DIY Metallic Alcohol Inks

DIY metallic Alcohol Inks. Diy Metallic alcohol mixatives. How to make your own metallic alcohol inks.
********GIVEAWAY********* The giveaway for this month is alcohol ink and marker themed. Watch the video to find out how to enter.
For more details on how to make your own metallic alcohol inks, you can check out my blog post at

[raelynnreffruschinni]

If people don't want to do it DIY, why do they even watch this? I love how you experiment.

[kielia]

Yes, DIYs are very helpful to people. I live on a small fixed income. When I moved my movers ripped off over 5, 000 dollars of my beading supplies and another couple of grand in art supplies. I will never be able to replace what took me 20 years to build. I absolutely have to supplement my income with my art, but since art supplies cost so much I use every DIY trick I can find, and only spend money on the things I can not make myself. I am deeply indebted and grateful to all who take the time to come up with the DIYs and are kind enough to share their knowledge with the rest of us. So that said, Thank you very much for sharing this, and please consider your self hugged for doing so. LOL!!

[degucitas]

Don't use metal screws or nuts in alcohol!! They will slowly rust and you'll wind up with reddish brown muddy colors!!! I learned the hard way. Glass beads are a better choice.

[sometimesiwander]

I have a suggestion: I purchased Folk Art Dragonfly Glaze at Walmart fir $3.97. I put some in a 2 ounce spray bottle with alcohol a drop of dawn dish soap, a couple drops of hairspray, & some distilled water. It’s a color shift & I applied it over my homemade sharpie alcohol inks & its amazing. I loved it so much I went back and added some of the color shift to all of my sharpie inks & its really beautiful. It makes a lovely, ethereal color palette. I still have about 2 ounces in my bottle & I added it to 25 2 ounce spray bottles bc you don’t need much. I’ve found with adding acrylics that if you get them too thick they won’t spray & since alcohol fumes gives me migraines due to an alcohol allergy I generally water mine down with distilled water, but it’s a personal preference thing. Although my bottle from folk art says it was a red-violet-blue shift o literally added it to every color I made. Lol. I’m disabled so I generally buy everything from Amazon bc they deliver to my door so I buy spray bottles, eye dropper bottles, & half ounce squeeze bottles for my alcohol inks & I have had a pretty good success using mica powders, drops from my name brand alcohol inks bc they are so concentrated, & some acrylic paints. Next I plan to try to make some with Judy the distilled water bc I’m a fountain pen freak & you can’t use alcohol inks in fountain pens without damaging the guts of ur pen so I’m
Hoping to make something that will work bc I love colored inks in my pens, but they are crazy expensive online. Thx for the video. Hope you give the Folk Art color shift a try. I put about 1/4 ounce of alcohol in the bottom of the bottle, a drop of detergent, a bit of hairspray, then I squirt about a 1”-2” line of the shift in my bottles bc it mixes better that way. Then I add more alcohol or a mix of alcohol & distilled water. The water does seem to dilute the colors more than the straight alcohol method tho, but I play with watercolors so I’m ok with doing one bottle straight alcohol & another w a mix so I have two tones of the same color. Also, I found some of those silverware caddies on clearance last time I went to Walmart. They are the kind like you put on a picnic table with napkins on one side in one area & the other side has 3 holes for forks, spoons, & knives. Mine holds 24 of my 2 ounce bottles perfectly! I just lay my 25th bottle on top. It makes it portable for my art. And it was only $4! My only negative is it’s made out of a wire grid, but I fixed there by cutting the tops off my 12 ounce coke cans with my can opener and I put 3 coke cans I. The silverware skits to hold my paint brushes & fountain pens! The other side also holds 3 coke cans in the napkin side. I’m kicking myself for not. Using every caddy they had on the clearance aisle.

[Elizabeth]

I will have to get some metallic paint and try this. I can't wait to start having fun! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

[kristathorne-yocam]

I think I'll try copper paint. Ready liking the blue with the gold. It reminds me of a bay with small islands. So much fun watching the different effects.

[wordscrafter]

This. Is. So. Cool! And I love diy-ing. It's like crafty sciencey play that's useful and purposeful. And you feel like you've accomplished something. Plus, it stretches your supplies and helps get your money's worth. I've watched this twice. I'm gonna have to watch it again to make sure I have the measurements right. Thanks for sharing this!

[louisesouza]

I'm just learning about alcohol inks. If I can make them that would be great. I am miles and miles from craft type stores. Would ball bearings work for shakers? New of course.

[Loveartncraft]

Thank you for bringing us content that is so hard to find on YouTube. I really appreciate it.

[sometimesiwander]

The acrylic iridescent medium I add to my alcohol inks is by royal & langnickel which I purchased at Walmart for around $5. It’s very thick tho so thin it with alcohol first. Meaning add alcohol to the bottle before adding the iridescent medium & any other colors you wanna add, but my favorite is still adding the Folk Art Dragonfly Glaze which is an awesome color shift. 2 ounce bottle is $3.97 at my local Walmart. I liked it so much I’ve added it to all 25 of my 2 ounce bottles of diy inks. I made them using sharpies, mica powders, drops from my amazon alcohol inks purchase etc. The best part w using the concentrated alcohol inks you can buy on amazon for use in resin is that they are so concentrated you can mix quite a few 2 ounce bottles of the same base color, but in a dozen different tones of you want to do tonal artwork by just using more or less drops of it in your alcohol or distilled water mixes. You can also add a bit of white or cream if you want a slightly creamier tone.

[suecrawford]

This is have not yet played with the metallics and am glad to find a less expensive way to experiment with them....have to check the local dollar stores for some stash....didn't realize you could use glitter paints either - thanks for all the good info!!!

[jotsntittles]

Re DIY ink using sharpies - they actually cost quite a bit, each when it comes right down to it. In the long run it's not saving very much and your ratio of pigment to alcohol is far less using sharpies than printer pigment ink - i'ts much higher concentrate) Look for "Epson 6 color printer ink refills on amazon $16.00 US or $30.00 Can and make your alcohol ink ( & mix other colors using the primaries instead) You only need very few of drops of ink to a bottle of alcohol.
Give it a whirl... bigger bang for your bucks (IMO)

[AlcoholInkArtCommunity]

Great video, Janelle! Love that you are taking alcohol ink in such fun directions and spreading the love of alcohol ink art!!!!

[JuneRamsamy]

Hi Janelle, I've been playing with my alcohol inks. Walked into our local supermarket in Mauritius and OMG they had cheap markers, packs of two for under a pound English money. Got to admit I went a bit crazy, jumping up and down and continously saying I don't believe it. My two friends were confused and even more confused when they found out that the excitement was over markers. Of course they didn't know what markers were, but the point is that I got cheap markers yo play with as I didn't really want to use my Copics for these projects. Hooray for Mauritius for getting markers in their shops. Makes me wonder what else will I find.

[craftyandsavvy]

Love the look the metallics add to certain color combos. A little certainly goes a long ways. Gonna have to try to create some of my own!

[shaz]

Great idea to make your own inks....would it work do you think if the acrylic paint is thicker rather than runny....like impasto acrylic ? Thanks for the tips 😁❤️

[Amandahugginkizz]

You can use a nut from a nut and bolt, .or a bb pellet, or marble

[liletteautrey]

Not everyone has the money to buy expensive paints and inks to use in their projects. I am for diy too for this reason. Thank you for sharing your experiments.

[lyndawalker]

Great video Janelle. I've tried a lot of different acylic paints and some of the cheaper ones sometimes work better than the more expensive ones. Some have much more vibrancy. This is a fantastic idea you have shown us. I'm going to be trying this. Thanks for sharing. Your videos are always very informative. xx

[DeonnaBemish]

I love Do it yourself ideas! Thank you so much. Very inspiring!