Alcohol Ink Laminator Pouch Sun Catchers


A couple of weeks ago, I tried making sun catchers with laminating pouches and tissue paper. The project worked pretty well, and I wondered if I could use ink on those laminating pouches--they are plastic after all, which usually inks well.


So I got out my alcohol inks, a craft mat to protect my table, a can of air, and my laminating pouches.


I opened up my laminating pouch, and I chose a rainbow of ink colors. I wanted something bright and fun. I started with some sailboat blue drops that I spread out with the canned air. 


I kept dropping ink onto the surface of the laminating pouch and blowing it around to spread it out and dry it. The surface of the laminating pouches is textured to keep items from slipping around too much in the pouch, so the textured surface absorbed the ink a bit, but it still worked pretty well.


I did get a bit of ink on the opened side of the pouch and a bit along the edges, but I wasn't too worried about it being perfectly neat. I set the pouch aside to dry for about 10 minutes before folding it up and running it through the machine.


I have an older little 3M laminator that I let warm up while I was inking my plastic sheet. Once it was dry, I ran it through the machine.


The frosted texture disappeared and I was left with crystal clear plastic and a rainbow of ink! It worked!


I decided to print some star templates out on some card stock. I traced around them with a black marker.


Once I filled my sheet with stars, I carefully cut them out with a scissors.


After they were cut out, I decided I kind of liked the black border that was created by the marker, so I cleaned up any edges that had been cut off by the scissors or points that didn't have marker on them.


Then I used a hole punch to punch a hole in the top of the stars.


I used some little suction cups to attach them to my window. They create a pretty faux stained glass effect. The inked laminating pouches were such a success that I can't wait to try it again with other shapes.


Comments

  1. SilverchakraMarch 11, 2020 at 10:56 PM

    So cool! I love this! I teach art to kids in their homes and this will be a terrific project for them. I know nothing about laminating (except that my xyron will do it without heat) so was hoping you would provide a little guidance. Do you open the pouches and put the ink on the inside? If so do you then close it up or fold it or... before putting it through the laminating machine? I am assuming that the heat laminate is a crucial part of the process as opposed to using my xyron. Is that correct? What size are the pouches? Thanks so much! I love your blog! There have been numerous times that I will see a project on Pinterest or elsewhere that I immediately love and it turns out to be one of yours! That happened in this case as well. Thanks for all the time and effort you put in to sharing your creativity with us!

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    Replies
    1. Sarah JaneMarch 17, 2020 at 10:48 AM

      The pouches come in a few different sizes. I don't think it matters what size you use. They are essentially a little booklet of laminating film. I open it up and ink it on the inside so that once it goes through the machine, it is heat sealed (the two sides melt together) and the ink is protected on the inside of the plastic. You could ink a clear sheet of plastic without running it through a laminator with similar results, but the ink won't be sealed on the inside. I hope that answers your questions!

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