Little Birdie Pigment Inks – A Closer Look at the Features and Uses

Hello Friends,

I am Neha Bhatt This is my first post for Itsy Bitsy and hoping to do more in the future.
Today, I am sharing my experience of using Little Birdie Pigment Inks.
 I started my craft journey some 20 years ago with colorbox pigment inks. Since then, I have loved them. Finding international quality inks in India and that too at very affordable prices was a pleasant surprise.
As we go, we will see how pigment inks are different and how to play with their characteristic.
Characteristics of pigment inks

 

  •  Pigment inks are made with powdery pigments suspended in a liquid solvent base so unlike dye inks, they have little particles of pigments which stays on the surface of the paper while you stamp. This gives very crisp and vibrant impression. They work amazingly with tiny detailed stamps.
  • They are opaque.
  •  As they sit on the paper, they are slower drying and ideal for heat embossing. For the same reason, you may have to heat set it if you want to speed up the drying process. They will not dry on coated or glossy paper.
  • The ink pad is made up of foam for better absorption and distribution of ink. It is soft so you need to be careful while inking the stamp to avoid over inking.
  • They are not water proof and do not work with alcohol based marker. But for water coloring, you can heat emboss them to make it water proof. (you will see that in one of the example below)
Swatching & labeling :
I have 14 of these inks. All the shades are gorgeous. I use computer labels to print the shade names on it. While sticking them to pad sides, I  applied a bit of ink on the labels for easy reference.
I just used a solid and a detailed stamp to stamp on a sheet of card stock so when I am planning a card, I can use it to decide which shades I want to use.

 

The shade names are on the back of cling wrap. So save the wrapper until you label them.
Let’s start with the examples .
I used THIS background stamp and three shades of blue inks to stamp directly on to the card base. The stamp has combination of quite solid chevron and some tiny text.  I just stamped partial image at the top of card  as rest of the part was going to be covered by another panel.
As shown below, I used MISTI ( stamping tool) for stamping. I also used finger daubers for selective inking. Look how crisp impressions appear from solid chevron to easily readable text.

 

Next, I took a card panel and cut it at an angle so it can reveal the background stamping of the card. I stamped 2 elephants from  THIS and THIS sets with memento black ink and colored using Copic markers. Sentiment is from one of the sets which I stamped on a speech bubble die cut using THIS die.
I blend same inks on die cut before stamping the sentiment with black ink. Few Little Birdie Pearl drops to finish off  the card.
 Here I explored the stamping capability of the inks. They stamp beautifully. It captured the tiniest detail of that large background stamp. Loving it!

 

This is how I make my dew drops and store them in a container once they are dry.
You all must be using distress inks for ink blending but let me tell you, these inks blends beautifully. See for yourself in the next couple of projects.
I have used THIS stamp set and THIS  and THIS dies to create this card.

 

I used an ink blending/makeup brush to blend the inks on a white panel. You can use foam tool too.
Just  see how seamlessly they blend.

 

Allow the panel to dry completely. Stamp part of the stamp with Versamark Ink and heat emboss it with white embossing powder. I also stamped same image on the bottom corner with pink ink.

 

The word ‘DREAM’ is 3 diecuts stacked on each other to give dimension. I ink blend top half of the letters with darker pink-  Berry Wine ink to add contrast and interest. ‘BIG’ sentiment is partial stamping where you just mask the part you don’t want to stamp  with washi tape, before inking. The individual feather is heat embossed on velum and fussy cut. I added few sequences and a string to give finishing touch to it.
Here, we explored blending ability of inks. What do you think?
Next project will show you how the inks mix with each other and give new colors when they are blended.

 

Here, I have used pinks, purples and yellow inks to blend the colorful cloud and spray of colors. I also inked few white cs stripes for backdrop. See, how beautifully they blend and give range of different colors. The sentiment is embossed in white . Following images will explain how I made that cloud with DIY stencil and masking tape.

 

 

I used masking tape for the spray of colors.

 

I made this hand-drawn, fussy-cut cloud from the copy paper and used negative part  as a stencil for ink blending.
Next two projects focus on embossing capability of the inks.
I have stamped a dream catcher with Midnight Blue ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Once you emboss it, the image becomes resistant to any other color and will not change, blend or bleed.
I just blended distress inks in the center with dauber. I also applied few dots with the stencil and Lemon Squeeze  ink on edge of the panel. Stamped sentiment with Chimney Black.
For the next card, I have used stencil to create back ground.

 

Apply blue and green pigment inks with dauber through stencil and embossed it with clear embossing powder. You can’t do heat embossing with any dye inks. Only pigment inks gives you that opportunity…:)

 

You should check the shine on this one. It is pure joy.
Finally, I ink blended blueprint sketch distress ink  on the panel. You can see how the embossed image resist the ink. Sentiment is embossed in white on a black card stock.
For the next panel, I used a flower stamp and Caramel Cocoa ink with clear embossing powder. This will create water resist images so outlines won’t bleed while watercoloring.
I just did loose watercolor. As I was running out of time I did not make it into a project but it serves the main objective to showcase the property of ink. If you are not heat embossing, inks will bleed for sure.
The next one is a tag.
I just swooshed pink and cocoa ink pads couple of times, added a pinch of gold embossing powder here and there & heat emboss it. These inks stays wet for long which allows you to heat emboss. Stamped a partial butterfly with coca ink.
Check the gorgeous embossed details.
Next, I explored layered stamping with these inks.
I have used a layered stamp from my stash to showcase what these inks are capable of.
Isn’t that gorgeous? It almost looks printed. All 3 large flowers consist of 2 steps and 3rd in the center. I stamped the first layers with a lighter shade and the second with a darker tone.

 

These inks are perfect for doing Rock n Roll Technique.  It’s a great way to add a variation of color to your stamped images. You tilt the stamp pad while inking the stamp so the ink is applied on the edge only. See the second layer of pink flower and darker edges of leaves.
 

 

 

I added dry embossed panel, sentiment and clear dew drops to finish off the card.
In next experiment, I explored generation stamping. Pigment inks are great for this method. It is also known as repetition stamping. In this technique, you ink the image and stamp once, now stamp again without inking the stamp. This way you will get 2 different color images with the same ink.
Here, I stamped wishing sentiment in midnight blue ink and stamped again, little bit off center which will lighter image. Same way, I stamped flowers too. This method works better  with solid stamps though.
Next one is just a ink blended panel. I wanted to showcase how these inks react with water.
Just splatter water and soak it up with paper towel while the ink is still wet. It reacts very well with water.
Next few projects are made using something other than paper. As you know now, pigments from the ink stays on the surface . They don’t get absorbed so it will not bleed on the different materials when you stamp. Have a look. All the projects are self explanatory so just giving a little note under each image.
Stamped on a cloth bag. See how crisp the images are. no bleeding at all. This opens up  so many possibilities in personalized gift wrapping.

 

Stamp on a cork tag. So crisp and vivid!

 

 

Stamped on a wooden tag with Chimney Black and colored with pencils.

 

Stamped with pink and green inks on a wooden tag.

 

Uff! Are you still there? It is insanely long post but it was necessary to make you understand the creative possibilities with them . Thank you for being here.
I hope this post will inspire you to try these awesome inks. I wish Itsy Bitsy will come up with more colors like white, grey and lot more pastels. I thank Rashmi for giving me this opportunity !
If you have any query, please write to me on nehab99@yahoo.com or contact me on my social medias
Instagram : @nehabhatt (https://www.instagram.com/nehabhatt/)
Thank you once again!

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