Whimsy Stamps ~ Ranger Ink Collaboration

Hey crafty friends, I hope you've been having a wonderful start to your year. I'm sharing some fun creations today, which feature the wonderful Mini Oxide Inks from Ranger Ink. We are collaborating with Ranger Ink for a fun Instagram Hop and I can't wait for you to see all the amazing creations the rest of the Whimsy Team have come up with. It's going to be a fun hop! I have made three creations and I'm working on my fourth as I write this. So let's take a look at what I was inspired to do with these inks!

First let me say, I'm an avid Oxide Ink fan, I find them the best for ink blending and love working with their creamy textures. I enjoy the change that happens as water hits them, that oxidised creamy transformation. So I was curious to see what the mini inks would be like to work with and wanted to try these inks out in several different ways. 

Oxide inks are fabulous to stamp with, so this was my first approach, simple stamping with several of the ink colours. Our team was sent inks to work with, but living in New Zealand, that was logistically tricky, so I bought inks that would suit the makes I hoped to create, just ahead of Valentines Day. I picked two packs, 7 and 13, which contained a lovely mix of pinks, reds and bricky colours. My three creations feature these inks. This first make above, I stamped the cute envelopes from the Postal Minis Clear Stamp Set. I used my MISTI, so I could stamp twice if needed, but really I didn't need to, the oxide inks stamp perfectly first time. Their formulation is great for stamping. I didn't have the Black Soot Mini, so I used my VersaFine Clair Nocturne to stamp the black elements, but this was otherwise all stamped with the Mini Oxides. I used the little hearts in the Troll Friends Stamp Set to add the pink heart details, as I felt the card needed those little extra details. The inks I used are shown in the pic above, Aged Mahogany, Worn Lipstick, Tattered Rose and Kitsch Flamingo. I edged the card with the Aged Mahogany to finish, which gave a nice finish to the card. I added the panel to a top folding card base I'd made from Spellbinders Blush Cardstock, which toned perfectly with the inks. I paired the card with two envelopes, in the image, Altenew's Frosty Pink and Gina K Design's Innocent Pink. 

For my second creation, I decided I'd do some ink blending with the Minis, because this is one of my favourite ways to use these inks. I wasn't sure I'd love the smaller ink pads for this, as I'm so used to working with the large ones, but they were actually really easy to work with and the size is plenty big enough for a good loading of ink onto tools for ink blending. I love how the ink blend came out too. Such a gorgeous and seamless gradient of colour. I filmed this process but accidentally deleted the footage, but I recall the inks I used were Tattered Rose at the base, into Barn Door and Fired Brick and then I added some Aged Mahogany at the very top to deepen the blend. 

The stamping with the flowers from the Troll Friends Stamp Set was done first and heat embossed with white embossing powder, so this technique was an embossed resist technique. I wiped over the flowers after blending to remove any oxide sitting on them and brighten the embossing again. I added the black stamping with VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then added the cute little troll from the Troll Friends Set to complete the design. I coloured this cutie with Copic Markers and diecut him with the Troll Friends Outline Die Set. I added him popped up on foam mounts. I diecut the panel with the largest of Whimsy's Zig Zag Rectangles Dies and added it to a top folding card base made from Spellbinder's Merlot Cardstock. The envelope in this pic is the Altenew Frosty Pink one. How cute does the sweet Troll look in this scene?! Such a gorgeous set from Whimsy Stamps. 

For my third make, I used the inks for both ink blending and stamping and on this make also for stencilling. I used the Terrific Tickets Die to create the frame and then using the open stencil from Whimsy's Terrific Tickets Shadows and Patterns Layering Stencil I laid down the base colour for this design which was done with Tattered Rose. I added the stencil layer with the streamers on the left and right panels with Saltwater Taffy and in the centre I added the stars detail, again with Saltwater Taffy. I stamped the love, smile, hugs, words from the Troll Friends Stamp Set with Fired Brick Ink. I do have a video showing this make in progress, so if you'd like to see that, you can click through on the embedded video below. 

I have really enjoyed working with these inks and you can be sure I'll be adding more to my stash as the budget allows. These were so handy and easy to work with. I'm in the middle of an ink smooshed creation with them now, so will share that soon too. I hope you've enjoyed these makes and if you're able to join us for the Instagram Hop which runs from 11th Feb to 16th. You can click through on the banner at the end of this post to the first stop in the Hop. Or visit mine here. 

These are the two sets I bought and I'm really happy with these first two sets. As I said above, I'll be adding to my collection! They're such a handy size and I am loving working with them for the ink smooshing technique I'm currently creating with, as the smaller size means you can fit the colours closer together and it's proving really easy and great for this technique too, so I'm keen to keep exploring other techniques with these inks. 

I swatched the inks when I first opened them, so here is a look at the colours in the first two sets. I showed them in gradients of colour rather than the actual ink sets. But the previous pic shows the sets.

Thanks so much for stopping in to visit today. I hope you can join us for the hop and do click through on the banner above if you're able. The rest of my teamies have smashed it for this collaboration. We were excited and delighted to work with Ranger Ink again for this collaboration and hope you enjoy what we've all created. There are of course some wonderful prizes up for grabs in this hop too, so be sure to join us if you're able! I'll be back with another crafty adventure soon until then have a fabulous week friends! Wends xoxo

(I share thumbnails to the elements I design with, in order to make your search for them easier, in case you like something I've used. I do use affiliate links where possible, and so appreciate if you use these when shopping. They cost you no extra whatsoever. I am proud to design for the companies I do and always feel happy to share where my inspiration and where my crafty stash comes from. I am occasionally gifted products to use, but I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

Challenge Entries:

*If you'd like to see the details of the colouring, the Copic Marker numbers or Promarker names etc, here is a little montage of pics with those details. It's not everyone's jam, so I am adding it here for those who enjoy these details. This was such a long post already, so this is just for those who like to know those extra details xoxo (You can click on the pics to pop them up a bigger size if you're on a computer.)

Skin Colouring Pics

Rainbow and Red Hair Pics

Green Glasses