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My Ranger Alcohol Pearl Inks finally arrived! I missed the initial order and they were on back order for soooo long. Ranger has had alcohol inks for years and, in order to make them shiny, I had to mix in additives. These pearl inks are amazing because the shine is already in them! It is very hard to capture the pearly shine in the photos. If you aren’t familiar with Alcohol Inks – they are inks, that when mixed with a blending solution, move on the paper…..there are so many techniques it isn't even funny!

One of my favorite things to do is sit and make a bunch of backgrounds at once. Once they are made I then decide what to do with them. I made a TON of examples for you using Alcohol Pearl Inks.

There are 12 Alcohol Pearl Ink colors – and they are just yummy. They come in sets of 3. Set #1, Set #2, Set #3 and Set #4. You can make the colors bright and vibrant or soft and subtle. You also need Yupo cardstock. There is a new heavy weight one now too. And a silver one!! (I will have a post using the silver soon!) Yupo cardstock is not paper – it is a plastic. The reason you want plastic is so the ink moves around the paper. I am not going to go into the techniques today – I need a video camera for that. Tim Holtz is demoing the Alcohol Pearl Inks in this video.

I will show you all the cards I made and hopefully inspire you to make a few yourself. To begin…..

For 2 of the cards, I used 2 different background stamps on Heavyweight Yupo paper. The heavyweight is nice when heat embossing – it does not warp as much as the regular. The background on the left is My Favorite Things Garden Flourish and the right is Honey Bee Ocean Borders. I put the paper in my Misti, brushed with em bossing powder, stamped with Versamark ink, and heat embossed with Hero Arts Ultra Fine Clear Embossing Powder. I then put the alcohol inks on top of the embossing.

These are all the different backgrounds I made.

After coloring, for a few of the backgrounds, I used a background stamp, heat embossed with Brutus Monroe Alabaster embossing powder. I used Versamark ink and a powder bag (I used that before embossing). I then cut them down to card size. All the cards are A4 size (4.25 x 5.5). Some are side fold and some are top fold. It just depends on the orientation of the design. The background above is The Stamp Market Criss Cross.

I used Gina K Black Amalgam Ink for all the sentiments.

For this card I used The Stamp Market Hello Die. I cut out and glued together 3 layers of Neenah 100# heavyweight card stock. I love the dimension that 3 layers give me. I also used the Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words Stamp Set.

I used the Simon Says Stamp Leafy Frame. The sentiment was stamped with Simon Says Stamp Sending and Wishing stamp set with Simon Says Stamp Audrey Blue ink.

The background was stamped with the Birch Press Shining Mandala Background Stamp. I heat embossed it with Brutus Monroe Alabaster powder using Versamark ink and a powder bag (before embossing.) I die cut ‘thanks’ 3 times out of white card stock using the Birch Press Big Thanks Sugar Script Die. I used Simon Says Stamp Thankful Heart Stamp Set for the sentiment. I used Ellen Hutson’s 40# vellum.

I used the Lawn Fawn Quilted Back Drop for the background. Because I used the heavyweight yupo paper it did not cut thru the paper – a happy accident! I then cut the leaf from The Stamp Market Botanical Beauty (2 layers). For the sentiment I used Simon Says Stamp/CZ Designs You Got This stamp set. Colored with Tombow Real Brush Markers – #761 & #873.

The back ground is The Stamp Market Criss Cross. Brushed with an embossing bag and heat embossed with Brutus Monroe Alabaster powder and Versamark ink. The Stamp Market Hey die cut (3 layers) and Ellen Hutson 40# vellum behind the die cut. Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words for the sentiment.

The Stamp Market Paper Hug die cut. 3M foam tape behind it to pop it up.

On top of the Alcohol Pearl Ink Background I used the Altenew Tiny Bubbles Stencil. I used Alcohol Lift Ink with a Ranger Applicator and foam pad. I then rubbed the background with a paper towel to remove the excess Lift Ink. I love that technique and the layers it gives me. The Paper Hug words were leftover from the card above (never throw anything away!) using The Stamp Market Paper Hug dies. I stamped the inside with The Stamp Market Hand Stamped stamp set.

This is an example of a vibrant background! I used the Simon Says Stamp Clustered Leaves die with Ellen Hutson 40# vellum. The stamp set is Simon Says Stamp Hand Lettered Encouragement. I heat embossed it with Brutus Monroe Alabaster powder and cut out the circle with Hero Arts Infinity Circle Dies. The jewels are Little Things Tangerine Mix and Raspberry Mix.

I heat embossed the Honey Bee Ocean Borders background with Hero arts Ultra Fine Clear embossing powder before I colored with the inks. The die cut is The Stamp Market Hey and the sentiment is Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words.

My Favorite Things Garden Flourish was heat embossed with Hero Arts Ultra Fine Clear before I did the background. The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp/CZ Designs This too Shall Pass Stamp Set. I used Hero Arts Gold embossing powder, Ellen Hutson 40# vellum and Little Things Pale Emerald Diamonds.

This is another example of trying to die cut but the heavyweight Yupo paper did not cut thru – I do like it tho. The heart is Simon Says Stamp Heart of Flowers die. Hugs is Birch Press Sugar Script Big Hugs die. The sentiment is Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words.