Painting with Alcohol Inks

I read something the other day about putting the blending solution for alcohol inks in a water brush. That was it though--just a suggestion for another way to use water brushes. Well, I thought it sounded interesting. I wondered how and why one might want to use the blending solution in a water brush. I use my alcohol inks for making polished stone backgrounds mostly. I might do an alcohol splash occasionally. Um, yes, I'm talking about a background technique. ;-) That's it though, and I didn't need a water brush for either of those. Naturally, I Googled to find out more.

Here's a tutorial that I found: Alcoholic Butterfly

I thought it was a neat look and wanted to give it a try. I have some solvent-based markers already, but I love the colors of the Ranger alcohol inks and the thought of being able to paint them on with a brush and maybe eliminating some of that streakiness or blotchiness that you can see with markers sometimes, particularly on transparency.

Here's how my card turned out:


I stamped the Inkadinkado images on the front of the transparency using Brilliance black ink and heat set it. I partially filled my water brush with blending solution, salvaged some plastic packaging to use as a palette, and placed a drop or two of each of the alcohol inks that I wanted to use on it. I painted away on the back of the transparency, then layered this on top of Basic Grey paper that I'd embossed using the Birds & Swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder. The sentiment is also by Inkadinkado. The flowers are Primas. A Robin's Nest dew drop is in the center.


I included a close up view of the dew drop because I attached this with a drop of Diamond Stickles rather than glue or a glue dot. It adds just a little subtle sparkle. I'll have to try this later, but using Diamond Stickles might also be a way to disguise those occasional dew drops, or the faux dew drops, that have a bubble in them. Hm, or it might make it worse. Dunno yet.

But as for this technique, I liked it! I love the vibrant colors of the alcohol inks, and I have a nice range of colors of those inks to choose from. When I do this again, and I will, I'll use one of my better water brushes. That would have made things so much easier. I had a few issues with too much blending solution leaking out at times--cheap brush, no valve. I figured that I was just experimenting, eh? But it was great to be able to go back and rework areas even after the ink had already dried, and it does dry quickly. The blending solution also gives a quick and easy way to get rid of ink that perhaps sneaked into areas it shouldn't have.

It's neat to learn new things. :-)