Welcome to the July 2021 Technique Squad Blog Hop! I’m excited to be a part of this collaboration with fellow Stampin' Up Demonstrators because it’s a chance to explore new techniques and have fun experimenting. This month, we’re using the alcohol ink technique! You may have already seen tutorials showing how to use alcohol-based Blends markers on vellum to achieve this look, but I want to show you that you can get a similar look using regular Stampin’ Up! water-based inks too!
I admit I almost skipped doing this month’s hop. I’ve tried using liquid alcohol inks on specialty paper before and just wasn’t happy with the results or how the paper felt afterwards. But I’m so glad I decided to try it this way! It’s much less messy, and I love how it looks with both kinds of ink! We’ll be using isopropyl alcohol, also known as rubbing alcohol. Use an alcohol concentration of at least 90%, and have good ventilation in your room. If your alcohol is not strong enough, you can do a bit of DIY chemistry to salt it out and get it more concentrated. I did the technique on vellum cardstock, but you can use other non-porous surfaces, such as shimmer vellum, foil sheets, or Window Sheet. After applying ink to the vellum and adding alcohol as a solvent to create movement of the colors, you’ll want to have something to help direct that movement. You can simply tilt the paper, or you can use a heat tool to spread the color around and help it dry faster. For gentler movement, use a nasal aspirator or ear syringe (you may already have one in the medicine cabinet, especially if you have kids!). Squeeze the bulb and use the puffs of air to help guide the color in different directions.
I created 3 different panels—one using Blends markers, one using Classic Ink, and one that combined the two. The vellum does tend to warp in the process, but I used a heat tool to help me straighten them a bit before mounting them—first to a piece of cardstock and then to a cardbase. The sentiment is from Artistically Inked and was stamped with Stazon ink. I kept things minimal and only added the leaves diecut from the Artistic dies.
Measurements
-Vellum cardstock
4-1/4” (W) x 5-1/2” (H), scored at 1/4” & 4-1/16” along the short side
-Basic White cardstock
3-3/4” (W) x 5-1/2” (H)
-Basic White Thick cardstock
8-1/2” (W) x 5-1/2” (H), scored at 4-1/4”
Thank you for hopping to my site and checking out my project! I hope you’ll have a chance to try this technique with us!
Click the NEXT button to go see Carole Garrison’s awesome project!
Roll Call
Vy Tran <— that’s me
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