May

Inks and Inkpads Types: Which Should I Use?

You can use your beautiful stamps on almost any surface; just make sure that you use the right ink and inkpad.

I’m going to describe the different kinds of inks that are suitable for different surfaces. Below are the characteristics of the most common inks that you can find in craft stores:

DYE INKS:

Water-soluble
Vibrant colors
Fast-drying
Use with any kind of paper (matte or glossy)
Use Tsukineko Ink Potion #9 Blending Solution Spray on an inked stamp for a watercolor effect. Mix it with waterbased ink and spray on surface to achieve interesting backgrounds.
Popular brands:
- Autumn Leaves
- Ranger:
  - Adirondack archival, brights, lights, earthtones, color wash dye inks.
  - Archival #0 in different shades. These won’t bleed when using watercolors over the stamped image.
  - Big and Juicy: Rainbow and solid colors. Good when you use big stamps or a brayer to color a background.
  - Inkssentials Watermark Resist Ink: This creates the look of a watermark, or use it instead of bleach for a water resist on glossy papers. Good for embossing too.
  - Distress Inkpads give a more vintage effect to the projects.
- Plaid All Night Media Kids Inkpads
- Rubber Stampede Dye Based Inkpad Sets
- Hampton Art A La Mode Dye Inkpads
- Vivid! Premium Dye Inkpad

PIGMENT INKS

Opaque coverage
Great for embossing
Slow to dry
If using on glossy papers or vellum, heat set to make it permanent
Popular Brands:
- Adirondacks Pigment Inks: Light, Earthtones, Brights, Pitch Black and Snow Cap.
- Brilliance Pigment Ink Stamp Pads (dries faster than other pigment inks)
- Color Box
- Memories
- VersaColor
- VersaFine: Opaque and quick-drying
- Versamark Dazzle Watermark Ink
- Tsukineko Opalite Stamp Pads: Appear colorless on the pad, but stamp into iridescent colors. Great on dark cardstocks.
- Encore Ultimate Metallic Stamp Pads
- Studio G Washable Ink Stamp Pads
- Rubber Stampede Pure Color Pigment Ink comes in a bottle with tha applicator
- Leisure Arts Pastel Stamp Pad
- Plaid® All Night Media Metallic Pigment Inkpad – Gold or Silver

FLUID CHALK INKS

Fast-drying or can be heat set
Not for embossing
Popular fluid chalk inks are:
- Cat’s Eye Queue Chalk Ink Pads
- Color Box Petal Point Ink Pads
- Quick Quotes Powder Puff Chalking Ink
SOLVENT INKS
- Permanent
- Fast-drying
- Transparent
- Good for glossy surfaces like glass, metal, shrink plastic, tiles, cellophane, glossy cardstock, aluminum foil, leather and acrylics
- Great blending when applied to glossy surfaces
- Popular solvent inks:
  - Staz-On Ink Pads (clear and opaque). You may have to use Staz On Solvent Ink Stamp Cleaner to clean your stamps.
  - Ranger Arindorack Alcohol inks (they come in small bottles). Don’t ink your stamp directly with this ink. Apply the ink with a foam applicator to the background. Also, there are fillable pens that can be used as markers. You can dilute these inks with Alcohol Ink Blending Solution from the same company.
There are other brands and other inks that you can find in specialized stores or only online. The most important thing is to remember the characteristics of each kind of ink and where you are going to apply it.