Palette for Alcohol Inks

Today, following on from my Perfect Pearls palette, I made up my second Tim Holtz Ink Palette for alcohol inks, according to Christie’s tutorial on her blog. I don’t have as many alcohol inks as I do Perfect Pearls, so I only made two labels instead of four. If I ever increase my collection, it will be a simple matter to redo the labels.

Most of my alcohol inks are made by Jacquard Pinata – I got these as a set, much cheaper than the Adirondack ones, but on reflection, I think I would have preferred to have got all Adirondack ones, because this is what most people are using, and also the bottles have a much finer nozzle. However, I am stuck with them for now, and they work just as well. On my labels, I have added a “P” and an “A” to indicate whether the colour is a Pinata or an Adirondack ink.

These are the labels. As before, the straight lines are cutting guides. For full details, please see my post on the Perfect Pearls palette.

Here is the palette complete. Some of the inks are still not quite dry – I put quite a bit in and it takes a long time to dry, but they should all be dry by tomorrow.

Before I can use them, I need to get an Adirondack Alcohol Ink Fillable Pen, which I am going to fill with the blending solution, so that I can pick up the colours from the palette. Christie shows how you can do quite detailed work in this way. When I first got my alcohol inks, I didn’t use them that much, because although I like the effect of the traditional method of application – a few drops onto the felt applicator, and then dabbing onto the surface – I have always wanted a more accurate method, so that I could paint individual areas separately. This technique, with the palette and fillable pen, seems to be the answer. Christie shows how to paint onto shrink plastic, and then shrink it down to make delightful little charms etc. My idea is to make some Christmas decorations for sale at our next craft fair in November.