Create Vivid Colors Using Alcohol Inks with Trena Brannon!

Hello Beautiful!

Trena Brannon is here on the blog today, showing you a fun, colorful technique with alcohol inks. My favorite thing about stencils is that you can use them with ALL THE ART SUPPLIES. ☺️  Full disclosure: MaryBeth taught me this technique. Over the years, I have made it my own, using the inks with stencils in different ways.

Today, we are using the inks to design our own fabrics for our models.  This technique works well with all stencil designs, both with large and small openings. 

Important safety information first: 

1. The inks can sometimes have a strong smell. Work in a well-ventilated area when working with the inks - open a window or have a fan in the room. 
2. It's ok to put the rubbing alcohol into a spray bottle. Never put alcohol inks or alcohol binders into a spray bottle. The inks and their binders contain resin. When airborne, it can be harmful to your lungs.
3. If you have sensitive skin or don't want to stain your hands, use gloves or a protective cream.
4. The inks can stain clothes and surfaces. Be sure to protect your clothing and cover your work surface. 

Step one:

Tape the closet stencil to a piece of Yupo paper and lightly spritz rubbing alcohol over the stencil openings. 

Step two (the fun part!):

Drip alcohol inks in the openings of the stencil. Use colors that blend to create new hues, and balance light and dark to give your designs more visual interest. If needed, spritz a little more rubbing alcohol over the inks. The ink will spread underneath the openings - that's ok. As the inks dry, they will define the shapes of the openings. 

Allow the inks to dry completely. The drying time depends on how much ink you have used. If you have dripped a lot of ink, you may need to let it dry overnight. 

TIPS: 

Use a toothpick to move the color around inside the openings. 

• When you do this while the ink is wet, it will mingle and create a smooth finish.  
• When you do this, when the inks are almost dry, you will create texture and your own unique design patterns. 

Step three:

While your inks are drying, you can paint your models. Use a small sponge (or paintbrush) to apply acrylic paint through the open stencils. You can tape the stencil down while you paint, or hold it down with your other hand. 

TIP: When you want a sharp edge of your stencil, use a dry brush (or sponge) technique, which means use a minimum amount of paint so it does not seep under the stencil. 

Step four:

After the ink has dried completely, use scissors to fussy-cut out your garments.  This is when you see how pretty your drips look in clothes! The vivid pops of color show up wherever they mingle and dry. How the inks blend is unique to this medium, and it's why I love creating with alcohol inks. 

Step five:

Lay your outfits over your models to "try them on" - during this step, I got warm, fuzzy memories of playing with paper dolls when I was little. 🧍🏽‍♀️👗👙

Step six:

Choose which outfits you want your models to wear and adhere them to the page. Adhere the rest of your models' clothes on the page however you want. Since it's summertime, I put swimsuits on my models. 🩱

I made a time-lapse reel on YouTube to share the steps visually.

Other ideas for this technique:

• Use pencils, pens, and/or paint to add hair, facial features, and make-up to your models.
• Create greeting cards for your friends/family featuring their favorite color outfits.
• Create several outfits in different colors for one model.
• Add designs and patterns to your clothes with gold, silver, and black pens. You can test the pens you have on the scraps of your Yupo paper. Be sure the ink is completely dry before testing your pens. 

Here are the Supplies I used: 

• substrate/surface: Yupo white for the inks and my 9x12 inch mixed media journal
• stencils: Couture Models, Couture Closet #1 Small
• color: Ranger, Jacquard Pinata alcohol inks, acrylic paints in skin tone colors
• tools: scissors, sponge dauber. low tack tape, e.g. washi tape
• adhesive: Matt medium in a container with a tiny tip
• other: Isopropyl rubbing alcohol 99% in a spray bottle, paper towels

All my stencils are on sale for the from today through July 30th! Use code: JOY.

I hope you have fun creating!!

When you create with this technique, I would love to see it! Feel free to tag me on Instagram @trenabrannon and/or Facebook at TrenaBrannon Art & Design.

Take care and stay positive! 

Trena

Cynthia Silveri: Yupo Paper Lanterns Created with StencilGirl® Products

Only recently have I ventured into the arena of alcohol inks and yupo paper, inspired by none other than Nancy Curry! I wanted to play with her method of using the inks directly on top of stencils on Yupo paper. Once I realized that Yupo paper comes in a translucent weight, I had the idea to make these lanterns. I thought that a battery-operated tea light or other battery operated candle would make them glow showing off the beautiful intense colors of the alcohol inks. These easy and beautiful lanterns could be hung up-I place mine on a decorative platter for a simple and lovely table center piece.

Materials:

Translucent Yupo Paper 9” x 12”

Alcohol Inks (I used Ranger)

Stencils: Cecilia Swatton’s May 2019 StencilClub stencils and my Ellsworth Kelly Designs

Gloves (essential for alcohol ink which stains)

Transparent tape

Optional: tape to hold down stencils, and mini cups to dilute alcohol inks, 91% alcohol, spritzer with 91% alcohol.

Method:

1.      I used Cecilia Swatton’s 9” x 12” stencil to fit the Yupo paper size, but you can overlap other smaller stencils (I show this in my video tutorial). Tape a couple of sides of the stencil down if you like, to keep the stencil in place while you are working.

2.      Choose your ink colors, I used Lemonade, Raspberry and Peach Bellini (summer!) for Cecilia’s stencil, and Cloudy Blue, Citrus, Meadow and Black for the Ellsworth Kelly work. One thing to keep in mind with alcohol inks is that the nicest results are obtained when you use colors that are analogous (near each other on the color wheel). Complimentary colors tend to make brown because the ink is so fluid and mixes together very easily. (Don’t get me wrong, I love browns, grays and black too!)

3.      You can apply the ink directly onto the stencil from the bottle, but I squirted a small amount into each of my tiny cups and diluted it a bit with the 91% alcohol ink to make it go a little farther. I also swirled some additional alcohol into each cup to get out as much color as possible onto the paper. I worked without thinking too much about where the colors would go-just spread them randomly onto the paper. I left some areas white too, which I think is nice for the overall design.

4.      Now comes the hard part! Simply set aside your work and let it dry completely. I put a little desk fan on mine and waited about 45 minutes. I like to let the ink that seeps under the stencil to dry as much as possible to get the best effect. Overnight is always good, if you can wait! Or you can make another lantern while it is drying, which is what I did with my Ellsworth Kelly inspired stencils. I layered the 6 x 6 inch and 4 x 4 inch stencils until I filled up the entire 9 x 12 inch page. Then I poured on the color just like in step 2.

5.      After everything is nice and dry, it is time for the fun part-the reveal! I love how alcohol inks are loose and unpredictable. Once you’ve removed your stencils, set them aside to use on another piece of yupo or photo paper-there’s lots of good ink dried onto it. (All you have to do is spritz the dried ink on the stencil and then place it onto the paper and again, let it dry. I can often get more than one “print” using this method. It’s a great way to make collage paper!) And then, step back and admire your lovely colors.

6.      To finish the lantern, I rolled the paper into a cylinder and used masking tape to hold it together on each end so that I could apply transparent tape down the “seam”. I also punched holes in one of them and used a bit of stenciled cloth to tie it closed. I think twine, jute, or even wire would be cool ways to close the lantern’s seam. I placed my lanterns on a decorative platter, but I think if you punch some holes in the top (probably three) you could use wire or string of some sort to hang the lanterns or string them together and hang them outside!

Stored in My Studio – Stencils & Then Some; Adding Pops of Color with Trena Brannon

Hello Beautiful People!

Today I’m sharing an idea for how to add pops of color to your space. Since all the colors are my favorite, it’s a challenge for me to pick one (or even a few) to fill my creative space. We moved last year and I’m still trying to decide what my space will look like – it changes a little every time I get inspired to organize. 

Once I saw the Japanese Influence stencil (coming soon), I got an idea of how to add color to my IKEA Alex drawers. I could see each one of the 12 squares as an independent design. To get color that really pops, for me alcohol inks are the way to go!

I'm also sharing a wooden piece I found from a local thrift store, Recycle Ann Arbor ReUse Center - that helps me organize. What's Old is New Again... I painted it, used stencils to personalize it and filled it in a way that helps me be more efficient when I’m creating greeting cards.

In this video, I show the steps of what I did to create the color pops and a tour of my creative space, including how I store my stencils. 

Supplies used:
Substrate:  Yupo white, a found piece of wood 

Paints: Alcohol Inks, Matisse and ColourArte acrylic paints, ZIG paint pen, Liquitex white gesso

Other: Liqutex Gloss Gel, palette knife, Krylon Kamr Varnish finishing spray, blending solution

Stencils: The January 2014 StencilClub Set: Peacock by Jessica Sporn, my own Brush Alphabet Stencil, L645.
The other stencil you see in the video will be released soon. It's "Japanese Influence" by Cynthia Silveri.

Thank you so much for reading and watching!!

Take care and STAY POSITIVE!Trena

A variety of NEW Stencils from designers June Pfaff Daley, Mary Nasser, Cecilia Swatton, and Ian Karfs

Ready to run away? 

Do you feel like Old Man Winter is dangling springtime just out of your reach? We have 6 new stencils from June Pfaff Daley, Mary Nasser, Ian Karfs, and Cecilia Swatton that are sure to chase away your winter doldrums!

June Pfaff Daley's Pineapple

Pineapple Stencil

A pineapple is a symbol for welcome. This large 9"x 12" stencil will be a nice addition for home projects and such.

June says: “I love alcohol ink for its vibrancy and beautiful nuances. Here, I used alcohol ink on watercolor paper in much the same manner as any other paint. Pour out a small amount of ink on a palette. 

Apply with a foam applicator, pouncing up and down over the stencil. Work quickly as the ink dries instantly. Plain alcohol can be used to “wake up” the inks already in the sponge. 

Pounce over design again for more interesting effects until the entire stencil is covered. 

Tip: I used separate foam applicators for each color to avoid mud."

"To create a variety of artistic pineapple stencil designs (above: Swirly Floral and below: Celtic Knot stencil), simply layer the open Pineapple over the stencil you would like to serve as the pineapple texture. Repeat the alcohol ink process. It's easy!”

Mary Nasser's Let's Go 1 & 2

Let’s Go 1 and Let's Go 2 designed by Mary C. Nasser, were inspired by her love of travel. These large 9" x 12" stencils include words that can be combined into numerous creative phrases.

Let's Go 1 & Let's Go 2

Mary says: "I’ve been having tons of fun with these – stenciling word combinations onto labels that I later use as collage elements in my art journaling. My favorite technique with these is to stencil the words with my Jet Black Ranger Archival inkpad and fingertip sponge daubers. Then I remove the stencil and connect the bridges with my Sakura black Identi-Pen."

"I've been stenciling the travel icons onto labels with StazOn Midi inkpads and acrylics as well. My favorite go-to color in the StazOn Midi is Ganache because it gives the images the vintage look I’m going for."

"Sometimes I paint my labels ahead of time with matte acrylics, too! (Allow the painted label to dry before stenciling with paint or ink.)"

Mary is having a give-away of these stencils on her Mixed Media Map Art blog! Travel over there and enter.

Ian Karfs' Crop Circles

Use the elements of this 4" x 4" mini stencil designed by Mary Beth's grandson Ian to add planets and moons, atoms, or crop circles to your art projects.

Ian told his dad:"I just started drawing with that thing you gave me and it started looking like Crop Circles."

That "thing" was a drafting compass.

Cecilia Swatton's Dangled Pods

Dangled Pods (aka Tangled Pods Reversed)

It's always fun to see how Cecilia interprets plant life in her stencil designs. She created this large 9" x 12" Dangled Pods stencil as a reverse of her popular Tangled Pods stencil.

Want more art and tips with this stencil? Check out Cecilia's Heart Work blog today, and for the next few days starting February 9.

You'll find all these new stencils and a thousand more on StenciGirl Products.

Ready to bring some spring into your winter?