Playing with – Alcohol Inks

I have these Alcohol Inks for about ten years! Thought it was about time I had a play.

I watched two Tim Holtz videos about how he uses them and gave it a go myself. Check them out on the Tim Holtz Blog.

I tried different papers to see how they react and they were all different. It has to be a glossy paper or something which does not let the ink sink in so I tried some parchment paper, photo paper, glossy white card, silver card and Yupo, which is designed specifically for use with alcohol inks.

The glossy white card and the photo paper were OK. They both absorbed the ink but did give some room to move the ink. The silver card was lovely and gave a nice base to the ink. The parchment paper was nice too. Yupo paper is definately the one which allowed the ink the most time to move. It is plastic based paper so the ink does not sink in. But I did like all the effects and its nice to be able to use paper you may already have in your stash.

Nice to know that despite the fact that the inks were over ten years old, they were still workable. The ink is not something which will go off – they will only evaporate if open to the air. So the fact that they all had secure lids were their saving grace!

I can’t believe it took 10 years for me to give them a go, but I am glad I did!