Welcome everyone! I have a fun new technique to share with you today and that is Alcohol Ink Smooshing. While it may not be a brand new technique, it’s new to me and tons of fun! The second weapon….. Wax paper!
VIDEO
I have a video that you can check out down below or HERE on my Youtube channel.
To use alcohol inks, you need a synthetic paper, meaning something where the inks will not sink into the paper. I’m using the Tim Holtz Yupo paper for my cards today.
Smooshing any kind of ink is lots of fun and really unpredictable. No two backgrounds will ever come as planned, which is what happened to me here.
This first one I’m sharing happens to be my favorite. I used a variety of Alcohol Pearl Inks including Villainious, Enchanted, Alchemy, and Tranquil. I really loved the blues/purples/greens in this card.
I placed drops of the alcohol ink onto the Yupo paper and then smooshed the ink with a piece of wax paper.
Be sure to check out the video for tons of details about the inks and technique!
After the background is dry, which doesn’t take too long, I applied the Whimsical Heart stencil using Iridescent Glitz Glitter Gel.
Keeping everything fairly simple, I added the Hello sentiment from the Slimline Sentiments Eyelets die set.
I have one die cut from Gold holographic cardstock and one from Gold glitter cardstock.
This next background didn’t quite turn out like I wanted. I think my mistake was adding the Gilded Alloy ink. I tried to correct it by smooshing more color down. Even though it’s not quite the rainbow I wanted, I am not wasting it and decided to add more texture to it.
I used the Hexagon stencil and applied Texture Paste Transparent Gloss over the top. Then I used the glitter duster to add a little more sparkle.
Please note, this took quite a while to dry completely. I got in 3 episodes on Netflix waiting on it lol.
After adding the sentiment with the Honey Bee Stamps liquid glue, I completed the card with the Rainbow Rhinestones. Can you ever have too much sparkle on a card? (Hint, the answer is no).
So while not everything went as planned, I am hoping you give this technique a try.
Hi, M –
Thanks for the honest recounting of this episode of ME Presents: Alcohol Ink Smooshing. I think the cards turned out fabulously but I appreciate the info about the gilded alloy. I have all the supplies you listed — Yupo paper, wax paper, alcohol inks, Glitz Glitter gel, glitter, embellishments and more. You’re such a help. Here I was in the middle of a set of compositions while watching an old Charlie’s Angels rerun (the original ones!) and I took a break to go check email and VOILÀ, a video from Mindy! Home run!
Lori S in PA
Wath is Wax paper,?
What is Wax Paper? Wher can i by this