad can get "dry" in that area, you can use the bone folder to redistribute the ink and get a better image. I also saw a video, I think from SU, that showed how to reinkers the foam pads. It said to make squiggly design with the ink on the pad, then redistribute with plastic spoon or bone folder. It definitely doesn't hold as much ink as the old felt pads. I didn't learn all this until quite a while after I got my new foam pads, though!

[wavejumper]

I love the make your own background paper idea.

Brayering isnt hard-if I can do it, anyone can...and this sounds like the perfect time to practice! Just gently roll it over the pad, you dont need to press since it's so wet already. Get in the habit of only rolling in one direction now. Why? Because on a single color pad it does not matter, but on a multi color it DOES and bad habits are hard to break.

Roll over the pad, let the brayer "take off" like an airplane, gently...and do it again. If you jerk it around you could spray ink.

Then go roll on paper and see what happens. You'll be happy! It's going to work. If you have "light patches" that tells you to do it more evenly on the pad. (On a normal pad that might indicate a dry spot on the pad itself) That's it. You're done with brayer 101. It's that simple. Like roller painting the wall!

You can use tape to tape off stripes if you want and then brayer it if you do it on light colored paper. Or with black on white.

If you have any large hibiscus or outline flower stamps (or other large hollow shapes)...heat emboss them in clear. Then roll over it, let dry a minute and wipe. The emboss will resist the ink and you get the flowers! If you use a colored EP then you get that color. But the clear is fun to me-like magic!

I also love the suggestion to use the daubers...sure it should work fine. Darker than with distress inks but fine. You could do bold uneven stripes-or an ombre pattern. I dont think they will blend as well as Distress but whadda I know? If you want a straight line use a ruler to drag the dauber along.

You can also use the dauber with stencils. The more inky the better the image will come out. Dont forget your metal ones as well plastic for this.

Have fun! Let us know what you do!