Hi everyone! It’s time again for our monthly Squirrelz Stash Bash blog hop! Our prompt for this month is Alcohol markers/inks & flowers/nature. For those who are not familiar with our hop, my squirrel sisters and I hop every month and try to use our hardly-used crafty supplies. This month I will be using alcohol inks.
If you have been a follower of mine for awhile, you will probably have seen somewhere where I mention that I do not do alcohol ink techniques on cards. I tried a few times and never got any satisfactory results from it. Maybe one major reason why is because I made my own alcohol inks. I basically disassembled Sharpie markers, placed each nib/core in alcohol to soak overnight then transferred them to plastic dropper squeeze bottles. I think I have figured out why it was always such a fail. I don’t use enough pure alcohol. So I decided to give it another try!
Here are my attempts: ( I used photo paper)
In this attempt, I used the back of the photo paper. I read or watched a tutorial somewhere that showed better results using the back side of photo paper. It didn’t come out so bad but I still was not satisfied.
So then I decided in these next attempts, I would use the glossy side. And results, in my opinion came out much better.
I’m not sure if I like how it turned out. When I see other creators using alcohol inks, it always seems so magical to me. Mine on the other hand, just look like blobs!
Bu thaving said that, I know I can still use them to die cut with. I will use the wonderful fancy dies that came in the Hero Arts My Monthly April 2023 kit to die cut flowers and leaves for my cards.
PREMIUM KIT INCLUDES (Premium elements in bold):
• Clear Stamp Set, 6″ x 8″
• 20 Coordinating Dies
• 20 Flowers and Vases Fancy Dies
• Doodles Stencil, 6″ x 6″
• 2 Background Texture Cling Stamps, 2.25″ x 3″ each
• 4 Ink Cubes (Bermuda, Butter Bar, Green Apple, Crimson Core Ink)
• Fancy Script Washi Tape
• Enamel Stickers
I created two cards using the alcohol ink backgrounds- one portrait style and the other landscape. All the elements came from the premium kit including the enamel dots!
So what did I learn here? Well, for one, don’t be cheap and DIY acohol inks; two, alcohol ink techniques are really not my jam. Even if I did get fair results, I hate the mess (not that i’m neat or anything) and that it stains etc. Will I invest in good TH alcohol inks? I don’t think so! But I will still ooh and ahh whenever I see beautifully made alcohol ink backgrounds created by other people!
Next on the hop is the lovely Karen! Have fun hopping with us!
’til next time!
Anna
Hop List:
Anna – you are here!
Karen
Bory – skipping this month
Product List:
Craftyanna Studio 
They both look really beautiful Anna ! During my tests with alcohol inks, I find out that the type of alcohol and inks play a big part in the final result. My Ranger alcohol inks work better than my Spectrum Noir reinkers (they barley not move) and I don’t have very good result with 90% alcohol but the TH blending solution works great ! I only tested them on Yupo but I am sure the paper plays its part too.
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