Friday, December 3, 2010

Christmas Project #1 - Vintage Ornaments

I found this concept at the Christmas with the Cricut blog from a lady who made the most beautiful ornaments using the Ranger Alcohol Inks. I've been eyeing those inks for a long time (and those of you who know me, know I am a product/technique/tool junkie) so they finally gave me the reason I needed to go buy some. Bonus!

So for my version, I swapped the Cricut vinyl for some Hamby Rub-ons (Yay Hambly!) and went to town creating my own vintage ornaments. When I gave them away last Christmas, many people thought they were store-bought, no one believed they were handmade!

 Vintage Alcohol Ink Ornaments

Want to make your own? Here's a supply list:
  • Alcohol Ink Applicator (Ranger)
  • Alcohol Inks (color + a shade of brown or two high-contrast shades of the same color)
  • Alcohol Ink Blending Solution (for cleaning off any mistakes, or the table)
  • Alcohol Ink pearl mixatives (optional, but gives it a pretty shine)
  • Glass ornaments (I purchased mine at Michaels)
  • Gloves (vinyl/latex)
  • Glass cleaner/rubbing alcohol
  • Paper towels
  • Rub-ons (use high-quality, super sticky ones -of course I recommend Hambly) OR, Cricut vinyl and the cartridge(s) of your choice
  • Ribbons, wired beads, Bazzill tulle, wired berries, etc. for the top

Here are a few tips from my ornament making experience:
  1. If you don't like how it's coming out, you can just go back over it. The wet ink on your applicator will redistribute what's already dried on your ornament.
  2. If you really, really don't like how it's looking, you can use the alcohol ink blending solution to remove what you've already applied and start again.
  3. Adding the metallic mixatives comes out really cool! (Apply it with the other 2 colors)
  4. These inks stain... PERMANENTLY so wear gloves and old clothes and don't do it over any furniture that you'd really like to keep...or any surface that you'd like to keep for that matter.
  5. If you do get some on a hard surface like formica, you can use the alcohol blending solution to remove it, but there will likely still be a residual stain.
  6. It's addictive! I'm already thinking of vases and other things to apply this technique too!

If you want to seal your ornaments, here are some tips from inkyheart:
  • Use Creative Imaginations' Super Seal. It's an acrylic-based sealer so it won't mess with your pretty alcohol ink work and mimics the surface it is sprayed upon... so it doesn't change the look of your work either. I've used it on transparencies and acrylic as well as paper.
  • This sealer works well for Ranger and Copic Alcohol inks.
  • FYI: Most spray sealers have propylol (or some other alcohol ---lol) and those will make the ink 'dance' and especially mess up detailed images that you may have colored in (think mud puddle); so don't use Krylon for alcohol ink work, unless you are going for a crazed look. I've actually done that on purpose for my domino-based jewelry pieces.

That's it. Have fun creating your own and post a comment to share your creations!

No comments: