I had a personalized return address calligraphy stamp made. I am using dark brown metallic envelopes. I was wondering what type of stamp pad should I purchase. I have read a few places that recommend the pigment ink and then the regular one. The address on the front will be done in either a gold or copper color. Has anyone used a stamp and ink pad before?
Re: Type of ink for return address stamp
ok.. I haven't used mine ... but I tell you.. the girl I found off etsy has beautiful handwriting!!!!! I loved it so much, that I decided to get a stamp for my favors too!! and I am thinking about letting her write my envelopes... I am only doing like 40 invitations... mostly family.. and I am DIY'ing everything else, so I decided to splurge a little bit..
Here is my favor stamp!!! Her name is Jennifer here is her etsy shop... she does it all! https://www.etsy.com/shop/JenniferCalligrapher/about?ref=shopinfo_about_leftnav
I had dark blue metallic envelopes, also bought a return address stamp, and ran into the same issues. I looked into embossing, but it just seemed like too much work for me... I wanted something simple and one step. After some research, and experiments with multiple brands of ink, I used 'Brilliance Archival Ink Pads by Tsukineko' in silver and it worked good. I did still have to leave the envelopes spread out to dry overnight after stamping them. But, I had tried other inks that didn't dry after even 2-3 days, so overnight really wasn't bad. I just stamped them before going to bed at night, left them spread out on the table, then picked them up in the morning.
For hand writing the recipient addresses on them, I found that Prismacolor fine tip metallic markers worked really well and dried almost instantly. I used silver, but it also comes in gold. You should be able to find these at most art stores or online. But, I had tried so many different paint or metallic markers (Sharpie, water based, oil based, gel pens, paint markers, etc) and none even came close to these ones. Literally, by the time I wrote an address, the last one I did was already dry. I also used these markers for guests to sign my Shutterfly guest book, knowing that I needed something that would dry fast on the glossy paper, and I think there is only one small smudge in the whole book. So, I definitely recommend getting one, or a couple, of them. My second favorite for writing on envelopes was just a standard metallic gel pen that I bought at Michaels.