Alcohol Lift-Ink Tutorial

Just when we thought crafting couldn’t get any more fun, Ranger came up with a new product – the Alcohol Lift-Ink Pad and Reinker. This product has left many in awe due to its innovative nature. Of course, we had to explore it. We asked ourselves… what does it do, what effects can we achieve with it and what alternatives are there for those who may not have had an opportunity to get their hands on one.

You can get hold of alcohol lift ink on CraftStash

I’ve narrowed it and created a few simple cards. Each card showcases a slightly different way of incorporating the Alcohol Lift-Ink or its alternative. I’ve provided an explanation on how to recreate the inked background with the step-by-step photos, and then used this technique as the basis of each project.

If you are anything like me, you won’t be able to resist adding gold foil to any sticky residue on the inked background. I find it works best within a few minutes of drying the inky background and it adds extra interest to an already fabulously artsy background. This step is optional so don’t worry if you haven’t got any foil on hand.

Alcohol inks are meant to be used on a non-porous surfaces like Yupo paper, vellum or similar. This technique will not work with the Ranger Gloss cardstock, because it is porous. Equally it won’t work with a regular cardstock for the same reason. There are a few alternatives, which I also show within the feature. They might not give such a crisp results, but they do work well to a degree so worth trying them too.

The idea behind the Alcohol Lift-Ink is to apply it to a stamp of your choice, and then stamp it onto your alcohol-inked background, at which point the Alcohol Lift-Ink will react with the ink on the sheet and will ‘re-wet’ the area. It is at this point when you can dab the Alcohol Lift-Ink off to remove the colour, revealing the stamped image. Dab at first, then rub off the remainder. You don’t have to stop there either. Whilst you have this coloured inked-up stamp, stamp with it onto a regular cardstock to get an exact mirror image of the area you removed the ink from. How amazing is that?! What a perfect way to create two-for-one cards!

Or you can reuse on an inked Yupo sheet over and over just to stamp off onto white cardstock. You can do this as many times as you like and when you no longer have a decent inked area, simply wipe the Yupo with some alcohol or the Blending Solution and reink it. This means, you don’t get to waste the Yupo paper at all, which is an amazing bonus. And remember, there are no mistakes in this process… just happy accidents!