Alcohol Ink Ceramic Tile and Vinyl Decal


I've been on a Silhouette sign kick these days, but I thought I'd shake things up a bit and get back to alcohol inking, too. I purchased some 6-inch ceramic tiles from the hardware store and decided they'd be the perfect medium for combining two of my favorite crafting obsessions.


I found a design that I thought would work well on a tile with some fun colors behind it in my Silhouette library full of freebie designs. I tossed a few other designs up there to fill the cutting mat and keep from having leftover vinyl cuts. I used the standard glossy vinyl settings for some permanent black vinyl on my old Silhouette Cameo.


After the designs were cut on the Silhouette, I used scissors to separate the design from the others on the cutting mat and then got out my weeding tool. This one ended up having flowers that were super tiny. I tried my best to weed the whole design, but because I was working on a smaller-sized decal, I ended up having to give up on weeding the smallest of the flowers. I just couldn't manage to get all of the tiny pieces of vinyl out of the inside of the flowers without tearing the very thin outline of the smallest flowers.


As you see, though, the design ended up a bit unbalanced, so I'll have to move some flowers around to get the design to work.


Now that the decal was ready, I got out my alcohol inks and chose a collection of pink and purples to use under the decal. I cleaned off the ceramic tile with a bit of rubbing alcohol and got out my craft mat to keep the table clean.


I started out with lighter colors to cover a good area of the tile. I added a bit of rubbing alcohol and used a hand bulb blower to help move the ink around the tile.


I continued with darker magentas and purples and blew the ink around until it was nearly all covered. The inks I used were: Purple Twilight, Vinyard, Pinata Pink, Pinata Senorita Magenta, Wild Plum, and Raspberry. Pinata's pink and Ranger's Raspberry are very similar, as are Senorita Magenta and Wild Plum. so if you only have Pinata or Ranger inks, they seem fairly interchangeable.


I let the tile dry for about an hour before I sprayed some Kamar Varnish on it to seal the inks. I quickly got in a couple of light coats. It was very warm (and not too humid) that day, so it dried super quickly. I brought the tiles in and let them set for about an hour before trying to put the decal on.


I moved the flowers around on the decal a bit so the design would be a bit more balanced (since I had to give up on the smallest flowers). I think it worked out in the end, especially since the background design is busy.


I cut a piece of transfer tape and applied it to the decal and rubbed it down.


I peeled off the paper backing from the vinyl and applied the design to the tile. I was a bit worried that the alcohol ink or varnish would peel off when I pulled off the transfer tape, but thankfully, it stayed put!


I don't think it needed any more little flowers, and I was so pleased nothing went wrong when applying the decals! It was fun to get back to doing some inking and I look forward to doing even more.

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