Alcohol Inks and Intricate Die Cutting

Hi everyone,

I’ve been jumping on the alcohol ink bandwagon over the last few days, and have been having lots of fun with them.   I created a couple of backgrounds and used the same die from Hero Arts to create two different cards.   These were also created for our current Time Out Challenge, which still has a week to run.   For this challenge we are playing with the ‘Inspired by Words’ theme, and one of my cards features the word ‘enjoy’ from the challenge phrase.

Alcohol Ink Background

If you check out my instagram feed, you’ll see a picture/quick vid of this background before I cut it. I have a few tips on the techniques I used to create it:

• Use Yupo paper rather than the Alcohol Ink / Ranger Glossy paper.  Yupo is plastic paper and the inks react very differently on it.  They move much more, they create those cool circles which I couldn’t easily replicate on the glossy.  Here I used Yupo Medium as it was easier to die cut but I do prefer Yupo Heavy overall.
• I used two colours of alcohol ink and the blending solution. They blend and create another colour.  I added a few drops here and there (some on top of each other) and then a few drops of blending solution.  Go easy, use a light hand, and watch.  As you leave it to bleed out, it does some fun stuff. You can keep going back and adding more of each if you like.
• I used a paintbrush to dab on blending solution to create smaller bursts and I also used it to flick gently to create even smaller bursts.
• Very cool – where the ink is heavier and stays a little sticky, you can smooth over sheets of foil (I used Therm-o-web rose gold) and it will stick! Looks beautiful in real life – very subtle.

Hugs Card

I die cut the background using the Hero Arts Window On Love coverplate die.  Before removing any pieces from the die itself, I sprayed it with spray adhesive.   I then flipped it over  and used my craft pick to push the pieces through onto a grey piece of cardstock trimmed to A2 size.  This is a super quick way to add the negative cuts from an intricate die onto a card base.  Using spray adhesive gives you a few minutes to play about, and then peel away the frame itself without leaving any damage.  If you want to see this in action, Bibi Cameron’s YouTube channel has the technique, which is how I found it.  Genius Bibi!

To finish the card, I added a double layered hugs sentiment by Birch Press Designs (our sponsor for the challenge this week) cut in black and white cardstock, and popped it up on foam tape, then added the whole panel to a Neenah Solar White 110lb card base.

Enjoy Multi Shaker Card

I adhered thin acetate to the back of the die cut alchol ink panel with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  I covered some craft foam on both sides with Stick-It adhesive sheets, which is super thing and therefore die cuts really well.  I then die cut the coverplate from the craft foam and adhered it to the back of the alcohol ink panel. On the reverse, I removed the other layer of Stick-it.  I used a small spoon and tipped Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear seed beads into several of the larger heart compartments and then backed the whole panel with white glitter cardstock. I adhered the whole piece to a Neenah Solar White cardbase.  For the sentiment, I die cut the Papertrey Ink enjoy word from black cardstock and adhered with multi-medium.  The additional sentiment is from a set by Happy Little Stampers and was stamped onto a scrap of white cardstock in Versafine Onyx Black ink and mounted with foam tape.

Join us at Time Out

This week’s challenge requires you to use any of the words included in the phrase, or be inspired by the phrase itself.  There is $20 for the winner from our kind sponsor Birch Press Design (AWESOME layered sentiment diecuts featured recently in Jennifer McGuire’s Favorite Crafty Things).

Our Guest Designer this week is Michele who has created a beautiful card to inspire you.  Make sure you go check out her blog!

Have a wonderful week!

Jenny x

Supplies Used:

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