Fern So Special Alcohol Marker Background Card

Learning a new technique is always exciting and I'm so happy to have learned a technique that produces lovely backgrounds using vellum, alcohol ink markers and alcohol!  Linda Bedinger has this great video tutorial on YouTube demonstrating the technique.  Even better, I didn't need to buy a ton of stuff to get started with the technique - I just had to buy a bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol.  I've never used alcohol inks before but I have used alcohol markers for colouring so to be able to use my markers to achieve the background effects is fabulous!

Kelly Acheson also has this fab video showing the technique and she shares some tips as well.  I learned from Kelly that the higher percentage alcohol is so much better to use because the vellum doesn't curl up.  I only had 70% alcohol and when Kelly used that the vellum curled up so much and couldn't be made to lie flat.  So I ordered a bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol, impatiently awaited for it to arrive and the day it came I headed straight to my craft room to play!

Here's the card and envelope together.

Here's the card.  I used Bermuda Bay CS for the card base and the sentiment label.  For the alcohol ink background I scribbled Dark Bermuda Bay and Dark Highland Heather Stampin' Blends markers randomly on a piece of vellum CS using the brush tips.  I poured a small amount of alcohol into a jar and dabbed it onto the vellum using a small flat paintbrush.  This is my first attempt at the technique and I was chuffed to bits that it turned out so well!  I stamped the fern image from the SU! 'Positive Thoughts' set in VersaMark and heat embossed the image with silver embossing powder - and I did the same with the sentiment.  I zigzagged some Gorgeous Grape sheer ribbon and popped up the die cut label over the top.  To finish off I added three purple Glitter Enamel Dots to the label.

Here's the inside of the card.  I needed to trim my vellum piece for the front of the card and I had a leftover strip so I applied that to my white panel.  I stamped the sentiment in Highland Heather ink.

Here's the envelope simply stamped with the beautiful fern image.

I couldn't stop at just one card, I had to try using different colours. The alcohol I decanted into a small jar got discoloured with the inks so I thought I may as well use that to make more cards using similar colours so the alcohol wasn't wasted!  So far I've made four alcohol background cards and I'm itching to make more.  I could be obsessed and I may need to buy a bigger bottle of alcohol!

Supplies:

Stamps: SU! 'Positive Thoughts', 'Tasteful Touches' & 'So Sentimental' sets

CS: SU! Bermuda Bay & Basic White, vellum

Ink: SU! Highland Heather, VersaMark, Dark Bermuda Bay & Dark Highland Heather Stampin' Blends markers

Tools: SU! 'Tasteful Labels' die set 

Embellishments & Accessories: SU! silver embossing powder, Gorgeous Grape sheer ribbon, Glitter Enamel Dots, Dimensionals

Ruth