Artistry Ink Pad Review

Artistry Ink Pad Experiments

          Hi friends Thank you so much for all the love showered on my Stone Decoupage tutorial post. Sharing a Christmas Card in non traditional Colors .                 The wheel barrow with flowers is a Stamplorations stamp I heat embossed in Gold and water-colored using Artistry Ink Pads [a new type of ink pad launched in India] and Staedtler water color pencils.
           I dabbed the ink pads on a craft mat, squirted with a few drops of water and used it to color the flowers and leaves on the cart. The cart itself was colored with Staedler pencils and then brushed over with a paint brush dipped in plain water.
       

Heat Embossed Sentiment

         Its raining heavily in different parts of South India and I guess that is why I was tempted to make a card in deep stormy blue with a cloud! My daughter said it looks weird for a Christmas card but I guess for the kind of weather we are experiencing in this part of the world it seems ok!

Parchment Flowers

          One corner of my card has heat embossed parchment flowers inked with Artistry ink "Blaze" shade and a cute golden Christmas tree charm I picked up from my local market.The Marianne  die cut leaf looks so glossy because I cut it from card stock I had made with alcohol inks [Check this link for more about Alcohol Inks ]

Inked edge

       The holly leaves and berries is a chipboard embellishment . The white dots you see all over my project were made using a correction pen! I am no expert at inking edges but I loved how I could get a cool relatively" un-blotchy for me" card edge using my new ink pads!

Inked Die Cut

          The Christmas tree ornament is also made of chipboard and I added a pearl string to hang it! The elegant border is a Marianne Anja Border die cut I inked while the die cut was still in the die.

         When there are flowers...one needs a little butterfly too but since it was a Christmas project I couldn't add too many so its just one tiny blue butterfly fluttering towards the cart load of flowers!

Now about Artistry Ink Pads...This review is especially for Indian Crafters since I dont think its as of now available in other countries!

Artistry Inks

First of all a Disclaimer: I am not associated with the manufacturer of Artistry Ink Pads Shilpi in any capacity. And this is not a DT post for any shop!
        I had simply congratulated the owner/ manufacturer Shilpa Kenia about launching Made in India Ink Pads on face-book and I was pleasantly surprised when she sent me some Artistry Ink pads to try !
         I am writing this review on my own since I loved some of the unique features of these ink pads  and wanted to write a frank review which may benefit other crafters!Paper Crafting is still a budding industry in India and it is so gratifying to see entrepreneurs trying to meet the needs of the indigenous paper crafting community!
What are Artistry Ink Pads?
These are dye based inks which are acid free and react beautifully with water.
If you are familiar with Distress Inks well then for all practical purposes you can think of Artistry inks to equate closely to Distress Inks in their properties and action !
          In addition to their Distress Ink like properties the  big plus with these ink pads are some cool and clever design elements in the ink pad itself which addresses some problems we crafters frequently face with normal ink pads .

Artistry Ink Pad

Currently Shilpi has 48 colors in their ink pads in 2 sizes : regular and mini. I especially love the regular one because of the cool design of the ink pads!

Artistry Ink Pad

Here are some of the salient and special features of the Artistry Ink Pads

• InkPad is Upside down and hence Juicy Juicy!

     You may have read on several websites and forums about crafting stalwarts recommending you store your ink pads upside down to keep them juicy.I have never liked to do that because then I cant see which ink pad is which unless I go to the extra trouble of labeling them plus I dislike lids coming loose with upside down storage.
      Shilpi's ink pads are designed to store the pad upside down and the lid actually has the ink pad and you can flip it up to lie flat while you work

Artistry Ink Pad

Or you can flip it and bring it to rest atop the base for ease of working....isn't that clever!

Artistry Ink Pad

• Lid is attached to it so you wont lose lids!  - I find this a cool design since I am not the most organized person while crafting and I do inevitably search for caps and lids ! With attached lids....no losing lids or rummaging for lids!
• Raised stamping surface - I think this is the norm for most quality ink pads and the Artistry ink pads too have raised ink pads for ease of use.

  

  Artistry Ink Pad

• You can see the name while working or stacked!

           The ink pad is designed in such a way that there is a projecting shelf with a colored label that is visible even when the pad is open, so you know the color even if you've multiple pads open on your craft desk

Artistry Ink Pad

The inkpad is also labelled on its side so you can stack ink pads vertically if you wish and still see which is the color!

• Space to store blending foam 

Artistry Ink Pad

I think this is the feature I love the best! 

Many crafters have several wooden blending tools and lovely rotating carousels and wooden racks to store their ink pads and blending foams neatly . I have only one wooden blending tool and store the foam blending pads rather haphazardly all thrown together and when I have to use my ink pads it means rummaging through a mess!



Artistry Ink Pad

These cleverly designed ink pads have a neat storage space to hold your foam pad...super cool isnt it!

 Mini Artistry Ink Pads

Mini Artistry Ink Pads

The mini ink-pads are lower priced and the "ink" is super but the mini ink pads dont have all the fun clever design features the regular sized pad has! The lid is not a flip flop, there is no storage space for foam and the ink pad is not up side down but you still have the clearly visible name feature.

Mini Artistry Ink Pads

 Now about the Cons

• Part  of the lower panel "paper label" is not securely adhered - It doesn't peel off or anything but I felt it decreased the style quotient a tiny bit for an otherwise world class product!
• Availability - I think these gorgeous ink pads need to be marketed better so that they are more widely available . Would be ideal if major stationary shops in cities at least stock it!

More Resources : Anita Kejriwal has posted several videos on You tube demonstrating various techniques with these beautiful inks . 

Techniques I tried in this project using Artistry Ink Pads

• Water-coloring - I water colored the embossed wheel barrow and flower stamp using all 4 colors of Artistry ink pads - Loved the rich colors and their easy blend-ability.
• Creating a background  - I created the blue background using the Midnight Blue Artistry Ink pad on white card stock
• Inking edges of the paper - I often make a mess while inking edges of my card but it was easy this time!
• Sponging through a die stencil - I especially enjoyed using the Artistry ink pads to stencil since the ink pads were juicy I didnt have to keep pressing on the ink pad with my sponge!
• Coloring Parchment - I used "Blaze" to ink my parchment flowers.Parchment does not take well to many ink pads but these inks colored well and dried fast!

Where to buy Shilpi's Artistry Ink Pads : 

• CraftUniverse.com
• Hobby Ideas Stores
• Devi and Co ,Bangalore [ Directions here : Crafty Supply Stores India]

Non-traditional Christmas Card

I hope you like my card and review. Do tell me your thoughts

Supplies : Dies : Memory Box  Cloud , Marianne fence , Marianne Anja Border, Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 3, Marianne Designs Anja Leaf 1,Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings ,
Stamps : Stamplorations Dee's Artsy Impression Friends and Flowers, Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings , Sizzix- Hero Arts Ornaments 3
Paper : DCWV
Edited : This card was picked Top 5 at All sorts Use 3 dies Challenge