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How about using your Alcohol inks on POROUS surfaces... yes, you read right.. not glossy card, not acetate, not metal, not glass.. but plain cardstock or card.... Imagine the possibilities..
Dini.......I follow your blog which is great and you know what.......I never knew you didn't have alcohol inks - lol. Seems to me, you're doing fine without them but they're really really neat.
So very cool! except..... I don't have any alcohol inks... is there any way to 'fake' them? could I mix dye ink with alcohol?
I haven't used my alcohol inks in awhile but sometimes used 91% rubbing alcohol instead of the blending solution (it resulted in brighter colors than the more typical 70% rubbing alcohol; both were nice but I remember thinking the blending solution gave a smoother finish).
Anyway ... if you try it (and I'd think it should work) I'd try to use the stronger alcohol if you can find it (while not expensive it is significantly more costly than the 70%).
My AIs are still packed (we moved almost a year ago but my space needs to be reorganized because my original set-up didn't work well for me at all) so I hope you try it with dye inks and share your results.
Dini.......I follow your blog which is great and you know what.......I never knew you didn't have alcohol inks - lol. Seems to me, you're doing fine without them but they're really really neat.
LOL! Thanks, Lorraine! Yep, not too many artist grade or stamping supplies in my corner of the world! We'll be coming to the States in December, though, so I'll have an opportunity to stock up on some things.
Can't promise when, but I'll try mixing alcohol and dye reinkers sometime and see how that works.
Oh yeah Dini, totally forgot you are in Indonesia. You should have someone video you when you're in the States shopping. Kind of like a shark in a feeding frenzy? LOL.
So very cool! except..... I don't have any alcohol inks... is there any way to 'fake' them? could I mix dye ink with alcohol?
I'd have thought it might be worth trying just with ordinary re-inkers. I don't know if they'd disperse on the water the same way as the alcohol ink did. I was surprised when I tried it yesterday, it went into clumps of each colour and I had to stir carefully to mix them up a bit. My recollection of true marbling inks is that it was easier to get the colours where you wanted.
I'm on a day off tomorrow, maybe I'll try a quarter sheet of card in a small container and see how it goes.
Oh yeah Dini, totally forgot you are in Indonesia. You should have someone video you when you're in the States shopping. Kind of like a shark in a feeding frenzy? LOL.
Bahaha! I can get watercolor paper here, and a good variety of solid cardstock - occasionally some decent art supplies... Actually I have been doing some purposeful shopping online as I see really great prices, and having those things sent to my MIL's house... I think she thinks I am crazy!!
Andy's video was very very interesting and his blog is awesome! I like his patience with the question of what is isoclene. I still don't know what it is exactly. Have to check that out as well. Does anybody else know about isoclene or used it in place of blending solution?
I tried this tonight using the Brights. Did it on tags first and then cardstock. The cardstock was kind of thin so I don't know if that had anything to do with the results. The colors on the tag were just ok. Not as vibrant as I would have liked. They really didn't do anything to the cardstock. A hint of color but not enough to make a difference. I don't know how Andy gets such a vibrant result. I tried doing it the way the video showed us, just passing it through the water and alcohol inks. Then I tried letting it linger a little before taking it out. Still, not vibrant.
I like the look of tags. I'll bet if I cut tags of glossy cardstock and then did this technique the results would please me more. After it was all dried I would cut another tag shape out of something sturdy and glue it to the back. I'm going to have to try that. Might come out looking the same as using the ink applicator and alcohol inks on glossy. If that's the case, same result different method. Probably would be a little more cost effective using Tim's alcohol ink method. I used A LOT of drops tonight because after making a tag or two the water looked muddy so I changed it and added more ink.
Andy's video was very very interesting and his blog is awesome! I like his patience with the question of what is isoclene. I still don't know what it is exactly. Have to check that out as well. Does anybody else know about isoclene or used it in place of blending solution?
Just did a Google search for isoclene, and it appears to be a brand name for the cans of compressed air used to clean pc's, electrical stuff etc. A bit of a further search gave its ingredient: 99.7% isopropanol. So the 99% Isopropanol you can buy online is exactly the same thing.That, or sometimes the 70% is what I use instead of Blending Solution. HTH.
I had a go with this today, too. I agree with LorraineBK, I couldn't get the same vibrant result- the colours look a little washed out and 'flat'- even the strong colours. It must have something to do with the type of cardstock used, I think. Its a good technique insofar as getting swirls/patterns that you wouldn't get from using blending foam/tools, but I would like to know what brand of cardstock he used.I tried plain white card, and glossy.If anything, the glossy came out worse than the plain white cardstock.
I thought the glossy would make a difference but thank you for posting that it didn't. I'll just stick with the Tim Holtz method. Sorry Andy, I DO love your stuff.
I know I'm a little late to this forum, but thank you for the great technique. I just ordered a bunch of glossy cardstock. I had bought quite a few of the alcohol inks and didn't realize it didn't work on regular cardstock. But now I know different.
Hi everyone and thanks for your comments, I use a very good quality 300 gsm cardstock..not glossy just plain. You will get slightly different results with this technique depending on the card you use. It is very important to be liberal with the inks and use Brights if you want a more vivid colour..
I hope this helps, I have been so mad busy the past few months that I have not had time to check the forums so apologies for that.
Cool Alcohol Ink Technique
