ENAMEL BACKGROUNDS

This background is a combination of painted cardstock, clear UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) and black acrylic paint.  The colour that you see showing through is the initial paint colour that is applied to the card stock.  Then clear UTEE is applied all over, some of the UTEE is brushed off (into a bin) and then heated.  Black paint is then applied all over, let sit for a few minutes to dry slightly, then wipe off with a combination of dry paper towels and a baby wipe (if you wish to wipe more of the black off).  The black settles into the un-embossed areas creating the look of pitted enamel.

"End Task"...

"Face your problems"...

"No desire"...

"Birthstone"...

"Pause"...

PEARL ALCOHOL INKS

Alcohol Inks are one of my favourite mediums.  There are so many different surfaces they can be used on  -  Yupo, Gloss Card, Black Gloss Card, Silver Mirror Card, certain Photo Papers, Acetate, Glass, virtually any non-porous surface.  For this class, I wanted to test the Pearl Alcohol Inks with the same substrates.  The Pearls don't play nicely with alcohol (91%) which is what I use with my normal Alcohol Inks, they require the Blending Solution to get them to spread and not go granular and clumpy.  But, I have found that the Pearls do work on Neenah card stock, which is a porous surface!  You don't get the flowy blended look that you do on non-porous surfaces, but because the Pearls have the sheen in them, that actually shows up on the white Neenah card stock.  My sample below, "Results", is on Neenah.  Unfortunately, once again the computer doesn't show the shimmer of the alcohol ink but if you have some, give it a try on plain white card stock.  The shimmer is beautiful!

"Become"...

(Kirkland Photo Paper, a combo of normal

alcohol ink & Pearl, a piece of

Mica has been added over the picture)

"Hug a tree"...

(Black gloss card, Pearl alcohol inks only, with 

Posca white & black markers for the

trunks on the trees)

"If lost"...

(Yupo, Pearl alcohol inks only)

"Live in colour"...

(Kirkland Photo Paper, Pearl

alcohol inks only)

"Results"...

(Neenah, Pearl alcohol inks only)