Making your own ink blending tool

So, following on from my mass un-mounting, I saved a few wooden blocks, with the intention of making myself some more blending tools.The  blocks I saved were mainly about the same size as the original blending tool,and one or two small squares.
           You could use the blocks as they are, but I wanted some handles on mine, so a visit to B & Q yielded these:

  Small wooden handles, a pack of ten was £9- you can get a similar handle in plastic for about a fiver.You can see they come with screws, so Beloved Hubby drilled through the blocks for me (probably safer than me doing it), and screwed on the handles.
A bit of wood filler over the holes, then left to dry overnight. I sanded them off the next morning- wood filler can be quite hard, so I improvised with an old foot- file I keep with my polymer clay stuff :), finished off with some sandpaper.

Next bit was to add Velcro, and a good cheap source for this is market stalls- especially if you are not fussy about the colour- black & white are the ones most people buy, so if you look round you will often find other colours a lot cheaper. This one I used is a sort of flesh colour, and cost me about 25p a metre- although I still always ask for a yard of something, lol. Gets me some odd looks.

So I cut some pieces to fit the blocks- and you want the 'hook' side for this,(the stiffer, rougher side) not the loop (the fluffy one). I used a hot glue gun to attach this to the block, and I found it was better to do two sides, attach the velcro, then do the other two sides. Press down well, especially the corners.

I tidied them up after, cutting away any excess glue.What I haven't done with these is add a layer of foam, which the original blending tools have. I figure they are going to have a foam pad attached, so don't need it. If I'm going to use felt & alcohol ink, then I'll use my originals. I had a browse around the net before I started, and it seems some people do add the foam, some don't.

  One lady's video I watched had a couple of ways of attaching the Velcro. One method was to run some foam through a Xyron machine both sides. Her other method was to use the double sided foam sticky tape- I got mine from Poundland. I used this on the little blocks, and it works well. The Velcro sticks to it without a problem.I trimmed some narrow Velcro down to fit, cutting the edge off both pieces so it would grip all over.

 

I tidied it up after, trimming any overhang away with a scalpel.




So here are all my new blending tools:

A later edit:
 I recommend stapling your velcro to the wooden block, rather than using the foam tape. I found it started to lift after peeling foams/felts off a few times.