Alcohol Inks Agate Background Tutorial

Here is just one more thing you can do with alcohol inks!

To start with you will need:

2-3 colors of alcohol inks
1 color mixative (I used copper)
1 blending solution
craft mat (or layers of scratch paper) to work on
glossy cardstock
applicator tool
felt for applicator




Place the glossy cardstock on the craft sheet. Adhere a rectangle of felt to the applicator. Apply ink colors to the applicator BY PLACING THE TIP TO THE FELT AND THEN SQUEEZING. I used two colors and did kind of an 'x' pattern where I put one color at the top left and then bottom right and did the opposite with the second color. Next, open the mixative color and apply it in the center of the colors. You don't need nearly as much mixative color...just a little will do.



Pounce onto your cardstock, covering the whole piece. Let dry, repeat (refilling ink if necessary). Then to the same applicator add the blending solution and pounce over the cardstock. It'll cause all the colors to blend into each other.

Here's my cardstock before adding the blending solution:



And here is a piece of it after (it's the piece on the right...the other piece is a transparency from yesterday's tutorial):



And, for the finished card I ended up embossing a boot onto the cardstock. You can stamp with black archival ink but with these colors my image wasn't as clear as I wanted because the colors are dark. So I opted to emboss instead.



You can also use this same technique on metal surfaces...I like how that looks with the copper mixative on metal. I saw a cute container at the thrift store that was .49 and had a red ticket so was 50% off. So I spent a whopping quarter and used my alcohol inks...and now it's beautiful! I'll post a picture of that in the days to come.

I also have made several cards in the last couple days. So lots to share. Keep coming back!

Jane