Walnut ink, made from the shells of actual walnuts, comes in a liquid or crystal form. These crystals are mixed with water to produce ink. The intensity of the ink varies depending on the amount of crystals and water used. The manufacturer may suggest you start with a darker solution and thin it as necessary.
When I started using the walnut ink I only did it one way for over a year. I mixed up enough to fill a little spray bottle and forgot to try my hand at new ways to use this very versatile product. So tonight, I covered my kitchen with newspapers and got to work experimenting with different techniques and so forth. I came up with eight distinct looks from 4 basic techniques: sprayed (my old standby), soaked, dripped/dipped, and direct to paper. There are more things I wanted to try, but in the interest of article space, I stopped myself at 8 tags total - all of which started as white cardstock.
The Basics
Sprayed - For this look, I mixed the walnut ink and just sprayed it lightly onto the tag. The more you spray the less you will see the speckles and the darker it will be.
Soaked - This is the easiest method. Mix the ink in a bowl and immerse your tag into the ink. The longer it stays in the ink, the darker it will be dyed.
Dipped/Dripped - For this one, I started with just dipping the bottom of the tag in the ink, followed by dripping a couple spots of the ink on to the tag.
Applying Crystals Directly on the Tag - This is rather self explanatory. I sprinkled a few of the dry ink crystals on the tag and then sprayed with plain water. The more I soaked it, the more it blended together.
Building on the Basics
So now you see how I did the basic tags, let's look at a few things you can do to make the basics a little more interesting.
Crumbled - the crumble lines stain darker than the uninjured cardstock does. This gives a very nice look once dried. I crumbled up the paper very well, stressing it as much as possible without tearing it completely through. Then the tag was dipped briefly into the bowl of ink, and laid flat to dry.
