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I am looking for a line of inks that offer a gradation of color to work with layering stamps. I recently purchased a couple of Altenew's layered stamps. I currently own all the Stampin Up inks but have considered buying Altenew's ink cubes because their inks come in a gradation of tones that compliment their layering stamps. I tried the cheap route and purchased a set of Hampton Art cubes but they are so splotchy they are unusable even with a Misti. I have seen mixed reviews on the Altenew inks. What ink lines offer a nice variety of colors for layered stampin that will provide even crisp coverage when used on large area photpolymer stamps without splotchyness. Thanks for your advise.
can you try say stamp one at 100% saturation of ink and then reink the image, stamp it off on scrap paper then stamp it like that without reinking the stamp and have a 50% generation for your next layer? ( if you wanted shades of the same color?)
Jennifer McGuire talks about the Altenew inks at 16.05 on this video. She mentioned prepping your stamp first. The colors look beautiful. I like that you can get sets of the cubes in a color family.
Thanks for the link. I love her videos. Have you used the Altenew inks? I was ready to order them and watched a video from someone else who compared several brands of inks and did not have good luck with the Altenew inks. She had better results from the Hero Arts Shadow inks. When I tested the Hampton Art cubes I used a solid Lawn Fawn stamp that I prepped as Jennifer McGuire recommended. The only thing I did differently was I used Georgia Pacific cardstock because I had a scrap of it and was too lazy to dig out my Neenah Solar White. I'm sure that the Altenew would be much better than the Hampton Art ink I was just tempted by it because the colors were pretty, the price was good and I could pick them up at Michaels and didn't have to order them. I guess you get what you pay for.
I have two sets of Altenew minis and on first use, thought some were a little dry, plus couldn't read the names on a couple due to the font style, size and color (very tiny font in darkest green on black cube). Of course that isn't a big deal, just made me shake my head at the choice.
I'll try them again today and report back. And paper makes a huge difference as you say!
I like Hero Arts Shadow inks a lot.
ETA
I just stamped the eight colors in the two Altenew mini sets repeatedly, and they're fine, if you'd like the gradation. The darkest colors do do nice 2nd and even 3rd generation stamping. I have the green set that comes with a black, so it's actually three greens, and the red set.
I'm not sure I'd get more - partly because I'm not much into layered stamps, and other fave inks plus 2nd/3rd generation stamping work well plus have been proven over time. Some of the other companies also have excellent customer service, so even if I bought more (doubtful?), I'd buy them from Ellen Hutson, for example.
I love Altenew inks for layered stamping and have almost all of the colors...I have a bunch of different ink brands so I was able to try several different companies together and none of them worked as well as the Altenew because the colors are meant to go together.( Or maybe I'm just too dumb to find the right combos in my other inks. ) the other company that has layering inks is the Ton...their yellow and greens are my favorite. All of that said I would probably never use these inks for anything other than layered stamping. They are kind of dry and don't give near the same crisp image as my SU or Gina K inks do.
I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for all your suggestions they were very helpful. I just wanted to take a minute to share what I have learned this week.
I decided to test the dye inks I owned on different card stocks with a solid polymer stamp to see what gave me the best results. I used Neenah Solar White 80 lb, Georgia Pacific Premium 110 lb (The one Walmart carries) and Hammermill Color Copy Digital Cover 80 lb. The Neenah was by far the best the images had clean crisp edges with better coverage no splotchiness. All the inks performed best on the Neenah the Georgia Pacific was second place, The Hammermill I purchased for alcohol markers its to slick for good crisp stamping. I liked the Neenah so well that I ordered a ream of it.
I used a solid diamond stamp from the Lawn Fawn Argyle Backdrops set to do the test. I tested Stampin Up, Memento and a Hampton Art dye ink cube. The Memento performed the best it gave a fairly solid stamping with crisp lines. The Stampin Up gave a mostly solid image but the edges were not as crisp as the memento. Now for the Hampton Art dye ink cube, I picked up this set at Michaels the colors were pretty. I thought they would work nicely with the new Altenew set I had. I used a 30% off coupon and paid $7.50 for them. They were awful the coverage was not even the edges wanted to bleed. I prepped and prepped the stamp (wasn't the stamp it worked much better under the same conditions with the other inks. I would not recommend the Hampton Art Ink even at a clearance price. By the way I also purchased the Hampton Art Misti knock off and I really liked it. I was able to use my rewards member 50% off coupon and only paid $12.50 for it. What a deal!
With this knowledge and the wisdom you wonderful folks shared I decided that the Stampin Up inks are great with rubber but that I needed some good quality inks for all the clear stamps that I have. I placed an order off ebay for for some of the Altenew Ink cubes they were $9.99 and free shipping another good deal. They arrived today so I grabbed a sheet of the Georgia Pacific beacause it was still out from the previous test and tried a light yellow and a darker yellow from the Altenew cubes. At first they were a little splotchy and I thought, oh no here we go again, but within a couple of minutes the ink smoothed out and was absolutely LOVELY! I have good crisp edges with complete coverage and this was with my inexpensive card stock. I haven't tried them with the Altenew layering stamp set yet but I am positive that these inks will give amazing results based on just this quick test.
I have also ordered the new lawn fawn ink cubes that are supposed to be the same formulation as the Hero Arts inks that work well with clear stamps, hopefully they perform as well as the Altenew Ink cubes.
I would highly recommend the Altenew Inks they appear to be absolutely wonderful.
Thanks for the comprehensive comparison! I use Altenew cubes all the time and love them. Memento is also at the top of my list. If you buy them in packs, you can get coordinating colors. I also like Distress Inks for layering, especially if you want to blend out for a watercolor look.
HELP Inks that work well with layered stamps
