Watercolor crayon vs. classic ink pads
 

You ladies have got me to thinking (which is most likely a very dangerous thing). I was following a thread about water color crayons and now I'm wondering if I would get more from them than my dye based ink pads. I am getting spots in craft and also Palette because of the archival, fade resistance factor in my scrapbooks, but for cards would I be able to get by with the watercolor crayons only? It would be wonderful to save the space that my pads take up plus the crayons wouldn't require reinkers. So what can I do with the ink pads that I can't with the crayons? I guess the only drawback I can see is if I only needed to replace one color I wouldn't be able to do that, but I would imagine that I would have to do tons of stamping to use one up.

hmmmmmm...

Water color crayons are great for color right on a solid stamp, but not on the regular stamps. The crayons don't emboss, but the stamping spots craft does. I have both, and use each very differently.

You make a good point. I have the Rich Regal Spots and Basic Brown and Gable Green in classic ink. I have Whisper White and the other three color family's spots in craft. I like craft because that's the kind of ink I was used to before discovering Stampin' Up. I like using both inks and thought I would get craft spots and classic pads in my favorite colors. Now I'm thinking I should get the crayons first. I would not have to worry about reinkers and a little goes a long way. I would need less classic pads because unless it is a technique for only classic, I'd have the crayons and the craft inks.

That is a hard one. I have 85% of the classic pads, some colors just don't appeal to me and I really don't need that many blue stamp pads. I do like to watercolor with the lids of the stamp pad and my aquapainter or blender pen. Lately I'm an aquapainter freak! I also own the crayons since SAB and just recently started using them quite a bit. Probably because I was using Best Fiends and Fall Whimsy and it was great to color in those items with all of SU's colors. Personally, I wouldn't chose the crayons over the pads, but it really depends on what you want out of them.

I cant imagine not having the inks, but that's just me. I think that the WCC are a great investment, but not in place of ink pads. Just my opinion.

I never would have thought about it until I was reading that I could do the same things I do with my dye based ink pads. The space savings and portability are mighty appealing to me. Plus the cost for large stamp pad racks are pretty costly and add to that the cost of reinkers. This seem more cost effective all around. Unless there is something I'm forgetting that can only be done with dye based ink pads. I've got 78 of the old style CTMH style dye based ink pads and I'm thinking I might just sell them and go this route. Most of my stamps are solid images with very few outline images. I would keep my archival black, versa mark, metallics and my kalidecolor pads. But for those I could get a nice small rack that wouldn't cost much and wouldn't take up much space.

The watercolor crayons will NOT give you a nice, clear, crisp image. They will look like, well...a watercolored image. It is lovely, if that is the look you're going for...but I do have to warn you that they do take some practice. This technique is great on solid image stamps, but not on line images. If you're going to use craft ink most of the time, and watercolor crayons on the solid images or just to color in your images, then...great, go for it!

Speaking strictly for myself, I do feel that these are two separate animals and don't think I would ever replace one for the other. When coloring an image, I use classic ink when I want more vibrant colors and WWC when I want more of a softer (yes I'm going to say it again, sorry) watercolored image. I think you'd be limiting yourself by doing what you're suggesting. If you need to downsize, perhaps switch to markers or spots in the classic inks.

Lisa