Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
ok, i have seen a lot of discussion on favorite ink, colored or black? I have mostly distress inks with a couple of different black inks for sentiments as i feel distress ink does not give the most crisp image, because it is, distressed? sometimes that is perfect, sometimes not. but, i do not own much in the way of colored ink other than distress. joann's has a sale right now and i am thinking of investing in some other colors. what is your favorite color, dye or pigment, waterproof or no and brand? I am not even sure why i want to do this i just do!
__________________ lori b. my gallery
"if you judge people, you have no time to love them."
My most-used as an alternative to black is Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate - it's softer than black but dense and bold to it's great for sentiments but also useful for outlines. It plays nicely with all kinds of colouring media (quick zap with a heat gun before using Copics if you want to be absolutely sure) and with both rubber and polymer stamps. As the name suggests, it has a nice pearl sheen, too.
Memento are nice and available in both dye and pigment (Luxe is the name used for the pigment ones). Hard to name colours without knowing your usual preferences or what you want to do with them but I'd say Love Letter is a lovely true red, Pear Tart is a very pretty green. Both dye and pigment play nice with alcohol markers. The dye inks are available in the little dew drops which might be a good way to add lots of colours to your collection without getting too spendy. I'm not sure about Luxe though, I've only seen full size pads.
It's hard to beat Versafine for really dense, opaque crispness for sentiments and stamps with fine detail. The colour range is more limited than some other inks but there are plenty of good and useful colours in there. Again, they're available in smaller cubes - I only have black and sepia in full size and the rest in cubes which are extremely long lasting. It's oil-based so it doesn't play well with alcohol markers though.
I echo Angelnorth in using Versafine for detailed stamping, including sentiments. At first I just used black, but have a couple other dark colors and just adore them - they're so rich. I think they're Imperial Purple and Deep Lagoon? I also have cubes for the non-blacks. Versafine works well for heat embossing too.
When I brought a Versafine reinker to the cashier at an LSS, she told me while they love to sell product, not to waste my money because Versafine pads last so long.
I think many dye inks are made by the same manufacturer, just branded for the individual companies. I use both dye and pigment inks (see above thread). The only ink that has not worked for me is Colorbox chalk ink - never dried.
I love the colors in Hero Arts Shadow, Ranger Archival, Mama Elephant, Studio Calico, many others. While I love Distress inks, they're mostly used for techniques, but I'll pull one in occasionally if I need a color - just never fine detail work.
You may want to start with a few mini cubes to see if you really want to stamp with lots of colors.
ETA Consider me enabled by your post. I just bought 4 more mini cubes.
I have way to many inks but I use them more for shading and blending as I usually stamp in black, grey, or brown
Versafine black for crisp sentiments and sold images
Memento Black and London Fog - generic stamping and copics
Colorbox Chalk - blending and edging. I've never had a problem with drying, it's like any other pigment ink and needs drying time or heat set. Not suitable for glossy or coated papers.
StazOn Black - glossy paper only
Distress Inks - just because I like the color range as I'm still not that convinced they are
so much better than other dye inks
India Ink Black - water coloring as it has never bled no matter how much water I add
As for a fav color - I'm not a lot of help because I use so many but my favorite for and aged edging is Color Box Creamy Brown. It's a nice soft tan.
Re the chalk ink, it's not as if it felt wet. It's just if you ran your finger across it, saturated pigment came up.
I use pigment inks from quite a few companies, often with dye inks on the same project, but this stubborn little stack of Colorbox chalk inks were not going to dry if left in the Sahara desert, and laughed at the Milwaukee heat tool.
When I took a little class at a Stamp/Scrapbook Expo, the instructor said she never used pigment inks because they wouldn't dry. She thought it might be because she was in very humid Louisiana. I couldn't imagine this. In her booth the chalk inks she sold were Colorbox, so I wonder if she never tried any other pigment inks.
I wish they had worked - it was a stack of beautiful browns, from pale beige to rich chocolate, and filled a gap in my stash.
i use alcohol ink (not pens) some, and sometimes want to stamp on it, but I always guess which to use!
I do like to watercolor, always kind of just pray it doesnt bleed.
I should write this down and tack it to a wall so I remember.
To save time you might want to go to the top of the thread to the tab that says THREAD TOOLS. From the drop down menu, select SHOW PRINTABLE VERSION and then print in your usual manner.
I echo stamphappy1650. I've all the SU, Mementos, Distress Inks, and all the refills for each brand. I would not have purchased all the refills for my Memento ink pads, if I had it to do over. I've since avoided buying refills for other brands. I do keep a Versamark refill for painting areas of a design with a damp brush for multicolored embossing, I find it's more economical than buying embossing pens. I prefer to purchase a new Versamark or Vetsafine black ink pad instead of refilling the pad. I've found having refills for White pigment ink, Memento black, and Stazon colors has been a wise choice for me.
My advice on dye inks: I took the advice of someone on here and ordered the mini cube sets from different companies. I ordered a set from Hero Arts, My Favorite Things, Altanew, and Gina K. Hands down I LOVE My favorite things. Gina K was a close second. Those both looked great immediately after I stamped. You don't have to wait for them to soak in like Hero Arts, although I must say, after a while Hero Arts looked great. I hated Altanew. I could not get a good impression and they didn't seem to stamp evenly. I do know everyone is different and what didn't work for me someone else probably loves. Also, make sure you have a really good test stamp that has a solid surface. A well used one, or put some VersaMark on it and then wipe it off gently before you stamp. Some of the cheaper stamps won't stamp well no matter what ink you use.
Yes, I've recently watched a lot of Jennifer McGuire videos and this is her tip. I have tried it and it works well with new stamps that are really sticky at first! I don't think I would use an eraser...I would probably ruin the stamp with it.
I'm going to guess using your palm doesn't take "all" the VersaMark off like using a shammy or baby wipe. It leaves a little on it. I got some new Hero Arts layering stamps in last night and it worked for me! The lady in the video calls it giving them a little love, but the word that comes to my mind is "seasoning"
favorite ink?
