Geri deGruy's blog of art, musings, and inspiration

This technique, from  "Surface Treatment Workshop" by Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran Wilson, simply uses paint and rubbing alcohol. Also a spray bottle or eyedropper or toothbrush or paint brush. 

I experiment with a lot of papers and keep even the less desirable results. These are great papers to use for more experiments like these. 

Take a painted paper from your stash, or paint a new one with acrylics. Let it dry.

Dilute a different, contrasting color of acrylic paint, about half paint, half water. Paint this on top of the dry, already painted paper. 

Then, with your eyedropper or spray bottle or toothbrush or paint brush, drop some rubbing alcohol on the wet paint. It will open up a hole of sorts in the paint so you can see down to the color below. It's very cool. 

Here are a few examples on stash paper.

The dilute paint on top needs to be just right. I found if it's too thick, the alcohol won't penetrate it. If it's too thin, it works, but the runny paint might just cover over everything. But truly this is very simple. And fun.

Here are a few of the "dots" I made and cut out. I decorated them with different color paint dots to make the picture at the top. I wish I had painted the background because I don't think the white worked out the best. But you can see how cute these little spots are.