Valentine’s Day Decor using Alcohol Inks – 3 Ways – Tutorial {Paper Hearts}

Alcohol Inks can be a little intimidating at first, but once you start playing around with them you will discover how fun they can be and what beautiful things you can create with them.

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create some pretty paper hearts (using coffee filters!) and alcohol inks – and 3 different ways to use them.

What you’ll need:

Alcohol Inks (by Ranger Ink) – as many different colors as you have

Alcohol Blending Solution (another Ranger Ink product)

Ink Blending Tool (Ranger Ink)

Small felt pieces

Scissors

Coffee Filters

Non stick Craft Mat (the best one is also a Ranger Ink product)

Paper towels

Twine or ribbon

Tape

Optional: sewing machine

Let’s get started: for all the techniques that I’m going to show you, we’ll be using the coffee filters so start by folding 2 filters stacked together in half. For each technique you will want to use both filters so you have 2 identical hearts. Then cut a half heart shape, and open up into a full heart. I used scalloped edge pinking shears.

Technique #1

1. Spread 2 of your paper hearts (still stacked together) out onto your non stick craft mat (these mats work great with the alcohol inks), then randomly squirt drops of different colored alcohol inks onto your heart.

2. Now take your bottle of Alcohol Blending Solution and squirt vigorously all over the heart – squirt enough so the colors start to blend together and the entire heart is saturated. That’s it! Now place your heart somewhere safe while it dries (it won’t take long to dry)

Technique # 2

1.  Randomly squirt drops of different colored alcohol inks directly onto your craft mat

2. Now squirt the alcohol blending solution over top of the alcohol inks – be generous with the blending solution!

3. Now take one stack (of 2) of your paper hearts and place it face down into the ink solution, twist back and forth until the entire heart is coated in ink.

Technique # 3

1. Using your Ink Blending Tool, cover the end with a fresh piece of felt. (you can use any felt for this, just cut it to fit). Try to use at least 3 different colors of alcohol ink (and 1 color of the mixitives if you have them) and put about 10 or so drops of ink onto the felt. Use just 1 drop of mixitives (I used the silver)

2. Grab your bottle of Alcohol Blending Solution and squirt all over the felt  so the colors blend (as in photo)

3. Now stamp the ink blending tool all over your paper heart until the entire thing is covered in ink.

HINT:

How to get Alcohol Inks off your non stick craft mat:

After you finish your hearts, you will find dried alcohol ink all over your craft mat. The easiest way to get it off: simply squirt some of that Alcohol Blending Solution onto your map and wipe with a paper towel. It will wipe off clean! This also works on your fingers too! 😉

Once your paper hearts have dried:

1. You can simply tape a piece of twine or ribbon to the top of the heart then hang your heart in the window. But since you have 2 identical hearts, if you feel so inclined to use your sewing machine (as I did), you can stitch them together! It looks so pretty!