Hello Fellow Stampers :-)
It's Hump Day!! -- Whew, we've made it halfway through the week. How Fabulous is that?! :-) It's busy busy busy! But I'm never too busy for all of you :-)
So I've had a number of questions posed to me lately on different topics, and I've been debating on how to handle those. I've decided to start a series called "Ask Wendy Wednesday" which will occur occasionally as needed to answer some of your terrific questions. I hope you will find these forums helpful and useful to you. Do not hesitate to submit a query to me to be addressed here. I'd love to answer and help you!
So today, we're going to talk about Inks! I was asked recently about what is the difference in the inks, especially now that we have a "chalk ink" in our repertoire. That is an Excellent question! Indeed there is a difference in the inks we use both the products offered by Stampin' Up!, as well as other popular inks on the market today; they each have a purpose and can be used in different ways. So let's talk "inks" today :-)
Let's start with dye inks, like our classic ink stamp pads and ink refills. Dye inks are water-based, quick-drying inks, that give a nice crisp image and are great for all our basic stamping projects -- useable on most porous surfaces. Do note that dye-based ink soak into the fibres of the paper rather than sitting on top. Dye Inks are a much stronger ink and can produce more color of a given density; they are better on lighter papers than darker. Because dye-based ink are "water" based, they are perfect for watercoloring techniques, and can easily be cleaned with water.
The dye-ink category includes our Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad. Memento ink is a dye-based ink which is fast-drying, fade-resistant, and permanent when dry. It delivers fine impressions and very even coverage. The ink is water-based, acid-free, and non-toxic. Memento is considered more of an "archival" ink which makes it perfect for true scrapbooking work. This ink will not smear when used with alcohol markers making this an inkpad of choice for many artistic-style designs.
Now you might be asking about those fabulous Tim Holtz Distress Inks that are so popular out there on the market -- well, I am here to tell you (or admit), that I love Tim Holtz Distress Inks, and I'm slowly collecting them ;-) Tim Holtz are nothing more than a dye-based ink which are formulated to a higher concentration of colour and a longer drying time than a normal dye-based ink. They are designed to flow when sprayed with water, and to be blended and worked into your project. They are ideal for altered art and distress effects.
Now let's talk about Pigment Inks next. Pigment inks, like our Encore metallics or the Versamark ink we sell, are glycerin-based, slow drying, thicker ink which are good for embossing. Pigment ink sits on the surface of material, rather than absorbing into the fibres so the colours often look more vibrant than dye-based inks (VersaMark also makes a line called VersaColor which are beautiful vibrant pigment ink colors). However, this means that they are not suitable for basic stamping on coated or glossy cardstock as the ink won’t dry. Only use them to stamp on these surfaces if you heat emboss them afterwards.. We use VersaMark because of its slow drying tendancies and the fact that it sits on the surface of the card allowing us time to put embossing powder on it and heat with a heat tool. The other thing to note about pigment inks is you need a special cleaner to remove that "stickiness" from your stamps. Use a gentle soap and water solution, or our Stampin' Mist to clean your stamps after you have used pigment ink-based ink.
So that brings us to Chalk Inks -- and this is a perfect segue into our newest product offering because most chalk inks are a combination of dye ink and pigment ink. They have the vibrancy of a pigment ink but can be blended like a dye-based ink, making them a popular choice with cardmakers. They also dry with a powdery, matte finish, but can be "polished" to be shiny. How fun is that :-) Chalk Inks produce soft subdued hues and dry more quickly than a straight pigment ink. They are great for dark papers because they will really stand out. Colorbox has been putting out chalk inks for several years already, so you can go out and find some others to play and experiment with. These 3 that Stampin' Up! introduced in the Spring Catalog were formulated specifically for the Stampin' Up! line to coordinate with our color collections.
That leaves us with the "odd-man" out so to speak -- the Solvent-Based inks. Solvent inks are designed for decorating non-porous and semi-porous surfaces, such as metal, shrink plastic, acrylic, cellophane, aluminum foil, leather and some glass surfaces. They are quick drying and they dry opaque. And they are safer than other "permanent" inks out there. We use Jet Black Staz-On when we do watercoloring techniques because this ink will not run when water hits it. These are also fun inks to use on our window sheets or glossy cardstock or boxes. Remember that this is a "permanent" ink. You MUST use a solvent cleaner on your stamps to keep them from staining. We have Staz-On Cleaner in the store which is specially formulated for use with Staz-On ink. Clean your stamp with the Staz-On cleaner, rub off all the ink with a soft cloth; then clean your stamp again with soap and water to clean off all residue and cleaner leftover on it. Also, watch your photopolymers - Staz-On ink can damage photopolymer with extensive use over time.
So I hope this has been a helpful blog post for all of you :-) Let me know your thoughts!! And pop me those questions by email -- [email protected]. Yours might be the next question I answer right here on Ask Wendy Wednesdays ;-)
Have a fabulous day everyone!!
Until Next Time . . .
The Doggone Delightful Stampin' Team!
