With more and more people adding a decent, cheap alcohol ink set to their arts and crafts collections, we have noticed a correlating spike in the number of questions that people have been asking regarding alcohol ink. Although we have already covered 15 surfaces to use your alcohol ink on as well as 11 alcohol ink techniques to get better results, we have noticed more and more people asking how to make white alcohol ink at home.
Due to the number of people reaching out about making their own white alcohol ink increasing with each month that passes, we have decided to publish this dedicated article going over a number of ways that you can make your own white alcohol paint at home. This should be able to help our readers make their own paints quickly and cheaply but the first few times you go through the process, it can be a little tricky but as with most things, practise makes perfect.
Please note that some of the white alcohol ink recipes that we will be going over below do require a few specialist items. If you don’t already carry these items in your arts and crafts collection and would have to buy them new then just purchasing some pre-made white alcohol ink will probably end up working out to be cheaper.
Also, although we do recommend that you use 99% isopropyl alcohol for all of these white alcohol ink recipes, you should be able to get similar results with anything over 90% alcohol content. There are various isopropyl alcohol products on the market with less than 90% alcohol content and these tend to perform poorly and should be avoided when making your own alcohol inks.
How To Make White Alcohol Ink With Acrylic Paint!
Making your own white alcohol ink with acrylic paint is probably going to be the easiest option for the majority of people while usually also providing you with the best end results. The process tends to be quick, easy, and cheap making it one of the more popular methods that people use to make their own acrylic paints.
You will need the following items to make white alcohol ink with acrylic paint:-
Start by ensuring that your mixing bottle is totally clean and free from any impurities that may cause issues with your alcohol ink later in the process. Quickly washing them out with warm water is usually enough to get the job done and remove anything that may be problematic.
Next up you will want to pour isopropyl alcohol into the mixing bottle until it is around three quarters full but keep in mind, the spare quarter is not for your acrylic paint, it is to allow you to test and adjust as well as make the mixing process easier. We always recommend that our readers start with such a large amount of isopropyl alcohol as they usually over estimate how little acrylic ink is actually required for the process.
Next up we recommend that you add your white acrylic paint and although some people do simply pour it directly into their mixing bottles, you can get much better results if you use a arts and crafts syringe due to it making it much easier to control the paint you add to your isopropyl alcohol. Depending on the size of the mixing bottles that you are using, you can get away with as little as one small drop of your white acrylic paint so we usually recommend that you start with a single drop and then mix it together by shaking the bottle with the cap applied.
Once you have shaken your mixing bottle for around thirty seconds, take a look at your homemade white alcohol ink to see how consistent it is. If you wish, you can have a quick test run on some black paper to see how well it will look when used and then make a decision if you want to add more white acrylic paint to thicken it up and add more pigment or more isopropyl alcohol to reduce the pigment ratio.
This can take a little while to get used to but keep in mind that a thinner homemade alcohol ink does tend to be better than a thicker one. This is due to thinner alcohol inks usually being much easier to use as the alcohol will evaporate faster and not cause issues with your paper.
Although making your own white alcohol ink does tend to be much easier when using white acrylic paint, it can have issues with lasting for long periods of time, even if you use a decent sealant spray on top of your artwork. Due to this, if you do need your art work to last for as long as possible then it may be a better option to use one of the other methods below or to just get yourself some pre-made white alcohol ink.
How To Make White Alcohol Ink With Food Coloring!
Although making your own white alcohol ink using food coloring is almost as easy as making it with acrylic paint, the results do tend to be hit and miss putting many people off using it. That said though, if you are able to get the ratios correct then you can create some beautiful looking alcohol ink artwork by using food coloring as your pigment.
To make your own white alcohol ink with food coloring you will need:-
Similar to making your own white alcohol ink with acrylic paints, making it with food coloring does need a large portion of your mixing bottle to be filled with isopropyl alcohol. We would usually recommend that you fill your mixing bottle to around 75% full with your isopropyl alcohol and then add a few drops of your white food coloring before mixing the two together thoroughly.
Different types of food coloring use different pigments and ingredients meaning that some may require more than others. With this in mind, we still recommend that you start small and work your way up with one or two drops of your white food coloring into your isopropyl alcohol.
You can then test its performance on some spare paper to see how your homemade white alcohol ink performs on paper before testing and adjusting. Depending on the brand of food coloring that you are using, you may have to go through the process of adding a few more drops of your white food coloring and then re-mixing everything together multiple times.
How To Make White Alcohol Ink With Mica Powder!
Making your own white alcohol ink using mica powder does tend to offer the best end result but getting the ratio of isopropyl alcohol to mica powder correct can take a large amount of testing and adjusting so this may not be the best option if you are short on time. That said though, many people in the arts and crafts community will already have different types of mica powder in their home helping to keep the costs down.
To make your own white alcohol ink with mica powder at home you will need:-
Just like with the other homemade alcohol inks covered above, you need a large amount of isopropyl alcohol in your mixing bottle so again, we would recommend you pour until the bottle is around three quarters full. Add very small amounts of your white mica powder to your isopropyl alcohol as you usually need less mica powder in your isopropyl alcohol than any of the other methods featured in our article.
Once you have added your initial amount of your white mica powder, shake your mixing bottle to get everything mixed up and then check the consistency. We would recommend that you do testing with your homemade white alcohol ink on some spare black paper as possible as the ratios for homemade alcohol ink with mica powder have to be exact for optimal performance.
If you do need to add more pigment then add a small amount of mica powder and then re-shake your mixing bottle and test again. Repeat this process until you are happy with the results and are confident using your alcohol ink in your artwork. Please note though, due to the nature of mica powder, it can easily get to a stage where your alcohol ink is thick and will take a long time for the alcohol to actually evaporate and leave the pigment on your paper so you have to keep this in mind.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over how you are able to make your own homemade white alcohol ink to a close. All three of the methods covered above have their advantages and disadvantages so you have to factor them in too. If you do have all of the ingredients required in your collection already then you can play around with making all three types of homemade white alcohol ink but if you do need to buy ingredients in then it is usually better to just purchase some pre-made white alcohol ink as it tends to be cheaper.
