Ink won't dry..help

I inked felt shapes with colorbox inks and it has been 5 days and still the ink isn't dry...help!! I don't have a scraproom and I am afraid one of my 3 indians will end up ruining my LO's because they are sitting on my dining room table..lol How do I get them to dry and what ink should I use for felt?

I had this happen once, not on felt - just on my layout - it took over a week to dry (it was just ink on paper and hasn't happened since). Time was the only thing that helped. I tried blow drying and all the other suggestions but in the end, it just finally dried! Was very frustrating though!

Oh, that's not good. How frustrating! I tried this myself and some of the ink came off for me, too. What I'd suggest is to take a dry soft cloth and press down on the felt several times, until the ink stops coming up (sort of in the way some of those spot cleaners for carpets work). Chances are, it's just on there too thick. I don't know what inks to tell you to use in future, though, because after I did this once, I never tried inking felt again! I got scared!

Have you tried either a blow dryer or like a heat tool that is used for embossing?

if you're inking paper or material use a cosmetic sponge to pick up the ink from the ink pad and place it on the material by dabbing and then blend.

It will help with not applying to much and make drying time faster.

pigment inks take a long long time to dry. In the future use water or alcohol based inks they dry faster like Ranger Ink s or even staz on...I only use the pigment inks with embossing because the ink stays wet. I've red where some use the heat tool to dry the ink but I wouldn't do that here it might scorch your felt.

Your felt probably just sucked up a ton of ink and is going to take a while to dry. That stuff is super absorbent.

I've never inked on felt. However, I recently inked a lace applique using Colorbox. When I tried to find "instructions" on how to dye an applique online, I did come across a site which suggested zapping the applique for 25-30 seconds in the microwave to set the ink.

Being paranoid, I zapped one side for about 1 minute, then flipped it over and did the other side. Seemed to work on the lace. At list it didn't rub off on my hands or the layout to which I applied it.

Since felt is a different type of fabric, you might try it on a test piece of felt to see if it works and to make sure it doesn't ruin the fabric, i.e. shrink, discolor, etc.

• momof3boys307 Said:

Thanks ladies. I will try and soak up the ink with a towel since I don't have a heat tool and with my luck a blow dryer will catch my felt on fire...lol
I guess I won't be doing this again anytime soon.

Also, as a random aside, realize that humidity will also play into drying times with any inks (think: when it's real humid outside, your sweat doesn't evaporate/dry....same thing with anything else liquid).