Playing with Peltex

So I'm going to be making 4 inch by 4 inch crazy squares to swap. The finished squares will involve stitch and flip bits of fabric, lace, beading and embroidery.

Today I took some four inch squares of Peltex and played around with putting color on them. First I tried alcohol inks.

I'm not crazy about these -- first I dropped the ink on the squares and got colored spots. Then I mixed some ink into rubbing alcohol and painted that on. That was a little better, but not great. I didn't get the vibrant deep color I was looking for.
Next, I used diluted Setacolor transparent paints and painted that on with a brush. I sprinkled some coarse salt over and sprayed it with water. This was better. The paint spread out, but remained bright. The salt didn't do anything. I'm still waiting for it to dry.

The backs of the alcohol ink squares are interesting; the backs of the painted ones are even better.
There is some plastic covering the back and the paints and inks pooled against it in an interesting pattern. I'm going to have to read the instructions for the Peltex again before I decide what to do with that.

Then I spread some paint on the plastic meat trays that I recycle for paint palettes, and pressed a piece of Peltex against that.

I got this cool design.

This makes me want to get out my marbling stuff and do some real marbling.