Catherine Pooler’s Premium Dye Ink Pads Are Some of the Best Ink Pads for Stamping on Paper!

If you’re in need of new ink pads for stamping, ink blending or other paper craft techniques, you might be wondering how Catherine Pooler Premium Dye Inks are to work with. I just had a chance to try one of these ink pads in the “Uptown” color, which is a deep teal green from Catherine Pooler’s Party Collection. Read on for the detailed product review of Catherine Pooler Premium Dye Inks!

The short version of this review: Thumbs up! I love this ink and can highly recommend it to other crafters. You can be confident in adding this product to your craft supplies stash. However, there are some details you’ll probably want to know before you buy these ink pads. Here’s the scoop:

The Best Things About Catherine Pooler Premium Dye Inks

I conducted my first test on this ink pad using a Bobunny stamp in the shape of a geomarker. I chose this particular stamp for a couple of reasons. First, it has some teeny-tiny writing on it; an ink pad that can stamp this legibly is definitely worth considering. Second, the design on this particular stamp has both curves and sharp angles, and I like to use designs with these characteristics when I see how an ink pad will work for me.

This ink pad and stamp combination were wonderful together. For comparison purposes, I also inked the same stamp using Distress Oxide, which is a different kind of ink – but it is my most-used ink, and it’s the ink that I compare all others against when I am deciding whether I like them or not. I also inked it using Distress Ink, which is another dye ink that provides more of a fair comparison.

I was able to achieve a crisper, cleaner stamped image with Catherine Pooler’s Premium Dye Ink than I was able to with either Distress Oxide or Distress Ink did. I was impressed (er, no pun intended…).

Right about now, I should mention that I have a strong preference for pigment inks and hybrid inks over dye inks. I do use dye inks often in my crafting, but they are not my favorite. So I didn’t expect to love this ink; I really didn’t. I got it as a free gift with my order from Scrapbook.com — and I am glad they gave it to me, because I would never have bought this on my own. But now that I have it, and have fallen in love with it, I plan to get some of the other ink colors in this collection.

Side note: When you order paper craft supplies, please do yourself a huge favor and always, always, ALWAYS be sure to check Scrapbook.com’s page of deals, discounts and freebies to see what goodies they are offering. When I have bought from them in the past, they have almost always offered one or two really fantastic freebies — and I discovered some of my all-time favorite, now-most-used items from their freebies section. I’ve picked up all kinds of awesome craft supplies ranging from stamps to adhesives to dies and die cuts to the ink pad I’m reviewing on this page. Their free items really are free, with no strings attached (you do pay the shipping on the freebie, but their shipping rates are reasonable).

I think the folks at Scrapbook.com are able to offer freebies like this because enough of us crafters reorder the items in question after we get the first free item and like it. For example, I already ordered the reinker for this ink pad, and I am planning to buy more colors in this ink.

Other Things to Know About Catherine Pooler Premium Dye Inks

The actual pads on the ink pads I’ve worked with previously generally fall into 2 categories:

• There are squishy foam pads; and
• There are felt pads that aren’t so squishy.

This pad is the squishy variety.

Some crafters prefer one type over the other. I’m okay with either type, but I have a slight preference for the felt type. It isn’t a deal breaker for me that this ink pad isn’t felt; it gets the job done just fine. It requires a really light touch to ink your stamps using this ink pad.

However, when I stamp clear stamps using an acrylic block and this ink pad, I find that I am prone to getting ink all over the block in places that it isn’t supposed to be. That can happen with basically any ink pad, but I find that it is happening to me more with this ink pad than with others. This ink pad is very “juicy”, which really isn’t a bad thing considering it could be expected to last longer than a drier ink pad would.

Which brings me to my next important point:

Reinkers Are Available for the Catherine Pooler Premium Dye Ink Pads!

There are a lot of ink pads available out there. Some of them have reinkers and some of them do not. I have recently made the decision to not buy any more ink pads unless reinkers are available for them.

This is a huge deal to me because I live in the high desert, and the air is extremely dry up here. Ink pads tend to dry out on me after just a few stamping sessions. This might not be such a problem for you if you live in a humid location — but still, if you use the ink frequently, it will eventually run out.

So for frequent stampers, it is also important from an environmental perspective to have reinkers available. You don’t want to be tossing out bunches of used-up ink pads; it’s better to refill your ink pads when they eventually run dry.

So Catherine Pooler’s ink pads get a big “thumbs up” from me in this regard. I ordered a reinker for this ink pad as soon as I had tried it and determined that I really like the color and the ink.

The Color Palette Available in Catherine Pooler’s Premium Dye Ink Pads

The “Uptown” color is absolutely gorgeous. It is a deep teal blue-green color that will be useful in many different types of designs.

Catherine Pooler’s Premium Dye Inks are divided into collections, which are then even further divided into color families. The “Uptown” color is part of the “Luxe” color family in the “Party” Collection of Catherine Pooler’s Premium Dye Inks.

I am not totally sure how many colors are available – but when I visited Catherine’s site, I counted 95 colors all together. So you can be assured that there is an extensive ink color palette available for you to use for ink blending, stamping and whatever other techniques you like to do with your inks. You are sure to find colors that will work for the projects you have in mind.

Catherine Pooler’s Premium Dye Inks Are Water Reactive

What does it mean for an ink to be “water reactive”?

Basically, a water reactive ink is an ink that you can combine with water to create interesting watercolor effects, splatter effects, tonal effects and other effects:

• If you have a paintbrush handy, you can paint with the ink in much the same way that you paint with watercolor paints. You can water it down to get washes of color, creating lovely tonal effects that are wonderful for coloring images like florals or botanicals.
• Or you can use the ink at full strength and then spritz water overtop of the inked area with a squirt bottle or mister.
• You can also use the ink with or without water in a water brush pen.

So if you like the look of painterly, artsy, splatter-y effects, this ink is definitely worth your consideration; there are a lot of wonderful things you can do with it besides just stamping directly on your paper.

Catherine Pooler’s Premium Dye Inks Did Not Stain My Stamps!

There are many permanent inks available, and some of them will stain your stamps. This particular ink is long-lasting, but it is not designed to be permanent. It didn’t stain my stamps when the stamps were washed promptly after use. Presumably, it will also not stain your stamps, assuming you take care to be proactive about cleaning them properly when you are finished using them.

Conclusion: Recommended!

I highly recommend Catherine Pooler’s Premium Dye Ink Pads to other crafters. They basically tick ALL the checkboxes I look for when I shop for new ink pads. I’m really happy with this ink, and I think you will be, too.

Did you give it a try? If so, please drop us a note and let us know how you like it in the comments area below.

Where to buy Catherine Pooler’s Premium Dye Ink Pads:

There are bunches of retailers that stock Catherine Pooler’s Premium Dye Ink Pads. You can grab them at any of the following places:

• Click here to shop for these ink pads at Scrapbook.com.
• Click here to shop for these ink pads at A Cherry on Top

Project Ideas for Using Catherine Pooler’s Premium Dye Ink Pads:

April 21st Daily Planner Layout for Happy Planner or Other Discbound Planners

Thanks for visiting!

Other Ink Pads You Might Want to Try

• StazOn Ink Pads for Stamping on Metal, Plastic, Acrylic, Leather and More
• Distress Ink Pads by Tim Holtz for Ranger Industries
• You can check out all my recommendations for the best ink pads HERE.

Posted By: Amy Solovay

This page was last updated on 4-30-2023.