Last night I was working on making a bunch of these pins for an upcoming craft show and decided to do a batch with alcohol ink backgrounds. In the process, I discovered something I think is pretty cool that you can do with alcohol inks and rub-ons. As I applied my rub-ons to my inked metal piece, I felt like my design got kind of lost in the back ground. I knew that the alcohol ink solvent would remove the ink so I started tinkering with it trying to remove some ink from around the rub-on. In the process, I discovered that the rub-ons make a great resist. Here is how to do it:
To start off I took a sheet of thin metal (I use sheets from Making Memories) and colored it with an assortment of alcohol ink colors.
I trimmed my sheet to the size I wanted and chose a rub-on to fit. (This one is an older one from 7 Gypsies.)
Apply the rub-on as usual.
Pour some alcohol ink solvent into container. It will get muddied up really quickly so don't use a lot at a time.
Dip a fine tip paint brush into the solvent and paint it over the areas that you want to REMOVE the ink color from. Try to use a fairly dry brush so that you won't end up with puddles of the solvent on your piece. The rub-on will help contain the solvent to the area that you are working in. Depending on the size of the area you are cleaning out and the amount of layers of ink your metal has, you may have to make several passes over the areas until they are completely clean.
Clean your brush frequently through the process. When the solvent gets muddied up, dump it and get fresh solvent. If you use it when it gets muddy, it will transfer color back onto your piece. I recommend keeping a small piece of cloth or inking felt nearby to blot your brush onto to keep your brush from being too wet.
Once you have the color cleaned out, you could stop there. . .
or use a dry brush to pick up drops of alcohol ink and use it like paint to fill in the cleaned areas with solid color.
On pieces with large amounts of color to remove, I found it helpful to remove the color in several passes, cleaning my brush between each pass, repeating until the area was clean. I also found it helpful to work from the center out, kind of pushing the color toward each sections edges.
On this piece I layered two different rub-ons by applying the first one and then cleaning out the center area.
I then applied a second rub-on to the cleaned area.
To accent the lettering, I used a Copic marker fine tip to add a touch of color. (These rub-ons are also an older 7 Gypsies set.)
On this piece, I again re-painted this piece using a dry brush dipped into drops of alcohol ink. I brushed it on in thin coats in multiple layers, adding more layers in areas that I wanted extra emphasis of color in. (This rub-on is an older BasicGrey set.)
I added extra detail of a pearly white Smooch ink to the center of the flower.
I applied the metal pieces to my decor piece, in this case a wooden block the spiral photo holders that I found for $1 each on clearance at Michaels.
I coated the face of the metal piece with Glossy Accents in a really nice thick coat. It takes several hours to dry. You wouldn't really have to do this to seal it, I just happen to really love the depth it gives the design. It really makes the ink colors come alive.
After it is dry, the piece will have a nice glass like layer that will protect it and provide extra interest.
