Alcohol inks on Mirror card

Well, the Black Hole that is Pinterest does actually yield some interesting stuff. Mind you, if I wanted to make everything I've pinned, I'd have to craft 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the next couple of lifetimes!  But still it sucks me in. However, today I spotted something, pinned it, and for once had a play with the idea there and then.  So to all of you now suffering biblical plagues and floods, sorry, my bad! The thing that caught my eye, was someone using alcohol inks onto what she called shiny card, for that read mirror card. Now I just so happen to have a Really Useful Box full of that stuff- bought back when I first started card making, and did a lot of decoupage. Always made a nice backing panel. Then I discovered stamps and ink, and was lost for ever. So if you have any of this knocking around, and don't know what to do with the stuff anymore, have a look-see at this.
I've got some plain 'pillars of light' style card, and some with patterns, so I thought I'd give both a try out. The tub of felts for the blending tool by the way- I bought a pack of felt sheets off e-bay and cut my own. A pack of 10 9"x9" squares cost me £4- the contents of that tub is from one square!
By the way, I give you fair warning now, this is a picture heavy post!

 For the first one, I tried out three of the new colours- Mermaid, Indigo and Honeycomb.

 Its not easy to show on here, but the effect is really amazing, a little bit like glass paint on a mirror.

 This next one is Purple Twilight, Raspberry and SailBoat Blue.

 Because of the holographic effect of the card, you get different colours depending on the light direction.





This is one of the pieces with stars in the foil- Poppyfield (another new colour), Pesto and Sunshine Orange were used here.

 This one used Raspberry, Wild Plum and Raisin, with a tiny bit of Black Soot added at the end.

 I thought the starry background would look good in night sky colours- Purple Twilight, Raspberry, Stream, Denim and Sailboat Blue.

       This combo is  Botanical, Honeycomb,(both new) and Sunshine Orange.

                                                


This one is Indigo, Poppyfield and Terra Cotta.

  

 The four completed panels.










             






And the three with the pattern.











Now I wondered how the plain ones would look with some embossing folder texture added.




















This is a Cuttle bug folder, Gears.





The second two are Tim Holtz folders.




 As is this one.

The four sheets, all embossed. You get a lovely deep reflective colour using this card, plus the bonus of changing shades depending on the light source.

Ink Blending pads for my new tools

Following along from making some new blending tools, I thought it would be cool to have some more blending pads,and as I have a couple of sheets of Cut n Dry foam, decided to give it a try.

 
It has two sides, a white one, and a grey, the white being the blending foam side.But the grey side is smooth, and won't stick to the Velcro. So I thought I would see if I could stick some felt to the grey side, which the Velcro would grip. I did this the other day when I made the blending tools, but needed to wait for the glue to dry to make sure it would stick ok, and not peel straight back off!
By the way, I'm probably the only person in the world who hasn't realised this, but I was reading the info on the back of the packet, and apparently you can heat the grey side, then press in onto a texture of some sort to make a stamp! Or into a rubber stamp to get a reverse image- how useful is that? Then just re-heat to get it smooth again, or make another stamp. Anyway, that's an experiment for another day.
 (I had some blue foam from the NEC a few years ago, that you could do that with- don't know what ever happened to that stuff.), and I know you can get it in sheet form from Hobbycraft stores,
called Magic Stamp foam by Penscore.

 I have some white felt I bought off e-bay, to cut up for Alcohol Ink blending pads (me, cheap?), so tried that first. It sort of worked- that is, it stuck ok, but wasn't a very 'fluffy' felt, so the grip with the Velcro was very iffy. Then I remembered I had some Red felt I got from a Hobbycrafts store, with the vague idea of using it for Christmas cards one year- (don't ask which year, even I can't remember that) maybe make little Christmas stockings? This is a thicker felt and a bit fluffier, so I gave it a go.

I had chopped up some Cut & Dry Foam in the past, to give me small pieces I could use,so I just trimmed these to roughly fit my new tools, then cut the red felt to the same sizes.

After a few trials, I went with normal PVA glue, and added a layer to the grey side of the Cut n Dry. Just a thinnish layer- enough to stick, but I didn't want it to soak through the felt and stop it gripping.


                                                       I put the felt onto the glue, flipped it over and pressed it down with a small acrylic block.  They all went to spend the night on the radiator, and when I tested them the next day, the glue held and nothing peeled off!
Its a bit thicker than the Blending Foams you buy,but as I didn't add foam to the tool under the Velcro, it probably works out about the same. I reckon I got about  35-40 pads from one sheet.You definitely need a thicker or 'fluffier' felt for the Velcro to grip.