~ Growing in Unity ~ Day Five ~ Alcohol Lift-Ink

Hello! I can't believe that it's my last day being the Growing in Unity gal... I'm so bummed, but I'm really excited to share my fifth Source of Inspiration... Technique!

There are so many techniques out there to try in our paper crafting world. 

Most recently Tim Holtz released a new fun ink called Alcohol Lift-Ink that can literally lift the ink from a background piece created using alcohol ink on Yupo card stock AND you can then stamp on regular card stock transferring that ink from the stamped background. (I hope that makes sense. For more details do a search for Alcohol Lift-Ink on YouTube. Tim Holtz shares a wonderful tutorial on how to use this ink). Let's check out what I created, shall we?!

I have to admit, I'm new to alcohol inks... but I've found them very forgiving. What I mean by that is, if you don't like how your background is going you can literally paint some rubbing alcohol over it and just basically start over. In fact, I did this with this piece. The background wasn't flowing how I wanted... it was more splotchy and really not the direction I wanted it to go. So I got my paint brush and my jar of rubbing alcohol and painted all over the piece. I blended the colors of the alcohol ink and really just softened it. From there I was able to add more alcohol ink and using a blending tool with the mini applicator felts I could move the ink around the way I wanted.

For this background, I used Turquoise, Willow, and Butterscotch Alcohol Inks with some Mixative Copper. Now, for the fun Alcohol Lift-Ink technique... I stamped the gorgeous background stamp from the Everlasting Romance set using the Alcohol Lift-Ink and then stamped it again on white card stock. I set the white card stock aside for my second card and dabbed my alcohol ink background with a paper towel. Once I had dabbed it enough so that the ink didn't appear wet, I gently rubbed the background with the paper towel. This process really makes the stamped image pop. I then stamped a portion of the sentiment from the He Will Sustain You stamp set by masking it off. 

While learning how to do this technique, I saw a video by Jennifer McGuire where she cut the background piece similar to this. I loved how it looked but found that a white card base didn't work for this background, but copper did! Before I adhered this to my copper card stock... I pulled out the heart stamps from the God's Sight set. I laid out the background pieces on my mat similar to how they would be on the card and then stamped them with a gold ink (I don't have a copper ink, sadly.)... almost making the hearts look broken. 

I die cut a stitched rectangle piece of Tonic Pearlescent Card - Cosmic Copper and adhered my cut pieces of my background leaving a bit of space in between for the copper card stock to peek through. I wrapped the panel several times with copper metallic thread that I adhered on the back using scotch tape. I then punched a hole and added an antique brad from my stash. I popped up the whole panel using foam tape and adhered it to a Vintage Cream card base. In the picture above, you can see some of the detail in the background and also the hearts that I had stamped. That's it for my first card using this technique. Now onto card number two...

I wanted this card to be more simple... I started with the white card stock piece from the Alcohol Lift-Ink technique. Isn't that just beautiful?! I really loved how it turned out, but I wanted to also use the other stamps in the God's Sight stamp set. I stamped the girl using Old Paper distress ink and then I stamped the sentiment using Gina K's Black Amalgam ink.

I added a few drops of Nuvo Silver Lining drops... sadly one of my drops got messed up a bit, but I think it still turned out lovely overall. 

I had so much fun creating each and every card for you all this week. I sure hope that you've enjoyed my creations this week and that maybe I've helped you find more Sources of Inspiration.

Be sure to leave a comment on each of my GIU blog posts for a chance to win one of two fabulous grab bags of 25 stamps from Unity Stamp Company!!! You'll have until Sunday to comment on each post and then I'll pick two winners on Monday.

You can check out my other GIU days:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal