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 expert :)), 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.

My 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, 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.

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.)

Below you will see the gallery of the sets that I have. You can see 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.

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.