How to make DIY Spray Inks in any color!

Hello, creative friends! Time has come yet again for one of our creative sessions, today I will share with you another fun and exciting experiment – how to make DIY Spray Inks in any color using a secret ingredient! You know how I just love improvising when it comes to my projects and sometimes using unconventional supplies? Well, today’s project is one of those projects! You’ll need to put your mad scientist hat on for this one and maybe even challenge your inner alchemist! :) Think of this experiment as a double feature adventure – I will show you how to make the colorful concoctions today and next time I will show you a few ideas on how to include the finished spray inks in your creations.

Have you guessed the secret ingredient already?

Yup, the secret ingredient is food coloring! :)

I wanted to give you a hint earlier that is an ingredient mostly used in our kitchens, but I had a little bit of a dilemma because I’m not actually using food coloring for cooking. I’m not a big fan of artificially colored food and from what I’ve read it’s not the healthiest thing to put in your body either, but for today’s project it will be simply perfect!

This project was on my mind for quite some time, I wanted to be able to make my own DIY spray inks, but also decide my own terms when it comes to color and intensity. It’s always great to decide these terms because you get the chance to create things that you REALLY love!

So I bought this Wilton icing coloring gel set specifically for this project and was excited to discover some beautiful, highly pigmented colors. You will only need a few drops of food coloring to make a bottle of ink spray so I’m pretty sure these cute little boxes will last me forever! :)

food coloring gel | water | craft spray bottles
pocket binders (or a clear silicon mat) to protect your working surface
small funnel | masking tape | permanent marker
Google Keep (optional, to write down the mixing ratios/recipes)
metallic acrylic paint (optional, I used this one from Mont Marte)

You can use distilled water if you want to prolong the life of your spray inks, but regular tap water – boiled then room temperature chilled – will also work.
A small funnel might come in handy while filling the spray bottles with water, it will help speed up the whole process. But don’t worry if you don’t have one, you will still be able to fill them without making a mess.

How to make DIY Spray Inks in any color

The basic process using 1 color

1. Unscrew the top caps of your plastic spray bottles and place the bottles on your table. I used a small ceramic tray to hold them all together – they can be quite slippery, especially when empty.
2. Use a small funnel or a bottle with a spigot to fill the spray bottles with water. Don’t fill them all the way to the top, it’s best to have a little bit of extra space left.
3. Dip the tube into the food coloring gel to pick up some color.
4. Insert the top cap into the spray bottle, then screw it and shake everything really well. If you want to get a more intense color, dip the tube one more time into the food coloring gel. Repeat this step until you get the color intensity that you want.
That’s it! You’ve just created your first spray ink! Yayyy! :)

I only wanted spray colors with medium intensity, so as a general rule, I only dipped the tube two or three times when picking the same gel color.If you want richer final sprays, just add more food coloring!
Here is another image with another color, it would be best to only stick to making the colors that you love using.

Or just make them all (if you have enough bottles) and decide what you love later on! :)

Here are all the DIY Spray Inks that I’ve made using 1 color per bottle. Have some paper scraps close by and test these beauties as you go, you might find yourself liking some of the colors more and others less.

Further experimenting – combining 2 or more colors

The red and pink from the Wilton food coloring gel set that I used were quite similar in appearance. You can keep both bottles if you want, but I decided to further experiment and add a second color.

And here comes the most fun part of this whole process, my friends – getting to experimenting and playing with the colors as you want! You can start with two of the basic colors found in the set, I used red and blue to create this lovely purple. Creating a mixed color can be just the starting point, you can play with the quantity of one of the two colors to move the balance towards a more blue-ish or red-ish final look – in this case.  I mixed the 2 colors directly into the water bottle, it would be best to use clean skewers if you don’t want to contaminate the colors. I didn’t, I just went with the flow! :)

You can play with different ratios to get the colors that you love, it’s all about experimenting here and making things your way!

I wasn’t sure if I needed a brown spray ink color, but I decided to make one nonetheless. And it was great that I did, I actually ended up using it the most in my projects! :) It imprints the paper that vintage, beautifully aged look when used with any of the other colors, I just love it! I mixed a little bit of green and some red to make the brown.

You can even create your own DIY Spray Inks rainbow! So cool, right? :)  You can see some of the colors look pretty similar while in the bottle, but they are actually different when sprayed onto the paper.

To avoid any confusion, I would suggest making some quick and easy masking tape labels and writing down the name of the colors that you’ve created.
Even more, it would also be helpful to write down the mixing ratios for the colors that you love, this way you’ll be able to recreate those colors whenever you want. I usually keep my phone close by and write down the recipe in Google Keep as notes, this way I can easily access them when in need.

These are all DIY dye-based spray inks – which means the colorant is fully dissolved in water.

The 2 extra pigment based sprays

But what if we wanted to make DIY pigment based sprays, would that be possible? I HAD to give it a try and even though I’m happy to report back that it’s possible, it can be a little bit trickier! I’ve only tried this with gold and silver because I wanted to be able to add some metallic shimmer here and there. I used a little bit of metallic acrylic paint for my tests, which I added to a bottle filled with water, just like before. The only main difference is that the pigment (which is basically a very fine powder of colored particles) used to make the acrylic paint will not fully dissolve in water and will settle after a while at the bottom of your spray bottle. This might clog up the nozzle at some point, making the spray practically impossible to use. Now, I would say it would really depend on what type of acrylic paint you are using (and your luck!), but I’ve had these 2 pigment-based sprays for about a year now and I was able to use them without any problems. I store the bottles horizontally and I have to shake them really well before misting them on paper, but I really love using them – especially the gold one!  So just give this pigment-based spray a try, the worst-case scenario is losing a spray bottle – if this doesn’t work for you!  :)

I can’t even tell you how much I loved playing with all these homemade spray inks! The process itself of making them is really rewarding, not to mention the fact that they open up a whole new world for further experimenting. And for having sooooooo much fun! :)

Next time I will share a few ideas on how to use the DIY Spray Inks, there are so many ways of including them in your projects!

PIN FOR LATER & SHARE ♥

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This post contains affiliate links so you can easily find the products I love.
See more of my favorites {HERE}.
You can also check my Amazon shop –>click here
for more DIY, home decor & kitchen essentials, healthy stuff and more shopping ideas.

Don’t forget to smile,
Diana