I have to say the Stampin' up sponge dauber are the best I have ever used and I would recommend them to anyone without hesitation, but there comes a time when when they get start to show signs of wear and stop giving you the results you expect.
As you can see from these two pictures some of my daubers have bobbles and straggly bits coming of them rather than being smooth.
It's all those bobbles and straggly bits that cause all the scratchy looking streaks on your work.
Definitely not a look I like or want.
Now some people would now throw these daubers away when they get to this stage.
But me being a skin flint who wants to get as much use out of these things as I can, before binning them has a little tip to share with you today to help you get a little more life out of them.
My tip is when your daubers get tired and bobbly, revitalize them by taking an ultra sharp pair of scissors and lay them flat on the surface of the dauber and just snip those bobbles away, keep snipping until the top of the sponge looks smooth again.
This will probably take you longer than you think to get it smooth and you will end end up a small pile of shavings.
Take your time to get a nice finish and be careful not to cut into the main body of the sponge you only want to get rid of the straggly bits and bobbles.
Don't try to do this with dull scissors, they snag the sponge and create more straggly bits.
After it's manicure your dauber will then start to perform as it did when it was almost new.
as you can see here they perform much better now scratchy marks at all.
You can also rinse these out with a little washing up liquid and some warm water and dry them off well with kitchen paper.
I don't recommend you leave them to soak as it's likely the adhesive with come unstuck.
They will still look stained after washing but if you have rinsed them well, they will be perfectly safe to use with your pastel coloured inks.
