Craft Project: Alcohol Ink Tiles Part 3: Mini "Masters" tiles

Working with the alcohol ink sort of reminded me of impressionist paintings in a couple ways. One, the way the colors blended together and two, the "quick" nature of the artwork. The Impressionists painted their images in a quick manner trying to catch the moment. Sort of moment (or movement) frozen in time. You have to work relatively quickly with the alcohol ink before it all dries. The way some of the colors blended together made me think of Monet's Waterlilies and this image below, "Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge" (1899).

(SOURCE)

I had come across this project for a tape resist of the bridge on The Crafty Classroom blog. Once I had experimented with tape resist on the tiles, I thought it wouldn't be too difficult to recreate a tile version of this painting.

I used Citrus, Sunshine Yellow, and Stream on the "green" portion of the tile. Using the Alcohol Blending Solution and the felt pad applicator.

I let that dry for a couple minutes and then I used a new felt pad to apply a mixture of Stream, Sailboat Blue, and one dot of Citrus. After covering the tile with that, I added one drop of Wild Plum to sort of put purple waterlilies in the water.

Let it dry for a bit, removed the tape, and Voila! Monet's Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge a la Alcohol Ink Tile.

My 8 year old wanted to know how I made the Monet tile, but didn't want to do the bridge. So here is her version. BUT, check out something else NEW we learned! Do you see those swirls in the blue??? Does that make you think of another famous artist and painting???

When she made those swirls, we both breathed in really quickly and looked at each other excitedly. She turned to me and said, "Van Gogh!!!" Yep! This inspired us to try and make a Starry, Starry Night tile.

 We put a drop or two of Sunshine Yellow ink on the tip of a Q-tip and just touched it to the tile to create the stars. She is planning to give this tile to her art teacher as an end-of-the-year gift. :-)

Though this next one she made wasn't intentional, it reminds me so much of Georgia O'Keefe's work!

Isn't it beautiful!

I began to think about what other artists' work would translate well to this process. Mondrian was easy enough. I just taped off some vertical and horizontal lines and used red, blue and yellow to fill them in. This one had a learning curve though. I had to redo the tile three times before i was happy with it. I figured out that by having a Q-tip ready when I filled in the smaller areas, I could soak up excess ink before it spread over the tape into the other shapes. I also did not use Alcohol Blending Solution for this, just straight ink on tile.

I think a Keith Haring tile might be fun. I came across this work by him:

(SOURCE)

I thought this could be translated pretty well. I made the tile with similar colors. Then I used a Q-tip dabbed with the Memento archival ink and drew the dancing people.

 I had to repeat the ink process about 4 times to end up with this:

I might have to try this one again sometime. It was REALLY hard to remove the alcohol ink where it was thicker, where two or more colors had mixed and settled. I think if I did this again, I might apply a lighter layer of ink applied with a Q-tip or something. Then, the stamp resist with the Q-tip would work out better. But it still gives a nice representation of Haring's painting.

I've also become familiar with Romero Britto's work recently. Super fun, bright and blocky! Perfect for this sort of project. I found this image:

(SOURCE)

I taped the bold lines off except for the wings. Applied the ink to the different areas. Then I used a Q-tip with one or two dots of the same ink on the top and created the pattern designs by running the Q-tip over the first layer of ink. No Alcohol Blending Solution was used for this tile. Once the background was done. I let it dry for a few minutes. Then I used a Q-tip dabbed with Memento Archival Ink to draw in the wings.

I rinsed the tile with water and the ink was removed (MUCH easier than the Haring tile).

 I removed the tape. Then I dipped a Q-tip in the StazOn black ink and drew with it on the tile over the tape lines. I tried to do one consistent line as much as I could. If I lifted up at all or went back over something, the ink lifted up a bit or wasn't quite as dark.

 And there you go! A Britto-inspired work on an alcohol ink tile!

What other artists do you think would be fun to try with this process???

Craft Project: Alcohol Ink Tiles Part 2: Children's Experimenting

After experimenting with the alcohol ink myself for a bit, I felt like I could do this project with my girls. I decided it was best to do it on a one-on-one basis with them though. I thought it might be too much to try and help both of them at the same time since you are sort of under time constraints with the drying of the ink and Alcohol Blending Solution. I also wanted to monitor the squeezing of the ink since it isn't exactly cheap. :-)

I started with my 8 year old and showed her the tiles I had created and asked her which "style" she wanted to try first. She picked the "bubbles" one. So I had her spread the Alcohol Blending Solution on the tile with a toothbrush and pick out three colors of ink.

She did a really wonderful job of listening to my instructions and not getting overzealous with anything. She was really thoughtful about where she placed the ink and was very patient to watch what happened when she put the dots on. It really is sort of mesmerizing to watch.

And here is her first finished tile:

 

Isn't it fun!

She really got into the PROCESS of this project. She LOVE LOVE LOVED trying different techniques and seeing the outcome. 

She really started experimenting with one tile. She decided to try the ink without any Alcohol Blending Solution. She played around with dropping the different colors into each other. And then, most impressive to me, she figured out that if you put drops of one color of ink on a Q-tip and rub it on a different color you can draw with it! See the swirls of new color in the photo below:

 

She taught me something about how the alcohol ink works! Her tile ended up a total muddy mess by the the time she was done experimenting. But we had learned a few new techniques so it was great! We just rinsed off the ink with the Alcohol Blending Solution and started anew!

She also tried out stamping on a couple of her tiles: 

Here are the tiles she created:

That last one on the right will be making an appearance in the 

"Masters" tiles post (Alcohol Ink Part 3). ;-)

(Edited to add the photo below. She decided to add a stamp to the blue/green tile)

After trying the project out with my 8 year old, I felt even more confident that my 6 year old could handle this project also. And she had some fabulous ideas as well! She started off with just dripping drops of ink on the tile. But quickly moved to taping her tiles. This first photo, she wanted to make a "snowflake" with the tape.

 And I have to admit I thought of doing a rainbow one, but she loved the idea and ran with it:

Here are her finished tiles:

GORGEOUS!!

(Edited to add: She made a couple more tiles yesterday. :-)

She kind of went overboard with the ink on one tile. When I was in the process of wiping it off so she could start over, she really liked the blue background. So we kept it!

 Aren't the flower stamps cute?!

Now, I bet you're wondering what the heck we're going to do with all these tiles?! We're going to coat/seal them to protect them (Alcohol Ink Part 4). We will attach felt or cork pads on the bottom to make into coasters and we plan to give them to some special ladies as Mother's Day gifts. I also plan to give each of their teachers one, along with a little painted flower pot as End-of-the-Year teacher gifts (Something along the lines of "Thanks for helping me "grow" and "coast" through this school year!").

Now, for something really fun....check out our Mini Masters tiles in the next post!

Craft Project: Alcohol Ink Tiles Part 1: Experimenting with Alcohol Inks

I first came across alcohol ink on Pinterest a few months ago. I saw these A-MAZING tiles from Aimee at Artsyville. I mean, how can you not want to make these after seeing those?! Aren't they gorgeous? I had no idea what alcohol inks were so I started doing some research on them and came across The Enchanted Garden. She has a great overview of uses and techniques with the ink. The downside to this project is that it requires supplies you generally don't have laying around your house and they are expensive to boot! A 3-pack of ink can range anywhere from $8-13. My advice is to buy the supplies over time long before you actually need them. Use Michael's and Joann's 40%/50% coupons to get something each week. The upside once you have all the supplies: you can make MANY MANY of these before you would ever have to buy more supplies. And the 4-inch by 4-inch tiles from Home Depot are ONLY 16 CENTS!

Supplies you will need:
Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks
Ranger Alcohol Blending Solution
toothbrush
tiles
protective table covering

Optional supplies:
Ranger Adirondack Applicator with felt pads
StazOn Solvent Ink Stamp Pad
Archival Ink Stamp Pad
Stamps
Q-tips

Tile #1: I couldn't wait to play until my alcohol inks arrived from UPS (I ordered them on Amazon). I had seen that you could tie-dye t-shirts by coloring them with permanent markers and then adding rubbing alcohol to them. So I colored some dots on the tile with permanent marker and then added some Alcohol Blending Solution. The result is very much like a watercolor image. Very nice color. I think this is a great technique if you want that look or if you want lighter colors (for stamping, etc). I also just played around with stamping on this tile. I haven't done much stamping in my life so I just wanted to play. I used the StazOn ink.

Tile #2: I applied Alcohol Blending Solution to the tile with a toothbrush. Then applied droplets of ink in the Citrus and Sailboat Blue. I found it works nicely if you apply one color and then wait a minute or two to apply the next color. You can use a Q-tip to help spread the ink around and to dab into white spots that remain. Lastly, I used blue StazOn ink to apply a stamp. But I don't really like how it turned out. I thought the color might be a bit darker blue. It just sort of looks messy. But I can't redo that part as I believe the StazOn is permanent.

Tile #3: I applied Alcohol Blending Solution to the tile with a toothbrush. Then applied droplets of the Watermelon ink to the tile. Remember your initial drops will spread out more and then as the Alcohol Blending Solution dries a bit, your drops will stay more circular instead of spreading out as much. I also used a Q-tip with a drop or two of the Alcohol Blending Solution on it to just barely touch the tile in some places. These are the lightest spots on the tile. Then I stamped with StazOn ink. you can tell I kind of stink at stamping as I didn't really center this properly. But oh well. ;-)

Tile #4: I used the Alcohol Ink Applicator for this time. I put droplets of ink (in Wild Plum, Sunset Orange and Sunlight Yellow) on the felt pad and applied a few drops of Alcohol Blending Solution to it and then stamped the whole thing on the tile. Putting the Alcohol Blending Solution on before stamping anything will give you a more blended, less marbleized look.

 

I let that dry quite a bit and then added one drop of each color to the tile. I dabbed the applicator over it once or twice and it gave it kind of a speckled look. I really like this one. I think it's fun!

Tile #5: I used the same technique as Tile #2 and #3 for this tile, using three colors of ink: Wild Plum, Butterscotch and Watermelon. I also used a q-tip to add a few lighter spots. I think this one turned out pretty darn cool! :-)

Tile #6: I used the applicator again for this tile. I used four inks: Sailboat Blue, Purple Twilight, Wild Plum, and Stream

I was going to just leave the tile like it was, but then, I came across a way to do stamp resist with alcohol inks. Let your tile dry for a bit--I left mine overnight, but I think an hour is probably fine. You stamp with regular archival ink (not the solvent StazON) onto the tile. I used Memento brand in black. Let it sit for a minute. Then gently run water over the tile. The water will remove the black stamp ink AND the alcohol ink beneath it. Do not rub the tile though, it might rub some of the alcohol ink off that you didn't want to remove.

Tile #7: As I was doing all this, I got to thinking. I wonder if you could do tape resist with these inks like we did when we created our tape-resist painted canvases. I had no idea if this would work or not. I wasn't sure if the ink would bleed right through the tape or what would happen. First, I cut the tape into very skinny strips and applied randomly to my tile.

Then I used the applicator to apply Wild Plum and Sunshine Yellow in only about six spots on the felt. I discovered the fewer dots of ink you use on the felt, the less "muddled" your tile will be.

I also only put a drop or two of the Alcohol Blending Solution on the pad after my initial application and stamped just minimally with that. I let the tile dry for a minute or two and dabbed off excess ink on the applicator pad on a paper towel. If you do this and stamp again with the applicator you can get little "bubbles" on your tile.

I waited a half hour or so and then pulled the tape off and I was delighted to see it worked!!! Oh so many possibilities with this technique! You can see in the photo that the ink does transfer just a bit under the tape. But I like the look of it.

Tile #8: Once I realized that the tape resist worked, it made me think of this Claude Monet Japanese Bridge project with tape resist. I decided to try a version of this on the tile. I LOVE how it turned out and I have been completely inspired to make more "Masters" tiles. I will be posting separately about this tile project and other Master-inspired creations in another post.

 

Now, that I did all this playing around and experimenting. I felt like I had a good understanding of how the inks worked and felt ready to tackle the project with my girls. I haven't sealed any of our tiles yet. But found a technique that I will be trying. I will also create a separate post on that process.

Links to related posts:

Craft Project: Alcohol Ink Tiles Part 2: Children's Experimenting

Craft Project: Alcohol Ink Tiles Part 3: Mini "Masters" Tiles

Craft Project: Alcohol Ink Tiles Part 4: Sealing and Protecting Tiles