Playing with Alcohol Inks

The last couple of days I have been exploring a bit with alcohol inks again. I have used these inks before as well, however, it has been a while since I last had them out. As far as I can see when I look back at my previous blog posts, I haven´t posted any of the cards I have made using alcohol ink elements, before. Which actually is a bit weird, as I have at least made a few cards that I have been happy with. I can especially remember one card, that I had a lot of fun making. It had heat embossing on an alcohol inked background.

I called the card "Beautiful", and I remember being really happy with the result, as I had no idea how the alcohol inked background would hold up to my really powerful industrial style heatgun🫣, when melting the embossing powder.

Two other card examples with elements of alcohol ink, are the two cards above. They are a lot simpler, and all I have done to showcase the alcohol ink in these, is to cut out smaller squares, which I then have placed in a basic pattern on matching gold, (Thanks) and silver (Hello) card stock.

This time around I haven´t made any cards with the alcohol inked panels I have created. That will come later. The purpose of these sessions was to see if I could get a flow that I could be happy with. I am happy to say that I did. I wanted to try out using industrial grade anti-bac (95%) instead of the alcohol blending solution that are sold in craft stores. The reason for that is that the blending solution is immensly expensive and you tend to need quite a bit of it. So a while back I purchased a big bottle of anti-bac, intending to use it with my alcohol inks, and luckily it worked like a charm!

I created 4 panels. The first one is the one shown in the first photo of this post. I went a bit crazy with colors, and I was afraid I would totally ruin it with way too much ink resulting in a dark muddy-looking mess. However, in my opinion I was able to pull away in time, and I am very happy with the result. I started to worry a bit when I added gold. The gold I have is the "mixative" kind and thankfully, with a generous amount of alcohol, it blended fairly well with the colors I put on top of it. I do want to get some of the "alloy" inks as well, as I would love to try to make highlights in the other colors.

Afterwards I made a panel with different shades of blue and silver, which I am also happy with.

Then I made a red and gold version, that really makes me think of Christmas😄.

I also wanted to film the process, and I decided to use shades of greens and gold while filming. I haven´t edited any films lately, which was really evident! Even using something as basic as iMovie turned out to take hours, as I don´t really have the commands at the tip of my fingers. BUT! I got it done in the end, and the result can be seen below.

Hopefully, I will be able to finish a few cards real soon, that are showcasing some elements from the above panels real soon.

Cards made with Drop of Sunshine Collections

Double Interlocking Concertina Card with Bellyband, folded.

Marta Dębicka is the brain behind Drop of Sunshine.

She is one the friendliest and most encouragingly supportive crafters I have ever come across, and she is absolutely deserving of all the support I can give her. She has her own groups, "Drop of Sunshine" and "Drop of Inspiration" on Facebook. AND she regularly posts free classes both on Facebook, and on her YouTube channel.

In addition to crafting, she also designs beautiful collections of digital papers and ephemera. Her collections can be found in several places. She has recently opened her own little online shop called dropofsunshine.art where you can purchase her digital collections and more. You will also find her at Buy Me A Coffee and at Craftstash where she is part of Craft Stash & CO, which I have written about in a previous blogpost. It is also worth mentioning that she quite often shares freebies with her followers.

The cards that I am sharing in this post are all made using Marta Dębicka´s, Drop of Sunshine, collections.

The first card is a Double Interlocking Concertina Card. The collection I have used to make this one is "Goodbye Summer". I LOVE this collection because it has the most beautiful butterflies, both featured on the digital papers, as well as butterflies that you can cut out individually.

The second card has been featured in one of my earlier blogposts. This card is made with the collection called Drop of Sunshine #3.

Layered Thank You Card

The third card is a really quick and easy slimline card using the "Goodbye Summer" collection. Well actually, quick and easy is not quite true😂, as I decided the card needed some flowers, and since I didn´t have any blue foamiran flowers already made, I ended up making some. Although it is not very hard to make this standard type of flower, it does involve several steps that all take time. However, as it is so much fun to see the flowers coming together, it is totally worth the time it takes. Not to mention the ink stains it leaves on your fingers🫣. By the way, if you are interested in some good tutorials on how to make general flowers, with or without dies, roses and leaves, you should check out Marta´s YouTube channel.

This layered card with beautiful blue butterflies, is another "Goodbye Summer" one. On this I have added an embossed panel, layered some circles and a ribbon under my sentiment, before finishing it off with a bow.

My Easy Showstopper Card (folded), is made following a Drop of Sunshine YouTube tutorial.

"With Love" is a fairly recent make, using a Drop of Sunshine Exclusive February Freebie

"Love Blooms" is a Double Diamond Pop Up Card, made using the "Spring Awaiting" collection. I was insired by one of my go-to crafters, Mixed Up Craft, because I thought her card she had made looked striking. For this card I also ended up spending some time making matching foamiran flowers.

Thinking of you - a layered card using "On the Border" from Marta´s collaboration with Craft Stash.

"My Amazing Friend" is a simple gatefold card with a bellyband for closure. It is also made with "On the Border", and I have used some of the stamps and dies in addition to the papers. The pictures below show how I have added a pocket to hold a note, and how I have decorated the back by heat embossing a sentiment.

If you haven´t checked out Drop of Sunshine and her art yet, you should definitely go to one of the above mentioned pages and do so! ❤️