Did you realize you can substitute Distress Oxide Inks for pigment inks? Julie is explaining her favorite use of these versatile inks to create this bold, modern trio of friendship greetings!
Hey, hi, hello! Julie here on the blog today! I love water-based dye inks and use them quite frequently, but over the years, good pigment inks, in a beautiful range of colors, have become somewhat scarce. This made me quite sad, as a card maker, because there are times when a pigment ink is better suited for the job at hand.
When Distress Oxide inks first came on the market, I was honestly, and completely, unimpressed . . . ( my work is typically very clean and simple–distressed effects or techniques don’t actually suit my personal art style and the idea of getting ink all over my hands, my work surface, etc. actually stressed me out (I am an oxymoron in the stamping world) . . . That said, when I began to reconsider this ink for its opacity properties on dark and colored card stocks, as well as the ability to heat emboss with clear embossing powder, I began to appreciate it in a new way–and I can use it in the same way as my beloved (and now harder to find) pigment inks!
TIPS:
- Test colors of Distress Oxide Inks on various colors of scrap card stock to find pleasing color combos.
- If your Oxide pad is “dry”, it may take several impressions to achieve an even/solid impression; use a stamp positioner for optimal results.
- Distress Oxide pads perform much like pigment ink pads and can be heat embossed with clear powder over top; if your Oxide pad is dry, reink before stamping OR apply an embossing ink to the clean stamp, prior to inking with Oxide inks.
- Oxide inks are slower drying; if you don’t plan to seal with heat embossing, speed heat-set with your heat tool.
- Even when heat set, sometimes Oxide ink can transfer to die cutting plates when passing through the machine (due to pressure) which can then transfer to subsequent projects; you can resolve this by simply placing some clean typing paper over the top of your project, before adding the top plate.
