This month’s theme is ‘archival inks’. I’ve just counted how many pads I have, and excluding the mini-Distress pads, I have 62 colours! Many haven’t been used for some time but are still in perfectly usable condition, which is great. It seemed time for them to shine and here’s what I did with them… I’ve worked on translucent Dura-lar on pages from my experimental ‘see-through-page’ journal (which I don’t seem to have posted about before…).
Planning and experimenting with the various techniques I wanted to try has meant I didn’t have time to create a video tutorial – apologies. Here are the making tips for each of the pages. Please note: most of the techniques involve moving around the archival ink with spritzed isopropyl alcohol. Keep your room well-ventilated, don’t smoke or use naked flames and try not to spritz in the wrong direction!
Tap the archival ink pads onto a non-porous surface (like a glass mat) in several places, putting other colours in between. Spritz with isopropyl alcohol until the ink is beaded and swimming in places. Smoosh the Dura-lar page into the ink, blending it and moving it around. You may need to re-ink or re-spray to get the ink colours to move around. Dry off with a heat tool. Repeat the process with different colours and then the original ones to get the mottled finish seen in my pic.
Overstamp areas with one of the colours (in this case, I used yellow) using a large background stamp to add interest. Stamp an image in the darkest colour and leave it to dry naturally – the edges will fuzz into the background.
Finally, stamp focal images/sentiments using black archival ink, drying them immediately with a heat tool to keep the edges sharp.
- Grafix Dura-lar 0.005 two-sided matte film
- Ranger Archival Ink – Wendy Vecchi: Violet / Garden Patina / Watering Can / Buttercup / Dandelion
- Ranger Archival Ink: Jet Black
- Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection cling stamps: Botanical & Batik [CMS327] / Classics #1 [SCF001]
- Stampers Anonymous cling stamps: Classics #17 [SCF017] / Classics #19 [SCF019]
- Ranger Mini-mister spray bottle for isopropyl alcohol
Things that didn’t work on this page: using alcohol hand gel to move around the ink (it worked, but left a layer of dry goo that peeled off); wiping that off with alcohol without leaving a stain; distress wax resist.
Apply two contrasting ink colours directly to the page, spritz with alcohol and then smear/dab the wet mess with your fingers to moosh it altogether.
Apply Distress Resist with a sponge through a stencil, leaving a portion of the page unembellished. Dry thoroughly with a heat tool and then smear the ink pad over the tacky stencilled surface. Whilst the ink is still wet, cover with superfine clear gloss embossing powder and heat set.
Add archival ink through another stencil using cotton buds and a dabbing motion. Aim to do this in an unembossed area. If the ink isn’t sticking, switch to Staz-on ink.
Overstamp with more images and a sentiment. Touch up with Posca paint pens. For the flower lowlights/highlights, I moved the stencil up a smidge and traced round the bottom exposed edges with black, and moved it down a bit and traced round with the white.
- Grafix Dura-lar 0.005 two-sided matte film
- Ranger Archival Ink: Vibrant Fuchsia / Vivid Chartreuse / Aubergine / Sun Dazed / Jet Black
- StāzOn solvent ink pad: Olive Green
- Ranger / Tim Holtz Distress Resist Spray
- WOW! Embossing Powder: Clear Gloss Superfine
- That’s Crafty Stencil: Daisies [TC7031] / Flourish [Tc8024]
- IndigoBlu cling mounted stamps: Nature 1 [N1]
This time, I added tiny weeny drops of archival ink reinker directly to the page, spritzed with isopropyl alcohol and smooshed it about with a paintbrush. Once that was dry, I spritzed with more alcohol to get a mottled finish.
Put some brown reinker on a non-porous surface and twist a aerosol can cap edge into it and then stamp rings onto the page. Do the same with a smaller cap (e.g. water bottle). Roll kitchen paper over the top to get rid of excess ink – without smudging it – and then heat set.
Stamp the other elements using black and the two other ink colours.
Finally, cover the whole thing with embossing powder, as before, and heat set it. This seals any sticky bits of ink.
- Grafix Dura-lar 0.005 two-sided matte film
- Ranger Archival Ink: Jet Black
- Ranger Archival Ink – Wendy Vecchi – pad and reinkers: Potting Soil / Orange Blossom
- Stampers Anonymous / Tim Holtz Collection: Faded Type [CMS397] / Spills & Splatters [CMS028]
- WOW! Embossing Powder: Clear Gloss Superfine