Brand New Tim Holtz & Ranger Ink Distress Oxide Review

Hello crafters! Today we are taking a look at the brand new distress oxide inks from Tim Holtz and Ranger Ink.

These are a brand new kind of ink pad on the market. According to Ranger, distress oxide inks are,

“Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pads are water-reactive dye & pigment ink fusion that creates and oxidized effect when sprayed with water. Use with stamps, stencils, and direct to surface. Blend using Ink Blending Tools and Foam. Re-ink using Distress Oxide Reinkers.”

So what does this mean? Well, from my testing and playing I believe that all of the ink pads have a white pigment particles in them with distress dye ink mixed in. Once we activate the ink with water, the pigment and dye ink separate and create that awesome, delicious oxidized effect. Check out a basics video below that I filmed!

Pretty cool, huh? So as I stated in the video surfaces make a huge difference with these inks. In the photos below you’ll see how I compared the new distress oxide inks with the original distress inks on many different surfaces.

Wrong label! This is Mixed Media Cardstock!

Here I blended the same three colors in oxide and original distress to see the difference in blending.

On these tags I used the dab and pick up method (below) with tissue wrap on the left and watercolor cardstock on the right. How dreamy!

Here is a demo video I did using the techniques we saw Tim demo at CHA!

Here are some tags I decorated using the distress oxides.

As I mentioned in the first video, there are currently 12 colors available of the new distress oxide inks with our inky fingers crossed that more colors are coming. They will only be available in the two inch sized ink pads, the formula doesn’t work well in a smaller mini ink pad. Alright, so let’s get down to the nitty gritty: Do you need the new distress oxide inks?