A great little "save" trick!

For what ever reason it would seem I cannot keep ink off my fingers when I am stamping.  As careful as I can be, I still end up with smudges on my papers, some times it is just a fleck, some times a finger print.  If I am selling a card, I don't want to sell my fingerprints with it, whether it is going to one of my stores or my blog shop, the cards have to be pristine and without things like flecks, fingerprints, halos and embossing splatter.  My solution to all of those problems is this 1.99 sand paper block that I buy from Home Depot:

I have two here and they are  about 3x5' and the grit is extra fine.  they are really just little foam blocks coated in a extra fine sandpaper.  

here is a card that I smudged just for this post to show you what I normally do without trying:

I had to darken this to make the print visible, in real life it is very visible!!
To remove the print I just simply lightly sanded the area of the print, I sanded of the ink leaving the paper unmarred.

you can see there is no more finger print!  I accidentally hit to much of the layer paper and then tried to fix that (black smudge) Well I sanded that and then added a layer of ochre colored pencil and you can' t see that error now.  This also works on stamp "halo's"!!)

I also use these sand blocks to give my new stamps a quick rub to take of the silicone coating from the factory.  That is why new stamps often don't stamp well.  The blocks are also great for distressing!

I hope you find this trick helpful, it has been a huge time saver for me!

Have a great day!

Ginny M