Backgrounds (Playing with inks!)

There was some discussion on UK Stampers recently about Ranger's Nick Bantock dye inkpads. My local craft store seem to be phasing out their Distress Inks (Horrors!), but have brought in this range instead. According to Ranger's website, these inkpads are supposed to be in "dramatic" colours, everything else on the packaging indicates that they are similar in their formulation to the Distress Inks, including being embossable. I had asked if anyone had tried these, and as the answer was no, I thought, what the hey, and bought two!
I needed to make some backgrounds using the Distress Inks, and so I decided to also make some with the Nick Bantock inks, using the same techniques each time. For the Distress backgrounds, I used Tattered Rose, Weathered Wood, and Antique Linen, and for the Nick Bantock I used Prussian Blue and Chartreuse Green.
The first two backgrounds were made using the Ink/Water technique. I pressed the inkpads onto a plastic sheet, spritzed them with water, then pressed my cardstock onto the sheet, and moved it around a little. The second two backgrounds were made by applying the inks to the paper with pieces of sponge, I used make-up sponges. The third two were made by pressing a second piece of cardstock onto my plastic sheet. The last picture shows the effect of just stamping my image, and then stamping and spritzing with water.
I would definitely agree that these colours are "dramatic". As with the Distress Inks, the colour does not change when you apply water, it just spreads and travels really well. Even when the stamped image was spritzed in the last sample, you can see how much colour travelled into the water droplets.My fingers got really inky (not a problem!) and it took a liberal application of neat washing up liquid to get them clean!
I didn't try embossing these, but I could see these dye inks have a longer-than-usual drying time, so embossing wouldn't be a problem. In all, I am really pleased I bought these, as I wanted some stronger colours in dye inks, and will be going back to get some more colours. Now the only question is, do I get the Distress Ink in the Soot Black, or the Nick Bantock Ink in the Lamp Black?!
PS For those who are interested in techniques using inks, check out Isa's blog. She has an excellent section with tutorials on this subject, and if you check out the challenges section, each challenge discusses a different technique. It also has information about her book on this very subject!