More Recycled Postcard Fun
Last time I showed how to make recycled postcards using cereal boxes and crumpled tissue paper. Today I'm taking a cue from these plastic bag prints, using alcohol inks and a plastic bag in a postcard project.
Materials
- Paperboard (like from a cereal box), heavy poster board, or card stock.
- Plastic bag. Thicker, more opaque bags are better for hiding the pictures and writing on the packaging underneath. If you don't have plastic bags around because you only use shopping totes (good for you!), then you could also use the slick side of a cheap shower curtain. (Thanks to Filth Wizardry's shower curtain play mat for the shower curtain idea.)
- Adhesive. A Xyron works great for this project.
- Alcohol inks and applicator.
Instructions
Cut paperboard to size. (See my previous post for postcard size guidelines.)
Apply adhesive to printed side of paperboard, then adhere it to the bag. If you're using a Xyron, feed it into the machine with the unprinted side up (you want the adhesive on the printed side).
Trim away excess plastic.
Apply alcohol inks to the plastic bag side of the postcard. Use your own favorite alcohol ink method here, combining colors any way you like. The metallic inks can be nice for masking particularly visible parts of the paperboard design.
Variations
You can skip the plastic bag layer. The shiny side of the paperboard will work, though it's not slick enough to be ideal for alcohol inks. Some of the inks will sink in, meaning you won't have as long to work with them before they're set. The effect is also a little more muted. Still, it's something to play with.
Comments
What beautiful results. I love experimenting with techniques too. TFS.
Posted by: Beth Norman | July 3, 2009 8:14 AM
Thank you, Beth! I've just been exploring your beautiful website. Really enjoy the tutorials, especially the ones with alcohol inks. Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Angela Mabray | August 7, 2009 2:23 PM
Wow! Ran right into my craft room to try this and the results are amazing - scrapping with friends next week, can't wait to show them this. TFS!
Posted by: DigiDeb | October 30, 2010 1:25 PM