Alcohol Blends on Vellum - My "Happy Accident"

I always love it when I experiment with a craft technique - and manage to have a "happy accident." That's a term the late painter Bob Ross used when something wonderful materialized out of nowhere! That's what happened for me. I was just trying out a new method, and there it was - a beautiful background that required practically zero talent to make! Here's what I got on my first try - and then I was hooked.

I made this background just by scribbling several colors of Stampin' Blends markers on a piece of vellum paper, and then tapping a paint brush with alcohol on the surface. I'm not kidding! I scribbled and tapped, and this background appeared within a matter of minutes.

Here are several more samples I made in the following days:

Check out my YouTube process video to learn how you can make these beautifully blended backgrounds for yourself! If you enjoy the video, please be sure to give me a thumbs-up to help me build my new YouTube video channel!

Here's the finished card from the video and details about construction:

The card base is Stampin' Up! Old Olive card stock, with a cut size of 8.5" wide x 5.5" high, scored and folded at 4.25".

The square mat is Very Vanilla card stock, cut to 3.5" wide by 3.25" high. Designer series paper is glued to the square mat, with a size of 3.25" wide by 3.0" high.

The alcohol-blended vellum on top of the mat measures 2." wide by 5.25" high. The vellum is mounted on top of Garden Lane designer series paper (retired). Multipurpose liquid glue was used to assemble all pieces thus far.

The sentiment is from the Jan-Feb 2021 Sale-a-bration stamp set called "Heal Your Heart." It is stamped on a Very Vanilla circle of approximately 1.75" and a mat of green card stock, approximately 2" around. It is mounted using Stampin' Dimensionals to pop the sentiment up off the surface of the card. A piece of green twine rounds out the design.

The inside of the card features a 1/2" x 5.25" strip of the alcohol-blended vellum, glued to the card base with multipurpose liquid glue. The inside sentiment also comes from the "Heal Your Heart" stamp set.

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As you can see, this blending technique yields beautiful results for minimal effort! Your cards and other paper projects will have a completely unique background, as it is impossible to achieve the same result twice. If you love a "happy accident" as much as I do, I hope you'll give this a try.

One word of caution: Be sure you have a dry surface any time you apply ink to paper from your Stampin' Blends or other alcohol markers. The markers may "draw" liquid into the nib and ruin your marker. If you're working with mixed media, be sure to use the alcohol marker first - before applying other inks, paints, etc.

Thanks for visiting! Until next time, best wishes for a craft-happy day!