tutorial-alcohol ink altered light switch plate

YEP that's right - i said your light switch plate!! this little idea was posted on my ranger ink yahoo group that i belong to - FAB ideas over there i must say! i did two rooms two different ways so here is the first one in the powder room:

and these are from Pezzy's room:



Gather your supplies: switch plates (nothing special - these are the cheapest available as they came with the house and i pulled them right off the wall and inked away!), 2-3 alcohol inks, metallic mixatives if you want, felt piece and applicator tool. also need optional items like versamark and embossing powders or tsukineko brilliance pearlescent dew drops.

ink up your felt piece - now the first thing you might notice is i totally broke the "rule" about using very little metallic mixative. i am using pearl and i did this because i want the colors to be somewhat lightened. i also added plenty of blending solution.

here is the plate after inking. alcohol inks are funny because they can be somewhat unpredictable. i liked it after i went over it just once but then i just HAD to keep fooling with it so it turned out a bit darker BUT i still like it.

Next i inked up a stamp with versamark (*waves to catherine*), stamped onto the plate and added distress embossing powders. heat and melt them - be careful the plate gets very hot!!!

For Pezzy's plates i added ALOT of pearl mixative for the first pass and then got a clean piece of felt with ONLY blending solution to pick some ink back up because i wanted to get a real light color. Then i stamped with brilliance pearlescent inks and pink cat studio stamps for a different look. next i want to try making a full-on antiquey metallic looking one perhaps with gold mixative and a brown ink OR silver mixative and black ink BUT hubby's not crazy about them SOOOOOOO....he asked if i have to decorate EVERYTHING and i said well of course i do!!!!!!!!!!!! if it stays still long enough i'll pretty it right up!!

Have fun y'all!!!!