More Fun with Alcohol Inks!

Hi, everyone! More Fun with Alcohol Inks! This week's post goes out to all you alcohol ink artists out there!  (OR folks considering getting into alcohol inks!) I'm sure you've used the felt stamps in your work before, but have you tried the PanPastel Sofft Tools? They're perfect for deliberately applying ink, making unique patterns, and even removing ink from paper!

First, I jumped right in with making patterns!

I began by masking off a leaf on a sheet of Mitz TerraSkin Multimedia Art Paper.

Next, I squeezed a combination of Ranger Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Inks in Citrus, Clover, and Stream onto my rectangle-shaped Sofft Tool.

Then I stamped a few sections of the leaf and dripped the same colors around it.

When I pulled the masking fluid away, I was pleased with my result!  Except there appeared to be a few places that I missed with masking fluid, and the inks got onto the paper...but no worries!

The pointed Sofft Tool is the perfect shape for going back in with Claro Extender and cleaning up those stray marks!

That's much better!

I used a similar technique with a stencil I made:

I cut this stencil out of a piece of polyester film and laid it onto another sheet of TerraSkin.

Then I dropped some Wild Plum, Indigo,Watermelon, and Cool Peri onto my round Sofft Tool and Citrus, Clover, and Stream onto my rectangle again.

I stamped my respective colors all over my stencil.

And pulled the stencil away to reveal this!  The greens are a bit dingy (I think because they got a little of the Indigo in them) and my flowers came out kind of sloppy, so I tried again--this time, with less ink on my Sofft Tools.

Once again, stamped all over, making sure to keep my colors as contained as possible.

And voila! A much nicer result this time! Though I do think both are nice, so I'll keep them for a future project, like putting an initial in the middle of some kind of quotes along the outside. The Sofft Tools give me so much control over these otherwise-wily inks, I love it!

Next, I wanted to use my stencil as a relief while I used Claro Extender and a Sofft Tool to pull ink back up from the page.

My first couple of attempts ended up looking something like this--too much extender!

FINALLY, I found the perfect amount of extender to pull up the ink, without reactivating it and making it bleed.

(It's about this much. And even then, I did some test stamps on a plain sheet of paper to get any excess off.)

Next, I wanted to use the Sofft Tools as simply applicators for ink.

I quickly threw together some light-ish colors (Wild Plum, Cool Peri, Shell Pink, and some Extender).

Then I laid my stencil on the dried ink--dang, that looks pretty cool on its own!

Inked all the way around with just a combo of Indigo and Cranberry.

Tip: Indigo eats every other color you use, so apply it sparingly!

Once again, my ink-to-sponge ratio was a bit off, so my flowers bled a little...BUT one portion was salvageable!

Now I have a pretty little embellishment to add to a later work :)

And if nothing else, you can use the tools to add dimension to the backgrounds of your works!

Just squeezy-squeeze a bit onto your Sofft Tools...

Apply in a random fashion...

And then ink as normal! Since that layer dries before you apply your other inks, they still show through--even from under other inks!

Tell me about your favorite alcohol ink techniques!