An Inky FEAST For The Senses!

This month I was honoured to be asked by Susan K. Weckesser if I wanted to be one of the first people to try out and review her new line of inks by ClearSnap: ColorBox Color Pop Minis 

Here are the two cards I created using these inks...

And here is my review: 

I LOVE them!  Grin 

Here are all the things I love about these inks:

The 1"x2" size is perfect, small enough to easily have within reach but large enough to handle most stamping jobs.  The Lid fits snugly so the ink won't dry out and it does not come off when I throw them in a basket (which is my usual modus operandi).

The dye ink colors are vibrant, both when they go on and when they have dried (not always the case with some inks) and they blend beautifully with water - again without fading!

The pigment ink is thick and opaque, just the way I like it, and takes a while to dry unless you use your heat gun - all Good qualities in a pigment ink.  But the Metalic ink... Swoon!  Seriously, the best metalic, pigment ink I have come across to date and I have used a LOT of them!  This ink dries Metallic and looks like I used metallic paint - which is what I have resorted to since I have been unable to find a metalic ink that still looks like metal after it has dried - that is until NOW!

And now for the fun stuff.  Because I was trying out a new product I wanted to use these inks in a few different ways and I took photos along the way so you could join in... I hope you enjoy this mini card class and a peek into my creative process.

I decided to ink the background of my cards and then use the white pigment ink to stamp right onto the dark background.  For me THIS is the true test of a both a dark dye ink and a white pigment ink.  Will the dark ink stay dark?  And will the white ink be opaque enough to show up and not fade away?

Not only did both inks pass, but I needed very little of the dark blue ink to create a wash on my background... I used waaaay too much ink! Grin

Then I stamped right onto my background (after the ink had dried of course) with white and gold pigment ink.  I used a masking technique to make the sun appear as if it was coming out from behind the clouds.

You can see how the pigment inks stay crips and bright and how the background ink is still dark even after drying.  Then I did something CRAZY!  I used water with my white pigment ink and painted in the clouds... This NEVER works for me with pigment inks and yet here it is!!

Then I stamped a whole bunch of tiny house images on white 100lbs card stock, grabbed my water brush and started painting in the houses. I used Archival waterproof ink for this part since I knew I wanted to get my images wet.  The dye inks acted like a watercolor paint and blended beautifully. 

They worked so well I went and grabbed another of my ColorBox dye inks in yellow, (Not the mini pops 'cuz NO yellow) and it did not work at all!  So this confirms for me that all inks are NOT created equally!  And then I did the same sort of things for the second card in red.

 

The rest of the photos are all about designing and embellishing, using my very favorite techniques of fussy cutting and popping the images, and then using gel pens and Stickles & Liquid Pearls to enhance the card.

Then of course you have to mount the card image onto a card base...

What I love the most about these two cards is how the ink stayed dark and vibrant so the white, un-coloured houses I stamped just jump right off the page... but then that one coloured house becomes the focal point... 

Yup... Great Product and wonderful inks. My one suggestion, MORE Metallic Colors and I NEED a yellow dye ink! Grin 

As Always, thanks for popping by to see what I am up to and please do  leave me a comment if you like what you are seeing!

Scrapbook Lynne Mizera

for Susan K. Weckesser and Clearsnap  

 

The following are a list of stamp sets and products I used for these two "simple" cards... (She says Grinning Madly!)

Susan K. Weckesser/Unity Stamp Sets Used on this Project:

Create Your Day

Celebration of Simple

Tumbleweed Houses

Fly Away

SKW Cardstock - Beautiful Day Dreams

 

ColorBox Color Pop Mini inks

Ranger Stickles and Liquid Pearls

Sakura Gelly Roll Pens

Tsukineko Clear Embossing Powder