Sun, sea, sand and alcohol

With the sweltering heat no wonder we are thinking of holidays in the sun at Country View Challenges….

I wouldn't recommend throwing alcohol in the mix, but hey, I had to try my new supplies, fresh out of Tim Holtz' release. I tested the Alcohol Lift Ink and I am now sharing the results of my experiments.

For those who haven't watched Tim' video, Alcohol Lift Ink is an ink that will allow alcohol inks to be lifted from a non porous paper, such as Yupo, acetate or metal, and transferred to a porous card, using a stamp, stencil or other mark making tool (bubble wrap, string etc...). Think of it as a colourless Archival ink.

You may ask yourself do I need it? Well for myself, I'm glad I have it in my arsenal as it does extend considerably what I can do with my underused alcohol inks. After my experiments, I have also decided that the Alcohol Lift refill is a must, not only to refill the pad but also to work with stencils.

For my first experiment I created an alcohol background and stamped one of the Retro Beach image from Rubber Dance with the new ink and transferred it to standard card.

I did it 3 times and my advice is, in order to get the best result, rather than dabbing at the stamped Yupo with kitchen roll or similar, blot with a sheet of paper (copy paper) with the flat of your hand instead, you will be less likely to smear the image left behind by the ink.

On the photo you can see the Yupo paper after it has been stamped with the Alcohol Lift ink, the paper I used to blot (the image is of course reversed) and the card I transferred my image to.

Next I tried the ink on glossy paper, it's not recommended but I had to see with my own eyes. The effect is similar to a watermark and there is no significant "lift". You can barely see the image in this picture:

The ink will not lift the Mixatives either, just the standard colours.

To test the ink with stencils, I smooshed the pad on a glass mat and picked the ink with a sponge to apply to the open areas of the stencil. The more you apply, the more colour is removed. Do wipe your sponge regularly on scrap paper when doing this.

I then wondered if the ink would be as effective applied ON the stencil and pressed onto the alcohol ink background. I thought the results interesting (right hand picture) but not as strong as I had hoped. The problem is that a lot of stencils aren't completely flat around the cut outs and often it's only the ridges that make contact with the paper:

Supplies:
All Ranger's Alcohol inks supplies can be found here
Stamp: Retro Beach by Rubber Dance
Stencils: Fibres by Visible Image and Weft Fabric and Numbers by Carabelle

Check out the inspiration created for you by my teamies on the blog and enter our challenge, you could win a £20 voucher to spend at Country View Crafts online shop.

I will be back on the Country View Challenges blog on the 25th to show you how I used the backgrounds I showed today, but all month long I will be posting Seaside inspired makes as I will be sharing samples I made for an upcoming Hochanda show. This is a first for me so I am very excited!

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday, Artistic Stamper and Rubber Dance Forever challenges.