ThePowerOfACard: Custom Ink Pad with Baby Wipes

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Custom Ink Pad with Baby Wipes

I've seen many people do this technique but have never tried it until recently. I watched a demonstrator friend of mine (thanks Kelly Acheson!) do it and I loved her cards so much, I took the plunge and did it! My baby wipes were nearly dry, but I moistened them and added my ink drops. The results were beautiful! So that is what I want to show you how to do. As you can see in the video, I did get new wipes before filming (no dried out wipes for my customers!).

Gather your supplies:

Cardstock: Thick Basic White 8-1/2" x 5-1/2"; Basic White 2-1/2" x 4-3/4"; Regals 6"x6" DSP 1" x 5" (Crushed Curry), 1" x 3-3/4" (Cajun Craze) and 1/2" x 4-3/4" (Pumpkin Pie)
Stamp Bundle: Pretty Pumpkins
Ink Refills: Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry and Real Red
Ink: Pear Pizzazz and Real Red
Neutrals Stampin' Write Markers (Soft Suede)
Bakers Twine Essentials Pack
Adhesive and Tools
Baby Wipes

To make your custom ink pad, take two baby wipes and fold them in quarters, then stack them on top of each other. Add drops of ink as shown in the video large enough to cover your entire stamp. The inks should be close to each other so there are no gaps. As you press your stamp into the wipe, each color will tend to expand into the one next to it. That is why you don't want colors that will blend and give a gray or brown combination.

Stamp your pumpkin into the baby wipe ink pad and then onto the white rectangle. You may want to wiggle the stamp a little for the first stamping to assist with the blending of the ink drops. As I mention in the video, the stamps that work best with this are bold images, not outline images. It is also good to plan ahead and have extra paper and additional stamps that can be used with your custom ink pad - no need to let all that lovely color go to waste!

On your rectangle where the pumpkin is, stamp the leaf with Pear Pizzazz. Use the coordinating dies to cut out these two images (you can always fussy cut them if you don't have the dies). Now we are ready to assemble the card.

Adhere the strips of DSP in the following order - Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and Pumpkin pie. On top of that, place the pumpkin using dimensionals. Cut a slit in the leaf so that it can tuck around the pumpkin stem and add a mini dimensional on the portion of the leaf that sits on top of the pumpkin. This will hold it in place.

Take your thumb and forefinger and "curl" a few inches of twine (like you would do with curling ribbon). The twine on my sample card really curled nicely, but the one in the video had a mind of its own! Isn't that the way it normally goes? Make a glue dot log to adhere both ends to the pumpkin and trim as needed. Add your sentiment with Real Red ink and lastly, spritz with a Soft Suede Stampin' Write marker.

I used this color mixture to stamp other images too. Like I did in the video, I stamped a lot of maple leaves from Gorgeous Leaves. This first card is clean and simple, which puts the focus on the colorful leaf and sweet sentiment (from Inspired Thoughts). I layered the leaf on two labels from the Hippo & Friends dies.

The next two were made with the Beauty of Friendship bundle. A simple design and coordinating DSP set off the tree stamped with all the fall colors. Customers are always looking for masculine cards and this would be perfect!

The four seasons card uses panels about 1" wide cut from Kraft 6" x 6" paper. I stamped the tree in Whisper White ink on each panel. This is best done with the Stamparatus because all trees will be in the same position. I added little lines with a Stampin' Write marker to make the tree look like a birch tree. Then each season was stamped with leaves to match spring, summer and fall. I matted these with basic white and popped them all up on a Early Espresso card base. A little piece of the Faux Suede ribbon sets off the sentiment perfectly.