Tim Holtz Distress Ink Review

Today I will be sharing a Tim Holtz Distress Ink review. These are one of my favourite crafting/journaling mediums. Produced by Ranger Ink in partnership with Tim Holtz (an amazing craft guru :)), they are water-based dye ink pads with phenomenal saturation. As you see in my colour-swatching You Tube video, the colour on the lid is the colour you can expect on the paper. With that said, not all papers are created equal. There are, in fact, some paper-types that will work better than others.

Distress Ink Colour Swatching

Distress Ink ReviewMy preferred way to use these ink pads is with a blending tool. This way you can get colour saturation without the ink bleeding through thinner paper. The examples I use are the Leuchtturm 1917 bullet journal, a Scribbles that Matter bullet journal, Canson-brand mixed media paper, and Rhodia vellum paper. When you use these two journals as well as the Rhodia paper/journal, you are going to want to stick with using the blending tool. Stamping or putting the ink directly on the page will lead to bleeding through the page. The paper, although great quality (like the Rhodia and the Scribbles that Matter), just can’t handle too much saturation where as mixed media paper will tolerate the saturation but you will see some ghosting.

Best Paper to Use

I also wanted to mention that the biggest difference between the journals and the Rhodia paper is how long the ink sits on the page:

Leuchtturm: Good. You have a bit of time to blend your inks before it’s dried/absorbed by the paper but it’s not the greatest paper quality for this technique.

Scribbles that Matter: Better. The ink sits on the page a bit longer allowing you to get an even blend without having to add more ink to the page.

Rhodia paper/journal: Best. This paper is so great for blending! It gives you more time to blend than either the Scribbles or Leuchtturm.

Mixed media paper is so fun to use these inks on. Majority of my work using these inks have been on mixed media paper so have fun with it. (You can click here for one of my art journal projects.)

Art Journal Final Product

Below you will see the gallery of the sets that I have as well as the corresponding kit number and the names of the different ink pads. I just want to mention that I am not affiliated with Ranger Inks or Tim Holtz at all. Just a HUGE fan of their products. If this relationship changes at all (fingers crossed :P), I will make the appropriate disclaimers to you.

Distress Ink Art Journal

So please have a look below and let me know if you want to see specific colours being used. I will be more than happy to play with any of the colours you suggest.

Distress Ink Collection

1 thought on “Tim Holtz Distress Ink Review”

  1. Woah! Very thorough information here ❤️ Great to know which paper works best and the technique it needed ?? Now I am going to go check on your YouTube ? video.

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