Monday, May 21, 2012

Some new colours of Fresh Inks - a product review plus a PFP crazy for circles card

I am an equal opportunist and love both dye and pigment inks.  When I want dye inks, my favourites are Jenni Bowlin's wonderful line. (Check out my post here for a product review about those) Not only are the colour names so cute - spice tin, fountain pen, brown sugar - but they work really well, even with clear stamps.

But I also love pigment inks and am always looking for some great shades to stamp with.  Pigment inks give such vibrant colour with amazing coverage on both clear and rubber stamps.  So after I bought a few Fresh Inks a while back (and did a review on them here), I waited for Impress Rubber Stamps to have another sale.  Once the sale was announced, I got a bunch more to round out my colour collection.  There is a a pdf of all their colours on the Impress website but this is not the stamped shades so I thought it is better to show them all stamped out.  So here we go ...

All my new pretty ones that arrived last week:


And here are all the colours I have so far in their colour families.

The reds and yellows:
 And the greens and blues:
 And the more neutrals:

And here is a card with them in action:
I just love pigment inks on kraft card stock! :)  This card is very simple but I stamped every single colour Fresh ink I have on the panel.  I embossed the sentiment in Merlot embossing powder - a great deep reddish brown shade.  I actually used Versamark but you can emboss with the Fresh inks.  They look great embossed in clear.  Only two stamp sets used - PTI's Modern Wood Mats and Signature Greetings.

Oh, and another important thing that many people have asked me - they do not stain clear stamps like fluid chalk inks but just tint them slightly.  I have found that the blue stamp cleaner works really well to get off the darker shades but the lighter colours come off really easily with baby wipes. 

And another one with a very similar style but only a few colours:

Modern Wood Mats again with a new Memory Box die - all one piece so easy to adhere with some of my favourite liquid glue - Tombo Mono Multi glue.  What would I do without you, dear Tombo? :)  A really narrow nozzle makes adhering delicate die cuts a breeze!


I was inspired with the circles by A Passion for Papertrey's challenge - Super Circles. So I am submitting the first card for this challenge ... Thanks, ladies, for your nudge to get a little circular!  I love circles and my Modern Wood Mats' circles had been sorely neglected. 

Edited to add: I have been named one of three top Passionistas over at a Passion for Papertrey!  Here's what they said:

We loved Cara's use of multi-coloured circles on her card - what a fabulous use of the Modern Wood Mats set don't you think?! Wouldn't this card brighten your day if it landed on your doorstep?!
 
Thanks, ladies! :)



6 comments:

pamela said...

I got Mango & Merlot... and I loveeeee Mango <3 I'm super happy and pleased with the ink quality!

cards by cara said...

Pamela - glad you like them! The quality really is top notch, isn't it? The merlot is a divine shade that matches Scarlet Jewel really well ...

Jennifer K said...

Next go around you'll have to add Strawberry and Basil. Along with Mango those are my favorite Fresh Ink colors. Basil is so perfect with New Leaf - just the right mid tone kelly green. Harvest is also very pretty as is Island and Pool. Thanks for doing this review and I totally love the card - probably going to CASE that one. :)

Joyce said...

What fun cards. I love those woodgrain circles, and they look so pretty in all the different colors.

Aimes said...

So happy we nudged you to ink up that fabulous wood mat circle!
Thanks for joining us on A Passion for Papertrey!
Hugs!
x

Sarah P. said...

Found your blog when searching for samples of these inks - they look great. Thanks for sharing.