Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

After most of September being quite warm, some cooler crisper air has finally settled in for this week. Since it's starting to feel like fall, I thought I'd share some of my favorite fall posts to help get us all in the spirit of the season. I know I needed some coaxing after last week's hot and humid air. First off is a Halloween inspired metal flower pot that was turned into a Jack-o-lantern with the help of some alcohol ink and a little painter's tape cut into the classic face shapes. I fill it with the candy that we're allowed to eat so I don't dive into the trick-or-treater's stash. Next is an autumn inspired pen bouquet . All you need for this one is silk flowers, floral tape, and some stick pens. I gathered it all in a terracotta pot that I had painted orange and red  ombre with spray paint. These make great gifts for anyone who works in an office! Another one of my favorites is this collection of paper pumpkins made out of

As anyone who frequents this blog knows, I like alcohol inks. What you may or may not have figured out yet is that I'm also terribly cheap. It's why I made my own ink applicator instead of forking out  5 or 6 bucks for one. Needless to say, I wasn't about to spend $7 on a pack of 10 sheets of paper for the Ranger brand glossy cardstock . And I certainly wasn't going to spend the $14 for 10 sheets of Yupo (which is plasticized paper and works even better than glossy cardstock...or so I've been told as I'm too cheap to buy it). So when I noticed you could buy a package of 250 sheets of Xerox's brand of glossy cardstock for about $12 I figured that was a deal I could get behind. Heck, even if it doesn't work perfectly for alcohol ink, I can still use it in my printer. So I grabbed my inking supplies: a craft mat, my applicator and felt, and several colors of Ranger alcohol ink and tried just stamping a pattern onto the paper. Much lik

If you've been to my blog before, you know that I have made all kinds of projects with alcohol ink . But, in all of those projects, I used Ranger Inks  (since they are more widely available at craft stores). Pinata alcohol inks are the other major brand (made by Jacquard), and I finally got myself a starter set .  The Pinata set usually costs around $20 on Amazon and comes with 9 bottles of ink. So it's actually fairly comparable in price to the Ranger Inks, maybe even a little cheaper. The colors are all bright and vivid versions of yellow, orange, magenta, bright blue, purple, and green. It also comes with a black, white and a gold (which I didn't try my first time out). I grabbed a 4-inch glossy ceramic tile to try the inks out on first. I'm pretty familiar with how the Ranger Inks behave on this surface, so I felt it would be a good comparison for me. I decided to stamp the on my first one with cool colors. I dripped the inks onto my felt a

One of my most popular projects on the blog are these glass gems that I decorate with alcohol ink. Over the years, I've revisited the project several times and gotten several questions in the comments, so I thought I'd combine all of the different variations of the project into one post and answer the most frequently asked questions. Original Alcohol Ink Glass Gem Post If you've used alcohol inks before, this is a super easy project. If you're new to inking, it's a good first or second project. All you need is an ink proof surface (I use a craft mat , but parchment paper would be a good substitute), a set of inks , and an applicator  (you can make your own in a pinch with a scrap of wood and some velcro). I bought my glass gems at Dollar Tree, but they sell them pretty much everywhere that sells craft/floral arrangement supplies. All you need to do is apply some ink to the felt on the applicator (just drip a couple colors on) and stamp at the back