Weekend workshop ......

Happy Thursday .....

Looking forward to the weekend ..... I know I am.
Before all that though I want to share with you what we got up to last weekend, when I had a group of ladies round and we spent the afternoon playing with alcohol inks.

Alcohol inks are not something that I've used that much ...... they've been in my stash forever,  just not really got around to playing with them.
I kept things simple .... just used the inks onto glossy cardstock (I used the Clarity Chromo card) using different techniques to apply them

Using one of the Ranger Applicator tools and felt we started off by applying a few drops of alcohol ink onto the felt, using two of three different colours, a few drops of blending solution and then just pounced the ink onto the card, moving the applicator tool around a little to get a more random, marbling effect.

Next we put some drops of ink onto a craft sheet, again using two or three colours, added quite a bit of blending solution and then took a piece of glossy card and 'smooshed' it through the inks until the card was covered.

Finally we tried an ombre effect using just one shade of ink at a time.  We applied the alcohol ink onto the felt along with some blending solution and then swiped the colour across the glossy card, gradually going darker with the shades of ink.

Some of the colour combinations were gorgeous and it was nice just to have a play and see what happened.

Then it was onto making some of the inked pieces into cards.  

I'd seen a gorgeous design on Pinterest (as you do when you spend the morning browsing!) by a lady called Jacqueline from Jacqueline's Craft Nest.  She'd made a gorgeous Christmas design using alcohol inks and embossing, and then cut her piece into squares to make a grid card ........ which I thought would be a great idea for a workshop ..... it would get them all thinking about design and layout and get them working with their trimmers, or knives/scissors, cutting all the squares equally. No cheating using dies here!! 

So here's what I came up with ...... 

We started off with something simple ..... just three pieces.

Alcohol inks for the background, then stamped and embossed on the top using Versamark ink and White and Gold embossing powders. 

The good thing about alcohol inks is that they dry immediately .... no waiting or heating required.  

It's a good idea to use an anti-static bag over the card before stamping, just as you would normally when using embossing powders.  A quick dust over, stamp your image and then use your embossing powder.  I used my favourite Penny Black stamp ..... blush, first with the white embossing powder, then again over the top with gold ...... dusting each time with the anti-static bag in between stamping

I then cut it into three equal pieces and mat them onto a piece of black card which I think makes the whole thing pop!

A simple sentiment on the front 

And a smaller version of the stamp on the inside 

Next up we did six pieces ........ and used a large stamp over the whole of the coloured card

I'm not sure of the name of this stamp but it's by Hero Arts and it's a lovely large script stamp with butterflies on 

I simply stamped the image over my card and then used white powder over half of it, and gold on the rest.

I then cut it into six squares and rearranged them a little to add a bit more interest ...... mixed up the white and the gold ......

I punched a little accent piece from a bit of leftover card and added a simple greeting to the bottom

To finish the afternoon we went for nine squares ..... this is my favourite I think

This got them all thinking .......... I found the easiest way to do this was to cut my nine squares from the coloured card and then do my stamping.

I did stamp over two or three squares at the same time ..... the script was done like that, and the flowers. Then some were embossed in white and some in gold.

I used a mixture of stamps ...... the script is from Stampin Up! I love this large background stamp ..... unfortunately I think it's been retired.  The bird is from Hero Arts  ......  a cling stamp called Timely Bird.  The flowers are from Penny Black ..... ebullient and there's also a Kaisercraft stamp on there called simply 36 ....... figures!

They all had great fun mixing up their squares and deciding on the layout of their stamped images .... the key is don't think about it too much though, you want it to appear random.

I added a stamped sentiment to the front, and another little punched accent piece to finish off

I love how these turned out ......  the design possibilites are endless.  It's a good way of using small stamps too as well as the larger ones.  I'll definitely be repeating some of these .... thanks Jacqueline!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.

And if you're celebrating Easter then have a great time .... enjoy the holiday break.

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx