Good tip. Tried that before with some and worked at times but not for some brands. The best thing, these days, is to just go with acrylic paint pens unless you need that roller ball aspect of the gel pens. However, that being said, you can't beat the price of large gel pen sets these days. The newer ones hardly ever clog as they make the gel thinner.
That sound familiar with the recycling program. I think we were doing that with the middle school art program that I used to volunteer for. I know we were sending pens somewhere. Don't know if it was Bic.
Best strategy is to replace the nib of the gel pen. Use pliers to remove the old nib and slot in a new nib which fits. Put the old nib in the new refill to keep the ink in place. This strategy also works for ball pens.
Kevin, this was a great tutorial. I struggle with these Gel pens so often and never tried the tapping of the pen but will not. I just opened a set of like 50 or so to actually use on the scene I sent you and it has 6 different pinks and none of them worked. I was really disappointed. But I read Rene;s review and I will try that and I might even try to find your Shuttle Art set. Thank you for doing this. It is very important...
Oh fantastic! Glad the vid came in handy for you. The thing that would work best for gel pens is just to do a scribble with them every week but, I know, that's had to do if you have a lot. I don't. The newer brands seem to do a little better with clogging as the inks seem thinner but I'm not sure they're as vibrant so it's a little trade off at times.
Amazon tiene algunos juegos geniales a precios baratos. Un set que me gusta tiene 180 bolígrafos y 180 recambios para ellos. Los bolígrafos han funcionado muy bien y tienen una amplia selección. amzn.to/3MtPdwR
I seldom use a pen these days, being retired, but OMG!! I mut have 20 pens strung out around the house and NONE of them are working. Old ones, new ones, NONE of them! The old Bic stick is fine, ROFL! It must be 30 years old....good grief.
Yes, these older models of pens seemed to seize without usage even if they're new/unused. The newer gel pens seem to be a lot better and can be extremely cheap. I have a set of 180 gel pens that came with 180 refills (one for each pen) that cost me about $25 a few years ago. They're sets targeting the adult coloring book market. Those are still working for me and I never use them. They work because the ink is thinner which is the refinement these pen companies seemed to have made. So less prone to clogging. But, I've switched to acrylic paint pens. For my usage, the acrylic paint pens flow better and might not be as cheap as the cheapest of the gel pen sets but they're not bad in price. Still a lot cheaper than gel pens from years ago. The Acrylic paint pens are by companies such as Artistro. amzn.to/3Vc92JR
@@stampscapes Oooh! I recently bought some fine tip acrylic paint pens, too!! I wear a sort of slap dash apron all the time and it has doodles all over it! I really like the paint pens. I like the gel pens - the flow and everything - if they'd just work!! But I REALLY like my fine point paint pens!
Even rambling on and on in an "instructional" video is perfectly acceptable as long as there's a fair amount of quality comments in the comments section. So thank you for the suggested solutions and alternatives to this issue.
The real simple solution to clogging these days is to just get any of the newer pen sets. They seem to make the gel thinner which, from my experience, keeps them from clogging. Or, they're just so cheap (180 pens that come with 180 refills for something like $25 or whatever it is these days) now that clogging doesn't matter as much as a $1-3 pens of old. I barely use gel pens anymore since acrylic paint pens have been on the market (that suit my purposes better) but I do have that 180 color gel pen set that has been sitting for years and almost all of them still work fine. I think I had to replace the ink cartridge on one of them.
Hi there. I really enjoy your tutorials, you are seriously talented. You probably tired of hearing that. I would like to attempt some of your stamp scenes but I'm having a heck of a time finding glossy cardstock. Do you know where I could purchase it? Could i use photo paper? If so does it matter if its the glossy paper for ink jets or for laser printers? Thanks so much. Keep up all your great work. I'll be watching. xo
Hello. Thanks for checking out the vids! There's a long write up on materials in the Materials FAQ in the information section on the Stampscapes website including places to buy glossy card stock. Kromekote CS1 (single sided glossy) 12 point (thickness) is a good type of paper and one can buy it by the ream on Amazon. Kelly Paper or the Paper Mill also sells it. Marcos Paper out of Chicago IL sells it in smaller quantities as well. Card stock is different from photo paper but it can be used but with different techniques as the surface is almost the opposite. Remember, too, that Stampscapes isn't a technique. They're highly detailed stamps that are simple to compose into seamless scenes. On this channel, I've done photo-stamping, matter paper with hybrid inks, photo-paper with alcohol pens, dark matte paper with pigment inks, and the Stampscapes website gallery has even more techniques with pastels, colored pencils, embossing, and even things like stamping on saw blades. A stamp of a waterfall can be used with the same media as a word stamp. Think of stamps as tools and note techniques. That being said, dyes on glossy is a very dynamic combination. You can't achieve a deeper, richer color saturation than transparent media on coated papers.
I've had luck getting some gel pens to come back to life by putting them nib down in a mug of hot water. Water is hot to the touch, but not close to boiling. Best to submerge only the pen guts if possible and only to the ink level. Leave for a couple of minutes to warm through. Sadly, sometimes a dead pen is just a dead pen :-(
Okay, I tried this using all of the pens that I tossed out while making this video (about 12 of them) and certain types of pens got flowing again where I was getting zero flow with them before. However, when the pens cooled, they seemed to seize again. I think the warmth got the gel to flow but, when cool, these ones were too far gone with the binder/pigment separation. This being said, I think some can just keep a cup of hot water at their desk when they want to use those particular pens if they have a lot of them and don't want to toss them. Personally, after finding the Shuttle Art set (I'm not affiliated with them) I'll probably just toss mine as I don't want to hassle with that. So, your tip I can see working great if the clogged pens aren't so far gone as these particular ones were. Some of my pens were probably 16 years old. Thanks for the suggestion!
I was cleaning out my pen drawer and every one of my white pens was NOT working including multiple UNIballs. I went on a RUclips quest and found a few answers. #1 A lot of them are junk #2 your tapping method with both cap on and off #3 rubbing alcohol applied to the ball end. The last one worked in a surprising number of videos. One guy did an elaborate surgery combined with alcohol. You have to do that in IMHO it's not worth it. OOh and BTW I have had scenestamping disasters with the paint pens. Yikes
There's a lot of newer gel pens that work very well because they thinned out the ink in them so they're not as prone to drying and clogging. That being said, for artwork and not drawing (with that roller ball style of the gel pens), I've long since switched over to the acrylic paint pens. For me, much better flow and delivery on a lot of different types of surfaces. The acrylic paint pens can even write on rocks, glass, plastic, etc. as it's actual acrylic paint. There's also oil based paint markers but I didn't find any benefit to the oil from the brand or two that I tested so I'm using the water based acrylic markers in the .7mm extra fine tip and the 3mm wide tip.
Thank you so much!! The question remains- if you are watching this- would are you supposed to be doing? I bet you get loads of views during tax season. lol. But, this is fun. Thanks again---super helpful
HAHAHAHAHA...."probably most annoying video you have ever seen"....LOLOLOL (thank you I have a gelpen I bought and haven't ever been able to use it. I have soaked it in 91% alcohol and now it's soaking in acetone. Table banging will be next...LOL
Bottom line is just buy new pens. There's a Shuttle Art 360 pen set for $25. I've had it for over 2 years at this point in time and none of mine have clogged. They just make the pen ink thinner these days to increase flow.
@@pristinabread Me too, Acetone, Alcohol, Burned it, blew in it... doesn't work though. This piece of %$Y%$&(* NExt thing im going to try tmr is soak it in hot water.
Hope it was helpful. There's been some comments with some good tips on getting the pens going that sound like they work. The latest gel pens seem to work pretty well without clogging though. They seem to be thinner though so not quite as opaque as the older ones like these but not having the clogging problem is a really good feature. I have a 180 color set now that came with 180 refills (1 refill for each pen) that cost under $30 a few year ago and those pens are working great. I don't use them as much, though, as I like the new acrylic paint pens better.
You can put you gel pens in bowl of hot water for one-two minutes and the ink will get flowing back more easier than tapping them on a table! 😊
Good tip. Tried that before with some and worked at times but not for some brands. The best thing, these days, is to just go with acrylic paint pens unless you need that roller ball aspect of the gel pens. However, that being said, you can't beat the price of large gel pen sets these days. The newer ones hardly ever clog as they make the gel thinner.
Worked like a charm. Persistence is the key
Remove the small tip of the gel pen, immerse it in water for a few minutes, and be sure to unclog it before reinserting.
Great tip on the tips!
The one with Asian writing is Yoobi
I love my Sakura gelly rolls. I have a glaze pen I cannot get to work. Also, there's a recycling program through Bic through Terracycle.
That sound familiar with the recycling program. I think we were doing that with the middle school art program that I used to volunteer for. I know we were sending pens somewhere. Don't know if it was Bic.
Best strategy is to replace the nib of the gel pen. Use pliers to remove the old nib and slot in a new nib which fits. Put the old nib in the new refill to keep the ink in place. This strategy also works for ball pens.
Thanks for the tips on the tips
Kevin, this was a great tutorial. I struggle with these Gel pens so often and never tried the tapping of the pen but will not. I just opened a set of like 50 or so to actually use on the scene I sent you and it has 6 different pinks and none of them worked. I was really disappointed. But I read Rene;s review and I will try that and I might even try to find your Shuttle Art set. Thank you for doing this. It is very important...
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you Kevin, I thought I was going to have to throw all of the gel pens away until I tried the whack-a-pen method. I saved over half of my stash.
Oh fantastic! Glad the vid came in handy for you. The thing that would work best for gel pens is just to do a scribble with them every week but, I know, that's had to do if you have a lot. I don't. The newer brands seem to do a little better with clogging as the inks seem thinner but I'm not sure they're as vibrant so it's a little trade off at times.
Hola buenas noches amiga como puedo obtener estos bolígrafos escarchados
Amazon tiene algunos juegos geniales a precios baratos. Un set que me gusta tiene 180 bolígrafos y 180 recambios para ellos. Los bolígrafos han funcionado muy bien y tienen una amplia selección. amzn.to/3MtPdwR
I seldom use a pen these days, being retired, but OMG!! I mut have 20 pens strung out around the house and NONE of them are working. Old ones, new ones, NONE of them! The old Bic stick is fine, ROFL! It must be 30 years old....good grief.
Yes, these older models of pens seemed to seize without usage even if they're new/unused. The newer gel pens seem to be a lot better and can be extremely cheap. I have a set of 180 gel pens that came with 180 refills (one for each pen) that cost me about $25 a few years ago. They're sets targeting the adult coloring book market. Those are still working for me and I never use them. They work because the ink is thinner which is the refinement these pen companies seemed to have made. So less prone to clogging. But, I've switched to acrylic paint pens. For my usage, the acrylic paint pens flow better and might not be as cheap as the cheapest of the gel pen sets but they're not bad in price. Still a lot cheaper than gel pens from years ago. The Acrylic paint pens are by companies such as Artistro. amzn.to/3Vc92JR
@@stampscapes Oooh! I recently bought some fine tip acrylic paint pens, too!! I wear a sort of slap dash apron all the time and it has doodles all over it! I really like the paint pens. I like the gel pens - the flow and everything - if they'd just work!! But I REALLY like my fine point paint pens!
Even rambling on and on in an "instructional" video is perfectly acceptable as long as there's a fair amount of quality comments in the comments section. So thank you for the suggested solutions and alternatives to this issue.
The real simple solution to clogging these days is to just get any of the newer pen sets. They seem to make the gel thinner which, from my experience, keeps them from clogging. Or, they're just so cheap (180 pens that come with 180 refills for something like $25 or whatever it is these days) now that clogging doesn't matter as much as a $1-3 pens of old. I barely use gel pens anymore since acrylic paint pens have been on the market (that suit my purposes better) but I do have that 180 color gel pen set that has been sitting for years and almost all of them still work fine. I think I had to replace the ink cartridge on one of them.
Kev, thanks I learned a lot from this video
Glad you enjoyed it
Hi there. I really enjoy your tutorials, you are seriously talented. You probably tired of hearing that. I would like to attempt some of your stamp scenes but I'm having a heck of a time finding glossy cardstock. Do you know where I could purchase it? Could i use photo paper? If so does it matter if its the glossy paper for ink jets or for laser printers? Thanks so much. Keep up all your great work. I'll be watching. xo
Hello. Thanks for checking out the vids! There's a long write up on materials in the Materials FAQ in the information section on the Stampscapes website including places to buy glossy card stock. Kromekote CS1 (single sided glossy) 12 point (thickness) is a good type of paper and one can buy it by the ream on Amazon. Kelly Paper or the Paper Mill also sells it. Marcos Paper out of Chicago IL sells it in smaller quantities as well. Card stock is different from photo paper but it can be used but with different techniques as the surface is almost the opposite. Remember, too, that Stampscapes isn't a technique. They're highly detailed stamps that are simple to compose into seamless scenes. On this channel, I've done photo-stamping, matter paper with hybrid inks, photo-paper with alcohol pens, dark matte paper with pigment inks, and the Stampscapes website gallery has even more techniques with pastels, colored pencils, embossing, and even things like stamping on saw blades. A stamp of a waterfall can be used with the same media as a word stamp. Think of stamps as tools and note techniques. That being said, dyes on glossy is a very dynamic combination. You can't achieve a deeper, richer color saturation than transparent media on coated papers.
I've had luck getting some gel pens to come back to life by putting them nib down in a mug of hot water. Water is hot to the touch, but not close to boiling. Best to submerge only the pen guts if possible and only to the ink level. Leave for a couple of minutes to warm through. Sadly, sometimes a dead pen is just a dead pen :-(
Awesome, thanks for the tip!
Okay, I tried this using all of the pens that I tossed out while making this video (about 12 of them) and certain types of pens got flowing again where I was getting zero flow with them before. However, when the pens cooled, they seemed to seize again. I think the warmth got the gel to flow but, when cool, these ones were too far gone with the binder/pigment separation. This being said, I think some can just keep a cup of hot water at their desk when they want to use those particular pens if they have a lot of them and don't want to toss them. Personally, after finding the Shuttle Art set (I'm not affiliated with them) I'll probably just toss mine as I don't want to hassle with that. So, your tip I can see working great if the clogged pens aren't so far gone as these particular ones were. Some of my pens were probably 16 years old. Thanks for the suggestion!
I was cleaning out my pen drawer and every one of my white pens was NOT working including multiple UNIballs. I went on a RUclips quest and found a few answers. #1 A lot of them are junk #2 your tapping method with both cap on and off #3 rubbing alcohol applied to the ball end. The last one worked in a surprising number of videos. One guy did an elaborate surgery combined with alcohol. You have to do that in IMHO it's not worth it. OOh and BTW I have had scenestamping disasters with the paint pens. Yikes
There's a lot of newer gel pens that work very well because they thinned out the ink in them so they're not as prone to drying and clogging. That being said, for artwork and not drawing (with that roller ball style of the gel pens), I've long since switched over to the acrylic paint pens. For me, much better flow and delivery on a lot of different types of surfaces. The acrylic paint pens can even write on rocks, glass, plastic, etc. as it's actual acrylic paint. There's also oil based paint markers but I didn't find any benefit to the oil from the brand or two that I tested so I'm using the water based acrylic markers in the .7mm extra fine tip and the 3mm wide tip.
Thank you so much!! The question remains- if you are watching this- would are you supposed to be doing? I bet you get loads of views during tax season. lol. But, this is fun. Thanks again---super helpful
Nice tutorial
Was helpful
Glad it helped
HAHAHAHAHA...."probably most annoying video you have ever seen"....LOLOLOL (thank you I have a gelpen I bought and haven't ever been able to use it. I have soaked it in 91% alcohol and now it's soaking in acetone. Table banging will be next...LOL
OOOOOHHHMMMGAAAWWWDDDD the hammer/wacking worked....GENIUS!
Bottom line is just buy new pens. There's a Shuttle Art 360 pen set for $25. I've had it for over 2 years at this point in time and none of mine have clogged. They just make the pen ink thinner these days to increase flow.
@@pristinabread Me too, Acetone, Alcohol, Burned it, blew in it... doesn't work though. This piece of %$Y%$&(* NExt thing im going to try tmr is soak it in hot water.
@@julial3758 the table banging actually worked for me and not only on gel pens but sharpies and a few regular pens as well.
Thank you 🙏🏻
Hope it was helpful. There's been some comments with some good tips on getting the pens going that sound like they work. The latest gel pens seem to work pretty well without clogging though. They seem to be thinner though so not quite as opaque as the older ones like these but not having the clogging problem is a really good feature. I have a 180 color set now that came with 180 refills (1 refill for each pen) that cost under $30 a few year ago and those pens are working great. I don't use them as much, though, as I like the new acrylic paint pens better.