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?
Do you find you use a lot of different ink colors?
I love stamping with lots of colorful inks...in fact I'd rather create using different colors of ink than using the variety of color mediums (though using both is nice to). I have collected over 100 different full size ink pads and a box full of the minis. Unfortunately when I stated stamping I didn't know what I was doing or what I liked or would use the most...so I would watch videos or see different blogs and just buy what I saw. I have a variety of different brands. Of course now that I've been stamping for awhile I have my favorites and if I had it to do over would probably just buy their complete lines. Frankly I'm not a fan of Stampin Up stamps but I think their inks are the best. I also love matching inks and card stock lines and my favs are Gina K and MFT. I'm a sucker for layering sets so I also like the coordinating sets offered by the Ton and Altenew. What I've found though is even though I like looking at my different inks and organizing them , I don't use that many different colors. I use red and green a lot (even not at Christmas), pink, and purple. I have so many different shades of blue for instance and only use a few of them. Some colors I hardly use at all like oranges and Browns. I think I could cut my ink pads down by half and have everything I need. If I had to give advice to a new stamper I think this is one of the things I would tell them 1. Buy mini stamp,pads if possible till you know what you like and will use. Wait a few months to see what are your go to colors and get your favs in those colors. It reminds me when I stared scrapbooking . I just randomly bought tons of colors of Cardstock with the intention of having a variety of colors to choose from. I now know that I should have just bought some basics and then just shopped per the project. Anyways, this is just me. If you have a lot of different inks, do you use them all? Any advice you would give be a new stamper in regard to buying ink?
I keep a log of my inkpads in One Note, and, having added 3 today, I have 381. Mainly full size pads, about 50 would be Dew Drops and so on. Yes, I use almost all regularly. I think it depends on what you actually do- I do a lot of Stampscapes scenics, so use a lot for that. Also use the Distress inks for blending. I like Archival, Versafine & Memento for stamping sentiments and silhouette stamps.
I think I'd agree with your advice about getting mini's to start with- except for the ones you will use for actually stamping images, probably blacks.
I'd also say, when you buy a full size pad, buy the reinker too.
Then I'd say spend some time watching You Tube videos on ink usage- lots of great info there on which ink to buy for what surface. Also check out the home page of the ink manufacturer. They always have a lot of good info on their inks.
Finally I'd say that when you have learned all the rules- what ink to do what with- remember that the rules can change! Like some dye inks are wet enough to heat emboss, and that cardstock can change the way an ink behaves. Try things out, just to see what happens. In the end, it's only paper & ink!
Get a notebook to experiment in, and make notes about what works. Try out ideas on the cardstock you'd normally use, then stick it in your notebook, along with any info.
I wish I had had more advice when I started. I rarely use my many colored ink pads. I dislike the stampin Up pads that are so spongy as I seem to smear everything. I have reinkers for all. When I ran out of room I started to buy minis and now love them. It took me awhile to buy Tim Holtz as the word distress threw me off intil I learned their use. I now love them. I mostly use die cut sentiments, but find I enjoy stamping now that the misti is on my work table. Years ago I bought 12 colors of versa fine in minis. I need to find re inkers for these as they are perfrect for clear stamps especially for fine detail. Who knew? I didnt at fhe time of purchase. It is a continuing learning process so the advice to experiement and keep a record of results is excellent advice. Just my two sense on this subject.
Short answer: no. Long answer: I have intentions to use them all, but I get so easily sidetracked, and lately I've been doing outline stamps and coloring with pencils or markers, and everything in my room has been sorely neglected for a while... That being said, I do feel the need to have a variety, because when I do use them, I need them to match the paper - OCD tendencies there...
Location: along the bluffs of the Upper Mississippi River
Posts: 4,146
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I love my ink colors and use them all the time! I have all SU....mostly the old linen pads which I actually like.
The foam pads are nice enough but I have a few that are so wet they don't show fine line stamps clearly no matter how lightly you tap them. Seems like the foam are nicer for solid stamps.
I understand why people like them but I'm happy with my linen pads.
So yes I love all my colors and use them on most cards! I too like they match my CS.
__________________ All I want is the chance to prove money won't make me happy!
When I started this hobby I bought lots and lots of colored ink pads, all different brands and colors. I seldom use them now, and I'm sure a lot of them may have dried up.
I like coloring images, and use Versafine Onyx almost exclusively, for the images and for my sentiments. And more and more often, I am making my own sentiments on the computer and not stamping them.
__________________ Bugga in OK
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." Dalai Lama
As many as i have? No... I started with SU 12 years ago and have gotten lots of inks through the years and the earlier ones I tire of and seem to use a stable 6 or 8 mostly.
I love the neutrals in varying depths, for sponging edges and they go with so many other colours. For example My red of choice is almost always Cherry Cobbler so the other reds I have sit rejected :( but I don't have as many inks as some of you. So it doesn't seem like such a 'waste'. I have most of the little spots SU used to sell, and probably 30 full size pads. Reinkers for many of them. I'm finally learning to get one with the pad for when it dries out. Sadly I never did get a Pistachio reinkers two years ago ... I love that green!
Like the OP, I didn't know what I was doing at first and bought colors I liked but also tried to buy by project. Well, after a year or two, I bought to "stock up". I have various manufacturers, but I do use almost all of them. Quite a few are cat's eyes or smaller sizes and I only have a drawer full, probably around 100. I tended to buy shades of the same color and that works well for me when layering stamps. I do love the distress inks and finally bought more than a few. Just fun to experiment and I try to buy all my ink on sale when possible, so if it doesn't work I haven't wasted too much money. I have only had one pad dry up on me and it was from the Target bins so I consider that lucky.
__________________ Family faces are like magic mirrors. When we look at those who belong to us we see the past, the present and the future.
Only a small digression here. Question: in all my years of crafting, I have mostly used StampinUp. Tell me about distress inks. I have seen them, are they different in application? What is so special about them?
Distress inks are water soluable / reactive. They can be used to blend / use as water colors. Many many used. Definitely highly recommend them.
Estamps - what ere all the colors of the versatile mini you found. I only found brown / black and the 6 mini. They are wonderful aren't they.
For me - I find I hardly reach for many ink colors and when I do - I never have the shade I am looking for. I bought mini memento about a year ago. Maybe they were old in the package - but they were very dry to begin with.
I tried the altenew mini - they're ok but some shades are very light. And seem dry. And it doesn't seem cost effective to buy a reinkers for a mini ink pad.
So next time I want to buy inks - I don't think I will buy the mini --- but then buying the full ink size set is super expensive.
I have really been debating getting the Gina k inks.
__________________ Creativity is intelligence having fun. - Albert Einstein
Only a small digression here. Question: in all my years of crafting, I have mostly used StampinUp. Tell me about distress inks. I have seen them, are they different in application? What is so special about them?
They stay wetter longer than most other dye inks so can be used for embossing if you're quick. But mostly they're great for techniques that use water or commercial mists. You can use them for watercoloring, smooshing, stenciling, blending, making backgrounds, etc. .
The small cubes are inexpensive; I only have 3 large pads. The Ranger site has a printable chart to keep track of them. I put two dots on each square using a finger dauber - the second dot doubled to see the ink lighter and darker.
BTW, the distress markers can be used similarly.
Last edited by bjeans; 12-05-2016 at 05:29 AM..
Reason: typos
One thing with Distress Inks- they are better for creating backgrounds and suchlike, they will not give you a good clear stamped image like other inks will.Hence the Distressed name. They also tend to 'bead up' on the surface of silhouette type stamps. But for blending/sponging etc, they are the bees knees.
Bees knees. Cool beans. My expressions, thank you. ; )
What is a silhouette type stamp? Anyway, to echo you, I use Distress Inks for stamping on occasion when one of their colors is really needed, but I sometimes first ink the stamp with Versamark or rub an eraser on it. I use photopolymer stamps most of the time.
The Versamark trick is a good one, and does help a lot. You can also use that under any dye ink I find, and make it one you can heat emboss. Silhouette stamps are the type with a solid image, as opposed to a stamp which has a line outline, the type you can colour in.
What is it they say? Two countries divided by a single language? Rofl! Yes, thats exactly it. Had a similar thing a week or two back, about a product you call Dimensionals, that we know as Pop dots/foam dots/Pop Ups, depending on the company that makes them.
I'm not sure if everywhere in the U.S. they're called solid stamps? Interestingly, I had never heard "dimensionals" used as a noun until watching a Pootles (Sam Hammond) video from the U.K.
It would all make an interesting word usage map. Well, for me, anyway, probably not for most normal humans. ; )
I tend to reach for my same stamp pads over and over. My black Ranger Archival ink pad for my watercoloring. My black Memento ink pad for my Copics. My Tim Holtz mini distress inks when I watercolor. And an occasional Brutus Monroe mini ink pad if i want to stamp a sentiment in colored ink, besides black. I just don't buy others.
A couple of years ago during a purge I did a massive removal of stamp pads because I rarely stamp in colors. I still have a few hundred pads but 1/2 are spots. I mainly use colors for blending and edging. As pads dry up I haven't replaced them
and since the purge I've only bought one pad (a spot). I haven't missed any of the colors I purged.
I'll add these suggestions for a new stamper:
Never buy sets because you will have colors you probably never use.
Don't buy a pad just for one project - make sure it's color you will use again.
Learn about the different types of ink (dye, pigment, multi-purpose, etc.)
I will use black 99% of the time even though I have a large selection of coloured inks, but then I tend to have stamps that you need to colour in, and I don't have OCD about being matchy matchy with my DP
I find that I use my colored inks a bit more now that I have swatches for them. I don't have as many as some and they are mostly the small ones but I find that like my stamps many sit dormant while I used a small handful over and over.
I have lots of colors from various manufacturers, and it is nice to have a wide variety when I am trying to match inks to the other elements of a card. One thing I heard about long ago that I have found very useful is to make a chart of all my ink colors as a reference. I made up a grid with about 75 rectangles on each page. I made a little rectangle stamp from a piece of leftover rubber from the days when we cut out the SU stamps from a big sheet. So whenever I get a new color, I add it to the chart. I write the color name in a black ink pen if it's dye ink and in a red ink pen if it's a pigment ink. That way, if I want to emboss it, I know to just look at the colors labeled in red.
Love your idea, susie718. Making a swatch pack of my inks is on my to do list. You can make dye inks embossable if you put Versamark/clear embossing ink on the stamp first, then tap the colour over the top.
I used to have a similar problem. But since then I have catalogued my inks and I use so many more. I cut little pieces of Cardstock, stamped with a solid stamp once on one side and twice on the other. So many inks are very different than the swatch on the outside! Then I put them by colour in coin storage books. It works so well! The coin storage books were super cheap from Amazon. I keep them on my desk, LOVE it!
Love your idea, susie718. Making a swatch pack of my inks is on my to do list. You can make dye inks embossable if you put Versamark/clear embossing ink on the stamp first, then tap the colour over the top.
Thanks! I have tried that a few times, but I worry about getting the sticky Versamark ink on the dye inkpad. Have you ever had an issue with that?
I used to have a similar problem. But since then I have catalogued my inks and I use so many more. I cut little pieces of Cardstock, stamped with a solid stamp once on one side and twice on the other. So many inks are very different than the swatch on the outside! Then I put them by colour in coin storage books. It works so well! The coin storage books were super cheap from Amazon. I keep them on my desk, LOVE it!
Ranger provides a pdf chart for Distress inks, and I did something similar to you with single and double-inking, but on their chart.
Since Distress inks are often used for blending, instead of a stamp, I used a finger dauber once and then next to it twice with more force. So they're wonky circles, lighter and darker. It's in a job ticket pocket.
I bought coin storage pockets on Amazon too (linked by Jennifer McGuire I think) to do what you did for other inks but haven't yet.
I like susie718's solution of how to keep color families together but i.d. dye vs. pigment.
My advice would be to think about the way you craft. For me: I use color. I like a lot of ink techniques. I like to emboss, I like distressing inks, I like color families of ink pads. So with that said: I have Stampin' Up ink pads in color families (I like the paper and ribbon, and buttons that match). I like pigment inks for embossing so I have a set for that, although if I want a SU color- I use the versa mark trick. I had distressing inks a while ago, used them a lot then they sat so I sold them. I found that I wanted them back so then I bought the mini distressing cubes. This was the perfect fit! Since I don't stamp with distressing inks, the minis work just as well for me but take up less room!
I love my ink colors and use them all the time! I have all SU....mostly the old linen pads which I actually like.
The foam pads are nice enough but I have a few that are so wet they don't show fine line stamps clearly no matter how lightly you tap them. Seems like the foam are nicer for solid stamps.
I understand why people like them but I'm happy with my linen pads.
So yes I love all my colors and use them on most cards! I too like they match my CS.
I'm so with you on this!!! I have all the old SU colors and use them all the time. I find I have more control and coverage with the linen pads and I like the flip lids for quick closing when I have only one had to use at the time. I stopped buying SU pads when they changed their pads for the 3rd time. No new In Colors for me anymore. I am a color lover and use all the colors and am also OCD when it comes to matching so the SU line works for me there, too. I have gotten rid of some of the pads like Mica Magic, Opalites, Adirondacks, and even all the Distress inks. Just too much that wasn't getting used, again because of the OCD need to have everything match-matchy.
I also keep charts on the colors I have. If available, I include a swatch of the cardstock and sample of both ends of the markers. I have several pages for each color I have and do the same thing for other coloring products and other companies.
They stay wetter longer than most other dye inks so can be used for embossing if you're quick. But mostly they're great for techniques that use water or commercial mists. You can use them for watercoloring, smooshing, stenciling, blending, making backgrounds, etc. .
The small cubes are inexpensive; I only have 3 large pads. The Ranger site has a printable chart to keep track of them. I put two dots on each square using a finger dauber - the second dot doubled to see the ink lighter and darker.
BTW, the distress markers can be used similarly.
Along the same line as the Distress Ink Chart, I made one for all my inks. I've found now that I have something to refer to, I use all my various ink pads more.
Do you find you use a lot of different ink colors?
