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We have lots of dried out markers. We *had* lots of dried out markers. I bet you do to. I’ve tried soaking them in water, which sort of works, but what *really* works is soaking them in liquid watercolors. They aren’t the most common craft supply, but if you have some they are perfect for recharging your markers. If you don’t have any you can probably justify the cost by saying they will save you the price of buying a new set of markers every year. 🙂
To recharge your markers just put a little liquid watercolor in a paint tray or small jar and stick your markers in them, they will slowly soak them up and be ready to draw like new. Keep an eye on them, and if they suck up all the dye, add more. For a really dry marker you may have to leave it overnight with a good supply. Our liquid watercolors are washable (like most), so our finished markers stay washable, very important! Also, if you think your old colors are boring, you can even give them a long soak in a new made up color. Which brings us to activity two:
Have you seen those Crayola color mixing markers? They are basically just two markers that snap together point to point, and mix their colors through diffusion, then when you draw, the color gradually fades from the mixed color back to the original color as the dye is sucked out of the tip of the marker by the paper. Well, you can buy special markers to do this (which we technically did, my husband and daughter came home from the craft store with them, which is how I even know what they are…) but you don’t need to, you can just dip the regular old markers that you have into your liquid watercolors and get the same effect. Cool! You can do all kinds of neat washes and color fades. So go get mixy with those markers!
11 Comments
Add Yours →Thank you for sharing this. Personally I have decided not to purchase any more markers once ours have dried out because of the throw-away plastic issue. It is great to know there is a good way to extend their life.
Yes, it’s really been working well. The one thing adding more dye to your markers *can’t* do is make them pointy again, so if they have been mashed flat they stay that way! I know one of our favorite marker activities is smashing them so hard on the paper that they make splatter stars. I suppose you might be able to pinch them back into shape?
WoW! Thanks for sharing! Going to post a link on my facebook page to share!
🙂
Analise
Thanks, I always hated throwing away dry markers…
It’s the black markers that get “used up” first and they can’t be purchased separately. I’ll bet there are many other teachers out there with the same problem and this solves it. Thank you!
Thanks! Yes, if I was a teacher I’m sure I would be doing a lot of marker re-charging! I know our preschool uses this technique to refill stamp pads too. (Well, it’s simpler, of course, for the stamp pads, you just need to squirt the liquid watercolors straight onto them.) Same principle.
you can also use chromark sign kit ink, aout $14-15 /pint bottle http://www.chromark.net/chromarksstore.html and I pour the ink into rinsed out 1/2 pt, milk cartons (top pulled open).
You can probably use any kind of ink since the marker is just a sponge, but I was trying to keep the washable markers washable, thus refilling them with washable watercolors worked for us. But as they get older I’m sure we can find all sorts of interesting things to fill markers with! Thanks!
I love this idea! Do you dilute the liquid watercolors? I’m all about stretching the materials if possible. Thanks!
Hmm. I think that I didn’t dilute them, because such a small amount at a time comes out of the marker when you are drawing. But you can certainly experiment with pastels! (Ah this got shoved into my spam queue, sorry!)
[…] use it straight. Two, you could soak magic markers in water. I have not tried this technique, but here is a good tutorial. Three, you could combine tube watercolors with water (I used to do this before […]