3 Alcohol Ink Techniques for Working with Resin

With all of the fun resin projects popping up you’re sure to have seen a few alcohol ink masterpieces by now. Of course, there are a million ways to combine materials (which is half the fun… no two projects look alike!) so I thought I would share 3 different beginner level resin pours that you can do with resin and alcohol ink.

First we’re going to do a simple project where we mix 3 separate alcohol ink colors in a full mold of resin for a marbled effect, then we’ll add glitter to our mixture and make a few simple glitter dyed resin pieces, then we’ll finish strong with a showstopper: alcohol ink mixed with white ink that looks like a million cells.

You can use all 3 of these techniques with any resin project however I used them to make a few adorable Easter Eggs for my Easter table. Check out the other resin Easter Eggs I whipped up HERE.

Or check out my Vintage Easter Tablescape (featuring these little Easter eggs!) HERE.

Ready to get started?

Supplies:

Amazing Clear Cast Resin
Respirator/Mask
Gloves
Wagner HT400 Heat Gun
Silicone Egg Mold
Freezer Paper
Small Mixing Cups
Silicone Measuring Cup/Larger Mixing Cups
Popsicle Sticks
Toothpicks
Plastic Spoons
Inclusions: Alcohol Ink, Fine Glitter, Chunky Glitter

Feeling a little intimidated by all the resin? Not sure what the heck inclusions are? Don’t know what to buy to get started with resin? This particular post will teach you everything you need to know about making resin Easter Eggs but if you want to go back to the beginning check out my Resin 101 Post. It’s a complete guide to getting started with all things resin.

How to Prepare Your Resin

Start by prepping your surface, cover the table you’re using with freezer paper and gather all of your supplies. Resin doesn’t give you a lot of wiggle room on the drying time so once you start you won’t want to dart off to the other room to grab glitter… get everything you’ll need now.

Then put on your respirator so you’re ready to rock.

Regardless of which technique you use you’ll need to mix a little resin! So here’s the 411:

Start by mixing your resin in a 1×1 ratio. Each egg takes about 35 ml of resin so you’ll need about 17.5 ml of part a and 17.5 ml of part b. Mix these together for 2 minutes to form your resin mixture.

Then you can either pour this resin directly into the mold or add your glitter/ink depending on which technique you’re working with.

Once the resin is in the mold you can use your heat gun to pop all of the bubbles that rise to the surface… you want to pop all the bubbles in the resin so that you have a crystal clear finish.

Beautiful darling!

Need a little help? Start at the beginning with my easy how to mix resin tutorial!

This amazing clear cast resin has a 30 minute dry time and a 24-48 hour cure time so if you’re doing multiple layers make sure to wait 30 minutes in between and you’ll need at least 24 hours before you take your pieces out of their molds.

Now that we understand the basics of our resin are you ready to get started with the techniques?

Project 1: Mixed Alcohol Ink

This little technique is probably the easiest (although honestly all 3 are pretty easy!). You’ll start by filling your the mold space completely with resin.

Just make sure not to overflow the mold!

Now grab your alcohol ink and pick your first color. I went with the pink ’cause it’s my favorite.

Go ahead and drop 3-4 drops in the resin and watch the color spread out.

Ready for step 2? Pick a different color (the blue) and add 3 to 4 drops. Try not to overlap directly but the outsides of each drop will start to mingle, swirl.

Since I’m using a set of 3 alcohol inks that are designed to go together I don’t have too worry too much about color contamination but if you have lots of colors to choose from make sure to pick 3 that won’t get muddy when they mix.

Now add the 3rd color… and watch the colors start to mix! You’ll get a beautiful marbling that is stunning in the finished product.

Project 2: Glitter Alcohol Ink

This technique reminds me of all the fun projects I did as a little girl… maybe it’s the glitter but I absolutely love how they turned out!

Plus they are soooooo simple to make.

For these little eggs we’re going to take one cup of resin, add 3-4 drops of resin and a bit of glitter. I like to add a fine glitter as well as a chunky glitter so that there’s a bit of difference between them.

Go ahead and add these directly to the cup and them mix them in…

Once the glitter, alcohol ink and resin are thoroughly mixed go ahead and pour the mixture directly into the mold.

That’s it!

Go ahead and pop all the bubbles with your heat gun (the bubbles are a bit harder to see with all of the glitter but I promise they’re still there. Just heat up the resin in passes for about 10 seconds to get them all).

I went ahead and made 3 different eggs with this technique… one with the pink alcohol ink, one with the blue and one with the green. I used coordinating glitter in each so they would match.

Don’t they look amazing?

Project 3: White Alcohol Ink

Ready for technique number three?

This little project is pretty close to technique number one… with one small change: white alcohol ink.

Go ahead and mix your resin, pour it into the mold and pop all the bubbles with your heat gun!

Now we’re ready for the alcohol ink. Go ahead and drop in your first color (I started with the pink) and then place a drop of while on top of the pink. Keep doing this until you’ve built up about 6 layers of color (6 pink and 6 white)… going back and forth.

Pink, white, pink, white, pink, white repeat!

The white will help the alcohol ink mix and react in the resin. (These eggs are pretty deep… you get even cooler reactions in a shallow mold)

Once you’ve done the pink add a new color next to it… all the way around the egg until you’re done! Now you can leave the egg as it is or take a toothpick and swirl the colors a bit… just make sure not to mix the colors so much they turn brown.

We’re swirling… not mixing cake batter!