Distress Oxide

What is Distress Oxide?

Distress Oxide inks are translucent, water-reactive inks that create the most beautiful effects. As soon as the stamping ink comes into contact with water, it creates an oxidised effect with a chalk-like appearance. Because of these properties, crafters often use the ink to add colour accents to homemade cards, scrapbook pages and other papercraft projects. 

Distress Oxide is slightly thicker and less transparent than Tim Holtz's Distress Inks. The highly-pigmented creamy ink has a special composition which prevents absorption by paper or cardstock but leaves the ink on the surface. On a white background, Distress Oxide looks milky, while Distress Ink has a more vibrant colour. On a dark background, such as kraft paper, Distress Oxide inks are actually brighter.

How do you use Distress Oxide?

The nice thing about Distress Oxide inks is that they can be used in numerous ways:

• Stamping
• Stenciling 
• Blending
• Embossing
• Watercolouring
• Directly on paper or cardstock or with an ink blending tool. 

Tip: Use a spray bottle for surprising effects or to reactivate the stamping ink after drying.

The unique properties of Distress Oxide make it the ideal stamping ink for blending two or more different colours. If you want to emboss, use a transparent embossing powder so that the colours of the ink show through nicely. The Distress Oxide re-inkers are ideal when you want to watercolour: just add 1 or 2 drops of each colour onto a palette with a re-inker and you can get started. Of course, you can also use the reinkers to refill your stamp pad when the ink runs out. And did you know that you can also use Distress Inks and Oxide inks interchangeably? That way you can add even more surprising effects to your cards, scrapbooks or papercraft projects!

Read our blog '10 ways to use Distress ink' to learn more about the different techniques for crafting with Distress Ink and Distress Oxide.

Distress ink colour chart

Create your own Distress colour chart and use the labels to easily identify ink pads. On the Distress colour chart, you can immediately see how the different stamp ink colours look on paper. If necessary, create a separate colour chart for each type of paper, e.g. black, white and kraft brown. Print your own Distress colour labels to stick on the sides of the stamp boxes. Download them below:

Distress colour chart (pdf)

Distress colour labels (pdf)

Want to buy Distress Oxide ink?

Whether you're a seasoned mixed media artist or just starting, Distress Oxide ink from Ranger is a must-have for your stamping and crafting toolkit. With its ability to blend, layer, and create a variety of distressed and vintage looks, this ink is perfect for creating beautiful, one-of-a-kind projects. Get your hands on some Distress Oxide ink today and start experimenting with all the different techniques it has to offer!

Vaessen Creative offers all colours of Distress Oxides and Distress Ink. We also sell other Distress products, such as re-inkers (as a refill for your stamp pad or to achieve other effects), Spray Stains, Oxide Sprays and Embossing Glaze.