SYW197 – How to Feel Like an Artist

[00:00:00] Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I’m your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 197. In this episode I'm joined by Faigie Kobre to chat about the power of alcohol inks for purposeful play and boosting creative confidence.

[00:00:48] Jennifer Wilson: Hey Faigie, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

[00:00:51] Faigie Kobre: Glad to be here.

[00:00:53] Jennifer Wilson: Did I pronounce your name correctly?

[00:00:54] Faigie Kobre: You did.

[00:00:55] Jennifer Wilson: Awesome. I am looking forward to our conversation today. Can you share a little bit about yourself to introduce, uh, you and your work to our audience?

[00:01:05] Faigie Kobre: Okay. How far back do I go? Um, okay, so I'm, um, I'm a mom and a grandma. I, I, very, very quickly, I started out my, um, my career as an early childhood educator. I have a master's in early childhood education. Um, was always, you know, so I spent years in that field. I was a teacher, then I was a director and I became like a workshop leader.

[00:01:32] Faigie Kobre: So I became very, very interested in the whole art side of, uh, children's education. And I was very into giving, teaching teachers and giving the kids art that's like developmentally appropriate. Like that, you know, like little kids shouldn't be given these cookie cutter crafts that they have to follow.

[00:01:51] Faigie Kobre: They, they have to really be able to develop their own creativity and developmental milestones. So then I just stopped that to raise my kids. And on the side I started a photography business. So I was, I became this like high end portrait photographer. I did that for 25 years. Then I got into internet marketing and I wanted to create something and like the way, the same way they tell writers, like, write what you know.

[00:02:20] Faigie Kobre: So I wanted to create some kind of information product and they said, you have to create something, you know. And what did I know? I knew art and kids. So I developed some eBooks and then I started a website for kids. For kids, for parents and teachers on, on art, that's developmentally appropriate. And then I was taking a, I had to learn how to market this website.

[00:02:42] Faigie Kobre: So I was taking this, uh, workshop, this not workshop, this course actually, on how to market it. And I was giving my, spouting my theories on, you know, art and kids and how a lot of the reason a lot of adults feel so inhibited and uncreative and unartistic. You know, the classic me, I can't draw a straight line. Is because of their early, um, negative art experiences. And one of my coaches there, she said, Well, did you ever think of starting a website for adults, um, on creativity? And I, you know, I took up the challenge. And she, she kind of said, you know, then it'll bring them back to your website when they figure out you, you know, you talk about why people feel unartistic. But what happened was I started, um, reading up about creativity and I kept coming across this mixed media. Mixed media. And I was like just fascinated with mixed media. I'm sure you've had some experience with mixed media, right?

[00:03:42] Jennifer Wilson: Yep. For sure.

[00:03:43] Faigie Kobre: That's very tied into scrapbooking also. And um, I've got totally sold on mixed media and I started this website, the website that I have now, Creativity Reignited. I was always looking for. Then I started a class here, I started stuff online and started buying supplies, which is of course the most fun of all. And um, you know, they say that it's a separate hobby in itself, buying craft supplies. It's just, you know, we, we know all us addicts, you know, can totally understand. Um, and then, um, one day I was looking, I used to look through my library site for books and then I would have them send it to my branch. And one day I was looking through my site and I came across this book like it jumped out at me called Pigments of Your Imagination.

[00:04:29] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that's cute.

[00:04:30] Faigie Kobre: On Alcohol inks. And I said, What is alcohol inks? And the truth is, the truth of the matter is I remember being in Michaels at one time and looking at all the different aisles and was thinking, I think I've used almost everything here except for alcohol inks. What would I do with alcohol inks? It's great when you get into new crafting things, it's great cuz it gives you another aisle to go into, into Michaels or Hobby Lobby. So I took the book, I got the book, I ordered the book. I um, I fell in love with alcohol inks. And then I bought the book and then I started buying supplies. And I just got really, really into it because I, I, saw that it has a certain quality to it that's very healing and it's just fun and magical and you can do so many things with it.

[00:05:20] Faigie Kobre: So I started giving like classes in my neighborhood, um, offline classes. And I started doing stuff online. And I have found, discovered that alcohol inks is a great segue into creativity. Like, let's say people who don't really feel creative. Because it's such a forgiving medium, it's so fluid and it's so forgiving.

[00:05:40] Faigie Kobre: And if you use the right colors, it's just gorgeous and you just throw some gold in and you're an artist. And so many people have said it just like, they just feel like an artist.

[00:05:49] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I love that.

[00:05:50] Faigie Kobre: You know, so I, I just, I, it's a great entry. You know, people don't necessarily have to keep with it. Like I have a student of mine who like moved out of the country recently, but she went through a journey with me.

[00:06:03] Faigie Kobre: She was in my mixed media classes and then she got into alcohol inks with me. And then she, I remember she was making stuff and she was the one that had originally said, Oh, I can't join an art class. Ah, my mother was a sculptress. I'm not artistic at all. And she got into it and she went through this alcohol ink journey and now she told me she's taking oil painting classes, for crying out loud. It's just like, what happened was she, she developed confidence.

[00:06:29] Faigie Kobre: She, all of a sudden it like opened it up. So I just think it's a great entry. It's not just a great entry, it's, it's, it's just, there's a lot of things you can do with it and that's why I've just gotten so into alcohol inks.

[00:06:43] Jennifer Wilson: Well, we will definitely dive in a more, I have an additional question for you that we love to ask our guests. And that's what's one thing, or maybe even two things that's really exciting you right now in your personal crafting. It could be a product, an app, a class, a person, an idea, something really specific that's, you know, jazzing you up and getting you, uh, into the groove again.

[00:07:05] Faigie Kobre: Well, there was a, there was interesting, there was a technique that somebody discovered, uh, in these alcohol ink groups. That is really very exciting to me. Because alcohol inks is, is mostly uncontrollable. It's not, it's not controllable. You drip it and it spreads and it's part of the magic. But somebody in a group, um, and an alcohol ink group that I'm in, Facebook has discovered the way of using certain pencils to really help control the inks. And it's very, it's very exciting because it really, it, it just takes it into another level. And you can do so much more with it. Because what she discovered that using certain pencils, when you draw something and you drip inside it, it stops the ink from spreading.

[00:07:56] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, so kind of like a resist technique where you're preventing it from. Yeah.

[00:08:01] Faigie Kobre: Yes. And there are some very cool resist techniques, but this, you know, I've used, I have, I use varnish. I've used, um, sometimes masking fluid. There are different techniques, but this one is like easy and clean and just, just has a lot of possibilities. So that, that is really exciting me.

[00:08:22] Jennifer Wilson: Very cool. If, yeah, it definitely send me a link to that and we can include it in the show notes

[00:08:26] Faigie Kobre: I, Oh, I, it's, I don't know if I have a link to it. She just, I'm trying to remember her name. Vivo Designs maybe.

[00:08:33] Faigie Kobre: But she, she she just like throws out, um, posts and she just, it's like people who have been following her, she's on YouTube, I think it's called Vivo Designs. And she does Beautiful alcohol ink work. But this is her particular technique that she has been popularizing and everyone in the alcohol ink communitity is like really excited about it. So it's, it's just a fun way to use it.

[00:08:56] Jennifer Wilson: Very cool. We'll do our best to, to find something to refer, uh, our listeners to her. And so diving in more to alcohol inks, we recently did a survey asking our broader creative community what they were interested in learning. And mixed media, and particularly wet media techniques were one of the things that was mentioned multiple times.

[00:09:16] Jennifer Wilson: And so, as you mentioned, your specialty as alcohol inks. Could you tell us, you know, for the perfect beginner, what are some of the properties of alcohol inks and what makes them unique?

[00:09:26] Faigie Kobre: Okay, so it's interesting. Beginners can start a lot of different ways. One of the things I, I didn't discover until in middle of my journey, that there are markers, alcohol ink markers. That are Sharpies. Sharpies are alcohol ink markers. You know how that, that smell, you know, you smell it and it's, it, it actually, I actually remember a number of years ago, one of my kids had written with a Sharpie somewhere. And I Googled it and it said, Use alcohol to remove. So alcohol is to alcohol inks and alcohol ink markers, the same way water is to watercolors. It cleans it, it helps it move. And so alcohol ink markers, so what, what I've done, I I really discovered that in the middle of my journey. And then I, I made a video, actually have it on my site, Creativity Reignited. Um, where people can get started by just going and getting, you know, using their Sharpies or getting a different set of alcohol ink markers. And there's a lot of beautiful ways to use them and use them with alcohol. And it has a lot of the same effects. So that's one way for beginners to use. But if, if beginners want to try, just going straight to the alcohol inks is, the beauty of the alcohol inks is how it moves. It's um, it's on a non, if you, you have to use it on a non-porous surface. It works on any surface, but the magic doesn't work unless it's on a non-porous surface. So the classic alcohol ink background, that I started with, and people talk about Yupo paper.

[00:11:01] Faigie Kobre: Yupo paper is a synthetic paper and it's on both sides, it's the same and it doesn't absorb. So when you put the alcohol ink down, it just like spreads and does its thing. Now, I have discovered through the various groups that using a photo paper. Not all photo papers, like I use Kirkland from Costco, which you can only get online.

[00:11:23] Faigie Kobre: I use the backside of that, the matte side of that, and it works the same way as Yupo paper and it's much cheaper. So that is, you know, that's a, a real savings. Um, but you, you spread, you put it down and you spread. So people just start by like really playing with it. You get the little bottles, their little bottles of ink in a, in an alcohol base, and you put it down. And it spreads. And then you could use some alcohol on top of it or you could use another color. And it's just a mesmerizing. It's mesmerizing. And then you could use something to blow the ink. You can use a blow dryer, you can use one of these puffers, you know, that you use to clean camera lenses. Um, that, that has become very popular.

[00:12:06] Faigie Kobre: Also, some people use a straw, even though you have to be careful that you don't inhale because it could be, um, cuz the alcohol can be toxic. But, um, so that is really just one way to start, like to play and to see how it reacts. And the different colors. And the color schemes. And I think why scrapbookers are so interested in mixed media and alcohol inks is because it's just a way to make your pages more beautiful, right?

[00:12:35] Faigie Kobre: Because what's, you know, scrapbooking is about, you know, using your photos and you know the words, but then you can do anything underneath. So it's such a great marriage, really. So you can make these beautiful pages. The problem with alcohol inks is that you really want to do it on a non porous background, so you probably will have to cut and paste to put things in.

[00:12:58] Faigie Kobre: For the most part scrapbooks are these like pre-made scrapbook or they um, or you just make them as the pages go and put them together? Is that, is that how that works?

[00:13:09] Jennifer Wilson: Typically we create, uh, one page at a time and then insert them into a three ring album. So they're not, they're not pre bound for the most part.

[00:13:18] Faigie Kobre: Right. And okay. And then usually not porous, uh, non porous surfaces, right? So

[00:13:25] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, usually we're, we're creating directly on card stock or sometimes watercolor paper. And so you could certainly use the Yupo paper as a background. And I believe there are some sources for 12 by 12, which is kind of the, the biggest standard size for scrapbooks.

[00:13:38] Faigie Kobre: Oh, so that's perfect actually because there is a, um, a 12 by 12 is a Grafix's, G R A F I X .Grafix has a, uh, non porous surface of papers that can be used. So that's really great cuz I was thinking that you have to cut and paste everything, but you don't. If you're just gonna use 12 by 12 and it doesn't matter, um, what kind of paper it is.

[00:14:04] Faigie Kobre: And that, that, that's perfect. So you could do both. I mean, you could do stuff on the paper and then use, use craft punchers, and punch things out. You can cut things out, and there's just, there's so many techniques. There's so many techniques to do with it. You could either do it on the paper that goes into the scrapbooking or just, you know, cut out and, and paste it. It just, also, the colors are so vibrant. That's one of the things that draws people to it. The vibrancy and the rich colors are just, you just lose yourself in it. I've had so many people tell me how they just, they get into the flow. They, you know, work with it. And every time I start and I just, I drop and I just watch it spread. I never get tired of it. It's just such a fascinating, such a fascinating thing to watch. I mean, when you use the markers, which, which you know is in my original video. When you use the markers, what happens is if you do it on a non-porous background you just color with the markers and then you add, alcohol.

[00:15:05] Faigie Kobre: I usually keep the alcohol a little needle nose bottles with small tips, so it doesn't come out that much. And then you just watch how the whole thing spreads into each other, into the colors. But it's not the same thing as using the regular alcohol inks. It's just, it's a different, you know, I think it's great to have both, depending on, you know, what you're gonna do with it. But it's just something about that magic of just dropping that alcohol. You could even use foil by the way. Foil is non porous. I've used foil. That's very pretty thing to add to it also.

[00:15:41] Jennifer Wilson: I was wondering about cuz Grafix also makes the clear acetate sheets and I'm wondering if it, if the alcohol inks will, will dry on that.

[00:15:49] Faigie Kobre: Yeah. Yeah. Acetate works. You know, you know like when, when I was a kid, not just when I was a kid, I always knew that Sharpies worked on everything, right? You can't use regular washable markers. But I knew Sharpies worked on plastic bags and on acetate. And this is the same thing, cause it's non porous. So alcohol inks works on all non-porous surface.

[00:16:12] Faigie Kobre: So acetate is, is a great, is a great, um, example. What's nice about acetate also is that you have, if you have something underneath and then you do alcohol inks on top, you can have what's peeking out underneath as well. So that's very cool. It could be like a sandwich effect.

[00:16:30] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I was just thinking about that cuz I create a Christmas album every year. And I need to go peek into my cabinet and see if I have some reds and greens or at least one of those colors. And maybe do an acetate, uh, alcohol ink project for that.

[00:16:43] Faigie Kobre: Yeah, that's really cool because then you just have, you could even, you know, have some kind of tracing or drawing in the background or stamping. And then you have the acetate with the alcohol inks on top. Oh, that is really gorgeous.

[00:16:55] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, that'd be really fun.

[00:16:56] Faigie Kobre: Yeah.

[00:16:57] Jennifer Wilson: So, you know, we've talked a lot about the, the magic of what alcohol inks do and how it's, it's helped some people feel creative or feel like they can be an artist. But are we only creating abstract type compositions here, or can you create more representational things with alcohol inks as well?

[00:17:16] Faigie Kobre: You can, you definitely can. There is a whole, society of women. I say women because it's 99.9% women that are into this. So often you'll find the, uh, the odd male that is interested in this. But who, who create the most beautiful, realistic pictures with alcohol ink. However, it's used differently. You have to use tiny, tiny bits of it with a brush, and it's a learning curve, but it's also. It's realistic and a lot of people don't feel that they can draw. They don't feel that they know how and they try and they try and it just doesn't look right. So the reason I, you know, I stick more with, but even if I stick more with abstract stuff sometimes, let's say, landscapes. There are ways to make, like impressionistic looking abstract landscape.

[00:18:10] Faigie Kobre: They're the ways to make impressionistic like flowers. Um, there are ways to do that, semi realistic. So you don't feel the pressure of something looking exactly like it should be and feeling bad about yourself. Cause you can't. You know, it's one of the things I, you know, I'm also, I'm an elementary school art teacher now.

[00:18:30] Faigie Kobre: I don't even remember if I said that, but, um, I'm an elementary school art teacher and I teach women also. And I see how, you know, people think that in order to work with art, you need to know how to draw. That's what makes you artistic. Nobody expects anybody to sit down at the piano and know how to pound out a Beethoven. That they're considered a musical genius if they can do that, right? So that's a certain gift. Everyone is born creative. Not everyone is born artistic, and it, it's just not fair how people think that you can only do art if you know how to draw. And that is a real fallacy. I mean, I remember going into the art supply stores and like literally like, you know, hyperventilating, like wanting desperately to use this stuff, but I didn't know how, like what to do with them. And it's such a gift to be able to just play with materials. And what, what's nice about scrapbooking is you get to do that and then you kind of finish it off by putting your pictures in. So it, it ties everything together. And it, it's really, you know, it, it, it kind of feeds both needs to have something finished and beautiful and also to be able to play.

[00:19:47] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. I think that's one of the things that makes scrapbooking as a hobby kind of unique to other creative or even crafty endeavors. Is that there's such like that, the sense of completion, but just the true kind of life and emotional connection to it. Cuz these are your stories. I mean, this is your life. So.

[00:20:06] Faigie Kobre: Right, but the only problem is people actually have to print out their pictures.

[00:20:11] Jennifer Wilson: Well, we talk a lot about that in other episodes, for sure.

[00:20:16] Faigie Kobre: I mean, like, you know, you could do it digitally, but if you really wanna have your, your hands on it, you know what I have done to get, you know, the, the whole idea is that everything's on the phone. We have a, um, a digital frame that my.

[00:20:27] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:28] Faigie Kobre: My kids bought us. So we just, like, I send everything there, so at least it's not hiding on my phone.

[00:20:35] Jennifer Wilson: That's, Yeah, that's a nice solution to be able to make sure that you're experiencing your memories and not just hoarding them. So , so you've already mentioned, you know, the inks themselves, either in the dropper form or a pen form and the Yupo paper or other non-porous surface. Are there other supplies that you'd recommend for someone who wants to get started?

[00:20:56] Faigie Kobre: Um, so the main thing is, are the main things are the inks. There's a lot of different brands. Uh, I mostly use Ranger, the Tim Holtz brands. I do use some of the Pinata also the Jacquard Pinata. There's like, Brea Reese, there's Marabu I think. I don't, There's like, you could see how popular alcohol inks has been getting because there's like constantly new brands coming out.

[00:21:20] Faigie Kobre: So, and most of them are good for the most part. You need, oh, one very important thing is you must have some gold. So, um, in Ranger for, for years, Pinata had the rich gold and the brass that was in the Jacquard Pinata.. And in the past years, the Tim Holtz has come out with the Alloys, which are also absolutely gorgeous. So you must have the golds to use alcohol inks. Cause it just, it just takes everything up a level. And, um, so then you need alcohol. You need 91%, not less than 91% alcohol. Because it, uh, it's watered down. So it doesn't really work the same way when it's less and you need some, you know, non-porous surfaces.

[00:22:03] Faigie Kobre: You can use Kirkland photo paper, you can use Yupo. You can start with wax paper, you can use some aluminum foil. Those are the main things. Those are the main things. Um, you can use a blower. It's called either a Giotto or a Ranger, now has one. Um, it's like a bulb like thing, you know, you press it, it just helps move the ink around.

[00:22:25] Faigie Kobre: That's like the cheapest option in moving the inks around. And that's really the beginning. You know, I go into more how to use stencils. You know, stencils with it, and, um, how to create wispies, like really pretty wispies with a, you know, a blow dryer. And then what to do with your pieces. You could make collages with them. You could doodle on top of them, you. Make cards, you could, you could get into more realistic, either real, realistic or not so realistic, impressionistic realistic. But just to start, I think those are the basic things really that you need just, and then you see if you like it and how, you know how much further you wanna go with it.

[00:23:02] Jennifer Wilson: This is just a, a random question, but can you put alcohol in on a Gelli plate or is that just like completely not gonna work?

[00:23:10] Faigie Kobre: You can. No, a lot of people do that. So, how you do it is, you can definitely, you can drip it on, you can drip it on, you can paint it on with a, with a brush. And then how you have to get it off is then you take a, very, very thin layer of white acrylic paint and you roll it out with a brayer. You should still be able to see through everything that you've done underneath.

[00:23:34] Faigie Kobre: And then you put a paper down on top and you lift it up and everything that you put on with ink comes out on the paper. It's that, that's, that's a lot of fun. Um, that's, that's another activity. There's a lot of, lot of different things you can do with the Gelli plate. So you can do a mixture of things on the Gelli paper if you want.

[00:23:53] Faigie Kobre: That's how you would get it off. By you, you must put that very thin layer of white. It could be another color also, but white gives like a nice background to it and then you just lift it off. It's um, it's really beautiful.

[00:24:07] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that sounds fascinating. Now I know the first time that I tried a alcohol inks the first, the one of the big things I noticed was, oh my gosh, my hands are totally stained now.

[00:24:17] Jennifer Wilson: So, you know, can you talk a little bit about preparation and cleaning for those who maybe are a little bit more nervous about working with something that can be messy?

[00:24:26] Faigie Kobre: Okay, so first of all, there are people that wear gloves all the time. There are people also that are, so there's a big, debate on the alcohol ink forums about a respirator or not. So, some people are very sensitive. There are some people that won't go near the alcohol inks without a respirator. And I, myself had bought one a number of years ago when I got into using the wispies because I only find that I need it when I use a lot of alcohol.

[00:24:52] Faigie Kobre: It depends on what you're doing. So the people that are actually working with it all the time, and I, you know, I'm creating pieces they wanna sell. Some people won't go anywhere near it without a respirator. Some people say they've never had a problem. They, you know, it's good to have good vent ventilation, but in terms of your hands, gloves. There are many different kinds of gloves that are very easy.

[00:25:14] Faigie Kobre: I forget to use gloves all the time. I find that it doesn't last. I, you know, you can clean it off with uh, hand sanitizer. I, I have a little spritz bottle that I spritz with, alcohol and I clean it off there. And even if it doesn't, doesn't totally come off. But the next day or so, I find it's gone.

[00:25:33] Faigie Kobre: But if you really worried about that, just wear gloves. You know, the plastic, um, you know, away gloves,

[00:25:39] Jennifer Wilson: That's a good suggestion. And also, you know, since we tend to have more hand sanitizer laying around than we used to, um, that's a handy one as well, since it's alcohol based.

[00:25:49] Faigie Kobre: Right.

[00:25:51] Jennifer Wilson: What about like protecting your surfaces? What's on your desk to protect your desk when you're creating?

[00:25:56] Faigie Kobre: So I, I actually have happened to have on my desk right now, I have the Tim Holtz glass mat.

[00:26:01] Faigie Kobre: You know what that is?

[00:26:02] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:26:03] Faigie Kobre: So I like that because it just, it cleans off so easily. But you could really just put some paper towels underneath. It's not, it's not the kind of thing that kind of runs. It's not paint pouring. You know,

[00:26:15] Faigie Kobre: paint pouring is, is a huge mess. Um, you start pouring and this paint all over the place. This is pretty contained. I, I have found, I have gone into people's homes and done classes there. In people's living rooms, and I really don't find that it just gets all over the place. And if it does get somewhere, you just take a little paper towel with some alcohol and you, you clean it off.

[00:26:37] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. I would say I also, um, even with just like misting things, I'm always, I always have a box lying around just for that. But, uh, cookie sheets, something my mom actually, she bought us all these cookie sheets, mostly for my daughter's Legos. But then I started stealing them for my craft room. Just to make sure that things were more contained and nothing was gonna like, run off my desk or my desk. So.

[00:27:01] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. So when somebody's getting started with alcohol inks what are some of the frustrations they might experience? Um, cuz I know, I definitely was like, am I doing this right? Like, you know, how do I, I see these really beautiful examples. And mine, you know, it has the gist of it, but you know, it takes some practice.

[00:27:21] Faigie Kobre: Right. right, exactly. I think one of the biggest frustrations is, thinking that you can gonna get something exactly what you see. It's very important to just play and learn the materials and develop your own. You know, it's funny because one of the, the frustrations I had was with, I would go on, let's say there was a, there's a woman who makes, she does the most gorgeous alcohol ink flowers. Her name is Kimberly Dean.

[00:27:50] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:51] Faigie Kobre: She makes the most gorgeous flowers and I had, I had bought her course and mine were not coming out like hers. And I think that's a little bit of a danger is that when people want to make something and get it to come out a certain way, sometimes it's a little bit of a frustration. Which is why I moved into leading people through things that are no fail. You know, like, like I've, I've, I've become like, I've become like a creativity coach where I lead people through alcohol inks how to become really successful. You can be successful without yours looking exactly like that. So the frustration is when you're trying to get something to look exactly like someone else's. Um, so it's important just to play. Now, it's anything that you really want to, you can get with a lot enough hard work. For example, I, you know, I work with people who, you know, fear don't feel artistic and they can't draw, and I always say, very few people are born with the ability to draw, but if you want to learn to draw, you can. There's a whole system, you ever heard of Betty Edwards Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain?

[00:29:08] Jennifer Wilson: Uh, vaguely. Yeah, I think I have.

[00:29:10] Faigie Kobre: Okay, so that's a, that's a book and she has a whole workbook with it, and she teaches people how to draw. Anyone could learn to draw, but it is hard work and you have to, put your work to it. So if you really want to get something to look like somebody else's, and it's more realistic, you can do it.

[00:29:29] Faigie Kobre: But you have to practice and practice and practice. And I tried to give people things to take them through things using stencils, um, certain, maybe some tracing some things and allowing the inks to lead you. That's what really you have to do, lead into it. And you have to make a decision. Do I really want to put in the work and the effort to get it to look like something like this?

[00:29:52] Faigie Kobre: I can, but if not, I wanna just have fun with it and do things that look really beautiful without it looking exactly like someone else's. I think that's the biggest frustration that people, when they start, they just, they just want it to be a certain, in a certain, um, style. And it, it's not so easy. So you have to start where, where you are at. Play with it. Have fun with it. Learn how it works. Learn which colors you like, which colors go together. What happens and you add more alcohol, less alcohol. Add a little gold. You have if you learn how to use the right colors. It's one of the things I teach people in terms of you use the right colors, it's no fail. I see people when I, I say I get together with women and I'm giving classes and they're just throwing every color onto their paper. It just becomes mud.

[00:30:42] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, Yes

[00:30:43] Faigie Kobre: So if they learn how to use the right colors and add a little gold, it's gorgeous. You just see some of the things that are being sold, you know, online.

[00:30:51] Jennifer Wilson: And I think also, uh, when you mentioned that it's not something that you can really control. I mean, you can with, with various techniques and you know the way you're holding your paper and, you know, you mentioned the pencil technique, but there are. There are techniques to get certain results. And so I think understanding those as you experience it and practice, uh, is just something that's gonna take time.

[00:31:15] Faigie Kobre: Right.

[00:31:17] Jennifer Wilson: Well, this has been so fun. I really wanna get out my alcohol inks now and try again. And I also have some old photo paper, which I'm gonna experiment with because that Yupo paper is, tends to be a little bit pricey.

[00:31:29] Faigie Kobre: I mean, I'm warning you something. Not all photo papers are alike. I see people, people like I had a, I did a, this summer I did a a class offline. And one of the women who had been in another class a few years ago, she told me she went out and bought photo paper and it just wasn't working. She had forgotten that it had said, there's only certain photo papers that work. So I know the Kirkland works. And they have them in all sizes. They have them four by six, they have five by seven, they have eight by 10. They have all size. Uh, I have heard people talk about various other ones that work, but I, I don't know which ones. I know that the Kirkland works. You could try it. If you put a drop on and it spreads, then you should know that it works. Another thing you should be aware of, if you touch the paper too much, your, the oil from your hands will get onto it and it will make it not really work very well. That's something to be, uh, careful.

[00:32:22] Jennifer Wilson: Interesting. Okay. Any other like final tips that you'd like to share with people?

[00:32:27] Faigie Kobre: Final tips. One of the things I'm just looking at my box over here is like, there's a, there's a, a nice brand, um, that I think I sell it in Walmart, either, which is called Brea Reese. They don't have great bottles. Like, like you can buy these Tim Holts, um, carriers that you can stick the small round bottles in. And the Brea Reese don't fit in that.

[00:32:49] Faigie Kobre: So if you're gonna wanna have like, you get one of these, um, aluminum tin cans that you could put the bottles in, just be careful about the Brea Reese because it, it's not so easy to store.

[00:33:00] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, no, that's really helpful. I think we are all trying to look for tidy storage solutions, especially as we accumulate colors. I'm looking at all of my Distress Oxides here.

[00:33:09] Faigie Kobre: Right. And another, another tip, you don't need every color that's out there. What happens is they're all coming out with new colors and new bottles, and you just wanna keep buying them. You don't need them. You need, you need a few of each color. Maybe you need more greens than usual because if you wanna, I find, if I wanna do something like an foliage kind of thing, I like to have a lot of greens. You don't need a million reds. You don't, you just don't need as much as is out there. Just, just be aware of that There's no need to own so many inks.

[00:33:41] Jennifer Wilson: That's a, that's a difficult lesson for a lot of crafters, I think.

[00:33:45] Faigie Kobre: Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

[00:33:47] Jennifer Wilson: Can you share again, where we can find you online and anything you might have new or coming up as we approach the end of 2022?

[00:33:56] Faigie Kobre: So I have, I start people off on my site creativityreignited.com. I have, like I said, you, they opt in and can get my free video, which starts with alcohol ink markers. Once you're on my list, I take you on a journey. Um, you know, there's a lot of different ways, uh, to learn about it and what you wanna learn. I, I mean, I do have also, I've started, uh, creativity coaching. Like I said, if anybody's interested in that, they can just contact me through my site or through my, I have on, I'm on a social also. I haven't been very active on there lately. Hoping to get back there soon. Um, @CreativeAlcoholInking on Instagram and on Facebook as well,

[00:34:37] Faigie Kobre: @CreativeAlcoholInking. I have a lot, a lot of, um, stuff on there from the past couple of years. If you wanna see more about it. If you need to get in touch with me, I'm at Faigie F A I G I E at Creativity Reignited.

[00:34:50] Jennifer Wilson: Awesome. Thank you so much. It was so cool to connect with you on Instagram. I look forward to uh, chatting more in the future.

[00:34:57] Faigie Kobre: Okay, great. Thanks so much for having me.

[00:35:00] Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook and to use alcohol inks your way.