quick Ink comparisons and a cheap alternative

There are a lot of products on the market for paper crafters to choose from and knowing which ink pad to use with what medium can be confusing.  I thought I'd show you a few pictures of several common inks plus a very thrifty alternative if you use a lot of Black ink like I do.  Lindsay over at the Frugal  Crafter gives a very in depth comparison of inks. Lindsay however doesn't demonstrate my thrifty find!


First Memento ink , Second Archival and Third in the make your own ink pad by dylusions


Printer ink!

A few years ago I went on a hunt for good quality low pricing for refills for my black ink pads. (BTW this is fabulous in your printer for printing digitals!)  Spending 6.00 om 1/2 oz of ink is just crazy!!   So I tried printer refill ink, why not, it works great in my ink jet printer!  This ink is sold by cartridge pool on ebay for about 19.00 a liter!!( this is not a paid for or sponsored advertisement - just a great product at a great price- with customer service to match)  Just so that you know, I did spend a lot of time trying find an ink that stated it was water proof and fade resistant.  I read a lot of ink listings and tried this product.  You can use any kind of ink jet printer ink - but you will have varying results' I have about 5 other brands  of ink to prove it.    I prefer the "pigment inks" they are not the same as our syrupy pigment inks for stamping, they are not emboss-able, but they work beautifully for traditional stamping.






These were my testers
Spectrum Noir alcohol ink - yellow
Spectrum Aqua - orange
Distress - pink



First test, Memento Ink:
Good - Alcohol
Bad -Aqua
Good - Distress





Second test with the Ranger Archival

Good for alcohol and aqua pens
Not good for distress pens


Third test: 
Good -distress 
Good- alcohol
Fair- Aqua 




Printer ink pad with a text stamp:



Printer ink pad with detail image stamp:


I would love to have one pad I could use with everything, but that is not going to happen.  That is because of the natures of the inks and the mediums.
At least I have been able to narrow things down however to two for paper: - printer ink for everything except water coloring, for that I use Archival.  


I thought I'd leave you with these to play with today


Tomorrow I will show you how I juiced up my Distress Markers!
Thank for stopping by,
Ginny M



Comments

Anne said…
So interesting! Very useful if you use a lot of ink or have old dried up pads! I haven't seen bottles of printer ink before..... there you go, another thing discovered!!!! The digi images are gorgeous! Merci!
Jan Castle said…
Interesting comparison and very helpful to know!!! Thanks Ginny!
Paper Hugs,
Jan
Ah very interesting sis, must confess my very most favourite ink is Versafine jet black pigment ink, then Archival. I have Memento and Stazon, and rarely use them.
I have yet to have my Versafine dry out, it lasts longer than any pad I know. Love embossing stamps,mother. You can use any sort of ink with it. Have tree shades of it now, the deep blue is magnificent.
Shaz in Oz,x

{Shaz in Oz – Calligraphy Cards}
Oops no idea what "mother" was auto corrected from!!!! :) hugs, sis.

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