Alcohol Ink Colour Swatch Book...

Hi, Mandy here.

I've made myself a 'Colour Swatch Book' for my new collection of Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks, using a CD holder...

 

I  was really blessed to get several bottles of alcohol ink from ebay as a birthday present  (I am a very lucky girl).  They came in sets of three with names like 'Rustic Lodge' & 'Tuscan Garden' .  I decided to make a 'swatch' of the inks because it's a bit hard to tell from the bottle, or their names, what the colour looks like exactly (take 'mushroom' for example!?!)   I'm also keen on inking onto see-through acetate at the moment to make my own scrapbook embellishments, so I wanted to know the exact colour when it's see-through.  This needed to be a really simple system, nothing fancy, so my swatch pages look like this...

 
The pages are made from CD envelopes.  First off I dabbed an ink swatch onto the outside of the see-through plastic envelope.  I wrote the name of the ink onto a piece of white paper & slipped it into the envelope together with the name of the set of inks (the above set is 'Cottage Path').   Then I inked a 'Rummikub' tile which are cream not white.  Into the back of the CD envelope I am going to store the felt pads for each colour...

 
Next I used my cropodile to punch each page in the top left corner & threaded the pages onto a large jump ring.  I want to be able to swivel the pages to compare the colours from different sets...

The cover of the CD book was black fabric and I wanted to somehow use alcohol inks to decorate it.  Well, I had already been playing about with the inks, seeing how they looked on metal & had made the sample below. It's made from a flattened out aluminium drinks can.  

 
As you might expect it was extremely sharp as I was cutting it out but I do like the effect. So, for the book cover I cut out a heart shape and decided to sew it to the cover by punching a few holes with my cropodile...

 
  ...and setting eyelets into the holes.  I then used embroidery floss to sew the heart on...

 

Next, I wanted to have a title on the book saying 'Alcohol Ink' but I'd already rejected the idea of stamping letters onto the inked metal because it didn't show up very well when I tried it (even with my fave black STAZON ink).  So I thought about sewing letter beads onto the cover, which actually ended up threaded onto wire, hanging from the jump ring.  I coloured the white letter beads with some matching alcohol ink holding them with tweezers...

 
I used some old Making Memories turquoise wire & threaded up the letters with other glass beads...  

Here's a close up of the hanging beads and ribbon tied to the jump ring...

I'm know I will use this colour swatch book and I tell you what....alcohol inks are fabulous fun! 

Bye now,

Mandy.

Comments

[Debbie Roberts]

I love this idea, and I am glad I am not the only person who likes to organise their craft things like me. (My friends often laugh at the things I organise)

Off to buy some CD envelopes

Debbie x

[Eleanor]

I too love this idea, although I have no alcohol inks. The heart is stunning, I had no idea you could obtain such beautiful results on metal.
E
xx

[Carmen]

Another one loving this idea - I've never really gotten into alcohol inks but love that heart.

[Suzanne]

This is just fabulous! Loving the heart and stitched detail. I'm very impressed by your organisation too - mine are all just bunged into a really useful box!

[Crafty Mom]

OK. That. Is. AWESOME! I'm totally going to make one of these! I just started using alcohol ink.

[Scrapdolly]

Totally awesome

[Jaqui]

WOW Fantastic!! Jaqui x