Alcohol Inks vs. Copics

I have a lot of people come into my store and ask, what is the difference between the Copics and Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks? Lets get thru some basics.

1. Copics are a marker, they are alcohol based which means they are great for metals, acrylics and other glossy or non pourus medium that you want to use in your crafting.
The marker makes it easy to color in details when doing cards with detailed stamps.
They come in well over 300 colors and do a great job at getting the gradience with in the colors.
Copics are blendable which gives you huge amounts of options in coloring in your stamped images.
The downside, they are pricey, depending on where you get them they can run you over $7 for a single marker, that being said they are refillable and the nibs are replaceable in them as well.

2. Tims Alc Inks. They come in a bottle versus a marker, HOWEVER you can get a refillable marker for them.
They are alcohol based so again you can color on metal, acrylics and glossy surfaces.
They aren't as blendable in my opinion, you are not going to find 2 or 3 reds to blend together to create an apple for example as you would the Copics.
I love Tims Alc Inks for doing large surfaces like glass or tile coasters for example or even an entire 12x12 sheet of glossy paper.
You can create a lot of different affects with the Alc Inks in from the bottle because you have access to more liquid than you do in the copics. I like to take my non stick craft mat and dot some around on the surface and drag my project threw it for a granite type of look.
A bottle of Alc ink will run about $5 and the refillable pens go for about $4.

So which one do you get?
It really depends on what your project style is. I personally don't do a lot of card making or stamping. So I tend to lean toward Tims Inks because I do a lot of ATG tags and smaller pieces that I want covered in color, that being said when I am coloring in metal objects (Tim Holtz Angel Wings for example) I LOVE to use the copics to really get into the nooks and crannies of what I am coloring in.

Happy Crafting!
Cheri