Your Most Frequently Used Stamping Ink Colors?

I use my VersaMark watermark ink (for embossing), a MFT hybrid Black Licorice and a VersaFine Black (for sentiments) the most. Those three are on my desk at all times. I use the MFT hybrid to stamp outlines and then color in with TH distress inks, either with watercolor brush or sponge dauber.

I have TH Distress Inks, the small 1" square ones, sets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 14. I hesitated buying the distress inks for a long time. I didn't understand why everyone was ga-ga over them. But I tried them at a friends house and now I'm ga-ga over them. I like their versatility and the colors.

I love MFT premium ink squares in several colors that I got from their kits. I LOVE the MFT inks I rarely use SSS and SU! inks now.

I have SSS dye inks in Black Red Yellow Green Blue Brown Orange Pink etc. Just basic colors. These are good inks and the same formula as the Hero Arts inks.

I have several old (ca. 1991 or 1992) SU! dye inks that still work great. The only one I really use is the yellow. It's the perfect shade.

And some random VersaMark pigment inks and a few CTMH inks that I really don't like.

Here's a photo.

Distress inks are not for stamping in general. Like you said, they are for techniques. They blend together beautifully, especially on watercolor cardstock.

You can smoosh them on a slick surface and pick the color up with a paintbrush and use them like watercolor.

You can stamp with them, but they are true to their name and will look distressed. But, you can then use a wet paintbrush on the image and make it look more watercolored.

I could have written this post!  It pretty much sums up my favorite inks.  I'll add Delicata Gold and Silver to the list (especially for Christmas cards).

Distress Inks blend together well and are formulated to react with water.  I started using them to blend backgrounds using a foam dauber.  As Tricia mentioned above, you can smoosh the ink onto a palette (I use laminated cardstock) or your craft mat, and use a brush and water to watercolor or paint with it.  Once you get your ink on paper you can flick water on it to have a distressed look.  It works really well with watercolor paper, but if you don't use a lot of water Neenah works good too.  Too much water will make Neenah warp and pill up. 

My suggestion for finding what inks you like is check out the brands of the bloggers you like.  Or if a kit you like comes with inks, eve better.  That's how I found the MFT inks.  Anyway, buy a few different brands and see how they work for you.  Oh, and some inks go on splotchy and even out later.  I don't know why or how this works, but my stamping always looks better a few minutes later.

I have a lot of ink pads. I own all the colors of Stampin Up from the 2010 line. I own about 30 plus of the Distress Inks. I have a couple of Brilliance Inks. I own a lot of Studio G.

My black inks are Versafine, Memento, StazOn, & Brilliance. I use Versamark for embossing.

I am doing a big redo of my room right now. Growing as an artist. Out with what I really don't use and in with what I really do want to use kind of thing. A lot of my inks are getting donated or packed away.

My advice stock up on the black inks first. You do need them if you do a lot of line coloring stamping. You need Versafine if you use colored pencils. Memento is perfect for Copics, Brilliance for Vellum & StazOn for acetate, wood, etc....

Then for the color inks really look at your stamping style. For example I do a lot of Kawaii type themes in my crafting. I like my Studio G for the bright colors and great coverage for the look I am going for.

I am also a bling girl and I love the Brilliance for the beautiful shimmer.

I don't use my Stampin Up inks a lot. I do love the color lines. I like the watercolor look to them. I love the size of the ink pads for techniques. I love you can load a stamp with Versamark & then load the stamp with your SU ink to make your own pigment ink. Everyone, I am a little tired so if I wrote that technique wrong fix it for me, please.

Distress Inks- I really try to like them. They are beautiful inks. I don't think they are for me. I am not into that style that is so popular for Distress Inks. It is hard to find resources outside of that style from other Distress Ink users.

I hope that helps. Look at your style of stamping and purchase from there. There are so many pretty inks on the market right now it is confusing and overwhelming.

I started out with Stampin Up inks 12+ years ago.  Then I bought a few Papertey Ink full size pads (5+ yrs ago) just for some color variation. I wanted to freshen up my ink color selection but I don't have the space for full size ink pads…mostly because I won't toss any of my older SU ink pads!  I love the SU colors but I don't really care for the new ink pad style.  I really really liked the cloth pad vs he foam pad.  But I may get some of the current In Colors before they are gone.

I recently started buying ink cubes.   I have almost every PTI, Altenew, Momento Tear Drop and Distress Ink cubes.  


I really really like the Altenew colors. They layer great for multi-step stamps.  I like the so much, I'm contemplating buying full pads. The only reason is because it's a bit difficult to ink up a big stamp with just a cube. 


The PTI colors are good too but sometimes I find the cubes are a bit wet.  I don't usually get the "same" color as the examples the design team gets.  For example, my Lovely Lady cube is NOT pink, it's more lavender.

I thought I heard that MFT will start selling cubes since they're card kits were a hit.  I hope so because I'd buy every color in one purchase.


I also store all my cubes in 8.5x11 plastic containers from Daiso.  For $1.50 I can get 60 cubes in one container.  They are similar to these but not as deep (just deep enough for a cube).