I was on Studio 5 yesterday sharing a few printmaking tutorials for easy Halloween DIYing with friends or kids! See the segment here. As featured in the segment, here's another printmaking idea for you perfect for the upcoming spooky season, or really any time of year. I love how these ink transfers are grainy, organic and grungy. The grunge is really fun for this season. We used to make these kinds of prints all the time in college. I did basically an entire series with oil ink transfers. See my circle series circa 2005.

Grungy Ink Transfer Tutorial

Supplies

• ink (water soluble is best)
• paper
• pencil
• brayer
• acrylic printing plate

Note: you can use acrylic ink (the kinds that comes in tubes, not bottles) or oil paint for this technique! With a dime-sized portion of ink, spread it evenly on your printing plate. Place paper front-side down and draw your desired design on the back. Put one finger down on the corner of your sheet to keep the paper in place, but don't hold it down anywhere else! You'll get giant blobs of ink on the paper if you touch the paper with anything! Your image will be reversed, so plan text and images accordingly. Repeat over an over! After each transfer you may need to even out the ink or add more if it's quick to dry.

All printables and tutorials are subject to the following terms of use: Everything you see here is available free for personal use only. I love being featured all over, so if you do feature this project, link to the original project. If you would like to use this project for commercial use, please email Melissa using the contact feature above.