Inks have become a staple part of paper crafting life, and many of us will have a myriad of inkpads in our crafty stash. However, liquid inks can provide many of the same techniques we already love plus more and add a fun and unique element to our crafting!

Ink in a bottle has a lovely intense colour that can be dropped directly onto wet or dry surfaces to create beautiful abstract backgrounds where no two will ever be the same, but because they are in liquid form, they can also be watered down to pro a wide range of paler shades, ideal for using to colour images.

As well as using them on their own, you can add liquid inks to other mediums to give them colour. By mixing a drop with texture paste or gels, you can create your own coloured mediums, although you need to add them sparingly so as not to change the consistency too much.

Liquid inks can also be put onto other surfaces to print from. It is worth experimenting with different ways to pick the ink up, it could be a blending mat or gel plate, or they can be used on top of shaving foam to create a marbled effect.

The colours you have in your bottled inks can also be widened by mixing drops of colours together in a palette to make even more varieties. Keeping swatches of the colours you create is a good way of keeping track of what you did so they can be re-made in the future.

If you love using ink but haven’t yet tried bottled ink, they are definitely a versatile and fun product that works for both backgrounds and main images - well worth a try!

Happy birthday

Technique: Tye-dye effect

Materials
white 6”-square card blank
black & white cardstock
Cleverprints Cake stamp set
Crafters Companion Sweet Florals stamp set
kitchen paper
Clear WOW! Ultra Slow Drying Embossing Pad
TEXT{ures} Watercolour Ink Set Brights
White Superfine Ranger embossing powder
heat tool
string
gel medium

How to create

1 Follow the step-by-step guide to create the tie-dye effect on kitchen paper.
If your kitchen towel is more than 1 ply, separate it and stick one layer to a piece of cardstock using gel medium.
Once dry, cut the part of the design you want to use down to 5½”-square and layer onto the black cardstock.
Stamp the cake, candles and sentiment on black cardstock using clear embossing ink. Add white embossing powder and heat until melted.
Cut out all the elements and apply them to the tie-dye piece, then affix to a 6” card blank.

Do consider which colours to put next to each other and what you want to create, as they will blend together on the sections of your kitchen paper

How to… achieve the tie-dye effect with liquid ink

Take a sheet of kitchen paper and pinch in from the centre. Tightly tie pieces of string at intervals around it.
Use the dropper with each bottle of ink to apply different colours onto the separate sections. Leave to soak through.
Leave to dry, then carefully cut away the string and open up the kitchen paper for a bright tie-dye result.

Over the moon

Technique: Galaxy background

Materials
white 5x7” card blank
white & purple cardstock
watercolour cardstock
vellum
Bee Crafty Over The Moon stamp set
Clear WOW! Ultra Slow Drying Embossing Pad
TEXT{ures} Watercolour Ink Set Brights
White Superfine Ranger embossing powder
white texture paste
Bee Crafty Cosmic stencil
palette knife
water spritzer
heat tool

How to create

Cut watercolour cardstock to 6x4” and spray liberally with water. Drop ink onto the wet cardstock, one colour at a time. Spritz with more water if required.
When dry, flick water across the cardstock and, after a few seconds, lift it off with tissue.
Put some white texture paste onto a mat and add one drop of blue ink, then mix them together.
Put the paste through a stencil using a palette knife.
When dry, stamp stars from the stamp set using clear embossing ink and then heat-emboss with white embossing powder.
Stamp and heat-emboss the sentiment in white onto a piece of white vellum and then wrap around the card panel.
Matt and layer the panel onto white, then purple cardstock, and add to a card base.

Only add a small amount of ink to the paste so as not to change the consistency too much

Celebrate

Technique: Create mica spritzers

Materials
black cardstock
watercolour cardstock
IndigoBlu Asia Marquet Circle Flowers stamp set
Crafters Companion Sweet Florals stamp set
Jet Black Ranger Archival inkpad
TEXT{ures} Watercolour Ink Set Brights
Pale Gold Cosmic Shimmer Mica Pigment
water spritzer
empty spritzer bottle
paintbrush
paint palette
black fine-line pen
3D foam tape
circle nesting dies
manual die-cutting machine

How to create

Create a shimmer spritzer by adding a couple of drops of blue bottled ink, a small scoop of mica pigment and about double the amount of water.
Swirl the ingredients together and then spritz across a piece of watercolour cardstock, Repeat using green ink and then allow the card to dry naturally.
Stamp the circle flowers on watercolour cardstock using Jet Black ink, then cut out.
Put a drop of each colour ink into a palette, then add a small amount of mica pigment to each. Colour the flowers using shimmery ink with a brush.
Cut out an easel base and mats and layers using circle dies and black cardstock. Cut out smaller circles from the spritzed background and layer them onto the card.
Stamp a sentiment onto the smallest circle and adhere to the card using 3D foam tape to form a stopper for the easel.
Add the flowers to the card and draw in some flower stems.

Create different strengths of spritzer by varying the proportions of ink, mica and water

Sending love

Technique: Use as watercolour

Materials
white DL card blank
black cardstock
watercolour cardstock
JMC Designs Garden Tots Dotty Daisy stamp set
Crafters Companion Sweet Florals stamp set
Jet Black Ranger Archival inkpad
TEXT{ures} Watercolour Ink Set Brights
paintbrush
pipette
paint palette
white gel pen
black fine-line pen
3D foam tape

How to create

Cut a piece of watercolour cardstock to 7½x3½”.
Mix together a drop of blue ink with water to create a pale blue colour. Brush all over the piece of watercolour cardstock.
Draw out five 1½” squares onto another piece of watercolour cardstock. In a palette, add one drop of pink ink and paint one of the squares.
Add two drops of water to the ink using a pipette, then paint the second square. Repeat this process until all the squares are painted, getting lighter each time.
Draw zig-zag lines around the squares, then cut them out and stick to the bottom part of the blue panel.
Stamp the flowers using Jet black ink and colour using inks that have been watered down in the palette. Create a purple by mixing pink and blue together. Cut out and attach to the card.
Stamp out the sentiment and layer onto black cardstock. Add to the panel using 3D foam tape, then matt the card front onto black cardstock, then the card blank.

When painting images with ink make sure that a colour is dry before adding another next to it to avoid them bleeding together

Wonderful birthday

Technique: Use with shaving foam

Materials
white pearl cardstock
watercolour cardstock
Cleverprints Cake stamp set
Bee Crafty Everyday Sentiments 2 stamp set
Jet Black Ranger Archival inkpad
TEXT{ures} Watercolour Ink Set Brights
shaving foam
paintbrush
paint palette
white gel pen
3D foam tape
scoreboard & scoring tool

How to create

Cut pearl cardstock to 5x11”. Score along the long edge at 3½”, 7” and 9” then concertina-fold.
Put some shaving foam into a container and level off the top. Drop ink colours of your choice onto the shaving foam, then, using a pointed tool, marble the inks to create a pattern.
Place a piece of watercolour cardstock on top of the foam and press gently, making sure the card has contact with the foam and ink.
Lift off the cardstock and remove the excess shaving foam. Once dry, cut the card into a 4½” square and 4½x1½” piece, layer onto pearl cardstock, then onto the stepper card base.
Stamp the cupcakes using Jet Black ink and cut them out. Using drops of the bottled ink, create new colours by mixing the ink in a palette, for example, one drop of pink with a drop of blue. Colour the images using the inks, then once, dry add white gel pen details.
Stamp the sentiment, then add all the elements to the card base.

Save 30% on the TEXT{ures} watercolour inks by heading to CraftStash and use the code CS10530!

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