Sending Hugs and Happy Thoughts | Playing with Alcohol Ink Backgrounds

Hello!

Years ago, I purchased a set of Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks.  I used them a couple of times to color some different embellishments right after I bought them, and they've sat in a bin in my craft room since that time.  Frankly, they kind of scared me.  I imagined all sorts of messes that I wouldn't be able to fix.  But, lately, my Instagram feed has been filled with gorgeous alcohol inked backgrounds, and I finally decided it was time to give these pretty inks a shot.  I thought they would make a lovely background for the Mama Elephant Sending Hugs stamp set.   

I began with a piece of Yupo Paper.  I've never used this before, so doing these backgrounds was a complete experiment in how the inks and paper behaved.  For the background with the gold embossed sentiment, I applied the inks directly to the paper with no blending solution.  For the background with the white embossing, I applied Alcohol Ink Blending Solution generously to the background, before applying the inks.  Both backgrounds were a combination of Cloudy Blue, Aqua, and Juniper (in searching for the products to link to, I found that it seems the Juniper color no longer exists in the product line.  However, the Moss color which is coming, seems to be similar.  Another green tone may be substituted if desired).

I dropped the colors one at a time onto each background.  This was a fairly low tech process, as I simply added enough ink to create a puddle, and then blew on the project to move the ink around (a straw works as well).  Then I picked up my heat tool, and began heat setting the inks from a distance - slowly working my tool closer and closer to the project.  I noticed on the first background, that areas where the ink was strongest, and creating veins of color, were tacky longer than other areas.  That clicked in my head, and before they could dry, I grabbed a little gold foil, and pressed it into the ink.  The foil stuck to the tacky portions of the ink, and created this beautiful marbled effect.

I set the backgrounds aside to work on the sentiments.  For the first card, I heat embossed the large Sending Hugs from the stamp set in gold onto vellum, and then stamped the "and Happy Thoughts" in Black Amalgam Ink.  The vellum was wrapped around the card front.  For the second card, I stamped the Sending Hugs directly onto the background, and then heat embossed it in white.  I stamped the Happy Thoughts portion of the sentiment onto a scrap of Blue Lagoon paper, and again heat embossed it in white.  Both card fronts were added to white top folding card bases.  

I kind of love these backgrounds, and can't wait to play with the alcohol inks a little bit more.  It makes me a little sad that I've spent so long being intimidated by those little bottles.  Do you have a craft product that intimidates you?  
Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used**:

Use this easy list to find the products I used in my projects. (Contains affiliate links - where I earn a commission from purchases made from my links, at no cost to you. Your support helps me keep this blog going, and continue to create - Thank you! Affiliates and disclosures can be found here.) Please note, when possible, I try to offer multiple sources for the items I use. Products with two or more logos - underneath, or on the side, give you options of where to purchase, in case the item has sold out at one shop. To visit the first store, click on the photo of the item. To visit the second (or greater) source, click the logo for the second shop - you will still be taken directly to the product. 

**If a particular item I used was out of stock when I was preparing my post, or the item I used was discontinued, I have provided a link to a similar item - that is available - when a substitution would not affect the card design.