Creativity In A Nutshell

So, I got my set of alcohol inks and finally had time to play with them yesterday :) Alcohol inks are fantastic!

(I know what you are thinking. What the deuce are alcohol inks?)
Welllll.... they are alcohol-based inks. This is great, because, unlike water-based inks (you average scrapbooking/stamping inks) these will not come off with water/soap etc. They're really beautiful too, translucent and brilliant. The inks will not mix together at all unless you add the handy dandy blending solution. (Which costs a whole 5 extra dollars.)

Things to keep in mind when working with alcohol inks:

• They stain. Everything. I used a trashbag to cover my art table, and wore gloves the whole time. You can pretty much get them off most things using rubbing alcohol, but for pourous stuff (like wood) good luck.
  
• The ink itself dries quickly, which is great when adding multiple layers of color and designs, but not so great if you've squirted a whole bunch of ink on your felt applicator and most of it dries before you can use it.
• Experiment! I quickly realized that the best results I got, happened when I just kind of went at it, rather than being careful.
  

Here are some of my results:
(From Left to Right, Up to Down) These first two were made using just the Wild Plum and Stram inks. Oh and I added in some gold as well. The last one was made with Wild Plum and Butterscotch. You can also see the inkstains on the trashbag underneath. :D

The next three were made with Stream and Butterscotch ( I had to admit I love the names of these inks!)