Alcohol Inks + Stencil on the Gel Plate
Posted: September 18, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Dies, gel press, Lavinia, Penny Black, Tutorial | Tags: Alcohol Ink, gel press, Lavinia, Tutorial, video 5 Comments
Recently I posted a card featuring a gel print made with alcohol inks and a stencil. You can check out that card here. There was quite a lot of interest in seeing a video of my process so that is what I have for you today. One of the bonuses of this technique is the way I can make more than one print from the same initial application of alcohol ink. I worked with T-Rex alcohol inks on a 5″x7″ gel plate.
As you will see in the video the first card (shown above) is made from the first print pulled from the gel plate.
The second print pulled from the gel plate features the same inks but they are more muted because I diluted them to move them from the stencil to the plate. I quite like the softness of the second print.
If a print works for me and honestly, they don’t all work, I often don’t want to cover them up with extra decoration or die cuts. That’s why I kept these card designs very simple with just a die cut ‘hello’ added to the first card. The second print which I made into the card below features an even smaller birthday sentiment and one thin strip of the same cardstock.
One of the reasons I like to work with alcohol inks on the gel plate is the fact that I can pull the prints with a piece of paper, in the case of these prints I used printer paper. When I work with alcohol inks apart from the gel plate I generally use a thicker plastic surface such as yupo or craft plastic. The inks move beautifully on those surfaces but the plastics are bulkier and a bit more expensive so it is nice to have the gel plate + paper option. The featured prints from today’s video were done on a 5″ x 7″ gel plate which meant I could get a 5.5″ x 4.25″ card front as well as a left over strip to add to the envelope.
If you are new to gel printing in general and would like to know more about creating a range of patterned prints please consider my online class, Gel Print Journey, where I cover all the basics with acrylic paint and all sorts of patterned and textured items. If you purchase any of my online classes before the end of September use the code: ENDOFSUMMERSALE for a 20% discount.
Botanical Dream
Posted: August 30, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, botanical dream stencil, gel press, gelli plate, Taylored Expressions, The Crafter's Workshop, The Crafters Workshop | Tags: gel press, gel printing, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Taylored Expressions, The Crafter's Workshop 7 Comments
I think you’ve noticed my love of gel printing. Let me assure you it hasn’t diminished at all. Today’s card features an alcohol ink and stencil print completed on the gel plate then lifted with a layer of acrylic paint.
I’m not sure which alcohol inks I used but I am pretty sure there was a cloudy blue and a brown involved. I’ve learned to like blue and brown combos over recent years which has surprised me a bit. Often we use alcohol inks only on plastic surfaces such as yupo or craft plastic. What I like about using alcohol inks on the gel plate is the way I can lift the print with any paper at all. I plan to make a video showing this technique so stay tuned.
The lovely stencil featured here is called botanical dream from The Crafters Workshop. All the little spaces trap alcohol really well making it a great choice for this technique. I let the stencil sit on the alcohol ink pattern for a while so it dries then lift the print with acrylic paint. I finished the card with a cute greeting from the Taylored Expressions set ‘In & Out Birthday. The set is full of pretty fonts.
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Alcohol Ink Gel Print
Posted: June 19, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, artsy stems, gel press, little lowercase letters, My Favorite Things, Tim Holtz | Tags: gel press, gel printing, My Favorite Things, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Tim Holtz 3 Comments
Last Monday I posted a faux batik look created on the gel plate. Today’s card is not faux alcohol ink; I did create a design on the gel plate with alcohol inks then picked it up with acrylic paint. Alcohol inks dry quite quickly so they are fun to fiddle with on a gel plate.
I can’t remember exactly which inks I used but I imagine there was a blue and yellow alcohol ink involved and perhaps ‘stream’ which is a deep teal colour. I sprinkled them on the gel plate, added some isopropyl alcohol to get the colours moving and then used a homemade stamp to add the flower shapes. In my online gel printing course I have a whole lesson about making and using homemade stamps with acrylic paints. Using them with alcohol inks is also an option as shown on this card. The speckled look over the panel is from adding a spritz of isopropyl alcohol to the plate before letting it dry.
I pulled the print with gold acrylic paint which has given the whole panel a goldish tint and in real life a bit of shine and shimmer. To finish the card I added a die-cut flower and letters in a co-ordinating colour. The letters were cut with MFT ‘little lowercase letters’ which might not be available anymore but I have linked to a similar set.
(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)
Turning
Posted: April 27, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, delicate daisies, Echidna Studios, grafix, Paper Rose, Penny Black, skewed squares, turning | Tags: Echidna Studios, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Ranger Distress inks 2 Comments
As you know I have recently been featuring some designs from my daughter’s etsy store Echidna Studios. They are available as digital stamps/cutting files. What I haven’t mentioned is that some of the designs in her store are designed by me! She has just added a batch of digital images that I designed as stencils but they can also be printed. The circle masked on the card above and the half circle on the second card are from a digital set called ‘turning‘. The beauty of digital designs is that they can be cut or printed in any size. I cut both stencils from Grafix matte duralar using my cricut.
I blended three distress inks through the stencil onto neenah solar white cardstock then added the PB delicate daisies die-cuts and a PB sentiment.
To create the half turn stenciled card I worked on Grafix white craft plastic with three alcohol inks. I dropped isopropyl alcohol and alcohol inks on the panel then dropped the stencil into position. I tried to be patient so the inks would dry and give me a complete impression of the stencil. I did help it along with an air blower and managed not to lift it too early! I splattered a little isopropyl over the top for extra interest.
Once again I finished the card with black elements: the PB daisies and a sentiment strip from Paper Rose Studio. I hope you visit Echidna Studios store and check out the designs there. I will be featuring more in the weeks ahead. See if you can guess which of the stamp sets I designed, they are different from my daughter’s very realistic style. If you are on IG we would love you to follow Echidna Studios there too. And if you do happen to be on Instagram check out Gina Ferrari and see if you recognise anyone among her portraits.
By the way, a while back I showed a sneak peak of a squares stencil I had designed and cut. You can see I used it on the card below and in the video here. The stencil is called skewed squares and it is now available as a digital file in the Echidna Studios store.
Thanks for dropping by today. I hope the sun is shining where you are; it is peeping through the clouds here.
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New YouTube channel – New Video
Posted: February 11, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, baby blue leaf embossing folder, Branch 9 die, cricut, Dies, grafix, Moda Scrap, my designs, ornate tile embossing folder, Paper Rose, Penny Black, Pink & Main, scripty, silhouette birds, so extra supporting sentiments, Stampin Up, thank you squares, Tim Holtz, Tutorial | Tags: cricut, grafix, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Stampin Up, Tim Holtz 6 Comments
If you have been visiting this blog for a while you will know I had a youtube channel for many years. In 2022 after ten years of adding videos and gathering a community of 7000 subscribers my channel was deleted. In recent weeks I have started again with a new channel and some videos ‘from the archive’. My new channel is called Heather Telford Art and I would be very happy if you decided to like, subscribe and tell your friends! There is content on there that you may remember from the last few years and starting today there is new content also! The new ‘2 for 1 Alcohol Ink Panels’ is freshly filmed for my new channel and I hope it will be the first of many!
There are quite a few photos in this post because, well, this is a 2 for 1 technique and I created three panels which of course became six panels and one was cut in half so there are seven cards to show you in this blog post! Grab a cup of tea. I have added a linked supply list at the very bottom of this long post.
As well as a new youtube channel I am also a new Cricut owner. The stencil used on the card below was designed by me and cut on my Cricut. It is available as a cutting file from Echidna Studios etsy store.
Most of the 2 for 1 smooshed panels I left as a full card fronts adding only a sentiment or some die-cutting. As the panel below reminded me of the ocean, the PB wavy scallop border seemed a nice touch.
The panel below is a half panel from the first one I showed on the video. I love the patterns from the isopropyl alcohol ink spray even though they don’t stay distinct. Even when die-cutting the word from the panel I couldn’t leave it off so I popped it up. Not so funny story: I guess I haven’t popped up a die cut word in a while because I flicked those little shapes inside the letters into the garbage when I poked the word from the die. So yes, I had to hunt through my garbage to complete the card.
I don’t know why I hadn’t tried it before but seeing how well Grafix craft plastic responds when put in an embossing folder has been a revelation! I thought it might crack but it doesn’t so you can have the subtle impression of your embossing folder on a panel or the bold inked pattern as I’ve done on the card below. Sentiments in circles might be a little fad I go with for a while too; they look cute!
You can see the soft look of embossed script on the panel below, especially in the close up. This detailed embossing folder is from Stampin’ Up and is called ‘scripty’. I don’t think it is available anymore but you might something similar.
For this final card I cut six little birds from the panel and played with layouts for quite a while. I ended up just using two which means I have four birds in hand for another project. (pun definitely intended)
The intricate half circle cut out behind the birds is also one of my new cricut cutting files but more about that in another post. If you got this far, you’re a champion. Thank you for supporting me here on my blog and I would love to see you over on youtube as well.
(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)
Blossom Birthday
Posted: February 7, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, blossom stencil, Darkroom Door, grafix, Stencils | Tags: craft roulette, Darkroom Door stamps, Darkroom Door stencils, grafix, grafix craft plastic, Ranger Alcohol Ink 4 Comments
Yes, I have more alcohol in projects! Like gel printing, alcohol inks are quite addictive. When you work with them on plastic film (such as grafix craft plastic or yupo) you can keep changing the design with the addition of more ink or isopropyl alcohol. You can also remove ink with isopropyl. Depending on the amount of staining from whichever colours you choose you can even get the plastic white again to start fresh. I think that is why there is always on more thing I want to try when experimenting with alcohol inks.
Last year I posted a video where I used a stencil to create a pattern on craft plastic with alcohol inks. I used a more open stencil that the one featured today but the process is similar. The Darkroom Door stencil ‘blossom’ has a lot of plastic surrounding the blossom cut out. When laid on the wet alcohol ink there is contact with most of the craft plastic panel and only a small area where the alcohol ink is drying in the air. This means you need way more patience as you let the ink dry under the stencil.
Not all my experiments with stencils work but I love the way this one ended up with distinct flowers and soft background. I finished the card with a sentiment from the DD ‘all occasions’ stamp set embossed in white on olive cardstock.
In other news I will be on Craft Roulette on Friday February 10 which is three days away! Craft Roulette is a live improv card making challenge on YouTube. I have no idea what kind of card I will be making, I only find out what the parameters are while I am on the show. Hope you can drop in a join the chat on Friday 7:10 pm EST
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Deer and Alcohol Ink Skies
Posted: January 20, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, grafix, leap of joy, Penny Black | Tags: grafix, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Ranger Alcohol Ink 8 Comments
I know it is yet another alcohol ink sky post! If you look closely at the panel below you will see one of the things I love about alcohol inks and dye inks and that is the separation of pigments when a colour is diluted. It is more obvious in some inks that others but you can see it in the eggplant ink below. There is purple, grey, blue and shades of maroon. So yummy!
The panel above was diluted with isopropyl alcohol more that the panel below but I definitely used it on both to move the inks around.
To complete the cards I die cut the PB deer from white cardstock and add small simple sentiments. Small sentiments are my favourite; I think I’ve mentioned that before.
I think my next post might not be alcohol inks! Stay tuned!
(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)
Alcohol Ink Sky Baubles
Posted: January 17, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, around town, Dies, grafix, Penny Black, trees and hills | Tags: grafix, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Taylored Expressions 10 Comments
Yes, I have a few more alcohol ink skies to share. This time I have layered navy die-cuts over the alcohol ink panels and cut them into circles so they look like Christmas tree baubles. These ones were already cut and ready in my pile of possibility I just had to find suitable backgrounds and add cord and sentiments.
The skies were part of a big panel, alcohol ink on white craft plastic and there are some hints of gold here and there. Some is from gold alcohol ink but there are also threads of gold foil pressed onto the panel.
The backgrounds are embossed panels; sorry I don’t know the name of the lovely branch one, it doesn’t belong to me so I’m not sure who made it. The dies are Penny Black, ‘trees & hills’ and ‘around town’.
I added some gold cord and Taylored Expression sentiments to finish them off.
(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)
Alcohol Ink & Trees
Posted: January 13, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, grafix, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions | Tags: Foiling, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Taylored Expressions 9 Comments
I have another alcohol ink sky to show you today paired with a very sparkly tree. I don’t own the tree die or the sparkly silver paper but this tree was a leftover from a class I attended and it looks so pretty against the blue sky. It is hard to capture on camera but there are lines and dots of silver foil on the alcohol ink background.
When playing with alcohol inks on yupo or craft plastic you sometimes end up with areas of thick sticky ink. You can dilute and move it with isopropyl alcohol or you can press foil on it while it is still a bit tacky. Once again I cut a snowy hill by hand and added a Penny Black sentiment.
On this second card the tree is the coloured instead of the sky. I cut the tree from white craft plastic and added alcohol inks (both original and pearl formula) to another piece of craft plastic so I could then press the tree onto the alcohol inks to make a pattern and pick up the ink.
I attached the tree to an embossed background and added a Taylored Expressions sentiment. There are a few more alcohol ink Christmas cards still coming. I am happy to have inspired a few of you to look at your stash of panels to see what you might be able to turn into backgrounds and skies.
(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)
Alcohol Ink Winter Skies
Posted: January 12, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Dies, Penny Black, tall trees, Taylored Expressions | Tags: grafix, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Taylored Expressions 11 Comments
It is unusual for me to be making Christmas cards in January but the supplies are still handy and I will be happy to see the cards in October! I have a small stash of alcohol ink panels in my pile of possibility so the next few blog posts will feature those backgrounds paired with wintry scenery and Christmas greetings.
I’m sorry I can’t tell you exactly what techniques I used for these panels but it looks like I added blue and green inks to white craft plastic, added a generous amount of isopropyl alcohol then blew the liquids around the panel with a hand held air blower. I love the frilly ribbon look on the sky above.
I chose the wonderful ‘tall trees’ dies from Penny Black and hand cut some snowy hills from white cardstock. The sentiments are once again from Taylored Expression because they are so handy and neat!
(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)
Heather Telford 