Anima Designs

Anima Designs on Inks

Dye Ink Pads

Many of the anima designs stamps fall into one of two categories: they either have lots of detail or large solid areas. I am still experimenting with the best inks to get the best impression each time from your stamp. Most of my demo stamps are either halos mounted or I use double stick tape with no cushion on an acrylic mount. I also do not typically use glossy cardstock, but prefer something with a more matte finish so here are my observations:

Ranger Archival Inks

I like Ranger and think that they have a great selection of ink colors. I'm not that happy with the "raised" pad on the standard archival ink pad because it makes it more difficult (and messy) to stamp larger stamps (like many of ours). I tend to ink the stamp fairly heavily by laying the stamp down on its temporary mount and tapping the ink pad over the stamp until I can see that there is good coverage. My current favorite colors are olive, plum and coffee (those of you who've ordered stamps from me will recognize these colors on your stamp packaging). See a stamped sample here.

Ancient Page

I love the mini-ink pads and they have the greatest raised pad. I understand that these archival inkpads are great for glossy cardstock and in fact have a wonderful sample produced by Kristy Dreyer here. But they are a bit wet and I've found that on a more matte cardstock, they simply are not that great because they also result in a more fuzzy image. Also, folks keep telling me that Ancient Page makes the "blackest black" but it still looks charcoal grey to me. Printworks makes a really nice black dye ink pad.

Memories Archival Inkpads

I like that the stamp pad itself is really raised (much better for inking larger stamps than the Ranger archival), but find that these inks tend not to produce as crisp an image as the Ranger inks. Still I have some and do use them, particularly for images where "crispness" is not as important. My current favorite colors are barn red, artprint brown and mango (especially on tan cardstock -- it has a really nice antiqued gold appearance).

I also received this via the website:

For You To Add to your Ink Tips: I and friends here in Louisville, Kentucky love the Brilliance Ink--they make a great black with is the blackest. It can be embossed with. For detailed stamps I have found that crafter's ink works great for the all the fine detail. Just wanted to help add info. I love reading all the tips whenever I find a new site. Debby Rollins Louisville, KY

Anima Designs

creative supplies for artistic exploration