A Bit of Crafty Genius: Breaking out the alcohol... Inks that is!

When you were growing up did you have a favourite teacher? Someone who really got under your skin so to speak. In a good way. I did. A few in fact. Some were my favourite because of the way they made me feel in the classroom and some because they gave me that 'AHA!' moment. The moment you finally get something that you have been trying to understand for a while. Well, I will remember these teachers for the rest of my life and I think that knowing that you made that kind of impact on a kid is what they all strive for.

I believe my daughter has one of those teachers now. A teacher who makes the kids enjoy learning and going to school. So I wanted to show my appreciation by giving her a Christmas gift. Unfortunately with my lack of timing skills, I didn't get around to it until near the new year but this is what I came up with.

I found these apple bowls in a charity shop and they also happened to be half price. Great deal for me and I thought they would be great to 'dress up' for a teachers gift. So I brought them home and broke out the few alcohol ink colours I had (luckily they happened to fit well with the apple!) and started 'painting'.

Supplies used:

Alcohol inks-

Currant
Red Pepper
Gold mixative
Espresso
Lettuce
Meadow

Tim Holtz Blending tool and felt

Olive satin ribbon -wide

Cellophane plastic

I first cleaned the bowls really well. You don't want any sort of residue left on them especially sticky residue from price stickers. Then I turned them over and just started dripping colours down the sides. I tried starting with the reds first and then moving on to the gold but I also did the other way around where I started with the gold first. I think I prefer starting with the reds.

I dripped a few streaks of Red Pepper and Currant down the sides to give it a bit of depth. I also dabbed on some green in a few placed though it didn't show up very much. I used the blending tool with the reds to make sure I got into all the spaces and that the whole apple was covered. Then I added some gold and green and just kept adding and blending until I got the look I wanted. I left the gold fairly streaky. Make sure you mix the gold well, otherwise it wont run down the sides the way we want it to and will get a bit clogged.

I made one stem all gold and another I used a blend of espresso and lettuce.

Here you can see the before and after side by side. Such a difference!!

Two more apples done for a friend. The one on the right is where I used the gold for the stem.

All wrapped and ready to go! I added in a little 'adult' chocolate in the form of baileys chocolate truffles. I figured everyone could use a break from all the kiddie candy!

I also made her this, which was supposed to be a pendant but of course I had no luck finding any bails to make it one. In the end I stuck a magnet on the back of it.

I embossed a bit of tin from a red bull can and then coloured with alcohol inks. I coated it with UTEE in the melt pot which unfortunately smeared a lot of the inks but its ok. This was a first time thing for me so I was bound to run into some issues. I used Tim Holtz chit chat stickers and a teddy bear charm which I then covered again with the UTEE and finished. This isn't the best picture of it as I hadn't sanded anything down yet but you get the idea. Funny enough she liked this one best.