Brilliance ink pads have been in my inking arsenal for almost 2 decades. And it remains one of my favourite all time go-to inks. I have grown to love it for many reasons like the gorgeous metallic and rich pearlescentness it offers that can work on anything, but its quality is just so refreshing.

So when I heard that my favourite Wholesaler will be stocking up on the “big” pads instead of the littlies I was so excited – because after years of use it is time to restock and add to my favourite basic colours. But first here’s what you can expect from my years of using and sometimes abusing this gorgeous inky product.

A fast drying pigment ink – it is made to be used on shiny papers like photos, vellum, acetate, plastic, shrink plastic, sculpey clay and even page protectors like my Project Life pockets. One of my favourite things is to stamp on photos with it. It won’t smudge on shiny surfaces like vellum and photos but will need some time to dry.

The colours are pearlescent and soft – it offers you the ability to stamp images and wording subtly onto backgrounds without stealing the show – they blend in beautifully.

What brilliance offers on commercial glossy cardstock (like the envelope I used) is the ability to layer and build up colours on top of each other. Each colour will hold its ground without bleeding or fading – the colours stay true to themselves. And these characteristics is what I find most appealing about the ink pads.

Traditionally Vellum is not recommended to emboss or stamp on because of its shiny almost oily surface. But when Brilliance ink came along that all changed. Brilliance dries nicely on vellum and quite quickly as well, but should you wish to you can also emboss it on vellum. TIP: when heat embossing on vellum, make sure that you hold the heat gun quite far from the vellum and melt the powder slowly.

It will dry almost immediately with a crisp image. When you stamp with Brilliance on matte cardstock you can colour the images with markers and watercolours. The black is really black and works well with detailed images for a crisp clean look that will stay vibrant and won’t fade.

Inking and stamping onto glossy cardstock will take longer to dry. You can heat set it but I like to leave mine overnight to dry naturally. It all depends on the type of glossy cardstock as well. The ink on my envelope was dry in a few minutes and I could layer my colours over each other without worrying at all.

Brilliance ink works really well on acetate and recycled plastic packaging like I love using. It will take long to dry (don’t heat set it otherwise the plastic will melt) and I normally leave it overnight to dry out of sight (people love touching it and it does smudge)! I stamp the images on the back of the acetate or plastic so that if I decide to add colour with alcohol based inks I don’t have to worry at all.

This is one of those fabulous magical mediums, and Brilliance ink offers the ability to stamp directly onto the plastic without sanding the surface first. Just stamp and shrink – the ink dries completely with the heat while being shrunk. When it is done it almost looks like it has been engraved or etched into the plastic – a wonderful look the ink offers. 

It dries perfectly on balsa wood, wood elements like the Prima ones, chipboard elements like Celebr8 and is permanent. Use your script stamps to add patterns onto these elements for your cards and layouts to add interest.

Brilliance ink pads on metal looks great. I use it on metal tape and layer the colours to achieve a rusty patina looking effect that will be permanent. Although you have to let the inks dry between applications but it will be well worth the effort.

I have only once used it on leather by stamping my name onto an old school leather satchel. It looked and worked beautifully just like Tsukineko recommends.

**the above mentioned surfaces are all recommended by the manufacturer Tsukineko and I have used it on all these surfaces with great success over the years in my own application and in classes.

I used a range of old glossy envelopes and decorated them for an art mail project. Art mail is when you decorate envelopes and send them to arty friends all over the world – a wonderful gift in itself and happy mail with loads of stamps on it.

To create my base I used 2 different colours of Brilliance ink and simply inked the envelope in circular movements. TIP: remember that because it is a pigment ink the base is a sponge and it can easily be ripped off the plastic if dragged across the surface – so always use circular movements when inking this way.

I used a map stamp from Prima and inked it using the lightning black brilliance ink pad. I kept my stamp facing upwards and laid my envelope on top of the inked background applying pressure with my fingers to transfer the image. I repeated this several times until I was happy with the look

Lastly I used a Heidi Swapp word stamp and black VersaFine ink pad to add more stamped wording. The VersaFine is a dark bold black as opposed to the pearlescent colours of the Brilliance ink pads making them stand out more against the soft background.

then decorated my envelope with more stamped images, old postage stamps, ink splats, stickers and diamanté – a fun and liberating project that offers me time to play and just have fun!