Distress Ink

The creative brain behind Distress: Tim Holtz

Meet the ink of inks: the Distress ink by Tim Holtz. This iconic product designer developed this special dye ink for the Ranger Ink brand. For years, Tim has played a leading role in the development and design of progressive and cutting-edge papercraft products. In his typically eclectic vintage style, he designs stamps, stencils, cutting dies, stamp inks, embossing powders, embellishments and tools, among others.

Tim Holtz quickly gained iconic status within the hobby world. This earned him collaborations with several major brands, including Stampers Anonymous, Sizzix and Tonic Studios and Ranger, where he is one of the five Signature Designers. Under the Ranger umbrella, he developed the Distress products and the Alcohol Ink collection. He also has his Idea-ology line and many other craft supplies. Find out all about Tim Holtz! 

What is Distress ink?

Now you know the designer behind Distress ink, but what exactly is this product? Distress is a high-quality water-based dye ink with high colour intensity and stability. Dye ink is ink in which the dye has completely dissolved in a thinner. Distress Ink is ideal for creating a weathered look (hence the name 'Distressed') on paper and photos, scrapbook pages, card backgrounds and other mixed media creations. Due to the transparent nature of Distress ink, your background will always remain visible.

Distress has the special property that it reacts to water, causing the ink to spread across your surface in no time. This produces fantastic effects! The ink reactivates as soon as you add water, even hours or days later. This unique feature of Distress ink opens up a range of new possibilities, although the ink also works perfectly when used with traditional stamping techniques. Because of its properties, the colourfast stamping ink is not only suitable for stamping, but also for distressing, stencilling and creating watercolour effects. Distress Ink is thin and transparent and therefore dries quickly. As a result, this ink is somewhat more difficult to mix and blending requires some practice and patience.

Besides Distress ink, Tim Holtz also developed Distress Oxide ink. The main difference between these two inks is in their composition. Distress Oxide is opaque, has a cream-like texture and dries more slowly because it is somewhat 'thicker'. As a result, unlike Distress Ink, you can blend Oxide ink very easily.

Tip: Make your own Distress (Oxide) Ink colour chart for a quick overview of how the colours look on paper.

Curious about different techniques for applying Distress Ink? Then read our blog '10 ways to use Distress ink'!

A range of Distress Ink products

Since the first Distress product in 2004 (a dye ink pad set), the Distress range has expanded considerably. The original dye ink pads are still available in more colours than ever, but a range of products have been added. For instance, the stamp pads also come in a smaller size: the Distress Mini Ink. These small stamp pads are perfect for trying out different colours. Extra handy if you don't have much storage space or want to take your inks somewhere for crafts on the go. Distress Mini Ink is available both individually and in a set of four colours.

In addition to large and small stamp pads, the Distress product line includes sprays, markers, crayons and paints. The Distress Spray Stains are very popular because being able to reactivate sprayed ink again offers countless new possibilities, such as spraying through stencils and creating splash and mist effects. Thanks to their handy marker shape, the Distress Crayons lend themselves perfectly to mixed media projects in which you combine various materials and techniques. You can use the crayons on light and dark paper, canvas, wood and metal.

Want to buy Distress ink?

Are you curious about trying out one or more techniques? At Vaessen Creative you can find all colours of Distress Inks and Distress Oxides, so do take a look! We also sell other Distress products, such as handy tools, storage tins, re-inkers (as a refill for your stamp pad or to achieve other effects) and the embossing powder Embossing Glaze