What % of alcohol to play with the inks?
 

How strong is the alcohol you are using to play with alcohol inks? I have 70% here but lately I feel like I am seeing a lot of people going with 90% or more......do I really need it? What is the difference in effect?

TIA

The higher percentage dries faster so the colors are more vibrant (less soaking into the paper).

A ha! Thanks!! :)

I had looked at the tutorials here on AIs and they all use blender solution so no help there and then when I googled I was not seeing anything comparing strengths of alcohol. So that was a big help-thanks :)

I get better results with blending solution but sometimes use alcohol at ninety-something percent. I forget the number and will look later since you made me curious. It’s in a bottle with a narrow tip I got from Joggles (?), so only notice the alcohol bottle when refilling.

(Some people like alcohol better than blending solution; my preference doesn’t mean blending solution is better.)

Neat for do-it-yourselfers! I’m glad Ranger manufacturers it for convenience, like any manufacturer or supplier does. Like buying chicken parts instead of cutting up a chicken. (Tonight’s IP dinner.)

Making my own supplies, organizing or diving into something like Evernote are ways to procrastinate making cards, because card making forces me to get creative. That’s harder than mixing potions or typing. :shock:

I make everything I can make myself because I spend a small fortune on everything else. That said, don't even try to find 90% rubbing alcohol in near northeast Chicago. Becaue of the virus, it and hand sanitizer is off all the shelves and no one knows when they'll be able to get it back in.

I make everything I can make myself because I spend a small fortune on evrything else. That said, don't even try to buy 90% rubbing alcohol in near northeast Chicago. Because of the virus it and hand sanitizer are off the shelves, and no one knows when they can get it back in.

Sorry about the double post

Same here (VA suburb of DC) and probably many/most places in the U.S. Soft Soap and similar too.

I have 2 full bottles of the 91% alcohol, and I'm quite positive it's because I read something here on SCS that used it. Yes, it was an ingredient in some DIY recipe or another. Why two bottles? I'm sure it's because I bought the first bottle, got sidetracked, forgot I had it, and years later came across another recipe that included it. I won't mention the list of things I thought would be great to make myself and did. Then never really used them. It took me years before I figured out it ended up being cheaper to just buy whatever it was. ROFL I think the real doozy was making my own glue dots and skinny stips of glue. WHAT was I thinking?! :lolo: I had wax paper and glue stuff laid out and drying all over the place.

Ditto on the duplicates and also the why-did-I-buy-this?? I have a feeling we’re in good company. Here, that is.

{deep bow} (Not ribbon bow.)

I thought that there was something more in the blending solution and that was why it was recommended not to use it in a spray bottle? Because of the possibility of inhalation. Since it's okay to spray the rubbing alcohol, and since glycerin is a home remedy for some things, either there's another ingredient or the advice is incorrect.

Ranger AI Blending solution contains glycol ethers.
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Glycol ethers are solvents, so it makes sense that they would be in a blending solution. I viewed the video linked above and another one and could see a difference between the store-bought and DIY versions that would make me somewhat dissatisfied with it. Still might be good for a lot of things, just not everything...

I just reviewed the EPA guideline, which say any alcohol 60% or above is effective. That explains why all the alcohol is off the shelves here. Ebay has some but it's all being shipped from outside the U.S at high cost, some from countries you wouldn't want it from! It's creepy there's none, or so little, here.

I find that the blending solution lightens the colors a little more than the alcohol.  It's a slight difference and might not be that important to some people. Since alcohol is so scarce now, I'll be using the blending solution until the virus panic is over.

Could that depend on the brand of ink? I did a side by side and didn’t see a difference - though only on a couple colors, and was focused on movement, not color, so could have missed it. I’ll have to try it again. (Marabu is the most different from my other brands, and I don’t love it.)

Blending solution moves color more for me - maybe because of slower evaporation? The alcohol I have is in the 90s percent range, maybe 99, so less water, faster evaporation.

Reminder for anyone thinking of buying Alloys - they stick to blending solution and ink, not alcohol.

If anyone is interested, I had saved this post about diy blending solution: Recipes for DIY Alcohol Blending Solution - I'm planning on trying the recipe with the Recollections stamp cleaner, not the anti-freeze!!!

I haven't tried it yet (bought the stuff, but haven't tried it), but the woman who wrote it does alcohol ink workshops and said she was not happy with the recipes that use glycerine. But the recipe with the stamp cleaner, she felt, worked the same as the Ranger brand. She also says that unless you go thru a LOT of it (she does art herself and workshops and goes thru quite a bit of the stuff), it's probably just as economical to buy the bottles from Ranger.

I use to have a bottle of alcohol blending solution before my cat threw it away. Yes, she throws things in my trash basket and I don't notice till I need it. :) I like the alcohol blending solution better than the plain old alcohol. I thought it reacted better with my inks.


I do still use my plain alcohol for most of my alcohol ink techniques since I don't dabble that much in it. I noticed my alcohol lightens the colors where I felt that the blending solution stayed true to the colors. Has anybody else noticed that?

If you make the homemade version of that solution I hope it's okay to do a little warning- be super careful using antifreeze. Cats love it, more than they love catnip. It will kill them. I heard dogs love it too. I had to save one to many cats from an antifreeze puddle and I have seen some kitties who didn't make it. :(

I also read a couple of weeks ago to use hand sanitizer as a blending solution. I don't really use hand sanitizer. I buy the tiny bottles, maybe, once a year to remove sticky goop off things and carry one in my purse for flu season. Tiny bottle lasts me way after the expiration date. I bought hand sanitizer last week. A big bottle to try out some alcohol techniques. The day the CDC announced we need to prepare and there was a run on sanitizer. There I am standing in the store totally oblivious to all of this buying hand sanitizer and there was a ton left. :) Come home find out about the new protocols. I have the worst timing.

I just ordered 90 plus alcohol online from walmart. Another seller is shipping it and it will take longer but it is coming. (walmart now being like AZ having other sellers on their website so pay attention)

I was not aware of the alcohol run. I heard people are buying vodka. I just laughed and said better they should drink it and then they wont care about the virus. LOL


Well maybe we will see a rise in stills again and people making straight alcohol for sale.

FYI- Purell is 70% alcohol. NYS is now making their own via a cleaning company for gov buildings, schools etc w 75% and our governor announced if people keep price gouging they will start selling to the public.

Completely OT....I had heard from cousin in Seattle and just confirmed with my supermarket manager...people have stopped drinking Corona beer. :shock: Seriously. He said he has always ordered 20 cases like clock work every week and last week zero.

Back to topic...I am wondering if the paper changes things between the solution and alcohol-glossy/photo vs yupo. Anyone know?

In one bathroom I have a bottle of 70% isopropyl alcohol, and in the other 91%. I'm guessing they were bought with no idea there was a difference. My husband never wears his glasses when he shops!

Slightly OT, but AFAIK the alcohol content in vodka isn't high enough to be effective as a disinfectant/sanitiser. So yes, they might as well just drink it. I've used it as a solvent for powdered colours for cake decorating, though. I think you need at least 60% ABV. One of the women in work went into a pharmacy to buy rubbing alcohol and passed when she was told €20 - for 500 ml which would be about 1 pint. I told her that was in fact the normal price, though, not opportunism, as my pharmacist orders it in for me when I need it, and that's what I pay. Interesting, I've just gone and looked and there's no alcohol % listed anywhere on the bottle.

All this makes me wish I had some time to have another play with my inks.

Sabrina-it is 20 euro for a pint of 60%? That is crazy! I know England has Costco...if you guys do, ck them out. Dirt cheap and so is peroxide and white vinegar.

I thought i had heard some of the vodkas were actually going really high on the alcohol content...esp during the vodka craze last decade.

If it is the higher 90% one then it make sense to me bc that is expensive here too.

I am curious as to why they would put glycerin in with the alcohol. when I worked at a procelain plant, our engineer would mix our ink with glycerin to keep it from drying out too fast. we could leave the ink pad( to stamp the part # on it) open all day, all week and it didn't dry out very much, if any at all

No Costco here, no. And what I have has to be at least 70% to be rubbing alcohol, I think. The lack of time I have at the moment, I haven't even finished my last bottle, never mind started my back-up :roll:. I do see a hardware store in town stocks 99.7%...by the time I might even consider wanting it, it will be back in stock I am sure.
Alcohol here attracts a high duty rate ( wine and drinks cost more here than the UK and far more than in Europe), and I imagine that probably applies to the surgical alcohol too, but I wouldn't know??

I was thinking about blending solution today. I read somewhere that it had resin in it? Is there resin in Ranger's blending solution?

Side Notes-
UK ladies I am so sorry rubbing alcohol has such a high price. That's just crazy.

I am very surprised about the vodka sanitizer recipes going around. Information age and people still don't research. I guess it's the same people who are gargling Clorox.


I had to go to WalMart tonight. I peeked in the first aid aisle. All the rubbing alcohol was gone. All the toilet paper was gone in the paper aisle I didn't need those things. I was more curious than anything else.

I found this article to be very enlightening: https://blog.gotopac.com/2017/05/15/...-ipa-used-for/

Here in our local drug stores and grocery stores, both 70% (16 oz) and 91% (14 oz) are around $2.50 USD, so 20 Euros seems like extreme price gouging to me - tariffs or no... Until a couple of years ago, I could get a pint for 89 cents!

Blending Solution
 

Ranger Blending Solution has resins in it that helps dry the alcohol inks fasters and keeps the colours brighter. Because of the resins in the Blending Solution you are not to use a straw to blow colours around as you can get the vapours in your lungs and damage your lungs. Same reason to use Blending Solution in a well ventilated room. TH also is emphatic that to use his new Alloy mixatives you have to use blending solution to keep the Alloys from breaking apart. Tim uses 91 to 98 percent rubbing alcohol. He said that it moves the inks around nicely but you do lose the vibrant colours with it. I purchased 91% in Walmart in New York state and here in Canada I had no problem finding 98%.

I pay $1.25 for 90% alcohol. Twenty dollars is price gouging. It's rubbing alcohol not drinking alcohol.

Thank you FromtheHeart. I did look it up about the blending solution resin. You know how that goes with Tim things on the Internet. It doesn't have resin, but it does have it. On and on and on. Then I am confused. I know a lot of you have taken Tim's classes so ask the experts. :)

You are so lucky to find alchol. My town is out. You can't even get 50%. I am not looking for it. I just take peeks because of curiousity. I do a big stock up in Spring and Fall every year. I just did my big stock up a couple of weeks ago. It came right when CDC and WHO made the announcement we needed to prepare. It was good timing. I am very blessed I was able to.

You all enabled me I will replace my blending solution. Thank you for starting the thread. :) Really, thank you.

Funny cute story. Tonight I was at the store. There was an older woman in the store stocking up on things, probably to start her own staying in. I could tell she was not in good health. Good for her to prepare. She sounded like me two weeks ago stocking up going over her list. I look down in her cart and she did not have fifty rolls of toilet paper but she did have five bags of cat treats. I am like you know it girl because in my cart I had cat treats and dog treats. That's what I stocked up on today, lol. Then her daughter/granddaughter got all excited and said "Oh, there is the sweetest fattest dog in the store." I look over and it's my husband with our dog, ROFL.

I took a (poor quality) photo of my Ranger Blending Solution package. No mention of resin as an ingredient.

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I don’t know if it has resin or if Tim misspoke, but the ingredients listed are just the ones that would require first aid treatment.

I think Wavejumper mentioned she had tried an Alloy without blending solution and it came off.

I have a small fan from Bed Bath & Beyond that sits to my left and blows vapors away. I stopped using straws and use a squeeze puffer thing. If you blow through the straw and turn around or sit up tall maybe it’s okay. That’s what JM does.

Alcohol dries extremely fast, and resins much slower. But it is sticky so maybe it is in the Blending Solution and grabs the Alloys.

Do you think if there is resin in it, there's no first aid treatment for it? The bottle lists the same ingredients (without mention of first aid).

From Ranger Ink website: Note: Ranger does not recommend using Tim Holtz® Alcohol Inks,
Metallic Mixatives, Snow Cap Mixative or Alcohol Ink Blending Solution
in spray bottles as these contents contain alcohol and should not be
airborne.

I do see modified rosin listed on this safety sheet: http://edhoy.com/wp-content/uploads/...Rev-033018.pdf
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I read that three times with my mouth figuratively open because I didn’t get past, “Ranger does not recommend using Tim lots Alcohol Inks.” :rolleyes:

I didn’t think resin is toxic like the other ingredients that by law must be listed - unless one wanted to eat a bunch? Isn’t it plant based or am I dis-remembering? I can google it later.

I guess I thought most of the discussion was about resin being an ingredient in the blending solution and its safety.

I mostly use blending solution with my alcohol inks, occasionally I use alcohol. I do use alcohol with acrylic paints for reverse stenciling and other techniques.https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/f...r-marker-1.png