One thing I’ve learned in all of my tinkering around with alcohol inks is that they aren’t waterproof.  I’ve decorated a glass pumpkin, let it sit for several weeks and then taken it to the sink and washed the alcohol ink off with warm water. I’ve even put my tongue to my finger and wiped alcohol ink off with a damp finger.

Maybe it was just those particular surfaces but I’m not taking any chances. I can just imagine (because I think in pictures, remember?) running out into the rain and having a piece of alcohol ink covered jewelry ruin a new top. YIKES! Let’s not do that, ok?

Soooo… if you want to do anything with all of the lovely dominoes you make (in the end I went through TWO sets of double six dominoes!!) you’ll want to seal them with SOMETHING.  My pal Jenny over at Crafts Unleashed used Aileene’s Paper Glaze in her post. But I didn’t have any on hand. I DID have Inkssentials Glossy Accents and Beacon Liquid Laminate.  I decided to try them BOTH!

To cover the domino with either product outline the perimeter of the domino with product.  Then “flood’ the center to fill. Picture Martha Stewart and her frosted holiday cookies.  Go slowly and don’t over fill. If you get any bubbles pop them with a pin. Don’t leave bubbles. You won’t be happy with the finished look. Trust me.

By the way, MY preferred surface for flooding and drying?  A piece of Wilton Parchment Paper on an old flat cookie sheet.

How do the products compare in the end?

The Liquid Laminate is much thinner than Glossy Accents and I noticed that the Liquid Laminate made some of my color “blend” a bit.  Not enough to really change the look but I did notice it. There didn’t seem to be any blending with Glossy Accents.

The Liquid Laminate dries to a very clear, very shiny glasslike finish, while the Glossy Accents is just a tad less clear and shiny with more of a plastic look, if that makes sense.

I’m not sure how they compare as far as dry times because once I covered all of the dominoes I turned off the lights and left them in the studio over night to dry.  They were both dry the next day.

I did go back in the following day with a soft paint brush and brush product on the SIDES of the dominoes.  After all they all had alcohol ink on the sides that I didn’t want ruining my imaginary clothes. 🙂  I let them dry again for a couple of hours while I worked on another project.

The Liquid Laminate CAN be brushed on but the ones I brushed needed a few coats.  One just didn’t cut it. Glossy accents worked better with the flooding method too. (For coating the sides you don’t really need the SHINE but a protectant…don’t worry so much about glassy looks and several coats.)

Yes, this is yet ANOTHER combination! Sunset Orange, Lemonade and Gold alcohol ink with a spider and web stamped on with Jet Black StazOn. The dominoes are unShinyfied (yeah, I just made up a word!) at this point.

This turned out not to be a great photo but you can see that these dominoes are definately Shinyfied. 🙂

So now what? Well, don’t you think this post is long enough? Tomorrow I’ll show you a few ways to finish off your beautiful altered dominoes.  I’ll make them into pendants, key fobs and pins.  And then we’ll be all finished with Altered Domino week.  🙂

Post Notes: Originally posted on my typepad blog October 2009