Tips for using Archival, Memento and StãsOn inks

So, here are the facts and my experiences with these 3 inks

ARCHIVAL INK

The newest addition to the ink families is Archival Ink. It comes in Basic Black and Basic Gray.

This ink was mainly created as you can watercolour the images (vs. Memento Ink).

the ink is acid-free, fade-resistant, and archivally safe. The solvent ink is nontoxic and environmentally safe! Hurray!

You may notice a difference to Stampin'Up!s Classic ink pads when you open it. The stamp pads are made of linen, so they won't need to be re-inked as often. Do not use with nonporous materials like vellum paper as the ink will bleed (vs. StãzOn).

Does it stain? YES! Fast drying time means quick staining time - so clean your rubber stamps right away WITH StãzOn cleaner!!! With photopolymer stamps, stick to the regular Stampin'Mist stamp cleaner!

You will need to rub your stamp really well with this ink pad, specially after getting used to the light touch with the foam ink pads! So dig to your muscle memory and find the old felt pad inking technique :-)

Here are some samples of too light touch with Archival Ink

MEMENTO INK

this ink was mainly introduced due to the blendabilities markers, which were alcohol based, and would bleed with other alcohol based inks, like StãzOn. Since the blendabilities were withdrawn, I used the memento ink mainly as my regular black ink. Cleans nicely with just Stampin'Mist! This ink will bleed with watercolouring, or using blender pen so use only on it's own.

This ink pad is also fabric covered, so you will need to rub your stamp harder on the ink pad.

Also note, that the ink tends to sink down on the pad during storage, as it is not constructed like the Stampin'Up ink pads are (ink pad in facing down). I found the stamp inks easier and more evenly with Memento ink than with Archival Ink.

The biggest difference with Memento ink and Archival ink is how they stain your stamps. Well and the fact that the Memento is water based.

The smaller photopolymer stamp (not a Stampin'Up stamp, but same material) was used with Memento ink - no staining on the stamp. The larger was used with Archival Ink, and I used it several times without cleaning it in between and I could not get the ink stain off. Not even with StãzOn cleaner, so it really is permanent! The stamp still performs beautifully, but if you are obsessed about clean stamps, you might want to stay away of this ink :-)

STÃZON INK

StãzOn ink is permanent ink, and needs to be cleaned with StãzOn cleaner. This ink is great for watercolouring and can be used on nonporous surfaces. I have used this on plastic, glass and tiles (to make coasters).

NOTE! Stampin'Up! does not recommend using StãzOn with Photopolymer stamps (mainly because the cleaner will damage them, not so much the ink itself).

So ther is my analysis on these three inks.

The stamp set used in this experiment was by Mama Elephant