Ink and Metal

Hello Everybody!

Creativity is hard work!  I am working on a Christmas page, but it isn't done yet.  You'll get to see it soon...but until then get out your alcohol inks and aluminum foil!

So I was getting out my metal embellishments from Making Memorials from years ago, and I realized that I had alcohol inks to color them.  I didn't have the inks when I bought them.  These light weight metal shapes have been hanging out in my container for awhile! 

You can see below the different shapes.  Nevermind that reindeer, that's a brad, but I can't find his red nose at the moment.

You can get alcohol inks at you chain craft stores, online, and some scrapbook stores.  I also have the blending solution which helps the inks blend into each other.  The inks work best on glossy paper, metal or plastic (like the Tim Holtz fragments).  I use photo paper when I use the inks on glossy paper.  Transperancies are great also!

I chose the ornaments. 

I directly applied the ink to the metal piece.  This is a messy process.  I have a craft mat underneath. 



I want a vibrant color so I applied only the alochol ink and swirl it around to cover the silver metal.

I did the orange background the same way--applied orange alochol ink and swirled it around.  If you wanted to lighten the color you would add alchol ink and swirl around.  This is not an exact process--which is what is nice about it.  You can play with it until you get the desired effect.

 All done!  And then when I am ready for it to go on my page I will connect the 2 metal pieces with either a brad or ribbon.

Since I don't have a finished project, and I had the inks out--I couldn't just stop at the Christmas ornament.  Pictured below is regular household aluminum foil.

Foil is awesome because it's maleable.  Here I emboss it.

Here is the finished embossed piece of foil.  It has stress lines though.  This can be good or bad depending on what you are doing.  For me--right now it's bad.  I wanted a clean emboss.  So I take a different piece of foil and emboss it using a different embossing folder.

*Side note-I did emboss this piece in a different folder to see if the stress lines would come out.  They were faint along with the swirls.  Pretty cool.  So try re-embossing to see what different combinations of effects you can do!

This is cool all by itself.  But let's add some color!  I just put the alchol ink on directly.

Swirl!

Here I add a few drops of alocohol blending solution.  This is a large area to cover, so the solution will help spread it.

Now I am adding green to the piece.

The darker places are where the ink is gathering.  I have a foam applicator by Ranger Inks to help distribute the ink.

I can now cut out Merci and use it on a card or project.  The ink dries nicely.  Since it is foil, you do need to use caution when applying it to your project because it can bend or tear easily.

I wanted to illustrate the foam brush a little better here.  The "Gr" is silver.

I apply the ink directly to my foam applicator.

Blot.

Here you can see the green ink applied.  Beautiful!

Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time...