Oxide Inks

Yes, you can use them for regular stamping or inking on projects. However, they don't work well for embossing the stamped image with embossing powder & a heat gun. (They are not the type that stays wet/sticky long enough for that). I love that you can layer the colors and they show the layers, if that makes sense. Maybe get a couple of colors you like and experiment with them.

I took a look at J's site as you mentioned, and it appears that only some of the colors are on sale. Speckled egg is definitely marked higher than some others - no idea why. The Distress Oxides don't come in mini sizes like the regular Distress Ink pads, so make sure you're actually comparing apples to apples (so to speak). I have no idea why some of the descriptions say "3x3" and others don't! I agree, very confusing. Maybe check some other sites and see if they have a less confusing pricing structure? (and less confusing website?? LOL)

ETA: I have 18 colors of these and I love them! The colors themselves are so gorgeous. You can also "paint" with them by using a waterbrush and lifting color from the inkpad to use as paint.

I was just going to add that if you work very very fast this is possible. I have my heat gun running, and a spoonful of clear embossing powder at the ready. I stamp, stamp again if I need a darker image, and sprinkle and emboss right away, like seconds between the image, yanking it off the stamp platform and getting the powder on it.

Thanks, kmage & lindas! I'll have to give that a try. I think when I tried it before I just wasn't fast enough.

They’re my desert island inks. My #1 use, though I use Oxides for many techniques, is for blending backgrounds for card layers or for die cutting. The inks are semi opaque, and after an ink is dryish, you can put another color on top without their mixing together. They don’t have to be completely dry, just “ish.” And if you don’t like a color, you can let it dry or dry with a heat tool and cover it with another color. They do blend together beautifully to form other colors before dry. If you like whitish splatter or dots on the ink, you can spray or drip water on it.

Oxides also stamp pretty well. I just wouldn’t use them for tiny, narrow sentiments. But I’ve used them for tiny stamps - like when using a mini wreath builder. 

Regular Distress inks can be used with Oxices too. When they first came out I attended a class taught by a wonderful teacher, and we had made a bright yellow-orange-pink-black card with Oxides, but toned it down to age it with a little regular Distress Walnut Stain over parts of it.

Enjoy!

I have 1 pad, so pretty much the same boat as you! I was inspired by Shimelle to dive in to Distress Oxides. She does 2 weekly scrappy YT lives with her monthly Best of Both Worlds kits. I just watched this one where she uses DO inks on her page. She probably uses them about once a week or so.
youtu.be/WmqOItJXtto

Oxides are a hybrid of color and pigment ink. They blend like butter! You can use them separately or together with Distress Inks. There is a QA demo video that Tim did that explains the difference between the two inks and how to best use them. Simon Says Stamps sells them for 6.99. Ranger Ink had all TH items on sale yesterday for 10% January 7th.

One favorite technique is the opposite of applying Oxides through a stencil. It’s removing the ink through the stencil.

In the Oxide class I attended when the first colors came out, we blended two bright colors onto white CS, layering the inks several times. HINT: Instead of one heavy layer of ink, apply quite a few light layers, allowing some drying between layers, mainly between the two different colors so they won’t mix - unless you want them to.

A stencil is placed over the CS, and a baby wipe used to pounce off some ink. Because of the multiple layers, color is still visible where ink is removed, rather than removing the ink all the way down to the cardstock. Sometimes the top color is still seen and sometimes the bottom color depending on how much is removed. And since the baby wipe is wet, it will lighten the ink. (You can go down to the cardstock too.)

I’ve tried this with up to 4 colors, though mostly 2 or 3, both light and bright like pink, yellow and orange, and deeper colors like blue, turquoise and purple for a night sky look.