I’m participating in Altenew’s Video Hop, Background Bonanza this month, so you can pop over to my YouTube channel to check that out and get yourself in a drawing to possibly win prizes from Altenew.

But I created several cards and I wanted to share them here with more photos. For my background on all these cards I used alcohol ink, mostly Altenew’s, and synthetic paper. And that’s the trick to using alcohol ink, the paper. Regular paper or cardstock will just absorb the ink and won’t allow the ink to flow. But Yupo paper, Craft Plastic or alcohol ink art paper will allow the ink to flow and create swirls and interesting patterns on the paper. I use Tim Holtz Ink Air Blower to move the ink around the paper, but I’ve seen videos of people using a straw to blow through and direct the air. To get the ink flowing I use 91% Isopropyl alcohol, you could also use Tim Holtz Blending Solution. That is a more expensive option, and it can do things the regular alcohol can’t, but don’t ask me what. I’m not an Alcohol Ink expert. One thing I also used to create these backgrounds is leftover foil from using a heat foiling system: I use Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil System.

I sometimes have a hard time creating masculine cards. I like pinks and purples and flowers, not necessarily appropriate for a guy. So I made this card. I used Altenew’s Jet Black Alcohol Ink Refill for this card and used sliver highlights. You can see in the video below that there are silver highlights here and there. To achieve that I first squirt a generous amount of alcohol onto the synthetic paper. I move the alcohol around the paper until it fills most of the paper. Then I drop one or two drops of the Jet Black ink onto the paper and use the blower tool to move the ink around. I’ll add more drops of the plain alcohol as it drys to continue to move the ink around. I’ll also add a drop or two, if necessary of the ink. I want to make sure I have ribbons of ink here and there because those ribbons become sticky, and the foil paper will stick to those ribbons of ink. When you add the foil be sure to add it pretty side up. One thing I’ve learned with using alcohol inks is to be free with the result. I don’t start a project with an exact pattern in mind. I just blend and add plain alcohol until I like the result. In the video below you can see some of that veining and where the foil stuck to the paper.

I really love the way this card turned out. For the background paper I tried using a glossy photo paper. I had one just laying around my desk and I thought, “why not!” and it worked. I hot foiled the flower from Altenew’s Build-A-Flower: Wild Rose bundle on turquoise card stock that just happened to match my background pretty good. Then I used colored pencils to add the details on the flower. To make the flower dimensional I die cut two flowers, one with the hot foiling on it and one just plain. Then I carefully cut the outside petals off and glued them on to the plain flower. I added foam tape to the inside petals and adhered them to the center of the flower and made sure all the edges aligned. The middle photo on the bottom row was what the flower looked like before I cut it apart. the last photo show the flower popped up afterwards.

The next photos show the ribbon effect the best, I think.

Last 2 cards to share.