Ink-Blending Onto Black Cardstock Tutorial

Ink blending onto black cardstock is a great way to get a completely different look when using your pigment inkpads, any pigment inks will work whether they’re flat colours, or metallic, but for this feature I’ve used Distress Oxides Ink. There’s also a multitude of ways you can add the ink to your black cardstock too, direct to paper will give a very vibrant result, or using an ink-blending tool like I have gives a slightly subtler finish. You can also blend directly onto the card leaving blank space if you choose, you can blend through a stencil, make your own masks for your stamped images, or for a slightly different technique you can paint them onto the card too.

You can find our complete guide to ink blending here - Complete Guide to Ink Blending

You don’t just have to work onto plain black cardstock either; you can still do all the techniques onto foiled black card too. You could also add dimension after inking using an embossing folder, and then sand the design back to reveal the black cardstock. If you feel like your card is looking too dark, you can use dies that cut into the card to reveal the white card blank underneath, and this instantly lightens the design. Or if you want no black showing at all, you can completely cover the card in ink, but it still looks different to when using them on white because of the darker undertone. I recommend, where possible, to ink blend first, and then heat emboss, although you will need to make sure your inking is completely dry before heat embossing. This way round enables the metallic sheen from your embossed design to remain, if you add pigment ink over the top of heat embossing it often leaves a residue which can be tricky to remove, and can make your embossing look less metallic.

However you decide to incorporate black cardstock and ink blending into your projects, just remember pigment inks work best, and you don’t have to leave any black showing if you don’t want to either… and if you wanted the look of pigment inks on black, but have no black cardstock, you could use a permanent pen (like an alcohol marker) to add on some black, and then ink blend over it too.