Video Tutorial - Alcohol Inks 101, Part 2

Part 2 of the video on Alcohol Inks, with 3 more techniques for you. The two small tags at the front of the picture above were created using the Dragging Technique from this video.

I suddenly remembered while typing this post that I'd made an ATC a long while back that uses two of these techniques - Tortoiseshell acetate and colouring embellishments! Here it is:

Video Tutorial - Alcohol Inks 101, Part 1

I've had a few email requests to make a video about alcohol inks, and ever one to be helpful where I can, here it is! The video turned out pretty long, so I've split it into two parts, part 2 follows tomorrow!

Bits Mini-book

I've called this a mini-book, but perhaps it should really be called a micro-book, as it's only 2 inches square! It was intended as a kind of sampler, no set theme, just an attempt to incorporate a range of images and techniques on a small scale into one coherent whole.

As there are 18 sides plus covers in this, I'm not going to write about each one. Suffice it to say that the book incorporates stamping, masking, embossing, batik, dabbers and alcohol inks. That might sound a lot, but as the pages are so small, it didn't take to long to make. I hope you like it!

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Artistic Stamper Insect ATCs

Hello again dear reader, after a lengthy Christmas break! I hope the holiday season was as good for you as it was for me.

It's been all excitement here at Dan Towers - on New Year's Eve I found out that I'd been voted Crafter of the Year by the members of the Craft Swap Forum. I'm particularly thrilled about that because all of the people nominated were so talented and any of them would have been a worthy winner.

In addition, I've been invited to join the design team for The Artistic Stamper, an invitation which I was delighted to accept! The 3 ATCs shown here are the first things I've made using some of their beautiful stamps.

The insects were stamped with Staz-on onto acetate and coloured using solvent based pens and alcohol inks. The insides of the slide mounts were tinted with walnut stain distress ink and spritzed with Moonglow mist ink to give a bit of a gold shimmer. The slide mounts and background cards were tinted with walnut stain ink and stamped with one of the Artistic Stamper's calligraphic mats in brushed corduroy distress ink, and a vintage tape measure stamp. The quotes were computer printed and mounted onto black card.

I hope you like! Click on any image for a larger view. More to follow... :o)

Bind-it-all Calendar - June

A relatively simple approach this time. I think the stamped image is so strong that I wanted it to speak for itself. I took two sheets of glossy photo paper and applied alcohol inks to one sheet. I then stamped the image on both sheets, using black Stazon ink.

Using a baby wipe I applied antique linen distress ink to the image on the white photo paper to colour the children's faces. I then cut away the background from the top left corner and discarded it, and also carefully cut out the children's clothes from the alcohol inked sheet.

All that was left to do was to make a sandwich of (going from the bottom up) coloured background and childrens heads, then antique linen childrens heads and bodies, then coloured clothes.

That sounds so confusing doesn't it? Sorry about that, it was simple to do!

The quote reads "What is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days. - James Russell Lowell".

July to follow tomorrow!

Bind-it-all Calendar - April

Quite a few processes involved in this one, so (deep breath) here goes!

The background was Shabby Shutters distress ink pad applied directly to paper which was then splashed with water drops and dried. It was then stamped with a paint splatter stamp I have, also using Shabby Shutters. Using Pine Needles ink, a large square was then stamped in the centre.

Alcohol inks and blending solution were then applied to a sheet of glossy photo paper. The main image was stamped on top using black Stazon ink, and was stamped again on plain white card. The leaves at the top of the image on the photo paper were coloured using Pine Needles ink pad and a water brush (yes, it works on glossy photo paper!) The image on white card was coloured with distress ink pads and a water brush, then the central focus was cut out and stuck in place on the photo paper background. I tore the edges, then stuck it in place on the water-distressed card background. Phew!

The quote reads "April is a promise May is bound to keep - Hal Borland"

May will follow tomorrow :o)

Bind-it-all Calendar - March

Time for the next installment of my 2008 Bind-it-all Calendar, and as it's Wednesday, that must mean March!

The image background was cut from a 6x6 Basic Grey paper, distressed by applying black soot Distress ink around the edges with a baby wipe. The paper has a slight sheen to it, so the paperclips and ruler images were stamped using Stazon ink to get a better impression. The words "spring awakening" were stamped in pine needles Distress ink.

The main image was created on glossy photo paper. I tried to use colours that would echo those on the backing paper I'd chosen. Bottle, Denim, Caramel and Terra Cotta alcohol inks were dropped on the paper, and lightened with a few squirts of blending solution. A 2nd sheet was then placed on top and moved around, to create two sheets of identical (or at least very similar) paper. One was filed away for future use, the other was overstamped with the spring themed image in black Stazon. Finally, it was trimmed to size and matted onto black card and stuck to the background.

The quote reads "Our life is March weather, savage and serene in one hour. - Ralph Waldo Emerson".

I hope you like it! :o)

Next installment tomorrow!

Bind-it-all Calendar

I decided to use my trusty Bind-it-all to make a calendar as a Christmas gift for a friend. I will post a month on here each day for the next 12 days. The front cover was created on glossy photo paper with alcohol inks, then stamped with Stazon. January was distress inks and white pen. I trawled the web to find a month-related quote for each page. I hope you like it! :o)

February to follow tomorrow!

Happy Holly-days!

Sorry for the groan-worthy pun! :oD

This is another 6x3 tag for the swap I'm involoved in. I started out making this as just the background for the tag, but I liked it so much, I left it just as it was!

Tag had a light coating of scattered straw distress ink, applied with a baby wipe. It was then crumpled, and an old paper ink pad rubbed across the raised areas. It was then spritzed with a little water and ironed flat.

Holly and candy cane stamps were applied with pine needles and fired brick distress pads, and coloured with a water brush. The ring around the eyelet is glossy card with alcohol inks applied to it. The holly berries had glossy accents applied to them for a bit of shiny. We like shiny. :o)

Click on the image to see a larger version. Thanks for taking a look! :o)

Once Upon a December Night

I had the idea for this book back in September, and I wanted it to be a take on "Twas the Night Before Christmas", but with a more adult feel to it. I think it's the biggest thing I've ever made, 13 verses to the poem, and 32 pages in total to decorate.

The poem itself took quite a while to get right, but that was nothing to the task of trying to collect appropriate stamps to illustrate it. I searched for weeks, but was unable to find stamps of the right style to illustrate some of the verses. Eventually I designed a stamp of my own for one of the pages (it's for the verse about chimneys, you'll know it when you see it), and I used acetate/photograph/alcohol ink techniques for the 4 or 5 remaining verses.

Things I am particularly proud of? The book plate on the front which was plain chrome when I started. I painted it with brown acrylic paint and then attacked it with sandpaper - I think it looks great!

As there are 32 pages, the flipbook is quite large, so give it a few seconds to download! Click on the image below to try the interactive flipbook.

P.S. If it doesn't work for you, your browser may not have the latest version of the bit it needs to see the book. You can get it by following this link:

Click here to update your Flash player

Click on the slide show images below to see a gallery of the pages in this project!