Cotton Swabs

This week for Tools of the Trade Tuesday I thought I would feature cotton swabs. I think we are all familiar with them but do you know some of the uses for them in crafting?

One of the most obvious is of course to do quick painting jobs. For a lot of painting tasks when I don't need the control of a paint brush I pull out the cotton swabs. The best part (besides that they are really cheap) no clean up, just toss them out when you are done.

And for making dots there are few tools that work as well.

Are you familiar with the different shapes that they come in?

We have the standard issue cotton swab that we have all known most of our lives, easy to buy almost everywhere you happen to be. Great for all around general use. If you buy the kind with the plastic handle part you can even use that in crafting (think back to my T2T
toilet bowl brush project, they would have worked just as well as a cocktail straw) I love these for quick painting projects. I also use them to apply chalks when I don't want to deal with brush cleaning. 

 

Now how about the Safety Swabs, I used those not too long ago in my T2T project to make cotton candy. I also like these to add a wash of either “dirty water” (water with a drop of dark color paint to age things) or a hint of color. Just fluff them like I did to make the cotton candy and use them with the very watery paint mixtures to flood the area with a wash or hint of the color. 

 

Have you seen the cosmetic applicator version? These have one end that is more of a paddle shape.  I love these for applying chalks just like with a brush but they tend to give a heavier application.

And sometimes I can get pointed swabs, either as one end of the cosmetic ones or on their own. These are great for applying paint into small areas or for cleaning up wet paint that has gotten a bit away from me.