I basically turned the thing upside down and pulled the bottom out so that I could see all of the colors. I think I'll do that every now and then to get a better picture of what I have, even though technically I can see all the color bits even when they're upside down as they are in the next photo, which shows how they'll actually be stored:
I put this together using Kraft cardstock as the base, which I've noticed, probably because of its makeup, I don't know, is actually a naturally stiff product. I covered just the edges with Basic Grey paper scraps on the bottom and did the top and sides of the lid. I had fun poking through my folder of Basic Grey scraps (YES, I keep them separate... sacred Basic Grey papers are not to touch other less worthy and more common products... I'm a huge paper snob that way...) and pulling out all of my Marrakech scraps to cut up and cover this box. I really like the way it turned out! I'm such a hopelessly ridiculous fan of Basic Grey that I actually can pick through all of my scraps and identify what collection each scrap is from. Oh, well.
Anyway... as to ink storage... I'll elaborate just a bit on inks. These particular inks are actually good for use with polymer clay. The reason these inks are good is because they're made up of chalk, if I'm getting my facts correctly, since they're "chalk ink". So the color behaves on the clay about like you'd expect chalk to behave. As always, it's good to get a feel for how the inks work before you try too much with them. They're about $10 a pack at Michael's and JoAnn, and you can use coupons, and they come 4 colors to a pack. Although I think all of them are 30% off right now, so bummer. But the inks last a pretty long time for how big they are, and it's a GREAT way to build up a huge selection of colors without having to spend the $7 per pad in the larger sizes. Although I have gotten some of the larger sizes of the colors that I discovered I really, really loved... such as Turquoise Gem and Perfect Plumeria.
When you see the packages in the stores, look for Dewdrop, which are the chalk inks. Not Momento, which is dye, I believe.
As always, StazOn is the perfect permanent choice for all of your polymer clay work, or for working in paper. For instance, you can stamp an image in StazOn onto a piece of paper and then watercolor because it won't run. You can also stamp it on metal or your cell phone or whatever, although the greater wear the object endures, the more the stamp will fade, even if it never fades completely.
One more thing for working with stamp pads... To get really rich stamped images, it helps to pull the ink to the surface of the stamp pad before you stamp. This is helped a lot by storing your ink upside down, keeping the ink resting at the top of the pad. Also, before you stamp, rub your stamp over the top of the pad. This is sometimes referred to as "seasoning" the pad. Once you've rubbed the stamp onto the pad, gently tap the stamp on the pad to get the ink onto the stamp. Rubbing really doesn't get any ink on the stamp--it just helps bring more ink to the surface.
This isn't usually necessary with newer stamp pads, but it can help give you richer images for a longer amount of time. It just helps you use what ink is in the pad rather than having to throw them away too soon.
And now I have a 9 year old on a broken record saying, "So what are we going to do?" "MOMMA." So I guess I need to go. ^_~
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