Alcohol Ink on Metal Tape Background Technique

I had to go out and buy the materials just so I could try it. Back then, Amazon wasn’t my go-to for everything. So I went to the hardware store for “metal tape.” I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, even. I remember it was another customer who helped me find it since hardware store employees seem to scatter whenever I need help finding something. Does that happen to you too?

I had to go out and buy the materials just so I could try it. Back then, Amazon wasn’t my go to for everything. So I went to the hardware store for “metal tape.” I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, even. I remember it was another customer who helped me find it, since hardware store employees seem to scatter whenever I need help finding something. Does that happen to you too?

In any case, this technique is so fun it’s worth any hunting down of hardware employees you might have to do. But btw, it’s in the plumbing section 😜.

This tutorial answers the question of what is something you can put alcohol inks on to make awesome cards of various kinds. Here's a tutorial by Lime Doodle Design, using the inks on yupo paper.

• Roll of metal tape

• Alcohol inks

• Card stock or journal

I started off with a few different sizes of card stock.

I then grabbed my hefty roll of plumbers quality metal tape.

The backside of the metal tape peels off leaving it sticky to attach to whatever you need it for.

In my case, I had some card stock to cover.

I cover all my pieces of card stock.

When you use metal tape, you're going to get wrinkles and be able yo see overlaps and creases. But, I don't think it takes away from the overall look. it ends up feeling kinda "grungy" anyway, which is cool.

Before I started, I decided the colors I would use for each piece of metal covered card.

To apply the alcohol ink to the metal tape, grab a piece of felt and fold it over so it gets on your hands less.

Squirt a little of the ink on the felt.

Start by pouncing the inked felt over the metal tape.

Things dont get really interesting until you add one or more colors of ink.

Heres after the third color:

Cool, huh?

Here's another one:

And now you have new backgrounds for your artist trading cards or other types of mail art.

Buy the supplies on Amazon:

And check out these other background tutorials you might like: