I have a lot of craft products. What, you too? I’m sure between you and me we could open our own warehouse, but for this blog series I wanted to share with you some of the craft products I never put away. (Not because I’m that messy–but because I’m using them!)
So let’s talk clean up. No, it’s not my favorite subject either but…at some point you’ve got to do it. Even if it’s just because you’re moving house! 🙂
Here are my on-hand items for cleaning up the crafty messes.
1. Baby wipes. Honestly, I use these for almost everything! For cleaning stamps, wiping stray ink marks, mopping up little spills and even pouncing into wet ink or paint for a textured effect. I buy the economy packs at the drugstore. This is what I use to clean my stamps, remove adhesive from scissor blades and keep my hands clean.
2. Grubby old towels. When our bath towels went past the stage where I wanted anyone to see them hanging on the bathroom rail, I cut them down into hand-towel sizes and now use them for cleaning stencils and letting items air-dry. If you cut them down into washcloth-sized pieces, they also make craft table mop-downs easier. The bigger pieces are also great for protecting the floor when you’re painting or doing color spraying. When they get dirty, I pop them in the washing machine as a separate load.
3. Hotel key card. Got paint puddled and dried on your craft sheet? A plastic hotel key card or old gift card is perfect for scraping away dried paint.
4. Spray bottle of water. I try to keep things as chemical-free around my work area since I often have a small but avid crafter with me. A bottle of water with spray nozzle really does clean up most of the messes made by water-based paint, ink and color sprays. Use it in combo with a grubby old towel!
5. Spray rubbing alcohol. I use this to clean my craft sheet—especially for things like alcohol ink and pen ink. This is how I clean my rubber brayer after using it to apply ink or alcohol ink. The spray bottle makes it easy to use and gives a cool speckled effect on inky backgrounds, too! Picked up at my local apteka (pharmacy).
As for the floor…well, I’m glad it’s not carpet, since I’ve had to mop up embossing powder, inkpads that landed pad-down and runaway color spray from time to time!
What about you? Any favorite craft-table clean-up tips?
Happy Monday!
SNAP, I have the same things around me, I am the big believer in a water spray and a flannel.
I have a big stash of old towels that have been died black or navy blue to cover up the faded bits etc.
I also keep a cheap toothbrush handy to really scrubbing stamps if I have used paint.
Lynnda, the toothbrush!!! I completely forgot to mention that, so thank you for the reminder. I was just scrubbing away at some very painty stamps this morning and you’re right, it’s a must-have.