Tim Holtz Distress Ink is especially made for those vintage, distressed, stained and aged effects often used on scrapbook pages and craft projects. I used Mowed Lawn to conduct my set of tests on Distress ink.
(Please note that this ink was included in the original test documents from the Playing with Inks range, and the results documented in the downloadable table)
Let’s discover the properties of this popular ink:
Ranger describes it as a fade-resistant, water-based dye ink, developed to produce a realistic, weathered look on paper, photos and decorative fibers.
It is available in a square, 3-inch ink pad, a mini ink pad and a re-inker. Sixty-one colours are available. I own some large ink pads, mini ink pads and re-inkers. The ink I used for these tests is a large pad. The Distress ink pads are distinguishable from the Distress Oxide ink pads as they are black, and the Oxide ink pads are grey. The large as well as the small ink pads are stackable for easy storage.
Stamping with Distress Ink:
Distress ink stamps well, the image is however not solid, but distressed. Distress inks are matt inks and not metallic, so no shiny image.
The dried stamped image is affected by water, spreading the ink everywhere. The alcohol did not move the ink at all.
Distress ink can be used to colour tint photos. You can also stamp on glossy photo paper with this ink.
Other uses for Distress Ink:
This ink is water-based and can be used to blend with water to create beautiful splats and it can also be used as a watercolour-type paint.
Gel medium and gesso is easily coloured with Distress ink.
A dye ink like Distress ink does not show up on a dark background.
Distress ink is a very wet ink and it works extremely well when doing ink blending, stenciling and chalking.
Because it is a wet ink, it can be used to heat emboss with. When I tested this, it didn’t give a very good result though and I will not use it for this purpose.
My Conclusion about Distress Ink:
I love the way Distress ink can colour paper and embellishments with soft dreamy colours. My favourite way to use it is to do just that, colour paper and embellishments to match my scrapbook pages and craft projects.
Distress ink has so many uses, and the ones mentioned here are not necessarily all of them. Go and play with your inks and try new ways to use Distress ink on your future scrapbook pages and craft projects.
PLEASE NOTE: All the opinions are my own. None of the products have been sponsored.