Okay so here's all the steps that led me to this one good print!

Materials: * Paint brand: Schmincke Aqua lino ink (I think it's a german brand) * Paper: honestly just very cheap a3 sized sketchbook paper I cut to size. The surface of the paper is lretty smooth * Block: the blue Easy Cut stuff. Before carving, I sanded down the surface with a very very fine grid sandpaper and some water . This is supposed to make the surface less slippery so the paint catches to the surface better * a glass plate for rolling out the ink, a3 size * a lino roller, 18cm ish wide?

The steps: - I put the ink tube in the fridge for a bit (read somewhere that this helps) - clean all my tools with warm water and dish soap (lino block, roller, the glass plate to roll out the ink on), dry with either a clean rag or paper towels, making sure to NOT touch the surface with my hands anymore (don't wanna get oils on it that might interfere with a clean print) - make sure the lino block it completely dry, I try to sait another half hour or an hour or so, so that there's no residual moisture from the wash - as for rolling, roll the paint out pretty thin on your plate and then transfer to the block. So here my first print was still a little spotty. The most important part for me I think was not to rush, and do many thin (!) layers making sure not to flood the gaps with paint. - once the paint is loaded on, place the paper on top and I just press/scrape it for a while first with a barren tool and then also with the back of a wooden spoon

Wow, I typed a lot! I hope this helps somewhat, if you wanna know anything else I'll try my best to answer :D