Magical Marker Techniques Level II
For years only stamps that didn’t require coloring were added to my collection. I was ashamed of my coloring, especially if faces or hair were involved. Shading and highlighting were never part of my limited art education.
Alcohol markers were the beginning of a long, slow effort to make my coloring presentable.
Before there was Altenew, I started collecting Copic markers. I also took many many classes to learn how to color with Copic Markers. Eventually I became certified at both the beginning and intermediate levels.
It is a humbling experience to be with people who excel at coloring with alcohol markers. There is still so much to learn.
I found myself at a disadvantage when trying to use my Copics on Altenew projects. Creating a swatch book of my Altenew ink pads with close-to-coordinating Copic markers has made life much easier. I reference these swatch book pages over and over again.
The process of creating this swatch book helped me really learn my Altenew colors and color families. It was a valuable project.
Alcohol markers have been a game changer for me and my coloring.
But there is more that can be done with alcohol markers. The alcohol ink works on many non-porous surfaces including metal!
The metal strip down the center of this tag is colored with alcohol marker reinkers! I sprayed the silver metal strip with 92% isopropyl alcohol then dropped two colors of alcohol marker reinkers into the wet alcohol. I tipped the piece around and just let the colors move and blend. Because of the alcohol it dries very quickly.
The Altenew Layered snowflakes Dies were used to cut both glittered paper and glossy paper to create layered snowflakes.
The merry sentiment is cut four times from The Merry Christmas die set.
Versatile alcohol inks can also be used to color wood as with this wood rose element purchased long ago in the Altenew Clearance Rack.
Behind the rose is a circle of Yuppo (or glossy) paper colored with various colors of alcohol ink then pressed with gold foil paper.
The gold-embossed sentiment comes from the Birthday Builder stamp set.
Alcohol inks can also be used to color embellishments made of plastic, metal or other porous materials. Here an alcohol marker was used to color white pearls. Now the pink in the pearls matches exactly the pink in the flowers!
A green alcohol marker was also used to color this background.
I was scrambling for a different color combo to use for this card when I saw a card made by Yana Smakula. Thank you, Yana for the inspiration.
The flowers and sentiment come from Altenew’s Hannah Elements stamp set.