Recycled Leaf With Make Your Own Alcohol Inks

Hello! Hostess Tami here with a Thanksgiving card and a couple of money $aving ideas involving diecuts and alcohol inks to share.

This card features the "negative" from the diecut of the large leaf I used on the fall thank you card in my November 4 post. Using both the postive and negative pieces from your diecuts is a great way to get the most out of your supplies...

Another way to save a few $$$ is to make supplies with items you might have on hand. I made my own alcohol inks using ColorBox Archival Dye Reinkers and Denatured Alcohol. I mixed equal parts of each in a small jar. ColorBox Stylus & Tips were used to apply the inks to a piece of Spellbinders Foil that was crumpled and lightly sanded...

If you want to use both portions of your diecut, it helps if you start with a square or rectangle, whatever fits your shape best, then center the paper over the diecut so that you have an equal border around it. In the card above, I started with a square and angled the leaf at the center. Another good hint is to keep a small box or container to put any diecut pieces or "negatives" that you don't use. Pull it out when you are making cards or layouts and see what pieces you can incorporate into your new project.

Think about changing your "leftovers" appearance by embossing, stamping or "smooching" it. For this card, the leftover negative piece was embossed to give it some texture...

SUPPLIES:

Clearsnap Products:

• ColorBox Archival Dye Reinkers: Mudslide and Tree Frog
• ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink: Chestnut Roan
• ColorBox Stylus & Tips

Other Products:

• Spellbinders: Shapeabilities - Orchard Harvest Tags and Accents, Premium Craft Foils - Jewel Tones - Orange and M-Bossibilities - So Trendy - B Design 
• Hero Arts: Celebrate Everyday
• Bazzill: Kraft and Burnt Orange Cardstocks
• Beacon Adhesives: Zip Dry
• Double Sided Tape
• Raffia
• Denatured Alcohol
• Small Jar

Tools:

• Trimmer, Scissors, Sandpaper and Heat Gun - optional

Directions:

Alcohol Inks:

1. Mix equal parts of Denatured Alcohol and Dye Ink from Reinker in a small jar and shake gently to blend.
2. Make green using Tree Frog and brown using Mudslide.

Card:

1. Cut a 5 X 10 piece of kraft cardstock and fold in half to make card.
2. Cut a 4 1/4 X 4 1/4 piece of burnt orange cardstock and emboss using M-Bossibilities  Folder. Lighlty ink embossed areas and distress edges using Chestnut Roan Chalk Ink.
3. Use 3 3/4 X 3 3/4 "negative" kraft diecut from previous project, or cut using large leaf from Orchard Harvest set.
4. Emboss 3 3/4 X 3 3/4 leaf piece using M-Bossibilities  Folder. Lighlty ink embossed areas and distress edges using Chestnut Roan Chalk Ink.
5. Slightly crumple a 3 1/2 X 3 1/2 piece of orange foil and lightly sand wrinkles.
6. Use Stylus & Tips to apply green and brown alcohol inks to antique orange foil. Let air dry or speed up using a  heat gun. HINT: be sure to soak and clean tips well before reusing with other inks!
7. Use double sided tape to adhere foil to the back of the leaf negative.
8. Tie ends of 3 - 8" pieces of raffia together, cut apart about 3" from knot and wrap ends of raffia to back of orange cardstock about 1" from left edge, with know about 1 1/2" down from top. Use double sided tape to secure ends to back.
9. Adhere orange cardstock in upper left corner of card front, leaving about a 1/4 border.
10. Slide upper left corner of leaf piece under raffia, and adhere piece at an angle on card front. Also tack down raffia by placing adhesive under knot.
11. Use Chestnut Roan Chalk Ink to stamp sentiment at lower right of card.