Distress Inks

Yes, I have all 45 distress ink pads. :) It took me several months to find a storage solution that I was happy with that didn't cost as much as the ink pads themselves. :S But the Media Stix from Target for $12 was the perfect solution for me! And yes, I have some OCD tendencies; all of the ink pads are in alphabetical order. I bought a label maker from Office Depot just for the ink pads. I tried to be more frugal and printed labels, inked them, and put them on the sides, but they soon started peeling off, and I couldn't stand that.

I have a blending foam for each of the colors. I didn't want them to dry out between uses, so I bought some small jewelry baggies to put them in; used my crop-a-dile to punch a small hole in the top above the closure, and put them on a ring. So far, the labels I printed still work fine on these so maybe I won't have to redo them.

Today I took the time to create a color chart for each of the ink pads. I cut tags with my Silhouette, then I cut one on a slant and used that as a mask for all of the other tags. I used the blending foam on the lower part, then used the same stamp on all of the tags so that I could see what the colors look like stamped on white and on the blended color. Then I rubbed the edges of the top part on the ink pad itself so I can have a sense of how each color will look on edges when using that technique. I am now better at using the blending tool and have a better knowledge of how the colors fall on the color wheel. I thought I was pretty good at knowing the colors, but there were a few surprises. who knew that dried marigold is more of an orange than a yellow? Next, I need to figure a way to label my refills so I can tell at a glance from the top without pulling out the bottles which color is which. I can easily see the front row, but not the others.