Konnichiwa, Crafters! I think y'all probably know by now that Copic alcohol inks are some of my favorite inks to play with, so today I'll walk you through creating some of my very favorite types of backgrounds using Copic Various Ink Refills! I thought these vibrant handmade backgrounds would be perfect for the upcoming Essentials by Ellen release this Sunday, March 4 by Julie Ebersole -- in particular the adorable Japanese So Matcha girls in their kimonos! I always think of gorgeous brightly colored silk fabric when I think of kimonos, so that's what I tried to replicate today. Although I used Copic alcohol inks, Ranger Alcohol Inks work just the same!
So let's get started . . .
Alcohol ink has a tendency to dry very quickly since the alcohol evaporates when exposed to air. To give yourself more time to manipulate the ink, use a coated paper such as Yupo. Yupo is available in either white or translucent; I'm using white today. The coated paper allows the ink to flow and move around on the surface of the paper, so you can work with it longer. I like to first mist the paper with either plain rubbing alcohol or Copic Colorless Blender Solution. The solution helps to move the ink around on the paper, similar to watercoloring:
Next, I randomly placed a few drops of Copic Various Ink Refill colors and let them start blending together. You don't need a lot of drops of color ... a little goes a long way and you can always add more later.
TIP: You can tilt the paper to get the colors to move around, or simply blow air (either using a straw or just your mouth) to help the colors move around and blend. Moving the color around will help take away the round "droplet" effect (which may or may not be the effect you are going for). Below, I used two shades of blue-green (BG45 and BG57):
Next, I wanted a vivid pink-red so I used RV17, RV25, and R27:
Above, you can see where I initially misted the Colorless Blender Solution only on the left two-thirds of the Yupo paper and was working with just that portion of the paper, leaving the right third of the paper dry. Then I decided to finish the paper in the same colors and misted the right third. This created that vertical line of "veining" where the colors met and dried. So if that's a look you like, keep that technique in mind! You can also see where some of the alcohol sprayed over onto the left two-thirds of the of the first dried ink, creating the texture of little droplets! (Click on the photo for a larger view and you should be able to see this effect better).
My final color pairing was Y17 and Ranger Metallic Gold Mixative . . . {Love}! Keep in mind the Metallic Mixative is thicker than alcohol inks and won't move around as much. If you don't like the results after adding it to your project, you can either add it to your paper first and then the drops of Various Ink will help disperse it, or drop or spray more Copic Colorless Blender directly onto the Mixative to help it move around.
To create the kimonos, I used my Misti to stamp the girls in Copic-friendly Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Since the Yupo paper is coated, it tends to be a little slippery when trying to stamp on it. I wanted the option to be able to stamp again, in case some areas didn't stamp well. As you can see below, if I were using the whole girl image I would have wanted to re-stamp her hair. But since I knew I would cut out and paper piece only the kimono, this image worked fine.
These are the Copic Various Ink Refill combos I used for each of the kimonos:
To finish the card, I stamped the bamboo stalks from this stamp set onto a Neenah 110 Lb. Solar White card base with Versamark and clear heat embossed them, to create the look of white silk! I love how it turned out in person, but it was difficult to capture on camera! (Click on the photo for a larger view that hopefully will show the background better):
Next, I placed a 1-inch strip of more alcohol ink background paper I created (with Copic YG05, G46, and Gold Mixative) along the bottom edge. Then I black heat embossed the darling sentiment onto gold metallic cardstock:
Thanks "so matcha" for joining me today! I can't wait to see what you do with this technique and this adorable So Matcha stamp set that will be available Sunday!
SUPPLIES:
{Essentials by Ellen Thanks So Matcha clear stamps & coordinating Thanks So Matcha designer dies available Sun, March 4}
