Saturday, March 7, 2009

Ink...paper....Copics

I wanted to try different cardstocks and inks with my Copics so you could see the differences As you can see above, I used Brilliance, Memento, Versafine and Archival inks. For my cardstocks, I used Nennah Classic Crest, Papertrey, Georgia Pacific 110 lb, Gina K Luxury 80 lb. and Gina K Luxury 120 lb. I did not have any SU! white cardstock. Once I get my hands on some of that, I will try it and bristol board. I marked each quarter sheet of paper with the cardstock type and the ink used for the image. The ducky stamp is from Serendipity Stamps.
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You can see right off that some of the inks did NOT work. They grayed the coloring so the brilliant Copics became dark. Below, notice the difference in the use of Memento ink and Archival ink. It surprised me what a difference the ink made. The choice of ink was much more important than the choice of cardstock. I do watercolors and love Versafine and Archival for stamping something to be painted. Perhaps if you heat set the ink, it might not bleed as badly, but these images had several hours to dry. Memento is a quick drying ink that was introduced at CHA Winter 2008 and of the ones I tried, it was definitely the best....actually the only one I will use from now on. I don't want to heat set...I want to be able to stamp and go! Another option would be to apply clear detail embossing powder to the Versafine and thermally emboss it. I love that look, but not sure how well the raised lines would hold up to the markers.
Of the cardstocks, I think I liked the Neenah Classic Crest the best. I can pick it up at Xpedex (one of my favorite hangouts...I am a bottom feeder there...they know me as the "Clearance Lady"!) by the ream. I would use any of the cardstocks as there was not that much difference. If you are doing a card and want to have the colored image on the actual card as opposed to layered on the card, the only one that did not bleed through was the Gina K Luxury 120 lb. I do not care for the surface look of her 80 lb. cardstock...it almost has a look of poster board or bristol board. My favorite cardstocks as far as surface goes is Neenah and Papertrey. I think the Neenah is a brighter white. I do like Papertrey for embossing in my Wizard.
I hope this little science experiment was helpful to you. I will try to make a finished card of my favorite combination and also show you the steps I took in coloring this little guy. I wanted an image that was fairly simple, but showed blending a single color (duck), blending colors together (tulip) and showed some shading.
Have a great day....and if you don't have any, get some Momento ink! I know Hobby Lobby carries it or it is available online. It also comes in a gray and brown, but I don't like those actual colors as well as the gray and brown in Versafine. Same company, but the colors are much different.
Let me know if you have other suggestions of cardstock or inks to try. Thanks!
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7 comments:

Elaine said...

Wonderful information! I hope you also add A Muse's black ink to the lineup - it is a fabulous, quick drying black that I rely on 100% for use with Copics!

Holly's Hobbies said...

Thanks for the suggestion, Elaine. I have not heard of that ink.
Holly

Linda Carson said...

I use the Neenah Classic & Momento ink. Sometimes I have problems w/the Momento smearing. I don't understand why. Brilliance ink is also an excellent choice.

Karen W said...

I totally agree, memento is the best, no heat setting required for the copics. I use cryogen white paper, it has a beautiful shimmer to it and stands up very well to the copics. www.cutcardstock.com for the paper but be careful they also sell test weight so make sure you get cardstock. Poison ivory is a creamy colored one and that works well also for fall like colors. Thanks for the experiment!! Oh and the copics blend much better on the cryogen, has a finish to it and they glide easier. http://karensinspirations.blogspot.com/ my blog and I use a lot of copics in my scenic stamping and the air compressor with them.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for doing the compare! Good information. I'm trying to learn about inks and paper so this was very helpful. I'd like to share something I learned about the 'whiteness' of paper... there is a numbering scale that paper gets graded by - 90, 92, 98's... some paper websites actually list this as well as the thickness (80lb, 120lb, etc.) I've found that I also like Beckett Expressions "Radiance" 80# cardstock (although it's getting harder to find online) - it has a whiteness scale that is much brighter than some of the other cardstocks. When you hold different manufacturers products against each other you can really 'see' the difference.

Terri said...

Thank you so very much for this information, it has been very helpful for me, and I am sure others as well. I appreciate your time and trouble.
Terri

Jennifer said...

Hi! thank you for suggesting xpedex! I had never heard of them and there's one 2 miles from me, so I ran down there and got some Neenah paper! Can't wait to try it. I wish they sold Copics! Where do you get your Copics?

thanks,
jennifer