TIP or TECHNIQUE TUESDAY ***WEEK 3***

BLENDING TOOL V CUT & DRY FOAM ???

That's the question,

whats the difference, in my opinion not much,

they both do the same job,

I use them both with my distress inks all the time.

today I would like to show you the journey I have been on with both products.

We shall call them A,B & C,

A, being the biggest budget & C, being the most affordable,

I started off with C, & I am now the proud owner of, A (LOL)

This is the journey of how I got there,

PLUS AT THE END OF THIS POST THERE ARE 2 GIVE AWAYS,

bear with me on this post, I will make it worth your while, I promise,

it's longer than I thought it would be, because of my waffling (sorry)

OK, this is A,

In an ideal world, if money was no object we would all like to have

 36 blending tools & 5 spinners to hang them on

standing pride of place on our craft desk's (agreed ?)

the blending tools are (£4.99 each that totals £179.64)

& the shine spinney stands are(£17.99 each, that totals £89.95)

that's a grand total of £269.59 (What, I here you say)

(forgive me if I am a few penny's out, it's only an estimate on what I payed).

But we all have to compromise somewhere right,

 

Here is my pride & joy, set for all 36, for all 36 colours of distress inks,

my compromise here was the stands (saving me £90 quid give or take,

I store them in an A4 storage box that just happens to be the perfect fit.

I took a bit of time but I only bought mine with money I saved else were

(how did you do that I here you say)

well instead of reaching for the take away menu

(more times than I care to admit) I made myself cook,

(better for me & my family) saving around £10-£20 plus, per take away,

that's 2-4 blending tools every time, (I put the money in a jar)

When I was out shopping I would ask myself ,

can I live with out it ?,

It, being a top, or a magazine & a big bar of chocolate

that I didn't really need,

when the answer was yes, I came home & put the money in a jar,

that's another 2-3 blending tools I would say to myself,

(you will be surprised at how satisfying it is.)

OK you get the idea right.

Also, if any one asked me what I wanted for Christmas or birthdays

I would say blending tools,

(after the funny looks & questions a side,

you will be surprised how quickly they build up)

I even had blending tools for valentines day instead of flowers

because my husband new how much I wanted them (LOL)

As you can see from the picture

I have used the labels that I told you about in last weeks (tip or tech Tues)

I have also glued a punched out,coloured piece of grunge paper to each handle,

this enables me to see at a glance the colour I want to use.

OK this is B

while I was busy collecting all the tools,

I used this configuration to craft with,

ranger also sell packs of 10 foam pads on there own,

you would need 3 (at £4.99 each that's £14.97)

& 5 blending tools (at £4.99 each that's £24.95)

grand total of £39.92.

if you decide to go this way you will have saved around £230.00

& you still have a pad for each colour

you just need to change to colours you are using,

but by having 5 tools you can have 5 colours on the go all at once,

(lets face it when was the last time a project you made

had more than 5 distress ink colours on it )

as you can see from the picture below, I have still used the labels

but this time I have put each pad in its own little bag

(this is to stop any ink transference,

 because the ink stays wet for a long time on the pads)

I also used a sharpie pen to write the name of the ink on each pad

to avoid any confusion when using similar colours.

OK now we have C

to be honest I have used the cut & dry foam the most

only because that's all I had.

Before I made the decision to go for the blending tools.

1-2 sheets (under £10)

depending on the size you want the squares to be,

as you can see from to picture below

I wrote on each square the correct colour,

but it wears off, & you can see some ink transference

If you store the squares face to face it muddies up the square

so as you can see in the picture I store them back to back.

So I hope this has been some help to you,

Here's the good bit,

If you have managed to read all of this post

then you will be at the GIVE AWAY PART,

this is to help you in your quest for blending tools,

I have 2 sets of whats in the picture below to give away,

all you need to do is,

Become a follower to my blog,

Then leave a comment on this post,

If you are already a follower you will be entered twice into the draw,

As soon as I have 30 followers I will do the draw for one lot,

the second lot will be drawn on the Tues 9th November 2010,

so about a month,

hope you picked up a Tip or Two,

Well that felt like a marathon post LOL,

Back soon Kat x.