Alcohol inks can color most non-porous surfaces with ease. You can use them to change the color of metals, foil, acetate, glitter cardstock, plastics, and more! Once you have these inks, you can find surfaces to alter that you hadn’t considered altering before.
The basics
But how do you use these inks, I hear you ask. I have seen many people buy them and then not know what to do next. If that sounds like you, it’s time to get out there and see what they can do. As with many paper crafting techniques, it’s easy to use alcohol inks once you know how.
Because they’re so good at staining surfaces, there’s a bit of caution with these inks: Make sure you have a mat to work with to protect your furniture, and use something old when you use them in case you accidentally smear the color. clothing. The new color could be permanent! Once you have these precautions in place, you can start having fun.
The basic tools for using these inks include a wooden block with a handle, some Velcro, and a few pieces of felt cut to fit the stamping surface of your block. Adhere the Velcro to the block of wood and glue a piece of felt to it.
You will also need some mixing solution. Choose one or more colors of alcohol inks and you’re ready for the next step.
Using your alcohol inks
When you’re ready to add some color to your cardstock or other surface, place the item to be modified on its cover sheet. Turn the block of wood so the felt pad is facing you. Now squeeze some ink onto your felt. A few drops will go a long way! Add more colors if you like, and if you are using metallic inks just add a drop or two of this as it will go even further than the other types of ink.
Now simply start stamping the colors onto your project with the wooden block and handle, tapping, turning and twisting until you get the color set just the way you like it. Once you’ve applied enough color, turn the block of wood over and add some mixing solution to the pad. Reseal and watch the ink colors blend into amazing new patterns. Stop when you’re happy with the result, if you can!
This method produces stunning backgrounds for your handmade greeting card and scrapbook designs. Try stamping over the finished background with permanent ink, such as Stazon.
make overlays
You can use alcohol inks with acetate. I often use an OHP sheet to do this. Start as before, with your acetate on the protective mat. Ink your woodblock tool and rub the ink onto the acetate, then add a bit of blending solution to the felt and stamp the acetate to break up and blend the colors even more. You can create layers of color using this method, and since acetate is transparent, you will have an end result that allows light to pass through the layers. You can still stamp an image on top if you like, using permanent ink.
As an example of another way to use acetate with alcohol ink, I removed some butterflies and cut them out of the acetate. I folded them in half and glued them to my card so their wings looked like they were fluttering.
Imagine making flowers with the colored acetate and cutting the petals to fold them from the center. Consider using your paper punches to make some flower shapes if you want to try this out.
InkedPlastic
As you can probably imagine, alcohol inks also color plastics very easily. If you’ve kept a box of plastic chocolates, try inking the plastic from the inside or the outside, or both, for a nice effect.
inking foil
You can ink aluminum foil with alcohol inks. Adhere the foil to a firmer surface (such as cardstock) first so it doesn’t tear when you work with it. Then go ahead and ink the sheet as desired using the same method as for paper, plastics, or acetate. You can get some even more interesting effects if you wrinkle the foil first.
inked bling
Did you know that you can change the color of your crystals, brads and alphas with alcohol inks? Use your applicator to gently apply the color onto the bling. Again, you can use more than one color. The shine of the bling will still be there after you’ve dyed it.
Modify the color of the plain metal brads with alcohol inks as well.
There are many more surfaces waiting for you to try to alter them with alcohol inks. I hope you give this medium a try and like the results!
