A blender pen is a dual tip marker filled with a clear blending fluid. You can use it with ink pads, markers, watercolor pencils, and even chalk. The handy part is obvious. The annoying part is the refill price. If you use blender pens often, making your own refill fluid is a simple way to keep your stamping and paper crafting costs down.
This homemade blender pen refill uses a very basic ratio of glycerin, distilled water, and a small amount of alcohol. Mix it once, keep it in a dropper bottle, and refresh dry blender pen tips as needed.
- 🧰 Materials You'll Need
- 🔧 Tools & Equipment
- 🛠️ How to Make and Use Blender Pen Refill
- 🎨 Customization Ideas
- 🛠️ How to Use It
- 🛡️ Safety Information
- 📦 Storage
- 💸 Estimated Cost
- 🛍️ Need Help Finding Everything?
- ❓ Frequently Asked Questions about Blender Pen Refill
- 📌 Love this Blender Pen Refill? Pin it!
- 🖨️ Print-Friendly How-To: Blender Pen Refill
Materials You’ll Need
- 1/3 glycerin
- 2/3 distilled water
- 1/4 teaspoon alcohol
To fill a 1 oz. bottle, use the ratio above exactly as written.
Alternate Blender Refill Recipe:
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons glycerin
- 5 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon rubbing alcohol
Tools & Equipment
- 1 oz. dropper bottle
- Tweezers, if needed
- Dual-tip blender pen
If you have small hands, you can just use your fingers. If you have big hands, tweezers make the job easier. Either way, go gently so you don’t ruin the tip.
How to Make and Use Blender Pen Refill
- Make the refill recipe as noted above and place the ingredients in a dropper bottle.
- Carefully pull the tips out of the pen on both ends. Use your fingers if that works for you, or use tweezers if you need a little more grip. Be careful you don’t ruin the tip.
- Soak the tips in the blender refill recipe for several hours or overnight.
- Carefully push one tip back into the marker, adding a few drops of fluid to the pen as you work. If you’ve made your refill recipe in a dropper bottle as suggested, the drops will be easy to add.
- Put the remaining tip back into place and voila, instant refill.
Because this mix contains alcohol, keep it away from heat and open flame and cap the bottle tightly between uses. Standard isopropyl alcohol products are labeled flammable, so a little common sense goes a long way here. For basic handling and storage precautions, see the product labeling information summarized by DailyMed in its rubbing alcohol monographs: rubbing alcohol safety and storage guidance.
Customization Ideas
- Small-batch crafter: Mix just enough to fill one 1 oz. bottle so you aren’t storing extra fluid for no reason.
- Frequent stamper: Make the alternate batch size and keep it in a clearly labeled dropper bottle near your inks and watercolor pencils.
- Gift for a paper crafter: Pair a filled dropper bottle with a blender pen, a few ink pads, and watercolor pencils in a small craft kit.
- Budget setup: Reuse a clean dropper bottle you already have instead of buying specialty refill packaging.
How to Use It
Use your refreshed blender pen with ink pads, markers, watercolor pencils, or chalk. The point of the pen is to soften, spread, or blend color without having to buy a brand-new pen every time the tips dry out.
If one end dries faster than the other, you can still soak both tips as directed so the pen refills evenly.
Safety Information
- Do not use near open flame or high heat.
- Cap the bottle tightly after each use.
- Label the bottle clearly so nobody mistakes it for anything else.
- Keep the refill and soaked pen tips out of reach of children and pets.
- Handle pen tips carefully so you don’t crush, fray, or tear them during removal and reassembly.
Storage
Store the refill mixture in a tightly closed dropper bottle in a cool, dry place away from direct heat and flame. A craft drawer or supply tote works fine. Distilled water helps keep the mix cleaner than tap water, and a tight cap helps limit evaporation.
Estimated Cost
Estimated consumable cost per 1 oz. refill bottle: about $0.33, depending on current prices and the glycerin you buy. That estimate uses low-cost distilled water, glycerin, and a very small amount of rubbing alcohol. It does not include the full purchase price of reusable tools such as tweezers.
🛍️ Need Help Finding Everything?
- Distilled water at Walmart
- Vegetable glycerin on Amazon
- Rubbing alcohol at Walmart
- Dropper bottles at Walmart
- Craft tweezers on Amazon
Frequently Asked Questions about Blender Pen Refill
You can, but distilled water is the better choice because that is what the project calls for and it helps you avoid adding extra minerals or impurities to the refill mixture.
Yes. The directions specifically say to carefully pull the tips out of both ends of the pen before soaking them.
Soak the tips for several hours or overnight. If the pen is especially dry, overnight is the easy answer.
Yes. If you have small hands, you can usually pull the tips with your fingers. If that feels awkward, use tweezers and work gently so you don’t damage the tip.
Glycerin helps keep the refill fluid from being just plain water. In practical terms, it contributes slip and moisture so the pen can blend more smoothly.
Yes. Store the extra refill in a tightly capped dropper bottle in a cool, dry place away from heat and flame.
Yes, but the original method still has you remove and soak both ends. That keeps the refill process even and saves you from reopening the pen again five minutes later.
A small dropper bottle works best because you can mix the refill in it, soak the tips, and add a few drops back into the pen without making a mess.
The alternate recipe specifically says rubbing alcohol. The main recipe simply says alcohol, so if you want to match the alternate version, rubbing alcohol is the clearest choice.
📌 Love this Blender Pen Refill? Pin it!
Did you try this blender pen refill? Tell us what supplies you used or whether you went with the original ratio or the alternate recipe.
🖨️ Print-Friendly How-To: Blender Pen Refill
Blender Pen Refill
Equipment
Materials
- ⅓ glycerin
- ⅔ distilled water
- ¼ teaspoon alcohol
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons glycerin
- 5 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon rubbing alcohol
Instructions
- Make the refill recipe as noted above.
- Place the ingredients in a dropper bottle.
- Carefully pull the tips out of the pen on both ends.
- Use your fingers if that works for you, or use tweezers if you need a little more grip.
- Soak the tips in the blender refill recipe for several hours or overnight.
- Carefully push one tip back into the marker, adding a few drops of fluid to the pen as you work.
- Put the remaining tip back into place.
- Handle the pen tips carefully so you don't ruin them.
- Keep the refill bottle tightly capped between uses.
- Because the mixture contains alcohol, keep it away from heat and open flame.
- Estimated cost is based on consumable materials only and will vary by brand and local prices.
