Posted by Curry S. on Jan 23rd 2020
DIY Valentines That'll Guarantee a Smile
cactu + cacti = cactUS! We're all in on punny valentines. A&C has all the tools you need for a card even Cupid would love. These valentines are perfect for your best friend, your partner, or even your grandma. Personalize it however you'd like, a pun (or two) is always welcome. This DIY is inspired by artist Lana Nguyen of Lan Art&Design. Make sure you check out her website and follow her on Instagram!
Here's what you'll need for supplies:
Jacquard Pinata Alcohol Inks and Legion Yupo Paper go together like peanut butter and jelly. The smooth, translucent Yupo Paper is the perfect surface for the alcohol inks to swirl together! While there's many techniques you can try out to get interesting patterns and color mixing, I simply added a few drops of the ink to the paper, picked it up and started swirling it around every-which-way. This blended the colors perfectly.
Layering is a great way to mix the colors, just make sure the ink doesn't dry before adding one color to another. We covered one whole piece of Yupo Paper, keeping the greens for the cacti on one side, and the reds and purples for the hearts on the other.
After about an hour the inks appeared to be dry, but since I was cutting shapes out, I wanted to be positive. I left them overnight and they were ready to go by the next morning. I cut out shapes for cactus and aloe leaves, using every last bit of the green ink. Instead of flowers for the cactus, I thought hearts would be appropriate for the holiday!
The Mod Podge adheres the Yupo Paper to the card incredibly fast. Because of this, I decided it would be best to lay out my designs before gluing anything down.
Now for the best part: puns.
Yes, aloe you VERA much would have been better. I blame not having enough coffee before attempting to be punny...
And that’s it! You can make so many designs and different color combos, this DIY can go way beyond cacti. Show us what you create with Jacquard Pinata Alcohol Inks and Yupo Paper by tagging #ACScommunity in your posts on Instagram!