After our previous alcohol ink washer necklace project, I realized we needed a project to use up the leftover alcohol inks. I went searching for other surfaces to apply alcohol inks and found that glass is perfect! You could actually ink numerous glass bottles, vases, glasses, or votives with the leftover inks because each takes so little ink to beautifully cover the glass. Glass is an excellent surface for alcohol inks, because it allows the dyes to move and flow freely for creative blending and mixing. You don’t even need a felt-tipped applicator for this project. You simply drip the ink onto the glass.
Alcohol ink on glass creates a stained-glass-like finish that makes for beautiful lighting when hung in windows, or just by adding some battery-powered twinkly, fairy lights or a battery-powered candle.
Here’s what you’re going to need to make your own alcohol ink glass project:
Materials
- Alcohol inks – I used 6 colors, but I almost think it was too many colors. I think using only 3 colors would be less busy-looking, and even more beautiful.
- Blending solution, or 70/90% rubbing alcohol for mistakes and clean-up
- Glass votive, vase, rose bowl, wine glasses, decorative bottle, etc.
- Battery-operated fairy lights or battery-operated tea light candles
- Pair of gloves (optional). The inks will come off with the blending solution or rubbing alcohol if you prefer to not wear gloves.
What are alcohol inks?
Alcohol inks are alcohol based dyes that can be used to dye numerous types of surfaces, but work best on non-porous surfaces like glass, metal, and plastic. The ink is similar to that in permanent markers like Sharpies. It’s permanent once it dries as long as it doesn’t come in contact with alcohol based liquids. Alcohol Inks can be stamped or dripped onto surfaces and will create a beautiful stained-glass-like finish when used on clear glass or plastic. It is sold in little bottles with small nozzles for dripping the ink, usually in the craft paper stamping section of craft stores.
What is blending solution?
Blending solution is used for thinning/mixing the alcohol ink and cleaning up after your mistakes. Rubbing alcohol (70% or 90%) works almost as well as the blending solution in a pinch.
Directions
- Prepare your surface. Clear your table and put down a craft mat, cloth, cardboard, or paper.
- Figure out what you’re going to ink like a beautiful glass vase, plate, or dish. I chose a clear, glass rose bowl.
- I flipped the rose bowl over so I could drip from the bottom. (I have seen some folks on Pinterest do alcohol ink projects where they put the ink inside the bottle, vase, or glass. However, I tried and had some good results applying the ink to the outside.)
- I didn’t thin the ink. I dripped the alcohol inks straight onto the glass rose bowl from the ink bottles. It runs and dries quickly, so I don’t think you need to thin when applying to glass like you would for some other surfaces. However, you could thin if you wanted to lighten your colors.
- I started out going around my vase with a bright shade of purple. I made a point to drip lines of different lengths so the finished product wouldn’t look too uniform.
- Next I added my other colors of green (botanical), red (poppy field), yellow (sunshine yellow), orange (sunset orange), and gold (honeycomb). These particular colors are from the Tim Holtz line by Ranger.
- I just continued to drip around the vase with each color in varying lengths, filling in as I went.
- After adding all 6 colors, I came back and cycled through the colors two more times starting again with the purple. It did start to look a little overly-striped to me, so I added some messy, short, horizontal lines of color here and there to break up the monotony.
- I really like how bright and colorful it turned out. However, the really great thing about alcohol ink is that if you don’t like what you’ve created, it’s easy to start over, just wipe it off with some rubbing alcohol. Since glass is smooth, it’s easy to clean and get the surface ready to start again.
- When you’re done, blending solution or rubbing alcohol can be used to clean up most small spills and any ink that you get on your hands. Just make sure your clean up any drippings from your table before it dries, because once it dries it’s permanent!
- Allow your completed project to dry overnight. It actually dries within about 10 minutes, but since I was planning to spray with sealer, I let it dry overnight.
- The next morning, I sprayed with a clear glossy acrylic spray sealer. However, this did diminish the shine a bit, so I tried to think of an alternative for you. Brushed on mod-podge will leave a bit of a brush stroke texture on glass, so I’m thinking a couple of coats of triple thick glaze spray might work best, like Rustoleum. (Or, if your completed alcohol ink project is going to just sit on a shelf, I would just skip the sealing process altogether.)
- Once the sealer dried, I inserted the battery operated fairy lights, and my alcohol ink rose bowl light was done!
Just to be safe, I would use a battery-operated candle instead of a regular candle in a glass container that you’ve stained with alcohol inks because the alcohol in the inks is flammable.
Not including drying times for the inks and sealer, this project took less than 10 minutes, and was probably the easiest painting project I have ever done. I’m certainly more of a digital artist than a painter, so seriously if I can do this, anyone can. This would be an easy project for girls night or a birthday party activity that everyone would enjoy.
Whatever you choose to create, have fun with it. I’m sure you will make something beautiful!
