Today's Featured Article is . . .

Let's talk CLEANING! 🧽💦

We love using a brand new blending brush. It's so soft and takes up the ink and glides along the card stock with ease. We're loving our new brushes then when we're done we oftentimes just put the brushes away. After a few uses our ink colors aren't what we expect them to be and the brush bristles aren't soft and gliding across the card stock like they used to and we find ourselves not enjoying the process like we have in the past. Am I right!?! I've been guilty of this myself and have more recently been mindful of taking better care of my brushes, so let's talk about cleaning!

I keep a lint-free cloth at my work station and clean as much ink off the brushes as I possibly can before putting them away. I just rub them in circles, right to left and left to right a few times until I can see that not much ink is coming off. Here's a peak at the cloth I'm currently using.

I'm doing a load of jeans and denims later today so this inky cloth will go into a mesh laundry bag and into the washer!

You can only get so much ink off the brushes rubbing them onto a lint-free cloth when you realize the bristles are getting a little stiff and the ink transfer onto your card stock just isn't what it should be. That's when it's time to gather all your overly inked-up brushes and get to work!

My Go-To items for cleaning my brushes is a Pawsitively Everything Tool (PET) from Simon Says Stamp (that's the purple paw print thingy) along with a Brush Cleaner soap/conditioner, and a clean lint-free cloth. Using the PET tool and soap is gentle on the bristles yet deep cleans to remove most of the ink.

I give the brush a few good scrubby rounds on the PET tool, then rinse the brush and the PET tool and repeat that process 2-3 times until the brush isn't leaving any color on the PET tool.

Then I dry the brush really well using the clean lint-free cloth, then put them into a glass jar to air dry for a few hours before putting them away.

The next time I use my clean brushes I can see and feel a drastic difference with how my brushes are taking on the ink and performing on the card stock!

So don't forget to take care of one of your most used assets in the craft room - your ink blending brushes! Give 'em some love and they'll love ya right back!

Hope you found this helpful! Happy Crafting!

xoxo, Deby 💕