Craft Update: Stamped Alcohol Ink Switch Plates


Over 6 1/2 years ago I decorated my first set of switch plate covers with alcohol ink. Since then, I've made a few more sets, but the only ones that were actually hanging up in my house were these two that I made almost 7 years ago. Well the switch cover that was being used for our closet light, which gets used every day (sometimes multiple times) was showing signs of wear. It had gotten scuffed and scratched.


When I made my first set of switch plate covers, I didn't know about all of the good sealants to use on alcohol ink. I used matte mod podge spray because it didn't react with inks (at least not noticeably--which is strange because the glossy mod podge spray definitely does react with inks). I put a couple of coats of it on and called it good.



Truthfully, it did pretty well. That light switch gets used a lot. We really only started noticing the scuffs in this last year. They were probably slowly accumulating over time and the pattern helped to hide them a bit until it got to this point.


The other switch cover that I have hanging up is in our guest room. It doesn't get used very much and seems to be holding up very well. Another thing I was pleased to see was that neither of these switch covers have faded much in all this time. We keep the blackout curtains pulled most of the time in our bedroom, and the guest room switch is on a sidewall away from the window (and it's a north facing window). I'm guessing they would look a little paler if they were in direct light.


So I decided it was time to take down the scuffed up switch plate. I replaced it with one from a batch I made a couple of summers ago. I sealed these with Kamar and a couple coats of some variety of acrylic sealer. I noticed as I was hanging this one, the screwdriver scratched the switch cover, so I'll need to get some good coats of sealer on these in the future to prevent scratches.


So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to fix up the old switch plate cover and see if I can find a good combo of sealers! The weather looks warm enough this week to spray--so check back next week for the completed redo!

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