The Making of a Ink Ornament How To

My friend Heather and her kids Em and Joey came by on Wednesday to help me put a "how to" demo together on decorating glass ornaments with inks and acrylics. I am writing an article for an online crafting magazine and they need both the "how to" along with pictures.

The supplies:
glass ornaments
PearlEx
Ranger Ink alcohol inks
Ranger Ink applicator and felt pads
ribbon
acrylic paint
dixie cups
cupcake pans (optional)

The first step was to remove the top of the glass ornament and fill it with PearlEx.

Then with a few mists of water, you should be able to swirl the PearlEx mixture to coat the entire inside of the ornament. This was not as easy as first thought and a lot of the PearlEx was wasted.

Put the ornament top side down over a dixie cup and let dry overnight. I placed the dixie cups in a cupcake pan so the ornaments wouldn't easily fall over while they were drying.

The next day, take any combination of alcohol inks and add it to the applicator with a clean refill pad. Gently stamp the ink onto the ornament.

Let dry and restamp ink again for more coverage. When ornaments are completely dry (about 24 hours) add ornament top and ribbon to hang.

After doing all this, we found the effects to be nice but working with PearlEx was not easy (especially for the kids) as the sparkly dust was everwhere. So, we decided to try another method.

Fill a glass ornament with acrylic paint (we filled ours with cream/white to show up better for the camera).

Swirl the acrylic paint to coat the entire inside of the ornament and shake the excess into the paint bottle. Place ornament top side down over a dixie cup and let dry (overnight). We checked a few hours into the project and found a dixie cup full of excess paint, which easily poured back into the bottle.

The next day, take any combination of alcohol inks and add it to the applicator with a clean refill pad. Gently stamp the ink onto the ornament.

Let dry and restamp ink again for more coverage. When ornaments are completely dry (about 24 hours) add ornament top and ribbon to hang.

We took a poll and everyone liked the acrylic paint with alcohol ink combo the best. The plan is to make a bunch and sell at the school bazaar coming up in December.
 
Hope you try out this technique and even link back in the comments with your completed ornaments.
 
Creativity Bug ~ Sue