Review of Ranger Adirondack Ink Pads

Welcome Back.

Here is a review of my favourite ink range and why I like it so much.

Ranger; Adirondack; Dye based Inks

The Adirondack range as the title suggests are a water based dy ink. They are very versatile, you can not only use them in the traditional way to colour your stamps and then stamp but also a range of effects.

Brushless water colour; Select a solid image stamp, colour with various colours of ink. Then spritz the stamp with water from a mister bottle and stamp the image onto water colour paper.

Sponged effects. Using Rangers ‘Cut n Dry’ foam sponging the ink onto card give a subtle airbrushed effect.

‘My version’ of distressing paper gives a tie dyed effect; Use a plastic sheet or craft sheet (same stuff as oven liners) and smear some ink directly on to the sheet. Spritz the ink on the sheet with water from a mister. Take your chosen card and swoosh it through the puddle of ink. I know Tim Holtz recomends using the Distress inks for this but personally I like the fact that these inks often ‘bleed out’ to other colours. Stonewashed for example contains a lovely pink colour. Heat set the card, and or iron flat to give a flat surface to stamp onto.

Try crumpling your wet card and leaving it to dry, the ink puddles up on the wrinkles and gives a nice effect.

Here are some photos of the newly designed box that the range now has.

The new lid is now completely seperate from the base, it fits closer for a good seal when closed.

The only negative on the new box is that the base that you hold onto is very low profile. Shame!

Ok now my track record on photography will not do these colours justice as they are wonderful. This is the LIGHTS range but there is also a BRIGHTS and an EARTH TONES range. I also have the Earth Tones range and highly recomend them as they are all glorious.

A couple of tips for getting the best from these inks. When new the pads are quite juicy, to avoid over inking detailed stamps try applying the ink using a brayer OR gently stroke the ink onto the stamp rather than dabbing it on. Because the ink is so wet if you dab at the stamp you can sometimes be left with bubbles of ink on your image.

To see the complete range of colours that are available please follow this link to the Ranger site. http://www.rangerink.com/products/prod_dyeink_adirondack.htm

If you have any questions do leave a comment I’d be happy to help.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.

Billie

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