Okay, I saw a card on Pinterest and made my own stencil with my Scan n Cut to duplicate it. I practiced first with my distressed inks and it's not terrible, but the look I'm going for is to use a black cardstock and then have the sides of the cubes in silver and bronze. What ink will show up on black cardstock and can be used for stencils? There aren't any metallic distressed inks. Do I want dye? Pigment? Archival? I'm still learning the differences between all of these. Here's the card I made (all using dye's and my Scan'N Cut so it's not in the gallery) and image me replacing the brown with bronze and the blue with silver. Since the cardstock will be black, that's what the top will look like (and one less thing for me to stencil!!) I'd love to learn from you guys.
It's been a LONG time since I've played with my inks... so products could be totally different now, but if I remember correctly, the pigment inks don't dry as quickly and I usually used those when I was going to add embossing powder, so it would stick long enough to be heated/melted. I think pigment inks might smear used on their own unless you let them dry really well, but I think they do cover paper better than dye inks. Maybe you could use the bronze and silver pigment inks and then add a clear embossing powder on top? The cube stencil you've made is pretty awesome and I really like the shaded look even with the colors you've picked here!
These would be perfect, they aren't as quick drying as dye inks, but you can give them a blast with a heat gun if you have one. Tsukineko - Dew Drop Brilliance Fast Drying Pigment Ink - Planetarium Metallic Colors Set (scrapbook.com)
So what's the difference between pigment and dye ink @Karen? I think archival just means it can go over other inks and not get messed up (is that right)? Suzanne @fruitysuet I put those in my Amazon cart! (Scrapbook.com doesn't carry them anymore). I think these will work perfectly!
I love the way the card turned out! Maybe a white ink on black would look good? Or what about a chalk ink? a bright blue with the silver? This is from 15 years ago that I'm trying to remember from my stamping days but... Pigment ink is not soaked into the actual paper like other inks. That might be why it takes longer to dry. I'm pretty sure it sits on top of the paper. You might be good with Pigment if you want to set it with a heat gun or a fixative spray. Archival items, if I'm not mistaken, refer to the acid in a product, so it won't damage your photo or other items. I believe Archival won't degrade, or will resist discoloring over time.
I think of the different like the difference between oil based paints (pigment) and watercolor paints (dye). The pigments have a different binder that makes them dry slower, but they are richer and sometimes more opaque colors and once they dry are more permanent. The dye inks reconstitute when they get wet and are usually more see thru.
