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I love pigment inks and I use my long-retired Stampin' Up! pads. Now some of them have really had it and I need some recommendations on a new brand to buy. Basics like vanilla, dark brown, blue, green. Nothing fancy. TIA
Mary Beth
I have pigment pads- in fact, I've had these for 10+ years, and they are still going strong- from Brilliance & Encore, both Tsukineko brands. Link to their homepage here. Each brand has a little box to click on showing the colour chart.
Clearsnap makes the Colorbox pigment inks in a very wide range of colors. They come in full-size inkpads, mini inkpads, cats eye inkpads, and refills to match. They also have multi-color options of various types. I have always liked working with them. Clearsnap� Classic Pigment Ink
Like Shaz I’ve had Brilliance pads for over a decade and they’re still going strong (actually Pearlescent Orchid and Pearlescent Sky Blue must be over 12 years old - I bought them before I was really a stamper to do a sentiment on a new baby card and that “baby” just celebrated her 12th birthday!). Admittedly they’re not colours I use a lot but they’ve never been reinked and are still providing good coverage on stamps.
Memento Luxe are nice (also Tsukineko) - they come in the same colour range as the original dye-based Memento inks so if you have any of those you can have a matching pigment ink if you want it.
Have fun choosing, hope you find the perfect ink for your needs!
I like Fresh Ink from Impress in WA. They are availablee online. The colors are softer. If you like more vivid colors Mama Elephant and Avery Elle have a wide range of colors. Memento Luxe has been mentioned. I find pigment pads have to be reinked more often than dye ink pads so I have refills. Hero Arts makes a hybrid ink and of course Distress Oxide inks are hybrids. Distress Oxides can be used for stamping as well as techniques. All the inks I have mentioned have refills available.
Thanks for all the suggestions! I am leaning towards sets of ink spots from CTMH but still looking for more ideas. Its' fun to shop through the pages of companies I hadn't seen before such as Avery Elle and Mama Elephant.
Mary Beth
I think all the Brilliance I have is pearlescent. I didnt know you could get them Matte.
I only just ordered the Distress Oxides but they look like they act like a pigment except might be far more blendable which is really nice (plus other stuff like nice on dark colors which makes me think of chalks)
I have been using Mementos as my base brand for some time and they have been fine but colorbox and encores have also been good.
I think you are smart to look around and look at the color themselves. See if you can find vids-the color might be truer than in stills. Always hard on a computer to be sure of colors.
I wish I had stuck with one brand of pigments. I bought my Fresh Ink at the retail store but I tried to round out my colors with Avery Elle and Mama Elephant and a few Luxe shopping sales online. I ended up with a number of duplicate colors, although from the online charts they looked very different.
I love the Fresh Ink and Avery Elle pigment ink and colors, but some of the colors NEVER dry.
That�s true. I usually heat set them. It�s probably why I use dye inks more. Love the colors though, especially Fresh Ink. One of their newer colors called Aloe is my favorite. I tend to use the Distress Oxides a lot now when I want that solid chalky finish but I heat set those too when I stamp with them.
I didn’t have luck heat setting some colors. I made 60 first communion cards a few years ago using Fresh Ink in a color called Pool......think it was called that.
The color was swiping off, so I left alone for a few days. Then tried heat setting. No good.
Started over with another ink. Impress graciously sent me another pad, did same thing.
Seems like both those ink companies have same ink formula. Just weird how certain colors just won’t set.
I have the entire line of A Muse Studio pigment ink pads and refills... however for me they smear, and I can't get them to heat set for the life of me. However the Consultant I had at the time - and my guess is plenty of other past Consultants and Customers are happy with these Ink pads. I was using Stampin Up Whisper White card-stock which I thought was maybe the problem - that maybe it was too smooth or glossy for the pigment inks. So I bought the A-Muse Studio white card-stock to use. But it was another epic failure. I used to use the Craft Ink Spots by Stampin Up and never had a smearing problem. I just assumed all pigment inks were a-like. I've thought about replacing them with another brand, but this has turned me away from pigment inks.
However - it is CTMH that I too had been considering!!! The little stackable pads.
I bought pigment inks when they became a craze - and there was not that many brands out there once SU retired their craft inks. Well not that I knew of anyway. It seems like there a lot of brands now! I don't know why I would ever pick a pigment ink over a dye ink for card-making, unless I was embossing. Hopefully these videos will explain! I think at the time I felt like I was missing out if I didn't have them.
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Last edited by Catherine773; 05-06-2018 at 03:56 PM..
We did a review on the ColorBox pigments inks - I was surprised at how really versatile they are! (I hate embossing, so I'd avoided them for that reason for years.) Here's a link to the review by our Product Focus team:
I have the entire line of A Muse Studio pigment ink pads and refills... however for me they smear, and I can't get them to heat set for the life of me. However the Consultant I had at the time - and my guess is plenty of other past Consultants and Customers are happy with these Ink pads. I was using Stampin Up Whisper White card-stock which I thought was maybe the problem - that maybe it was too smooth or glossy for the pigment inks. So I bought the A-Muse Studio white card-stock to use. But it was another epic failure. I used to use the Craft Ink Spots by Stampin Up and never had a smearing problem. I just assumed all pigment inks were a-like. I've thought about replacing them with another brand, but this has turned me away from pigment inks.
<snip>
Pigment inks are created to basically sit on top of paper, not soak into it, and that's what creates the smear. A lot of it may be the paper you use, but part of it is the property of the inks. It's why using a clear embossing powder is a good way to finish this ink. Heat setting can work as well, just depending on which ink you are using.
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I like Avery Elle also-vibrant colors. If the packaging is any indication I think that Avery Elle, Mama Elephant and Fresh Ink have the same manufacturer. I can’t see any difference between the three in terms of coverage and all have reinkers. There is duplication in colors if you mix brands. Avery Elle Cherry is a dead ringer for Mama Elephant Lollipop, and there is such a similarity between these two colors and Avery Elle Raspberry and Memento Luxe Love Letter that I would just buy one of the four. I don’t have them all so there are probably a lot of close matches. Wish I had stuck with one brand but an Avery Elle sale got me.
Pigment ink pad recommendation
