I have been frustrated with the cost of block printing ink, and the way that it seems to get wasted whenever I use it with my students. So I tried making my own. I was shocked that it actually worked. :)
Using CRAYOLA school glue (not the runny Elmer's kind) and regular old cheap-y acrylic paint, I mixed an almost 1:1 ratio. I put a little bit more paint than glue. Then I used the roller to mix it all. I suppose you could do this ahead of time and keep it in air-tight jars. maybe the glue would settle to the bottom of the jar though. I don't know. Anyhow, the thickness of the glue made the paint less runny, and it also added a bit of tackyness to the ink, so that it had that orange peel texture as I rolled it on the plate. Only problem I noticed was that it dries faster than block printing ink. Maybe that's not a problem to you, but I'm very fastidious about my prints, and I clean as I go, so I work slowly.
Anyhow, it worked! I thought this was worth sharing with all 88 of you ;)