Blending Tools - Make you own!

I hope you had a great Bank Holiday - although the weather in the North West started off beautiful with blue skies and sunshine by lunchtime had started to change and it was overcast and really cold. By teatime it was pouring down and so cold the central heating had to be switched back on! Why are crafting tools so expensive - I wanted some new blending tools but I found the price of £4.50ish for each one just too much so I decided to try and make my own - with a bit of help from him indoors. I have put all the instructions at the beginning because Blogger won't let me type between the pictures! I sent Bazzerto ratch around in his shed of wonders to find some suitable wood and he really came up trumps with a lovely piece of Mahogany which he cut up into small blocks (I used the blending tool I had as a template for the sizing). He even sanded them down so they were lovely and smooth. I bought some foam Mounting tape from our local £1 shop and some self adhesive velcro from the market. So with my trusty hot glue gun in hand we were all ready to start. The first job was to seal the blocks and I used Mod Podge gloss finish - I left one flat side unpainted as this was the where the foam pads would be attached. When they had dried I hot glued the foam tape onto the flat unsealed surface - when it cooled I attached a piece of self adhesive velcro (the hook side) down the middle of the foam. Finally I attached Ranger Blending Foam pads to the velcro and you are finished. I printed out some labels on the computer and attached them with the Mod Podge and eventually I will have one for each of the Distress Inks at a fraction of the cost. Not quite as pretty as the originals but they work just as well and will save me all the swapping the foam pads about. I hope this makes sense but if you have any questions just email me at stampersue53@gmail.com and I will try to answer any queries.