Pigment Ink Pads vs. Regular Water-Based Ink Pads
 

What are the advantages of Pigment Ink pads. Before I got into SU I was under the impression that they were better. Now that I have a bunch of them I'm wishing I would have spent my money on regular stamp pads like SU's Classic Water-Based Ink Pads.

The Pigment Ink pads take forever to dry and you can't really use blender pens with them since they're not water-based.

I was wondering what anyone else thought about them.

I do use my blender pen with them... to great effect.

The pigment inks are good for scrapbooking since they will not fade over time. They are also permenant so you can use them on fabrics as well as other surfaces such as wood and glass. You can use them for cards if you want a more vibrant color. I use my waterbased ones for cards mainly. They are alot easier to work with since they are not as "thick" as the pigment inks are. Also as you have noted they take a longer time to dry than the other. Hope this helps.

Ok I thought others would have posted while I was making dinner... But I see they have not.

So much goes into the decision about which pads to buy. Your first question should be "Do I care if the inks will fade over time?" If so, then pigment is the best way to go. Dye based pads, even "fade resistant" ones, cannot promise to be completely archival (which means fade resistant-- don't be drawn in by phrases like "archivally safe" which is their tricky way of avoiding the fade issue.) Very few dye pads are "archival." Only two of Stampin' Up!'s dye pads are archival, basic black and basic brown. All others are not guaranteed to stay true to color over time.

Next, "Do I want my ink to be opaque, meaning light shows up on dark paper ink covers what is underneath it?" Dye pads are transluscent. If you stamp blue on yellow paper, it will look green. The craft pads, pigment pads, stamp blue on yellow paper.

Finally, ask yourself how important drying time is to you. I keep a heating tool handy with me when I stamp. I just dry the inks quickly. If you don't want to mess with this, then dye based is for you. Dye based cleans off your stamps easily. Pigment ink can get everywhere. You need to clean your stampin' scrub every time you stamp if you use craft pads. With dye pad, I clean my scrub rarely.

Now, some companies offer quick drying pigment pads. Stampin up is now carrying Color Box's chalk petal pads. Many stampers on this forum really like this option. It dries instantly. It is opaque, although not as opaque as Stampin up's craft pads. I don't like them as much because I feel like they "swell" on the paper, or spread out a bit. The image I get from the craft pads is crisper. I don't particularly like clear snap's petal pads in general. The pads tend to fall off the mounts. Also, the foam clear snap uses is of an inferior quality to the foam on stampin up's craft pads. It is less firm and collapses under the stamp more as I ink. However, I do own some small chalk pads and use them occasionally. They have a soft quality that is unique.

Personally, I own them all. I use them for different reasons and different effects. But my primary pads have become the craft pads because I am becoming primarily a scrapbooker and I want the archival quality.

Very informative. Thank you.

Before I became a SU Demo… I know I drove my Demo crazy! (She is a scrapbooker and went w/ the classic pads) I went round and round… craft or classic, craft or classic… I’m a scrapbooker and wanted the archival quality. But everyone (two scrapbookers that went with craft but wished they went w/ classic) kept warning me that craft pads dry so much slower and a mess to clean up. At first I did not care. It was more important to me that the images did not fade over time. In the end I went w/ classic pads and at the time I was still torn if I made the right decision. But the day that I decided I was glad I went with classic was my first encounter with the white craft pad I got in my SU Starter Kit. It tends to be juicer then I was use to with the classic pads, smudged too easily, I had to wait 20 plus minuets for it to dry, could not imagine having to use my heat gun for drying after each step…all the time, and the clean up! The way I’ve brain washed my-self :? was... I thought, look at all those documents from 100s of years ago that are still around and I do not keep my scrapbook pages out where direct light hits it . I do believe if I had first gone w/ the craft pads I would not have enjoyed stamping as much as I do now. I now would like to own more craft pads… but still will not used them for my everyday stamping or scrapbooking. Wonder if I’m the only person that feels this way… or just lazy?

Nope, you are not the only one. I haven't had any problems with my Classics fading. Granted, it's only been five years, but my books get opened a lot. Secondly, your pictures will fade some too. It's a very fine art, the developing process. The pH balance is not always met, especially if you get them done in stores. Plus, what they send them home in is not acid-free. Also, unless you wear gloves, you transfer "junk" onto your photos which can theoretically damage them. These are all things that the extremists say (not meant to offend, just talking about the people that go as far as they can possibly go to protect their stuff). I am not an extremist. The only people that are really going to care about my scrapbooks are me, my kids and maybe their kids. I'm convinced they'll last that long with the Classics.

So, each to her own. I prefer convenience.

The answers above were very informative! I'd just like to add that with the pigment ink, you can also emboss. I'm a heat-embossing fanatic, so I enjoy that part. You can get away with the Versamark if you emboss with colored powder, though. But I like using clear embossing powder to let the colour of the ink show through.
One thing I discovered while doing my Christmas cards, though, was that if you're using SU's two-step stamps and you want to emboss the second image, you can't do that with the pigment ink, unless you wait before stamping the second image or else the embossing powder will stick to the WHOLE image (background included). I tried to heat-set my background image, but I still didn't get a crisp result. I'll be getting some dye ink in a few colours to get rid of this problem.

Cindy

You've all been very helpful. I've learned a lot. I had no idea there was so much to know about stamp pads! And I've learned new techniques to use with my pigment stamp pads. Thanks!