Thought I would talk a little about ink today.  As you see I have a few ink pads.

All of my ink pads are dye inks, not pigment.  I like the way the dye inks soak into the card stock I’m using, especially when I’m brayering.    I don’t use pigment inks because they take longer to dry and lay on top of the card stock instead of soaking in.  Don’t get me wrong, you can use pigment inks, but my preference is dye based inks.  I’m not a fan of waiting for the ink to dry.  🙂

My two favorite brands of ink are Adirondack dye ink pads and Stampin’ Up “Classic” which are also dye based.  You will see me use these two brands of inks together in projects.  Since they are both dye based inks my only deciding facter is the color I want to use.

Now these Tim Holtz Distress Inks are wonderful and I love sponging backgrounds and the edges of projects with them.  Of course, they are super for distressing card stock.  I love all the colors these come in too.  There are a lot of things you can do with these distressing inks that I have never tried.  One of these days I’m going to get more adventurous with them.  🙂

I have just this one pad of Stazon ink.  I use it when I want to stamp on something that is non-porious.  An example of non-porious would be a domino.  Most inks just lay on top of the surface and can’t soak in or dry.  Stazon will dry on such a finish.

One Last ink that I use is Palette Hybrid Ink.  The only color I currently have in this brand is “Noir Black”.  I use this ink when I want to stamp images and color them with Solvent based mediums, such as, Prismacolor Markers or Prismacolor Pencils combined with Odorless Mineral Spirits.  This ink is very good not to run or smear with these solvent based mediums.

I will have to correct the problem of only having one color in this brand.  I feel a shopping spree coming on.  🙂

I am definitely not an expert on inks.  This is only a little breakdown of what I own and how I use them.  There are so very many ink brands out there that I have not even tried.  So if you have questions regarding inks that are not in this post, you will want to seek out the manufacturer who would be the expert.  🙂  I find manufactures to be a wealth of info on their products, as they should be.

  I hope this has answered, at least, a few questions on why I use an ink at a certain time in a project.

One last thing, the wood shelf unit I use to store my ink pads in came from a gas station my oldest son worked at as a teenager.  It use to hold cigarettes behind the counter.  It now has a much healthier purpose.  🙂

May your day be filled with the colors of a rainbow.

Until my next post. . . . . .. . . . . .

Hugs,

Michelle

Links to all my tutorials can be found here:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/tutorials-ive-written/

Here is a link to my workshop calendar if you want to get info on beginner and advanced Brayer workshops:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/workshop-calendar