Fabric Creations Soft Fabric Inks by Plaid

Earlier this week I shared an unboxing video debuting the Fabric Creations Soft Fabric Inks by Plaid, as well as the Stamping Blocks. Today, I’m going to do a bit more in depth on these fabric paints and show you how they held up.

First this is how they are described on Plaid’s website:

Super soft fabric ink is the perfect formulation for stamping, stenciling and brushing on fabric. Fashionable colors. Machine washable. Waterbased and non-toxic.

Well, let’s hear it for brevity!

Before we get going… I want to take a moment to talk about ink and paint. I got a question recently asking if the stamps would work with fabric INK. Well, these technically ARE fabric inks.

Wikipedia describes ink as:

Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, or quill. Thicker inks, in paste form, are used extensively in letterpress and lithographic printing.

Ink can be a complex medium, composed of solvents, pigments, dyes, resins, lubricants, solubilizers, surfactants, particulate matter, fluorescents, and other materials. The components of inks serve many purposes; the ink’s carrier, colorants, and other additives affect the flow and thickness of the ink and its appearance when dry.

And “Paint?”

Paint is any liquid, liquefiable, or mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture to objects. Paint can be made or purchased in many colors—and in many different types, such as watercolor, synthetic, etc. Paint is typically stored, sold, and applied as a liquid, but dries into a solid.

To me, “ink” is a transparent, thin liquid that could be in a marker, stamp pad, or liquid, in a bottle. And a “paint” is somehow more viscous (syrup consistency) and is usually in a tube or bottle. And in my head, at least, INK seeps IN, but PAINT stays ON (top of the surface.)

But it seems that the word “ink” and “paint” are interchangable here…since the Fabric Creations Soft Fabric Inks DO coat the surface and don’t seep in.

So now that I’ve got the semantics out of the way, let’s take a closer look:

To recap:

Fabric Stamping Blocks by Plaid- Review & Demo

Went through cold water wash and dry still looking good!

Knits- onsies

Olyfun (polyester with some texture)

PS- too much paint the the block slides on the paper. The second stamp was perfect. And it dries a bit gummy on paper.

Stamping, Stencilling, Screening & Brushing on the Fabric Soft Inks.Tha

Thinks to consider:

thin consistency- betting for stamping and pouncing with a stencil
very soft “hand” – with my eyes closed I COULD NOT feel the paint!
washable on delicate cycle, cold wash/tumble.
good directions on bottle
no odor
vibrant colors
works best with contrast- white or yellow on dark fabrics.
all colors look great on white
MSRP $2.49 a bottle- very reasonable.
made by Plaid, so I expect wide distribution. As of this writing, available on the Plaid website.