Staining Wood with Alcohol Ink

The last time I made a run to Dollar Tree, they had these wooden plaques in their craft section. They seem to be a veneer applied to mdf instead of a solid piece of wood, but the surface of the plaque was super smooth, so I figured they'd be excellent for crafting. Since the surface was so smooth, my first thought was, "Can I ink that?" So, can I use alcohol ink like a stain or wood dye? And, if so, can I use some traditional application methods with the raw wood? Let's find out!

I covered my table with a silicone mat and got out my alcohol ink collection.

I decided to try one of my thinner inks as a stain. So I grabbed the Pixiss ink in grape, since purple is my favorite color. I squeezed some into a little container and thinned it even further with some rubbing alcohol. It was probably about a 50/50 mix (1 part of each).

Then I used a foam dauber (a foam paint brush would work well too), and rubbed the paint on the plaque and then used a paper towel to wipe it off.

I repeated the process a couple of times to make sure I got as much ink as the surface would soak up. This 50/50 mix of fairly think ink worked really well. I was able to stain the surface while still being able to see the wood grain. So unless it fades really quickly (it hasn't in the last week), this method looks like a thumbs up on smooth unsealed wood surfaces.

Next I wanted to try the classic stamping application method. I picked out three contrasting Ranger alcohol ink colors and dripped them onto a felt applicator. 

The ink quickly soaked in as soon as I stamped the wood, so I added a bit of rubbing alcohol (white bottle) to the felt and continued stamping. The ink spread out a bit more when I thinned it down, but it was still drying out really quickly.

I added a couple more colors to the felt over the course of filling in the wooden plaque with stamped color. Does it work? Sort of. It definitely gets the color onto the plaque, but since the ink soaks in and spreads so easily on the wood, it would probably only work with similar colors instead of the contrasting ones I tried.

Next I thought I'd try using the plastic wrap method on the unsealed wood. I've tried this method of applying ink on wood that's been spray painted a couple of times and it worked well. I laid out a piece of plastic cling wrap and made sure it wasn't smoothed out. Then I dripped ink on the surface of the plastic wrap until an area the size of my wooden plaque was covered in ink. I went back to using the thinner Pixiss ink since it worked so well as a basic stain.

Then I set the plaque on top of the inked plastic wrap and wrapped the edges up to contain the ink.

Normally this method involves the plastic wrap sticking to whatever is being inked--at least the part that has ink on it usually does. This plastic wrap stayed loose on the plaque and only really stuck to itself. The ink I used sunk in to the wood really quickly. I normally leave these plastic wrap ink projects overnight to dry, so I did for this one, but I might not have needed to (since the ink just soaked right into the surface).

The next day I unwrapped the plaque to see how it turned out.

Just like I expected, the ink soaked into the wood and the plastic wrap wrinkles did not leave a pattern. However, it created a sort of fun tie-dye look. It appeared more successful for contrasting colors than the stamp method did.

Since I'm hoping to use these as signs later, I decided to fill in a couple of the areas where the ink didn't cover the wood. I just used a paintbrush and made horizontal strokes with the grain of the wood. This worked pretty well. If there was an area where the ink looked too dark or different from the plastic wrap section, I dipped my paintbrush in rubbing alcohol and went over the area to soften it.

Since I didn't love the way the stamped wood turned out (and it was on the back side of the purple stained plaque), I decided to try to cover it up (or tone it down). I mixed up another batch of grape colored ink and rubbing alcohol and painted it over the stamped ink.

I used the same method as I did on the front side (but the pictures turned out very orange for some reason). I painted on the thinned ink and wiped it off with a napkin or paper towel and repeated the process a couple of times. This time I used an old foam paint brush instead of a foam dauber, and the ink soaked up a bit too easily into the brush and splattered the ink everywhere--but it still worked.

In a better lit more true to color photo, you can see how the stamped colors are much more muted, and the overall color is purple (like the front of the plaque).

So in the end I found out that yes, you can stain/dye unsealed raw wood with alcohol ink. That thinning the ink helps and that applying it like a stain works really well. The other two application methods were a bit more hit and miss. You can definitely apply ink with a felt applicator and with plastic wrap, but it won't work the way the ink does on nonporous surfaces. If you want it to sit on the surface of the wood, it will need to be sealed with something (like a clear varnish or spray paint).