Ink Smooshing

Do you have any people you make cards for that you try and keep to certain themes or add a little something special because of an inside story? Well, for my in-laws, my father-in-law in particular, I try and add a squirrel to his cards. When my son was younger, he and his Papa would go and feed the squirrels just about every day. It was their “thing”. Not only that they gave them names and when we moved to Iowa he would send pictures and videos to my son so he could keep up with them and know they were being fed. Because of this I try and add a squirrel to as many of his cards as I can. When I needed a thank you card for my in-laws I remembered this mini set I’ve had for a long time, used quite often, but it’s been neglected lately. So I pulled it out and combined it with a bit of ink smooshing for this fun fall themed thank you card. I have done an ink smooshing picture tutorial (You can see that HERE), however, this is the first video tutorial I’ve done. You can watch the video below to see all the details!

ENJOY!!

The first step in this card process was to die cut all of my pieces. I die cut one squirrel, one acorn, and six leaves using my Big Kick and white card stock. Then, I used my Memento Tuxedo Black Ink to stamp each coordinating stamp onto it’s die cut. I tried to stamp my little squirrel about three different times, and could not get him lined up properly, so I pulled out my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig (Remember that tool??) and finally got it stamped just right. To finish up my little images I quickly colored them in with my alcohol markers.

finished-card-4

Moving onto my background I cut a 4″ x 5 1/4″ panel of watercolor paper and pulled out Distress Markers in the colors of Vintage Photo, Crushed Olive, and Wild Honey. Each marker color was used exactly the same way, but I started with Vintage Photo, scribbled some color on the plastic piece from the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, sprayed it with gold perfect pearl water, and then smooshed the plastic onto the watercolor paper. I dried this layer with my heat gun and moved onto Wild Honey, completing the process in exactly the same way, then drying with my heat tool and finally used the Crushed Olive. To get more intense color in my smooshing (make sure to watch the video tutorial for a more in depth explanation) I brought in some color from the Distress Ink Pads in the same colors. Finally, after making sure everything was nice and dry, I splattered on some Bronze and Gold Perfect Pearls mixed with a bit of water.

finished-card-3

With all of my elements complete I could start to put everything together. I started by first adhering my watercolor panel to an A2 top folding, burnt orange card base. I then used fun foam and double sided adhesive to adhere my little squirrel in the top center of the panel. Finally, I used some double sided adhesive to put all the little leaves underneath the bottom of the squirrel to create a little nest. For my sentiment I simply die cut a “thanks” word die once from chipboard and three times from brown cardstock, glued them on top of one another with the chipboard on top, for some added dimension and finally glued it on the bottom of the panel with glossy accents.

finished-card-1

This card has quite a few elements going on, but was such fun to really pull them all together, especially mixing some watercolor with alcohol marker coloring! Also, I pulled out my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, a truly neglected tool in my stash, and got to use it twice!! I absolutely love finding new uses for all of my tools!!

If you’re interested in any of the supplies I used on my card today, you can find them all linked below. Thanks so much for stopping by today! Happy Crafting!!