Educate me on the Tim Holtz Blending Tool & the foam/felt attachments

[lharnish]

I need the Coles Notes version of this. Can someone point me in the direction of some projects using this tool? And can someone tell me what the difference is - when do you use the foam attachment and when do you use the felt attachment?

And with Tim Holtz Distress Inks. Do people just use them like regular ink pads or just for particular techniques? And if I understand correctly, they can be used with embossing powder without the need of using Versamark?

I guess this might be a bit more than the Coles Notes version LOL! Thanks in advance :-)

[horseygal]

I love these tools and there is so much to say about them and so many ways to use them, it's almost best to go to Tim or Ranger's tutorials. Jennifer McGuire also has some excellent videos on how to use these! I'm sure U-tube has videos also.
But to answer at least a couple questions, the foam pads are used for ink and the felt is used for alcohol ink, 2 very different inks with different purposes. Yes, the Distress inks can be used with clear EP, but I don't seem to have good luck with that :( And yes, the foam blenders can be used as blenders with other inks, you just won't get the same effect as with Distress inks. The Distress inks are specially formulated to stay wet longer to enable blending. Other dye inks are formulated to dry quickly.
Hope that helps! I will find some links for you.

[DonnaD]

I'm no expert here but first I have to say I learned something from you! Cole Notes are what are called Cliff Notes now. Anyway, I believe the foam pad is for the distress inks and the felt pads are for the alcohol inks. Not sure about the emossing question never tried it, but they do have a Distress embossing ink pad which I have and don't think I've used yet!

[asuncionshija]

Let's see, quick version:
Felt when using alcohol inks, foam when you're using ink.
The real beauty of these inks is that you can use them for techniques AND for regular stamping. However, they are dye ink & are reactive to 'wet'. Sprays (glimmer mist, etc), water in any form, liquid glue, Copic markers (any marker really) will cause them to bleed/blend.
Kristina Werner (kwernerdesignblog) just had a little video up using some of the seasonal colors. Jill at Inspired By uses these really often. Here is the link over at Two Peas for Jennifer McGuire's Thinking Inking class - you'll want the first week for DI.
Have a blast!

[lharnish]

Thank you for the quick education :-) I really appreciate it! Love my fellow SCSers!

And I had never heard of Cliff's Notes before. I asked a coworker if Coles Notes were a Canadian thing and he assured me they were international LOL! I just Googled it and it appears Coles Notes are only known as Cliff's Notes in the USA after they bought the rights to them. Very interesting - learning about stamping and shortcuts for students ;-)

[lharnish]

Thanks for the excellent links! I can't wait to look at them in more detail at home this evening!

Quote:

Originally Posted by asuncionshija

Let's see, quick version:
Felt when using alcohol inks, foam when you're using ink.
The real beauty of these inks is that you can use them for techniques AND for regular stamping. However, they are dye ink & are reactive to 'wet'. Sprays (glimmer mist, etc), water in any form, liquid glue, Copic markers (any marker really) will cause them to bleed/blend.
Kristina Werner (kwernerdesignblog) just had a little video up using some of the seasonal colors. Jill at Inspired By uses these really often. Here is the link over at Two Peas for Jennifer McGuire's Thinking Inking class - you'll want the first week for DI.
Have a blast!

[carolc1027]

Thank you for this thread...couldn't understand why I was having bad results with the Distress Inks....I'm using the felt instead of the foam!!! I had no idea....
Just ordered the foam!!!!

[Scrapjanny]

Yes, you can emboss with the Distress Inks. They stay wet for awhile, although not as long as the embossing/pigment inks. As for the blending tool, I find that sponge finger daubers work better. The only time I use the blending tool is when I'm doing a large background with the same color, or if I know I'm going to be using a lot of one color for a lot of backgrounds. Otherwise, it's annoying to have to change the pads for each color. I know some people use more than one blending tool, but I find it easier to store the daubers than a bunch of the blending tools. Have fun with the inks, and experiment with colors and techniques. There are lots of possibilities.

[horseygal]

Video Tutorial - Ranger Distress Ink Techniques | Ranger Ink

This link is on the Ranger site and shows distress ink and blending tool techniques.
Tim's site with his 12 days of Christmas tags show tons of creative uses with distress ink and the blending tools.

Tim Holtz: Archives

scroll down to the bottom, and the 12 days of Christmas tags archives will be there from 2007 to 2010. It is awesome!

[smriti]

I got a lot of help from the tutorials on youtube.com. I just searched for distress inks and looked at the links that came up; unfortunately I don't have those links but you can search for them on yourtube.com. And there's a series by Jennifer McGuire which is very educative.