I wish i had been in your art class when you were teaching! i feel like it would be awesome if school boards collaborated with creators like you that have experience producing online content to develop curriculum for distance learning!

You know a good artist is a good teacher when you watch their “for beginner” videos about anything you know well just to listen to how well they explain everything. I’ve been 9+ years (probably very close to 10 by now) here and still enjoy your explanations and teachings! This is a great video for anyone that is just starting!

This is a great video. Even though I have been crafting for 15 years I still get confused at times. There is so many companies making inks! I appreciate you making this video! Thank you so much!

This is such a helpful video, especially for a beginner because the different kinds of inks can be so very confusing! Thanks so much Lindsay.

I use an one and a half square inch piece of watercolour paper I make a key ring with all my colors and brands, one per colour. I punch a hole on each piece of paper and hold them together by a 3” key ring. This is portable and easy to transport to a store to ensure you don’t buy duplicates of colours or brands. Perhaps doing a stamp ring that you can take with you when you shop in person may work well for inks as well. I’ve done my colours by brand and colour in an watercolour book and I am able to go through my colours quickly. My new project is to a large watercolour board, by colour and brand and tack it on a wall so I can see what colours I have. Still do a line of yellows, then orange, then my reds and so on. I’ll also indicate high brand each is from. Great lesson my friend. Happy New Year Lindsay!!!!

Very helpful. Just last month i asked the manager at Michaels What is difference between dye based and pigment ink. All she could tell me was they are made a little bit different. Thank you Lindsay!

I started with only pigment inks and would use clear embossing powder to set the ink then watercolor the stamped item. I’ve had some ColorBox pads over 20 years now and most not even reinked. I then invested in Memento small pads from Michael’s using coupons for great discount. Due to craft room space, I then invested in mini Distress pads purchased from a lot off of 8 from EBay for only $36. I often use these inks to smush onto palette and pick up ink with paint brush and watercolor with. I have purchased a few Distress Oxides but space is a deterrent so am now waiting on the mini pads that get first released this month. I will only purchase mini inks nowadays. I purchase reinkers online when ordering items just to get up to amount for free shipping. I store reinkers in two old wall hanging spice racks I bought at secondhand stores and painted white. Makes a great colorful wall display in craft room. I store Memento mini pads in a plastic bin that is meant to beads (from Michael’s). I store mini Distress in the small mini tins. These also hold all other brands of pads. The tins I store in the Ranger designers bags from about 5 yrs ago (14.5” x 2.75” x 4.5”) that fit 4-6 tins in them. I believe this bag was discontinued but you can still find this size once in awhile on eBay. I bought 5 bags back bout 4 yrs ago at Tuesday Morning for bargain $3 each. Happy crafting one and all. Thanks for video

This has been SO useful to bring clarity in an overwhelming world of products. Thank you.

Wow, you have given us a lot of very useful information! I have (WAY too) many different ink pads of many different brands (almost all of the brands you showed us, plus more brands) and have recently bought many different colors of 2 brands. It has become obvious that some stamps made of different, sometimes cheaper, materials need certain types of ink pads, so I set out a lot of different types of ink pads and try them all out. One of the new brands of ink pads I bought works very well with my stamp positioner. It saves me a lot of time to get good results when I use it. Experimenting to find out which ink works best for each technique is actually fun! Thank you for all of the information you give us. Your videos are my go-to when I need help and want to learn about new products!

Very useful thank you Lindsey never really understood the difference with the inks.

I always forget , so i will just keep referring back to this video, thanks for sharing and taking the hard work out of it for us all.

Very helpful indeed. Ranger Archival is my go to because I like that it is permanent when dry and I can use mediums like clear gesso or matte medium over the top and they stay put. Thank you!

Thank you for this video. I struggled at first with trying to figure out dye v pigment and why do I need both. Your "stamp school" from way back video was a great help. I have watch several which ink for which videos, and I have come to this conclusion: Chalk ink is fast drying, Dye ink is the next fast and pigment ink is slower to dry. So I sort them in alpha order "CDP" (fastest, fast and slowest). Today's video was a huge help to fine tune the ink properties.

This information is exactly what I've been looking for! Ahhh such perfect timing! ❤ The Stamp School series are also sincerely appreciated. Some components of this media can easily act as gatekeepers, and you make it very, very accessible. Thank you, really really.

Inks are always a little confusing, so this video was very helpful. Thank you.

I learned from the Carol Duvall Show this basic principle: dye dry, and pigment powder. Simple way to remember what to use when embossing.

Thank you so much, this was so informative. You're a wonderful teacher.

You are a life saver and time saver!!!! I have been watching tones of videos about ink pads and your video covers everything!!!

I think you should reup these on the channel Lindsay. Specially this time of year with inbetween season festive stuff when people have a bit more to spent to stash up for special occasions, like I do, if I buy these supplies in high of the holiday season I could go bankrupt on it lol. There is so much available it is nice if people have basics; not duplicats; errors usually are user error due to applying it on wrong surface with wrong supply. Would be neat to see an updated version here. I know making cards has not been main focus; though starting with decent supplies that dont break the bank is, right? Just a thought. If you need my help; just drop me a dm. not sure if my desk and zoom are a wise combination but hey, who cares lol I can squeeze in ten cm space :P

Thanks! I will go for versafine clair due to my budget, this video is so so so helpful for a stamping beginer like me.

I love this review! I need to see it over and over and still don't seem to remember it!

This will help so many new stampers Lindsay! Great job!

Wonderful video. Just getting into this hobby. Thank you.

Recently stumbled upon your channel and happy I did. This is great information.

Finally someone who explains the difference so I understand! Thank you

2023 Nancy commenting here: I feel sort of dumb…I just discovered (after watching some other stamp ink vids…) that the Memento ink line of dual tip markers coordinate precisely with each Memento ink stamp color. Duh! I’m a big fan of Tsukineko inks. They’re really the best, along side Distress Oxide, in my book…and Ranger Archival are tops too.) I love Memento Pear Tart and have both the ink pad and marker in that color…that I bought at different times. I never thought to check if that’s the case for all the other Memento colors. As was pointed out in one of the the Imagine Crafts’ videos (Imagine Crafts is Tsukineko’s trade name in the US,….much easier for Americans to pronounce 😁) it’s nice to have a perfectly matching marker to fill-in if your image doesn’t stamp completely. But with all the stamp positioners on the market now, you can just stamp again to get the filled-in image. Side note: if I’m only using one stamped image on a card, for instance, I do like the immediacy and feel of using an acrylic block with clear or cling stamps or just using “old fashioned” wood-mounted stamps. And I wish all stamps were made out of rubber. I believe they give a superior impression when compared to clear ones. Thanks!

Great video, you really explained everything about inks! It definitely took me awhile to figure out what inks I wanted! I never thought card making could be so expensive?! There’s so many things you can buy now, compared to scrapbooking!! Thank you so much for sharing!!😊❤️

Hi Lindsay, the difference between inkpads was one of the most mystifying thing to me when I first started crafting about 6 years ago! Your videos helped an awful lot. Thank you! There is one thing though - I don't share your poor opinion of Stazon - I've had about 12 Stazon pads for at least 4 years and they haven't dried out at all. There is one exception to this and it's the opaque Cotton White. But all it takes is a spritz with rubbing alcohol and off it goes again. I bought 2 bottles of rei-nker for the Cotton White because I'd heard people say it dried out quickly and you needed to re-ink every time you used it!! Well, I've never needed to re-ink it and haven't touched my re-inker bottles. Admittedly I don't use it very often, but the pigment (yes I think, unlike the others, this is pigment to achieve the opacity) is easily reactivated with alcohol. Also I notice that you don't say that Stazon is waterproof - although you have written on your sheet that the oil-based pads are waterproof and compatible with watercolours, Stazon gets a big blank! I bought Stazon because it was waterproof. And compatible with watercolours and other waterbased media. And works well on all shiny surfaces. And the colours are very rich and vibrant. As you can tell, I feel rather defensive about Stazon, because I feel they always get a raw deal from you!!! I have no affiliations with Stazon by the way!!! Thanks for this excellent video, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it as I do all your vids. :)

Thanks for this helpful video. I remember watching a similar one when I was confused about what to purchase way back when I had nothing.

I also have the Ranger archival ink in black in a larger pad than one you have. Most of my purchases have been based off your helpful information. I appreciate you so very much. God bless you. Becky B

Great informative video! Thanks so much for your recommendations at the end, perfect for the beginner who’s overwhelmed by all the choices!

Thank you for giving a nice summary of the different types of inks. I liked being able to see your notes. Being able to read along with you prevented me from getting distracted or confused by the different brands on the market while you were going through your presentation. I appreciate your recommendations at the end as well. 😊

Thank you for clarifying ink pad selection!

I am so happy you did an upgrade ink pad video. I watched another video on ink pads that you did ?? years ago and it was so helpful. I agree about the Staz-on ink. Great for using over matte medium, yet hard to get off my stamps--besides the pad, one needs the reinker, and cleaner/remover dauber. I use Memento for line images and inked edges, Archival (three large and lots of minis) for more solid images, and simple dye inks for backgrounds (flicked water drops) and coloring. I recently bought a hybrid ink from Scrapbook dot com to play with. I use pigment inks (many minis) for backgrounds or to stamp details on top of finished images. I have reinkers for all of it, including gouache to reink the pigment pads (the first video I ever saw of yours taught me how). 😁

That was a great overview of pad inks and what they are best used for. I 'stumbled' into stamping when I started card making and purchased (pre-owned) inks blindly. Fortunately I happened on most of the winners - although I did lose some over time when the pads disintegrated. Having watched your review I now feel inspired to try more techniques with the ink pads I have. Thank you

I’ve been stamping 25+ years and just started the Versa Claire. I love it for solid images and words.

Thanks for this video! I'm so glad to see you have the memento dewdrops! I've been thinking of getting a whole new line of inks but now that I see you still have and use these, I will stick with what I have and save major $$! This is the year, I am determined to use what I already have and not buy anything "extra".

Thank you so much for this video! Very straight forward and I feel like I have a better understanding of the different inks. I can buy with confidence that the ink I'm getting will work as I want it to!

really well done as always Lindsay, very succinct and complete information, I would add that it's a good idea to buy a pad that has a matching marker in case of an oops (unless you have a stamp positioner like a misti) and an embossing pad is a must if you want to use embossing powder (and you do!)

Very helpful. I have started stamping an image and watercoloring over it. Now I know the best inks to do this with. There is so much conflicting information out there. Tfs.

I appreciate all your teachings, I find myself taking notes so I won't forget and am ready when I buy my inks. I love learning g new things

Do you know your amazing… the fact you take the time and trouble to explain it to those of us who just don’t get it….

On the recommendation of a craft professional (luckily I can't remember who it was) I bought a Stazon black ink pad. I never liked it, but thought it must just be me. No dis to folks who like Stazon, but it sure made me feel better to know you don't like those ink pads either. Versafine is still my favorite permanent ink. Crisp images & I love them for embossing. I've even learned how to work the funky attached lid so I'm not covered in black ink when I'm done. :) ~marilee

Thank you Lindsay! I just purchased some acid free pigment ink pads and was not sure if I was going to be able to use them for card making. Your video just landed in my lap so perfectly timed!! I need you to be with me when I go shopping for card making supplies. We never know where we will land or how much I will spend!! My poor husband just holds his breath at the check out, I have to nudge him in the side so he will get a nice deep breath! 😂 I will be looking for more of your videos. And thanks again for such an informative video explaining in terms I can understand!

Thanks for the info. I'm very, very new to stamping and knowing how stamp pads differ is a great help.

Thanks for the info. I love embossing with distress oxides. I get beautifully colored, raised, glossy sentiments.

Thank you, that's answered a mass of questions that have been bubbling around quietly my head for several years. Now all I need to is watch it again, pausing to take copious notes, and then a third time, pausing to sort through my fairly random selection of pads. After which, I may even do some stamping, as I'll finally know how to used what and when. :-)

This is extremely useful video. Wish you had a cheat sheet available to print out. Ty!

This is very helpful. I too wish I had taken your classes to learn more on what to do or not to do. Great job.

Thanks for all this information. It really helped!

Thanks for this video. There are so many inks out there,and it’s good to have someone explain there uses so well. I have learned so much from you videos.

Thank you so much for doing this video. I'm attempting to learn the products and their rules for mixed media. Your cheat sheet is EXTEMELY helpful!!!

As usual, a wonderful & in-depth video from you! Thank you for taking the time to put this video together & for sharing it! ❤️

Today I bought Hero Arts Pigment ink pad in Unicorn. I only bought it because I found a GORGEOUS Hero Arts stamp of a swirly starfield. OMG! I fell in love with that stamp. So now I know how to use my new ink. I only had Archival ink pads before. I'm anxious to try embossing that starfield! Thanks!

Nice explanation Lindsay. There's so many choices now that it's confusing. I think your recommendations when getting started are very good. TFS

A great video on ink! I really appreciate all the information! I have stamp pads and I like memento a lot! Thanks for sharing! I need some dew drops in new colors! Thanks again!

Happy New Year Lindsay! I found this very useful as a re-fresher and update on what's available, what's gone and what's replaced what. Tfs ~ C ~ xx

YAY!!!! Finally found it!!! Needed this info right now... my heart ❤️ is dancing 💃🏻 Thanks a bunch!💐

New to stamping!

This is a great resource for keeping info about different ink pads straight! But the more you stamp and use pads the easier it gets to remember. I too have been stamping for many years and some of my pads are 20 years old (yay for reinkers!) I miss the easy availability of Versacolor pads and reinkers. I still have mine but use them sparingly.

Thanks for taking the mystery out of different inks. It's very helpful.

THE PERENNIAL QUESTION . . . and I suspect it’s un-answerable but this is a great intro to the world of ink pads. Thank-you.

This was great! You are so knowledgeable! I really like the details. Thanks for the tip about acrylic stamps, I was having trouble using mine but I just tried using a pigment ink (I have a colorbox) and it worked so much better. I only have a few ink pads and want to use more stamps for journaling/planners; this video helps me make sense of all the ink brands. Thanks for posting this, so helpful.

Thank you so much for this excellent, clear and informative video. I'm new to stamping and was quite confused about the different inks. Not anymore, thanks to you!

Thank you for this fantastic review and comparison. I am clueless about ink pads and this was a great education.

Thank you Lindsay. A great and comprehensive overview of ink types! This will be extreme,y useful

Loved this , did not know that I could use my versa Clair inks like this. Thank you

Awesome video! So useful. I have a variety of these already, but now have a better understanding of when to use them. Thank you.

Thank you! I don't use ink pads very much and I am always confused when I go to buy them.

Thanks for this review. I get confused changing back and forth! I'm not a fan of the Distress inks as they dry out really fast and any of the reinkers are really spendy. Momento tear drops are my favorites and I have almost as many as you do. Its good to have this video for a refresher course for us stampers!!😊

Oh my gosh, so much to learn. Thank you so much for this video. Just getting started with cards and this was perfect. Going to watch it again!

Great video, wish I had seen this before I bought so many ink pads I thought I needed! Thanks 😊

"Inks for writing, art on the other hand is writing in color."- Lynn Just beautiful Lindsay.❤👍👍👍👍👍😊

THANK YOU LINDSAY! I really, really needed this info!

Thank you so much for this. I was wondering if I needed some pigment ink pads and this cleared that up for me.

Awesome. It was so helpful to hear all of this information on ink pads. Thank you.

I love all your detailed and knowledgeable explanations. You’re an inspiration! Thank you for sharing your talent with the rest of us! Xo.

What a great video, Lindsay. You’ve explained it so well. Thank you! ❤️

Great video! I love that you pointed out the similarities

Can't say thank you enough times. My brain can't seem to process AND retain all the info about inks... what brand is dye, pigment, hybrid, differences between distress & distress oxides, works with each other as well as my copics/alcohol markers, water colors, & wax & non wax pencils, is best for embossing, works best on what kind of paper, etc., etc., etc So again thank you for doung this.

Thank you, Lindsay. This was just the ticket. I need to buy some new ink pads but which ones? I've told myself to learn more about the types of inks and advantages of certain sizes but....you know how it is, right? I start looking for ink pads, find a heck of a deal and buy it hoping it's the kind I meant to pick up. Last year really interrupted my craft supply shopping and things are looking seriously shabby and out of date.

This was a great comparison. Thank you Lindsay

Very informative video, thank you. I have my chosen brand at the moment (Lawn Fawndamentals, a dye based in that is said to be good for use with alcohol markers) and will be testing them out, but having the information on the different types of ink and your recommendation of brands and small vs. standard is useful. I've accidentally followed your suggestion - a large memento tuxedo black (plus reinker) and small cubes of the Lawn Fawn in fun colours😆

Awesome review! Thank you for bringing such useful information! Cant wait to see more from this series😊

Thank you so much for this! I recently made some cards with my alcohol markers and used ranger archival inks for the stamped images. I couldn't figure out why some images were smudged! Uh, now I do know why😉. This was so helpful.

Thank you so very much! This is just what I needed.❣

Great information. I think I will add some labels on the backs which ones are alcohol safe and which work with water coulor

Great reminders, thanks Lindsay!

Thanks so much for your detailed explanation. I just learned more about inks in 30 minutes listening to you than in the 30 years I've been stamping. At the end, you mentioned a white pigment ink pad and I wondered which one you would recommend. Is it the one you showed? I've never been that interested in using white ink before, but lately I've been curious. Thanks again for a very helpful video that I'm sure I will revisit. ~ Lisa

Thank you so much Lindsay!! I continue to learn so much from you. I started watching you when I first started stamping a few years ago. This is an excellent updated video for inks! Thank you again! Xoxo 😊

Such a wealth of information! Thank you sooo much!

Thank you for this video, only knew difference between distress oxide and ink, and that some inks are waterproof. I need more inkpads but can never pick...

Super helpful! Thank you

maybe you can clarify something for me... the Ranger Archival, if it is permanent when it dries what is the issue with alcohol markers? same as the StazOn?

Thank you so much for this!!! I've been struggling with some and this has truly provided me with some info to correct :-)

While it wouldn’t be my go-to for heat embossing, I have used the Distress Oxide with heat embossing….by accident at first, and it did ok, but best to use regular pigment inks.👍

Thank you so much for this video! The info is a great help to me.

Thankyou, Lindsay. Very helpful!

Thank you. I enjoyed that.

I was wondering why it was so hard to find color box inks I love their stuff I didn't know they went out of business