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Showing posts from January, 2019

Alcohol Ink DIY Shrinky Dinks

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I've made a few crafts over the years with shrink plastic , but I'm too cheap to buy the stuff in the store, so I make my own. I collect #6 plastic from bakery and deli containers, wash it off and save it for projects. I've even used alcohol ink on shrink plastic before , but that time, I waited until after the plastic had shrunk to ink it. I had always been curious if you could ink it before shrinking--so I set out to find out! I was especially excited when I took the lid off the container holding my twice baked potatoes from the grocery store. For one, I got to eat delicious potatoes with my supper, but I was doubly excited when I found that the lid of the container was #6 plastic...AND...they accidentally put two lids on the container! It's funny the things crafters get excited about. So I rinsed off the plastic and cut out the flat center of the lid. You can shrink the ruffled/fluted edges too, but it's much harder to decorate and to get it to loo

Glazed Alcohol Ink Washers: Testing Three Types of Glaze

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Last week on the Blog, I decorated some washers with alcohol ink and used fire to mix and set the ink. This week, I decided to use 3 different dimensional glue glazes side by side to see which ones worked the best on washers with alcohol ink. I've tried glazing alcohol ink washers in the past with mixed results, but the glues are a lot more convenient (less toxic and clean up with water) and less expensive than resin, so I keep trying to figure out how to get them to work better. The head to head to head challenge will face Judikin's Diamond Glaze against Mod Podge's Dimensional Magic and Ranger's Glossy Accents . Before the test, I gave a thin coat of regular mod podge to each washer to keep the glaze from interacting with the alcohol ink and giving the washers all the same surface to test on. I started with the Glossy Accents. The first time I tried this gloss/glaze/glue out, it reacted with the alcohol ink a bit and the glaze turned a bit pi

Flamed Alcohol Ink Washers

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My dad gave me a bunch of washers from his garage stash for Christmas, so I just had to ink some of them! I thought I'd try out a new technique. Most of the time when I use alcohol ink on washers, I use a felt stamper ( tutorial for stamped washers ). But recently, I've been on a flamed ink kick. It works the best on larger surfaces like ceramic tiles , but I managed to make it work on some glass gems , so I figured it might be worth a try on washers. So I set up my flamed ink station-- teflon craft mats on the table (mostly for ink splatters--but they are heat safe too), a cork trivet , and then a cookie sheet covered in tinfoil. I set up my alcohol inks and rubbing alcohol on the other end of the table and only bring my colors I'm using over to the pan when I drip the ink onto the washer, then I set it aside away from the flame. I use a long handled lighter to set the ink on fire. I dripped some blue ink ( sailboat blue ) on the washers first. I just s

Best of the Blog: 2018

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It's been a big year for the blog! We crossed the 1 million view mark and established a new domain name ( www.sarahjanescraftblog.com ). The blog also now has Instagram and Tumblr accounts. So it seems even more appropriate this year to reflect on some of the most popular and successful posts from the past year. Top 5 Most Popular Posts #1 The most popular (most visited) craft post this year by a large margin was my alcohol ink splatter gem project . My alcohol ink projects lead the charge this year, and this one was the big winner. I had a ton of fun painting and using canned air to create these beauties (as opposed to the usual stamping method ).  #2 Was a flamed alcohol ink projec t. I tried this new technique out on a glass plate fairly early in the year. I love how setting the alcohol ink on fire creates vivid color and mixes the ink in new and interesting ways. After I was done flaming this plate, I even sealed it with dishwasher safe mod podge so