Alcohol Inked Scene Tutorial

Hello once again! In this brief tutorial I'll be showing how I went about creating the alcohol inked witch night scene found in my 'My Little Pirate' layout. The same technique I used here can be used to create any alcohol inked scene--just let your imagination be your guide! So let's get started...

Here is a basic list of supplies needed: Alcohol inks, Alcohol Blending Solution, white glossy cardstock, stamps, heat gun, embossing ink pad & embossing powder. Make sure the paper you're using is glossy. Alcohol inks are meant for non-pourous surfaces. Glossy cardstock is non-pourous & works like a charm with alcohol inks.
Prior to stamping your main background try & test out your alcohol inks on any glossy scrap paper you may have on hand. As you can see here, I tried a variety of color combinations in order to come up with the right color I was looking for the night sky. I ended up using Purple Twilight & Wild Plum for the sky with Butterscotch & Sunshine Yellow for the moon.

I cut glossy cardstock to be 10" inches wide by 4" inches high. I then started applying the alcohol ink by using the standard 'pouncing' method with the alcohol ink applier. The beautiful part about alcohol inks is that you can not go wrong with them. You can apply the inks in any motion--pouncing, swirling, tapping...it all works! If the color comes out too dark (as was my case when I finished the night sky) add a few drops of the blending solution to the applier & went over the scene again. The blending solution will lighten any colors. If you want the colors to be darker...just add another layer of the same colors. It's as simple as that.

I next cut out a 4" inch circle from the glossy cardstock & made the moon with the same technique used in making the sky. I pounced away until I was satisfied with how the moon looked. The other good thing about alcohol inks is that they dry quickly. So no waiting for inks to dry.
Next step is to stamp your images. Ink your stamp in embossing ink & stamp your image where you wish it to be. In my case, I wanted the witch to be flying in front of the moon. Since you're stamping on glossy cardstock make sure you keep a steady hand or else your stamp may slip & fudge your image. Glossy cardstock tends to be slippier than regular cardstock b/c of it's texture. Once your image is stamped pour some embossing powder over it & heat emboss it. I used black embossing powder for this image.

As you can see embossing on glossy cardstock gives the images a completely different look than embossing on regular cardstock. You get this shiny, dimensional look that I really like! At this point all you're doing is stamping & embossing any other stamps you need for your scene. In my case it was a variety of trees & tree branches that gave the scene that spooky night look I was looking for.

Here you have it! I stamped trees all along the bottom & a couple of branches in the upper corners. Then I adhered the moon with pop dots in order to give it more of a 3D look.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial & that you use this technique to create a variety of alcohol inked scenes.

Till my next post...