Alcohol Ink Decorated Gift Bags


If you've been here before, you know I'm always looking for new surfaces to use alcohol ink on. So, when I was cleaning out my drawer full of gift bags and found these two white ones, I knew I had to try inking them.


I found two used white gift bags in my stash...I'm sure at least one of them is from our wedding (10 years ago), so it was definitely time for it to have a new life. Then I grabbed my craft mat to keep my table clean (parchment paper would work well too) and some canned air to go along with my alcohol inks.


I started out with the bag that was a little less glossy (more of a satin finish). I squeezed a stripe of sailboat blue ink onto the bag and sprayed it with a burst of air. The ink didn't spread much, but more than it would on say a sheet of cardstock paper, so I knew there was potential for the project.


I continued to put stripes of ink on the bag and blow them with canned air. I had a little pooling on the crease of the bag and a little bit of speckling from the spray. You may want to use the side of the bag that isn't creased and using a shield for the spray would help with some of the speckling. I layered on a little more ink before I finally called it quits on the first bag.


The second bag was a bit glossier, so I hoped that the ink would spread a little more. I used the same basic process, but instead of one line of ink at a time, I squeezed out a series of lines before spraying with the canned air. The ink sat on the surface of the bag a bit better and spread around a bit more with the canned air. I was also able to wipe of a smudge or two with a paper towel soaked in rubbing alcohol.


I layered on several cool colors of alcohol ink before I was satisfied, and then after that, I added some silver (visible in the finished project below).


I was very pleased with these as a proof of concept. If you're out shopping for gift bags to give this a try, the glossier the better. The white worked well, but I bet yellow or pink bags would do the trick too. I'm excited to find some new glossy gift bags so I can try out some other inking techniques--stay tuned!

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