Alcohol Inking Embossed Aluminum Foil


In last week's post, I used my Cuttlebug to emboss layered aluminum foil. I loved the way it turned, but I thought I could make the foil even better. So I grabbed my alcohol inks and craft mat and tried out a few different techniques.


I always thought this embossing folder looked a bit like a sun, so I picked out my yellow, orange and red inks and started stamping in layers. The section was the sun, stamped in, appropriately enough, Sunshine Yellow. Next was, Sunset Orange, then Terra Cotta and Watermelon Red at the top. I added the colors to the felt applicator and stamped each layer until I got good coverage.


After I pulled the felt off of the applicator, I noticed it still had a fair bit of ink on it, so I rubbed it with my thumb over this next piece of foil. Of course rubbing the felt onto the foil with your fingers will mean that your fingers get full of ink (so wear gloves or be prepared to have some vaguely red fingers for a day or two--most of it does come off with rubbing alcohol, but usually not all of it), but it also means that you can get into the nooks and crannies of the embossing better. Once I rubbed the felt all over the foil, I had a nice pinky orange base to start with.


Since I had a base color, I didn't have to worry as much about coverage and could stamp just for color. I added some bright ink colors to my applicator and stamped away until I liked the way it looked.


I liked the result of rubbing the ink, so I tried it with the felt still on the applicator this time on one of the die cut pieces. All of the colors mixed together to make a nice pinky purple, but the settling in the lower areas wasn't as pronounced (of course this could be in part because the embossing has bigger open spaces).


So next I decided to take the color rubbing to the next level with an ombre effect. I started with Mermaid, in the middle of my foil. I dripped four or five drops of color onto my felt applicator and rubbed it across the middle of the foil until it had good coverage. Then I grabbed a clean felt and applied Clover to the top of the foil. Lastly I used Stream on the bottom of the foil. I think this would work great with any color that you happen to have three versions of. You might be able to get away with starting with the light and adding to the felt like I did with the sun design above.


The only problem I had with this design was that the felt started catching on the raised areas of the embossed foil and tearing a little. Not enough to keep me from finishing, but enough to have to stop a couple times and pull little pieces of felt fluff off of the foil.This one has lots of raised bumps, so a simpler emboss probably wouldn't have that problem.

Some of these foil pieces will end up on cards and I think some of them turned out so well that they'll be turned into little pieces of art. I'll post pictures when I finish them.

I didn't try any canned air or splatter techniques this go around, but if you have any other ideas for alcohol ink on foil, let me know in the comments and I'll be sure to try them.


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