DIY Hexagon Alcohol Ink and Resin Tray
This project was inspired by a picture I saw somewhere. The colored shapes were diamonds instead of hexagons, and the colors weren’t as vivid, but it was really pretty. I’m a big fan of hexagons, and I saw an opportunity to do something similar with those. And as far as I’m concerned, the more colorful the better! I don’t know how the original tray was made, but read on to find out how I made mine!
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Supplies:
- Yupo paper
- Alcohol ink
- Isopropyl alcohol (at least 90%)
- Straw or pipette
- Krylon Kamar Varnish
- Krylon UV Archival spray
- Paper punch (hexagon)
- Wood tray
- Epoxy resin
Optional:
- Acrylic paint
- Painting supplies
Overall I had terrific success with these supplies. The only thing I would do differently is use medium-weight Yupo paper instead of the heavyweight I used. I could not cut all the way through the heavyweight paper with the paper punch. I have since confirmed that the hexagon punch works on the medium-weight paper, so I will definitely use that next time.
I do highly recommend a paper punch for this project. The Fiskars hexagon punch comes in multiple sizes (I settled on large), so you can choose what you like best.
I intend to make more of these, so I have collected a few different trays. The one I used for this project came from the Target One Spot, and I needed to paint over the design on the bottom. I also bought a couple of really pretty ones from Amazon, and I don’t know yet if I will paint the bottom black or leave them as is. One important note, though: Make sure that if your tray has an opening for the handle, that the opening doesn’t meet the bottom of the tray, creating a space for the resin to leak out. The first tray I ordered had such openings. The ones I’ve bought since do not have that issue. Maybe you can see what I mean from the photo below.
Here’s how I made my tray!
The first thing I did was cover 5×7 sheets of Yupo paper with different colors. I chose one color of alcohol ink per sheet, and I ended up with nine different colors. I was amazed by how much fun this was. I’d done a fair amount of alcohol ink painting, but never with one color at a time. I couldn’t believe what just one color could do. I ended up with nine colors in all, and I had to stop myself there. So. Many. Colors.
Painting with alcohol ink is really easy and fun. The way I did this was to squeeze drops of ink on the paper and then dropped isopropyl alcohol on top. Using a straw, I blew on the ink to move it around. I kept going until each page was covered entirely. One nice thing about alcohol ink is that if you aren’t happy with how it looks, add more alcohol to reactivate it and move it around again. If you really, really aren’t happy with it, add more alcohol and wipe it off.
Look at all of these pretty colors!
When you’re working with alcohol ink, you have to protect it a few different ways. I’ve used Krylon’s Kamar Varnish for a long time on my alcohol ink projects, and I love it because it doesn’t react with the ink. It also doesn’t have any UV protection in it, though, so I needed something else. Fortunately, Krylon also happens to make a UV Archival Spray. I spread out the painted sheets on newspaper and sprayed them first with the Kamar Varnish, and then the UV spray. I sprayed about four coats of the Kamar Varnish—waiting about 30 minutes in between. After waiting a few hours, I started spraying coats of the UV spray. I sprayed 3 or 4 coats of that one, also waiting about 30 minutes in between.
While I was waiting for all of the drying to happen, I painted the inside bottom of the tray. I bought this particular tray in the Target One Spot, and it had a saying about grilling. I needed a blank canvas. It took a few coats of black paint, but it became the perfect background to showcase the colorful shapes.
After everything had dried, I started cutting out the hexagons. Because of the issue I discussed above, I had to cut them out by hand. I had poked through one sheet enough that I had the vague outline of a hexagon, so I finished cutting that out and used it as my template for the rest. None of my hexagons ended up perfect, but I tried not to sweat that too much. I saved any excess pieces for later, and they came in very handy.
I used Tacky glue to attach the hexagons to the bottom of the tray. I arranged everything ahead of time to see how it all fit. I figured I’d have to find the center of the tray and work from that point, but the hexagons actually fit evenly from one end to the other. I did cut up little triangles to fill in the little gaps on all sides.
The next day, after the glue had dried, I mixed up a small batch of epoxy resin and poured it over the inside of the tray. Just enough to cover the hexagons completely. I used a lighter to pop bubbles, but I wish I’d sprayed the resin with isopropyl alcohol because I think that would have done a better job.
Once the resin cured, my tray was finished! The cool thing about this project is that you could customize it so easily to match your own taste and decor. You can use whatever colors or shapes you want. How would you customize this project for yourself?
Happy crafting!
