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I really don't have room for this, but I totally caved and got a set of 12 distress oxide inks from Amazon.

Hopefully I get some quality playtime in this weekend, because next weekend starts 7 straight weeks of marching competitions. And being out of the house ALL DAY on those Saturdays means everything else for the weekend gets crammed into Sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to come back up for air sometime in November.

jfugina wrote:I really don't have room for this, but I totally caved and got a set of 12 distress oxide inks from Amazon.

Hopefully I get some quality playtime in this weekend, because next weekend starts 7 straight weeks of marching competitions. And being out of the house ALL DAY on those Saturdays means everything else for the weekend gets crammed into Sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to come back up for air sometime in November.

You need to come up with a to-go box of supplies to take along with you. Even if it's just stamping images.

I think I may put that on my wish list for Christmas.... Mike always needs to know what to buy for me... and I've been avoiding them. But that might be a really nice thing for him to get for me...

pamcook wrote: You need to come up with a to-go box of supplies to take along with you. Even if it's just stamping images.

That would make sense if any of them were really all that far away. The one on Saturday was about an hour away, but all one of the rest of them are 30 minutes or less away. And, it's not like I'm sitting up there bored in the stands. I'm actually a big geeked out marching band fan. So I'm sitting up there with other "been there" parents comparing these shows to those back in our day, and exchanging notes about which bands have the better marching, music, props, visuals, drumline, and auxiliary.

Our first competition was Saturday (two days ago), and our band took 3rd in their division. I've since found out that the first place band in our division (second largest school size group) is basically un-beatable, and has been for years. So we go into any competition they're at, striving for second.

When I'm not up in the stand cheering, I'm back at the trailers helping fix uniforms. There's always a glove that needs stitching, or someone who somehow transformed a normal pair of gauntlets into two lefts. This weekend, I did a hack on a hat that was missing a plume clip. I used an old used clarinet reed as a shim (why was that even in the spare uniform parts box???) and taped it to the hat and tried to tie the plume to it.

Rob didn't see anything from the stands, because he's joined the "pit crew". So he's kept busy with that. We're both total groupies, much to the embarrassment of our daughter.

So I had about 10 minutes last night to open up my inks and play just a bit. I unwrapped a few lighter colors and stamped them on black, and I do love how these seem to sit on top of the paper and not just bleed in and become invisible. I used to use cat's eye chalk ink for this purpose, and I actually went to compare the two last night, and realized that almost every single one of my chalk inks are completely dried out.

I was instantly sad, because I loved the way those stamped, and I have a tool that clips in the back of the cat's eye pad that made edging super smooth and I loved it. But on the flip side, now that I have to pitch almost the entire collection, I guess I now have an entire drawer freed up for distress oxide ink pads.

I've got a ton of chalk inkpads... and re-inkers.... sounds like I need to give them a little workout and see how they look on dark paper...

jfugina wrote:So I had about 10 minutes last night to open up my inks and play just a bit. I unwrapped a few lighter colors and stamped them on black, and I do love how these seem to sit on top of the paper and not just bleed in and become invisible. I used to use cat's eye chalk ink for this purpose, and I actually went to compare the two last night, and realized that almost every single one of my chalk inks are completely dried out.

I was instantly sad, because I loved the way those stamped, and I have a tool that clips in the back of the cat's eye pad that made edging super smooth and I loved it. But on the flip side, now that I have to pitch almost the entire collection, I guess I now have an entire drawer freed up for distress oxide ink pads.

Have you tried an ink refresher? I have no idea if it works on chalk ink but might be worth a try.

Congratulations Julie! Hope this weekend you can dive into the Oxides and get familiar with them. They are scrumptious. Catch a few Tim and YouTube videos too.

And being a past marching band parent I love hearing how you are a part of Nicole's experience. She may be a bit embarrassed but the memories will be awesome. I miss those Friday night halftime shows and especially the Saturday road trip competitions. We got to enjoy them through Charley's junior year of college.

Note: if Nicole's MB headwear is the traditional tall style with a visor and feathery plume, don't call them hats. They are "shakos". Never call them hats.

Shakos? That's not something I've heard yet, but their headwear is definitely what you describe, and those plumes are like 20" tall! The director calls them hats though, so I guess we're "out of the loop".

jfugina wrote:Shakos? That's not something I've heard yet, but their headwear is definitely what you describe, and those plumes are like 20" tall! The director calls them hats though, so I guess we're "out of the loop".

Interesting. Maybe that's a California thing but I bet Charley would tell me otherwise. If any of the freshman goofed and called them hats I think pushups were involved, LOL. This was true in HS as well as college.


I'm being a band geek now:

Shako: noun
a cylindrical or conical military hat with a brim and a plume or pom-pom.

pamcook wrote:

jfugina wrote:So I had about 10 minutes last night to open up my inks and play just a bit. I unwrapped a few lighter colors and stamped them on black, and I do love how these seem to sit on top of the paper and not just bleed in and become invisible. I used to use cat's eye chalk ink for this purpose, and I actually went to compare the two last night, and realized that almost every single one of my chalk inks are completely dried out.

I was instantly sad, because I loved the way those stamped, and I have a tool that clips in the back of the cat's eye pad that made edging super smooth and I loved it. But on the flip side, now that I have to pitch almost the entire collection, I guess I now have an entire drawer freed up for distress oxide ink pads.

Have you tried an ink refresher? I have no idea if it works on chalk ink but might be worth a try.

Ink Refresher was my first thought, too. I love that stuff. I kept those little CS Jr inkpads wet for years with the Ranger Ink Refresher. I use it on any type of pad and it seemed to work fine. Ranger says it's for dye or pigment pads. A bottle lasts for years so it's one thing I don't bother making myself. To make it yourself, it's just a tsp. of glycerin to 4 oz. water. According to The Frugal Crafter this homemade stuff is just for dye based ink.

I don't own any ink refresher, but I haven't tossed the cat's eye yet, so it's definitely worth a shot. I don't have any glycerin (I don't think I do), and the chalk inks are definitely more of a pigment ink. I'm due for a trip to a craft store this weekend for some necklace chain, so I'll see if I can find some refresher. I have at least 6 or so stacked packs of cat's eye, and I know those ran $10 a piece, and I loved the colors, so they'd definitely be worth saving if the refresher worked.

Thanks for the tip!