In Touch: February 2018

Hello everyone! I'm glad you've stopped by today because I have some fun projects to share with you featuring alcohol inks. I'll be using both traditional alcohol inks and Copic Various Ink Refills to create my backgrounds today.

I'm using this month's color trend color palette for today's projects...and I've lovingly dubbed these the unicorn projects. They just have all of those colors that remind me of a wild unicorn. And I just love that! The whole team has been creating projects featuring this color palette this week over on The CLASSroom blog...so be sure to check those out.

In the video tutorial below, I'll walk you through some techniques for using alcohol inks to create backgrounds. As I mentioned before, I'll be using Ranger Alcohol Inks and Copic Refills. I've found that they're pretty much interchangeable for the techniques I'm doing today. I was able to achieve very similar results with both types of alcohol inks.

I will be using specialty papers for these techniques. Because the ink needs to sit on top of the paper in order to create cool textures and blending, your traditional white card stocks won't work for these. We will also be adding quite a bit of ink and blending solution on top of the paper....a traditional card stock just won't due for this. I'll be using the Yupo paper, a synthetic (almost plastic feeling) paper and the Ranger Alcohol Ink Card Stock (a glossy coated white card stock). I also did a little experimenting on clear plastic sheets as well.

I'll walk you through all of this in the video tutorial below, so be sure to check that out.

Here's a few tips to keep in mind when working with alcohol inks.

Protection is key. Protect your work surface, your clothes and most of all, your manicure. This stuff will stain. It's easier to clean it off of non-porous surfaces like glass. It can easily be wiped off of non-porous surfaces with rubbing alcohol. But if you just had your nails done...you might want to wear some gloves.
I like to move it move it. Your alcohol ink will move, even after it's dry, if you add more blending solution. If at any point you don't like your results, you can lift color or move color using your blending solutions.
Metal mixatives for the win. We all know how I like a little sparkle, a little shimmer and a little shine....on EVERYTHING...so adding a little of the metal mixatives gives me the shimmer and shine I crave.
Paper is everything. As I mentioned before, these alcohol inks should be used with a specialty paper to achieve the results you want. If you use regular card stock, it will just absorb in to the paper and it won't move like it does on the synthetic and coated card stocks I'm using today.
Bold or soft...the choice is yours. Just like watercolors, you can either achieve bold or softer results depending on how much blending solution you use. More blending solution and less ink will give you a softer look. Less blending solution and more ink will give you a bold look. You choose.
If you ink it....there are a lot of mediums that are hard to ink because of their non-porous nature (things like metal, sequins, glass, pearls and plastic). The beauty of alcohol inks is that they will bind to and dry on these types of non-porous surfaces! So ink away baby! You can customize those hard to ink items to make them your very own.

Once I created several backgrounds, I knew I wanted to keep the rest of my cards simple. I added some simple die cut greetings, and an embossed sub-sentiment to finish off my cards. These bold backgrounds don't need much else.

As you can see from the photos, I was able to get a variety of different looks depending on how I applied the ink. Which one is your favorite?

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed this look at alcohol inks. If you make something, be sure to tag EllenHutsonLLC on social so we can check it out! We love seeing what you've made.