A while ago, I got all excited and purchased a We R Memory Keepers, The Works, All in One tool. Tho some instructions are on it, and there are lots of tutorials on You Tube, but I found, unless I used it frequently, I would forget how to do things with it. As a result, it got put in the cupboard, and forgotten.

After the 'honeymoon period' of, not wanting to risk 'messing it up' had passed and I was still struggling to read the markings on the tool. A lot of the 'markings' are debossed into the surface, not all are printed on in ink, which for me, made them tricky to see.

At this point, I decided to break out the alcohol pens, and make it my own.

If you want to try this, here's what you need and how I did it.

Items you need.

Alcohol pens, in colours you find easy to read.

Blender pen (think of this as a pen version of an 'undo button', an eraser for ink that goes where you don't want it)

Scrap paper, or kitchen paper. Wipe the tip of your blender pen on it, if it gets loaded with colour, to clean it, so its still REMOVING inks, not just spreading them around.

Method

Now there are two ways of inking this; INnnies or OUTies. With innies the debossed (recessed areas) have the colour. OUTies have the tools colour on the inside of grooves, and your chosen ink colour on the outside of the grooved areas. (stick with me, there will be more pictures, showing what I mean) 👍

To create INies

Colour over the debossed area, with a colour of alcohol ink you can see well. The ink will run down into the groves, and  makes them easeir to see. If any ink goes where you don't want it too, use a blender pen to 'erase' it.

This will give you ink INSIDE the grooves.

To create OUTies

Colour over the area you want coloured, give it a second or two to settle, but then use a blender pen over the debossed area, to remove the ink, from inside the groove.

In this way, the markings will show in the colour of your tool.

The surrounding area, will be the colour of ink that you used. Hopefully making it easer to see. Here is a picture to show you what that looks like.

The Orange areas, were for the TAB punches. These have the colour INside the grooves.

The Pink areas, show the markings for the TAG punch, this time the blender pen was used, to remove the ink from down inside the groove.

Pick what works for you. I used different colours for the different parts of the tool, because it helps with my dyslexia to know all things in one colour relate to the same task.

You do you, if you want them all to match, choose colours that are pleasing and easy to see for your needs.

Using alcohol pens to write on centre points and what does what on the tool

As you can hopefully see from this image. Some parts have the ink IN the debossed lines, the ones I call Innies. Others have ink on the OUTside of the lines, the ones I call outies. The blender pen removed the ink from down in the grooves, for the outies. Keep wiping off your blender or spare paper or kitchen paper, to keep it clean.

Now for all those punches, on the board.

Firstly, I drew shapes on the tops of the punches, to show the directions and shapes that they punched out. FAR easier than trying to see,the debossed names. Although I later inked over the text, to make them more readable too.

If you have seen tutorials on You Tube, for tricks to help use this board for more techniques, some show it helpful to mark the CENTRE point of various punches on the tool. So I inked those areas too.

Colouring Rulers  

Here I used the same, 'innies and outies' marking technique, on the rulers in some areas too. Inches are printed on but the cm are just embossed. Choose if its more helpful to use different colours, and if INies or OUTies colouring works better for your eyesight.

I also marked, which side of the mint guide was for cutting and which for scoring. Yes I know, there is a visual difference, but it helped me, to have a picture of scissors on the cutting side. For a quick visual reference.

Later, I added some colour to specific areas on the scoring board. Marked areas that were my most used card/box sizes.

This is optional, as it does make for more visual 'clutter but go with what works for your needs.

Marking different areas with different colours, helps my dyslexia.

Lastly, did you know that the cutting blade has markings for centre top, bottom left and right? Well done if you did, or you have great eyesight or a good light.

If you didn't notice the markings on the cutter before and it would be helpful for you, use a fine tipped permanent pen to mark those points too. (yes its a bit messy, I was a bit shaky that day. A blender pen, would sort that out, so it says cut instead of cat.

Having centre points marked on the cutting blade can be really helpful if you are using this to cut lines only part way along a projects line. But as Tim Holtz would say 'You do You'.

Result

Its all down to personal tastes, and what you find helpful, to your way of crafting and your abilities. It might not be pretty, but having different areas of the board different colours, helped me understand what parts did what. #dyslexia.

It has made a big difference to have the areas coloured, to be able to actually READ the words and numbers on the tool. Now I use this tool a lot and enjoy using it.

If you get ink where you don't mean to, just use the blender pen, to drink up that ink, and wipe with a paper towel, to remove any extra left.

If you find your blender is putting colour on, just give the blender pen a wipe off, on another surface till its clean again.

Thinks to know

👍 Do wipe off residue from blender pen, so that there is nothing sticky left from the inks.

👍 DO give it a good while to dry

Please do treat the markings you made gently, if you press hard or drag paper/card across it firmly, the ink may rub off. but given a good while to dry, and treated gently, its been fine.

😲 If you freak out and decide you hate the look after you finished, just use the blender pen to remove your ink.

I've ended up using this idea on other tools that I've struggled with too and its made so much difference. Crop a diles and corner punches have had either alcohol ink added or a white Sharpie Poster paint pen on anything with a dark background.

That Sharpie Poster paint pen in white, has also been great for writing the names of ink pads on the sides of them too.

Happy Crafting Billie

@billies craftroom