Hello my Creative Friend!

In my last video, I showed you how I created gorgeous artworks with alcohol inks (if you missed the video, check it out here!) and today I will
create a super easy alcohol ink art journal page with it.

Because my sheet of paper was larger than my gel plate when I created my background, I am left with a large white border all around…
EEEKKK – what to do??

We’ll just fill it in with paint!

1. First, I am simply placing my paint tubes over the artwork to find what colours will match best (nothing too sorcerous!).
2. Next I am going to use my brayer to apply those colours over my white border.
3. I’ll also use my fingers to blend them and create a similar texture to what I have in the center.
   I am slowly adding paint here and there to build up opacity and texture and to make sure I don’t cover my alcohol inks too much.
4. Now I am dabbing the paint on with my finger to disguise the border between the paints and the inks.

I think I have managed to make the whole background uniform…
If you hadn’t seen the white border at the start of the video, would you even know it was there?
Let me know in the comments below!

And remember to always clean your brayer on a separate sheet and turn it into a background for your next art journal page 😉

2. Let’s add some interest without covering our beautiful background!

For that I have chosen a stencil with some fun typography and I’m going to create texture with modelling paste (which is also called texture paste).

I like to apply texture paste with the back of a palette knife and spread it like I spread butter on toast (avoid going back and forth too much if you want to get crisp lines).

I really love how this looks already because you can still see the background through the wording and the words really look 3D!

3. Finishing Touches…

1. To make the texture even prettier, I am going to add iridescent paint over it with my finger. I am applying it very lightly and in a circular motion.
   Because my background is mostly done in blues and aquas, I have chosen matching colours here but you could use contrasting colours if you wanted your texture to really pop.
   Actually… I’m going to add just a little bit of contrast with some iridescent red paint as I think it makes the page look a little bit more interesting.
2. Then I’ll add some light gold splatters. Once again, it adds interest without covering my background too much.
3. To add a bit more depth and contrast, I’m also adding darker gold acrylic ink.
   I am spraying it with water, moving it around and dabbing any excess with a baby wipe to make sure it all blends in nicely.
   Then I’ll repeat the process with black ink. In the end not much of it is left on the page but it did add some depth.
4. I’m now adding some light stamping in black ink, mostly around the words, just for extra details. So it doesn’t get boring, I’m using 3 different patterns but to avoid making it look too busy (which is easy to do), I made sure to only use small designs so it doesn’t distract from anything else.
5. I feel like I need a little pop to finish things off so I am dabbing a little yellow paint here and there with my fingers and then I’m done!

4.  Your turn!

I hope this gives you some inspiration on how to use your alcohol ink gel prints…

If you don’t know me yet, I’m Mimi, a French Australian mixed media artist, teacher & author – and owner of The Mixed Media Store.
In my next video I’ll create an art tag with one of my alcohol ink gel prints so make sure to subscribe to the newsletter at the bottom of this page so you don’t miss it 😉
And I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!