Friday, August 30, 2024

New Obsession

Alcohol inks! In case you don't know what they are.....they are inks or paints with an alcohol base. Unlike oil paints or watercolor paints. These inks are thinned and use with Isopropyl alcohol, at least 91% alcohol. There are many, many videos on Youtube, so if you like what you see, go check them out and maybe you'll be hooked, like me.

You need alcohol inks, of course, which you can buy at Michaels or Amazon or any art or craft store. You also need a special paper, such as Yupo (expensive) or the wrong side of glossy photo paper. You will need the alcohol mentioned above to push your inks around.

You also need an air source to push the inks around on your paper, such as a straw, canned air, a bulb puffer, a hair dryer or an air compressor (my favorite)

I will not go into detail, but if you are interested, just go to Youtube and search for alcohol ink techniques or painting and you will get enough to keep you very busy.

Now to show you just a few of what I have done. The first several were done by using a hairdryer (preferably one with a brush that you can remove). Mine is a Revlon, which many demonstrators use.











It is quite unpredictable and often surprising, sometimes frustrating, but always fun.

These next flowers were made using an air compressor to push the inks around. There are many tutorials on making flowers. I really want to make more of these. Many got thrown away, yet  some can be fixed if you goof up by using a tissue and alcohol to take away your mistakes. Sometimes!
 









These were all done on 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 paper, perfect to use on my cards,

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.





6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love them all. You can't have all the fun! I just ordered the inks and markers....Ruthie

Kathy said...

They are great to use on tile and glass, too. Tile + poly + felt circles make fantastic coasters. Your flowers are so very beautiful!!!

Gwyned Trefethen said...

I am agog, Norma. Your ink flowers are stunning. As I read through your post I thought, "Now these would be perfect for Norma's cards." Why am I not surprised you got there ahead of me.

Norma Schlager said...

Thanks, Gwyned. I'm having fun and yes, these will be perfect for my cards.

Andree G. Faubert said...

Hi Norma, those are really cool. The flowers are really amazing. Do you know if you can use these on fabric?

Anonymous said...

No, not on fabric. They have to be on a nonporous surface, such as Yupo, the other side of glossy photo paper or ceramic tiles. You can use them on a stretched canvas if it is primed.