A creepy inking session!

Yes i know, slightly odd i know. :)

It's been a while since i used my beloved alcohol inks on anything, so i decided to finish a project i started a couple of months ago. An alcohol inked skull.

My inspiration, although much more attractive to look at than my mess here, was a piece of art by the artist Damien Hirst. "Cornucopia" as the art is entitled, is a group of skulls painted in many colours with gloss paint on plastic skulls...here's the exhibition piece at the British Museum...



I loved the way he took a normaly morbid item, and made it a pleasure to look at, so i thought i'd have a go with what i had in my craft room.

Well you are probably thinking, "how hard can it be to ink a skull?" Very hard as it happens! First i painted the skull white with white Stazon ink...lots of it! Then i needed to get layers of clear ultra thick embossing powder onto the skull evenly. For those of you wondering what i was doing with a skull in my house, it was a resin one i got from ebay.

Not as easy as it sounds, lots of dabbing with an embossing pad, until i realised the pad was not up to the job, so i painted embossing pad ink onto the skull. Now when you melt the powder with a heat gun on card, it's flat, on a skull however it runs everywhere. So i had to hold the skull with either my hahds or pliers (depending how hot it got), and gradually add the ink colours and extra layers of UTEE.



It's like coloured glass, and like all alcohol ink projects, i love the way the colours are unpredictable when you apply them. You just never get the same effect twice.



The whole thing took me probably took about a week in total, i kept going back and forth to it as it was a nightmare to do.



Damien Hirst's work is most definately an aquired taste, and a lot of his work i bit macabre, but Maddy says he has always been that way. It is a small world indeed, Maddy used to go round his house when she was younger, she was good friends with his sister. She says he had his artwork all over the place and he was really good. He seems to have done ok for himself anyway.

Whilst my effort may not fetch the many millions of pounds that Damien Hirst's go for, i like to think it will grace the shelves of my craft room for many years to come, and one day maybe make at least £2.50 at a car boot sale. :)



Thanks for looking, i hope you like the colours, it just goes to show that there is little you cannot ink!

Veg i inked today!!!

Good evening good people of blogland! Another Thursday evening is upon us, it's almost the weekend so what better to get you through that final couple of days that reading about the biggest waste of alcohol ink you'll ever see? :)
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I've been struggling recently with which beg to ink, i am quickly running out of options and i even thought i might have to resort to real crafting!!! So off to the grocers i went today, scouring the shelves for something that might make nice viewing. Tucked away at the back was a veg which i personaly feel should be banished from the world, a veg that tastes so horrendous that it makes me icky just thinking about it....but as i was going to ink it and not eat it, i took the plunge and went with.....the COURGETTE!!!

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As expected, it inked like it tastes.....not good! It held it's colour ok, but the green skin of the courgette made for a nasty background.
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I have to say though, the new Raspberry alcohol ink looks gorgeous in the flesh, all the new colours are nice but the raspberry is so vibrant, you just can;t help but add it to whatever you are inking.

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I used a little Pearl mixtative too, it gave the inks a shimmer (hasn't come out too well inj the pics though) it left the blue with lovely pearlescent swirls in it.

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So there you go, one altered courgette to satisfy your need for inky edibles! Now then, time for the veginkability rating. Not a great veg to ink, but i'd be happy to give this weeks veg a 6
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Thanks for tuning in again this week everyone, you may sit there wondering why you do this every week, but just think.....one day you'll be explaining to your kids why it's good to eat veg, and you'll say...."Did you know....i knew a man once who inked veg to make them look nice!"

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Till next time, take care all. :)

Veg i inked today!!!

Welcome bloggers to another Thursday of inky things! :)

Today was a close call with regards to the inked veg, in that it almost didn't happen for several reasons. Shock horror!!! Yes i know my little veggie fans, what would you have done without your weekly dose of verbal....I'll say inkyness....replace that word with whatever you feel fit! :)

I won't bore you with the details though, just know that about 30 minutes ago i was ready to chuck the veg in the bin and call it a day!

However i persevered, and despite a busted lamp for lighting my pics, my camera playing up and various veg playing up for me, i settled on this one....the ASPARAGUS!!!
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Whats it doing outside on that rock by your pond i hear you say? Well thanks to the mishaps with my technical equipment, i decided to have a change of location for the photo shoot. I think it looks quite nice actually, don't you?
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I had to do this inking with less colours than usual, as i ran out of about 3 bottles of my fave colour whilst trying out other fruit. Fruit that went horribly wrong i might add.

However the few colours that i did use, definitely changed the asparagus's all green appearance.
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So how about that now world famous method of judging inkability of a vegetable..the "veginkability rating"?

Well i have to say that whilst not the most colourful of subjects that i have finished, the asparagus did look good out in the sun. It kept it's colours well and didn't waste too much of my ink.....unlike the stupid mushrooms i tried earlier!!!

I think a 6 is in order for this weeks veg! I'm probably being a bit generous with a 6, but i did end up finding a nice location to photograph the veg, so that was a bonus. :)



Talking of the outdoors, guess who i bumped into whilst i was outside?

"Hi Rotty......wow that looks impressive!!! What are you doing?"

"Bit of rock climbing boss"....
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"Really? I never knew you were into that?"

"Yeah well, I'm actually getting in some practice for ....i mean....ummm...ah well...just keeping fit and all that".

"Hmmm, that sounds rather suspicious, plus ...it does look rather high for you Rotty, are you sure you're ok?

"Don't panic boss, I'm safe as houses, i have a good rope and my technique is second to none!"

"Ah Rotty, is that some of my fibres that you've pinched from the craft room?"

"Umm it could be boss, but i thought that I'd put them to good use."

"Well just go careful little fella, your arms are already looking a bit mashed".

"That's coz i took a couple of bumps whilst tackling the north face earlier....tough game this climbing yanno!

"If you say so Rotty".

Right then bloggers, i think we'll leave him to it. I've no idea what he's up to, but I'm sure he can be trusted.

Until next Thursday, keep smiling and I'll see you all later. :)

Veg i inked today.....and a prezzy!

Good evening fellow bloggers! :) It's Thursday night and time for another episode of that vegtastic weekly event that has grocers up and down the country reaching for their computer screens in anticipation....yes it's "Veg i inked today!!!"

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For this weeks veg presentation, i would like you to close your eyes.....go on, do it......ah, actually open your eyes to read this but still close them if you get my drift.....now drift off and imagine you are in a magical land filled with colour. You are flying high above it and looking down over a vast sea of magical colours, except everything is not it's usual colours. Think Willy Wonka style colours.

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As you look down, you see a thick dense forest of multicoloured trees......or possibly an INKED CAULIFLOWER!!!

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How great does that look?!!! This was without doubt one of the best veg I've inked so far. The ink didn't run, it just coloured whatever it landed on. It bled sightly, but only so much that it ran into the little branches of the cauliflower.

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So what about the veginkability rating? Hmmm i reckon this deserves an 8 at least! Usually fruit and veg needs a little mixative to make it look good, but not this fella! Pure alcohol ink through and through!

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You could almost think you were under the sea swimming amongst the coral looking at the close ups of this couldn't you?
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The only negative with inking this was that i can't stand the smell of raw cauliflower! So this was inked not only with rubber gloves, but with my t-shirt pulled up over my nose and with frequent periods of breath holding! Yes i know what you are thinking everyone, "Wow you take some risks Calv!!!"

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Yes i do....but know this.....i do it for each and every one of you so that you don't have to!!! :)

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One more thing before i depart your lives for one more week (yes i know you only come here for the inked fruit and veg!). I'm sure many of you often thing to yourselves, "What do i buy for the fruit and veg inker who has everything?".

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Well my friends, this morning i had a visit from the postie who brought me a parcel. I wasn't expecting anything so i opened it and discovered these cool fruit and veg papers from Claire at ArtyFartyMack's Craft Space.

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How great are these?!!! Thanks ever so much for the papers Claire, I'm sure they will get put to good use scrapping the adventures of a fruit and veg inker some day! :)

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They are all nice, but these three are my faves....

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The red cherries....

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The red cabbage.....(i believe)....
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And the orange slices....
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Loads of colour in those, so once again a huge thank you to Claire. :)

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Also, a while back i received yet another prezzy from a fruit fan. Concerned at my inability to preserve most of the fruit i ink, my friend Jennie from The Artistic Stamper sent me these little gems to ink.......PLASTIC FRUIT!!!
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Does life get much better than this? As a famous man once said, "Throw in a fat guy and a tree and you've got Christmas!!!"

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So a huge thank you to Jennie for these too, who is incidentally probably sat there thinking , a) Why hasn't he inked them yet? and b)Where are the green and purple plastic grapes that were with it?

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Simple answer, easily explained.....a) Can't think of an excuse for not inking them, but at least i know that when i do, they'll live forever!...and b) The grapes are around the house somewhere, these things were like a kid magnet...the purple grapes were last seen in the tip that is the girls bedroom, acting the part of shopping for their dolls.....and the green grapes....they were last seen in the ears of my youngest daughter, who was ingeniously pretending to have green "Shrek ears!".

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All perfectly normal in the house of Calv! :)
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Right then, I'd better get this tucked away somewhere, I'm sure i saw Rotty sniffing around for his dinner.....and no veg is safe when he's hungry!!!

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Until next time veg fans....take care and keep smiling! :)

Veg i inked today!

Good evening my lovely bunch of veggie voyeurs!!! :)

Tonight is a special occasion for "Veg i inked today!", in that i bring you this episode LIVE from Maddy's house!!! Why is that so special i hear you shout? Well we all remember the last time i inked something whilst i was staying at Maddy's......yes that's right, i almost poisoned myself to death on a prickly pear! Oh the pain, oh the hairy spines in my skin, oh the swelling......oh the howls of laughter from a sympathetic Maddy whilst i was close to calling an ambulance!!!

Anyway, all is well this week, because i have inked something and it didn't injure me!!!

So enough of the waffle, feast your beady little eyes over my......TURNIP!!!

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What a lovely round little beauty this was! :)

Only small mind you, i always thought turnips were bigger than this, but this one was only about three inches across. Anyway, enough about the vital statistics of vegetables, I'm weird but I'm

not that bad yet!

I can't fault this little gem for standing still whilst i inked it, some fruit and veg wriggle about all over the place, but this one stood proud and didn't make a murmur!

I used silver mixative with the turnip, made a nice change from gold. The blues didn't come out quite as nice as I'd hoped, but was did make this something special was the gorgeous pinky purples it produced!

Just check these out!

I have to hold my hands up to having to take these pics before the ink dried too much, turnips make the ink go really dull after a very short while, so you have to take it while you can! (Don't say i don't teach you anything!)

Veginkability rating for the turnip? I'm going to give this one a modest 5!!! It was nice to ink, but nothing special. It wasn't an onion put it that way!

Like i said though, i have emerged from this unscathed, free of any foreign objects, and clean as a whistle....not an ounce of ink on my hands! Does it get any better than that!!!? Maddy can breathe a sigh of relief that no emergency services have been called! :)

Well my good friends of blog land, keep well, keep smiling and I'll see you all next week for another episode of...."Veg i inked today!"

Remember, keep smiling......it makes people wonder what you've been up to! :)))

Veg i inked today!

Waheyyyyyy!!!! Good evening everyone......sorry I've turned up a bit late, had a bit of an incident with a rubber glove and some gold mixative.....not to worry though, welcome to another night of bizarre inking, yes folks it's time for another episode of "Veg i inked today!"

Pull up a chair, grab a cuppa and lose yourself in the land of arty veg.

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This week challenged me a little, not because of the fruit I've inked tonight, but the ones that failed miserably in practise! I wrecked a turnip, obliterated a radish and the less said about the parsnip i tried the better! Grab your hankies people, yes i'm sorry to say that they have all now gone to that big casserole in the sky....it really was that bad! :(

So we find ourselves here once again waiting with baited breath, itching to find out what will be revealed to your good selves. Veggie fans, will you please stand up and put your hands together for .......THE LEEK!!!

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As they say in football, this was a game of two halves. (I think they say that, i can't stand football myself, but hey!). Yes folks, i liked one half of this leek, but not the other half.

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The end with the leaves, sprout tops, whatever you want to call them, did not ink very well at all, in that the colours went dark very quick. Possibly due to the leafy end being much greener in colour, so the colours didn't stand out as well. The other end was lovely to ink though...

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Each colour gave off a lovely vibrant finish, a bit splodgy here and there but then again this was a quick one tonight.

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The gold mixative played a big part again, and broke up some of the darker colours nicely.

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The thing i loved most about this weeks veg inking, is that it demonstrates perfectly how you don't need tons of colours to get numerous results. All i used this week was red pepper, wild plum and stream blue. A bit of gold mixative here and there but otherwise just the three colours.

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Yet look what we get when they collide....everything from greens to pinks, purples to vibrant turquoise colours. An excellent example of getting more for your money by mixing them.

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Yes i can hear you all gathering closer, biting your lip in anticipation, coffee cups shaking with excitement and wondering about the veginkability rating. Well this one i think deserves a 6!!!

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Had the other end of the leek been better, i would have easily given this an 8, but i think a 6 is still a fine score for this lanky fellow.

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Unfortunately i forgot to wear rubber gloves gain, so i now have to spend a week with coloured hands, and people feeling sorry for me because it looks like i have been tattooed by a drunk blind man....using a mop to apply the ink! :)

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Thank you for tuning in again everyone, i hope you like my leek. Have a great week whatever you are doing, and i look forward to popping around all of your blogs over the next few days. I was a bit rubbish at that, but Maddy showed me am easier way to do it.....so I'll be seeing ya!

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Night all :)

Veg i inked today!!!

Jumping veg roots people!!! Is it that time of the week again already?!!!

Yes it's Thursday night which means it's time for another episode of "VEG I INKED TODAY!"

Oh yes my loyal veggies, it's the one night of the week when you become a veggie viewer, audience to the edible...and leave concerned, knowing that you'll never get that five minutes of your life back!!! :)

So onto the veg. This week i went for this particular subject not only because of it's lovely texture which i thought would be great for inking, but also because it was a lovely specimen. It was huge!

Ladies and gentlemen, veteran fruit fans and novice veg enthusiasts.....may i present to you.....

THE PEPPER!!!



I thought this would be an excellent vegetable to ink because the skin is so shiny and smooth, i thought it would be another success like the onion.

However whilst it wasn't too bad, the ink dried pretty quick and therefore it dulls too soon. There are still some lovely colours in there, i just wish they were all as vibrant. You can see some of them are turning a "matt" finish instead of a nice gloss.



Sorry everyone....a bit of noise in the background, can't hear myself speak!

"Rotty....keep it down a bit will ya?"

"Sorry boss, just making something".

"Easy there Rotty, that thing is sharp!"

"No probs boss, you just worry about ya veggies...i'm a professional ya know!"

"Hmmm...professional what though! What are you making anyway?"

"Ah, just this and that.....i have a cunning plan which incorporates a certain little someone!"

"Please go careful Rotty, you wrecked my craft table last time, i was cleaning up ash and whiskers for ages after the last cunning plan!" "What are you doing with that branch anyway?"

"Hush hush and all that....don't you worry boss.....all will become clear soon *wink wink*!"

Sorry about that everyone....where was i.....

I love the way the blue mixed with the gold mixatives on this bit, here's a close-up....

Veginkability rating? Hmmm.....tough one. I reckon i could do better with the colours, but then again i have to go with my first attempt so i'm going to give the pepper a modest 5!!!

Not a bad score, remember that not all veggies will turn out well, indeed if my fruit escapades are anything to go by, they can be an absolute embarrassment at times!

To think this started off yellow anyway...... :)



Thank you for coming back for more veggie adventures everyone, it's always nice to see my regular followers here, and lovely to see new veggie voyeurs too!

Until next week......keep smiling! :) In the meantime, I'll leave Rotty to his cunning plan!

IT'S BACK!!!

Hi all :)

Yes at long last i have finally bowed to pressure and and returned with the now world famous feature where i ink alcohol ink the edible!

Oh yes my loyal friends, for the last few months you have followed my fruit inking adventures with a dedication that has astounded me! From far and wide, people put their lives on hold every Thursday evening to tune in for "Fruit i inked today!

Well folks, as you know i ran out of fruit to ink, at least fruit i could get hold of. So now we have entered a new era of inking, a step forward in the evolution of crafting, and dare i say it....a giant leap for ink kind...tonight good people of blogland, may i welcome you all to the first episode of

"VEG I INKED TODAY!" :)

For those who are new to my blog and therefore my inking escapades, it's simple. Every Thursday night (possibly early hours of Friday if the veg is a slippery sucker), i make a vegetable look a million times better via the medium of alcohol ink.

Why you may ask? Coz i can would be the answer to that one. :) Now and again there may be a tiny bit of slightly dramatic banter thrown in, but otherwise this is a deadly serious art i tell you.

So without further ado.....on with the first subject. This little fella was sat there in the bottom of my fridge looking a bit fed up, so i decided to make him my first subject of the new series. May i present to you all.......THE ONION!!!!
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Not a bad effort on the whole (give me some slack, it's my first time for a while). I had to peel the outer layer off before inking, but what a beauty to ink this was!
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The ink stays nice and vibrant on the skin even when it's dried, which was literally unheard of with the fruit unless i enameled it. The colours mixed nicely, but not so much that they went muddy, to be honest this was great to ink.
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Although this first time back was just a basic colour job, i liked it. I just used Wild plum, Stream blue and Red Pepper.
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Whenever i ink anything spherical, it always reminds me of a globe, the polar ice cap is looking a bit dodgy up here but otherwise i would say it was a lovely start to inking veg. Baby steps and all that....a delicate process this veg inking you know.

Oh yes, i can just see some of you saying, "What is this guy on about? All he's done is splattered some veg with ink!" Oh how wrong you would be. It only takes a moments lapse of concentration, and BANG!.....you've ruined a carrot!!!
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I new a guy who thought he'd get cocky and try his hand at it, so he went up to his allotment.....all they found was his shoes and little splatters of Wild Plum!!!
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So child's play it is not my good friends. Ooh.....the "veginkability" rating? Yes that is a word by the way...a common word down our way...made up by me....just then. :)

As this young onion was brave enough to be he first subject of the new series, and as it did a great job in displaying the colours off, I'm going to give it a veginkablity rating of 7.

The onion....a great way to return to one of the most bizarre features you'll legally see on a blog!!
Take care everyone, thanks for tuning in and remember....when you are buying vegetables next, i know you are stood there wondering, "Should i eat it....or ink it? :)

Same time next week.......Night all.

Fruit i inked today!

Good morning fruit fans!!! :) Yes that's right, it is almost 2am on a Thursday morning and although a little bit earlier than usual, may i welcome you all to yet another episode of "Fruit i inked today!" :)
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I am feeling triumphantly artified right now because today's fruit inking has been rather a success for me. After last weeks "Fairy hot air balloon", i was all engineered out and wanted to get back to basics with my fruit. It's ok making fantastic things out of fruit and bits of ribbon, but what happens if you're stuck in the middle of nowhere and you have to "just ink the fruit!?" Aha, yes i see you all nodding now...."Ah yeah....that's right Calv!"

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So i sat at my workspace, inks in one hand, a selection of fruit in the other. Then one volunteer bravely took a step forward. He knew this was going to be a different kind of fruit inking, and he knew it wasn't going to be easy....but he stepped up to the plate regardless.

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What resulted in the next hour, was what can only be described as a galactic stew of colour! So without further ado, good people of the four corners of our fruity earth, may i drench you in the colours of the AVACADO!!! (Don't forget you can enlarge the pics by clicking them).

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Would you look at the colours on THAT little beauty!!!! I am so chuffed with the way this turned out, but it wasn't all plain sailing......oh no my friends, not at all!

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I started off with another avacado, but it ended up a muddy mess, i'm even too embarrassed to show it on here. Then i got to thinking, "Whats my favourite way of making alcohol inks really stand out?" Then it hit me......UTEE!!! Yes fruit fans, i plastered the whole avacado in Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel. :) First i dried off the stone in the middle, Versamarked it then covered it in UTEE. The outside rim of the fruit was wet anyway so i figured it would stick to that too.......so i sprinkled away for all i was worth!

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Let me tell you though, it takes forever to melt UTEE on fruit with a heat gun! Don't ask me why, i just ink the stuff. Some of it didn't melt as well as other parts, but overall it worked out pretty well i thought. However once it started melting, and i started to add ink to it.....well butter my rear and call me Mildred!!! It was the best colours I've ever got from playing with UTEE.....ever!

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Kind of looks like a spaceship doesn't it? Definitely has some kind of alien thing going on in there. You could almost imagine a little alien head poking out of the egg in the middle there.

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So then....the all important scores on the doors....the fruitinkability rating! Due to the fact that it was so much fun to ink, and it welcomed the UTEE so obligingly......and the colours turned out so well, I'm going to have to go with a mighty 9 for this one! Yes fruit fans, a whopping great juicy 9!

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Just look at the stone on this most excellent subject!!!........

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So there you have it for another episode of "Fruit i inked today!".

Thanks ever so much for coming along, i do so enjoy Thursdays because i know it's the only time i get loads of visitors lol. :) Just kidding ;)

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Till next week....stay juicy everyone!!! :)

Distress inking a cork notice board.

I need a notice board for my craft room, so i got one of those cheapy ones from Staples.

It was "lacking in colour" shall we say, so i stamped around the edging strip with a flourish stamp and archival black ink. Next i got out my foam blending pads and distress inks, and just had a play.



It didn't turn out quite as expected, i should maybe have left it at just doing the edge. The chequered stamp was really just to see if it stamped ok on cork, which it did quite well.



This was just a tester board, so that you...and i get an idea of what is possible. I just couldn't bear seeing a boring plain cork board in a room that is supposed to be full of colour!

Fruit i inked today!

Hi inky fruit fans! :)

Yes it's that time once again for what i have decided to make my weekly feature...."Fruit i inked today!"

Every week, i will be scouring the shops for different fruits to alcohol ink. Each fruit will get a "fruitinkability" rating out of 10 (Oh yes my friends....fruitinkability is now an official word!), based on difficulty, enjoyment factor and end result.

Last week we saw my effort with a banana which turned out ok, but this week people......would you please put your scissors down, pull yourself away from Create and Craft for two minutes, and put your hands together for.......(drum roll....drrrrrrrrrrrrr).........the grape!!!




This one was a tricky little blighter! Hard to hold obviously, i looked like Harry Potter running around my craft room trying to keep hold of the Golden Snitch! The grape skin (which started off light green) seemed to wet the ink every time i applied it, so it got messy pretty fast.

Did i enjoy this one? Not sure about that one, i reckon there are easier fruit out there to ink if you really have to. My inking technique definitely needs improving, i know that for a start. So before my next installment, i will be watching some more of Tim Holtz's videos, i'm sure he'd be impressed that his talents were contributing to a project that will soon have a huge following!

I'm going to give this a fruitinkability rating of 3. The colour did not come out as nice as i'd like and it was hard to ink, therefore there just was'nt the party in my ink applicator i expected!

Thanks for popping your head in, and just to keep your mouths watering for next weeks episode of "Fruit i inked today!"........lets just say i'm going to go exotic for that one!!! :)

Nite all.......oops....should be saying morning now actually! Doesn't time fly when you are inking fruit? :)

Been playing with inks.....

Today i've been playing with alcohol inks, stamps and memory glass.

I'm after a particular effect that i saw recently and was really impressed by. I've not really made anything particular, just messing around with effects. I wanted to ink the glass, and stamp it too, but it did'nt turn out as vibrant as i wanted, so Maddy suggested i alcohol inked onto glossy photo paper first, so i did.

The result was much better. I've inked the paper with three colours on my ink applicator, but i guess you could use a brayer too. Once the inks really dry, i then stamped a nice design with black Stazon. Then the clear piece of memory glass covers it, giving it a gorgeous vibrant shine.



The stamped image isn't as crisp as i'd like, but then again this is my first try so i was'nt expecting perfection. Maddy said that Stazon can react with the ink sometimes as it's a solvent ink, so maybe thats why it is not as clear as planned?

I've seen this sort of thing done with clear acrylic shapes to make gorgeous pendants, and they can be sealed with foil (i think i'm right there?) around the edge but i just wanted to post this to give people an idea of the kind of effect you can get.

What you then use it for, is up to you.

Edited to say: After a very informative and jolly phonecall with Jennie from The Artistic Stamper (link to the right of my blog), i have discovered that what i was after was acrylic fragments, so i've bought some from Jennie's shop. She has done some gorgeous examples as part of projects on her blog. Thanks Jennie! :)