Tricia's Stamping Creations: Around The World On Wednesday December Blog Hop Watercolor Smooshing

It's time for our last Around The World On Wednesday Blog Hop for 2023 and this month's theme is so much fun. Our Design Team has been given the challenge to create our projects using the Watercolor Smoosh technique. If you love to get your fingers inky, then this technique is for you. Our Design Team members will be sharing their projects and ideas to help inspire you to give this technique a try.

One of my favorite things about stamping, is getting my fingers inky. For today's technique, it was the perfect excuse to get messy and play with stamps, ink and paper. For my color combination, I chose to use Orchid Oasis, Tahitian Tide and Fresh Freesia Classic Ink Pads. For my card base and sentiment, I used Basic Black cardstock to help make the background pop. A little heat embossing with White and Black embossing powders helped step up this pretty card design.

Products Used:

Heartfelt Hexagon Bundle (item #162889)

Magical Meadow stamp set (item #162134)

Basic Black Cardstock (item #121045)

Basic White Cardstock (item #159276)

Fresh Freesia Classic Ink Pad (item #155611)

Tahitian Tide Classic Ink Pad (item #159210)

Orchid Oasis Classic Ink Pad (item #159214)

Versamark Pad (item #102283)

Basics Embossing Powders (item #155554)

Classic Matte Dots (item #158146)

Tear & Tape Adhesive (item #154031)

Stampin' Dimensionals (item #104430)

Stampin' Spritzers (item #126185)

Measurements:

Basic Black Cardstock

Card Base - 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" (Score at 4 1/4")

Sentiment Label punched out with the Heartfelt Hexagon Punch

Basic White Cardstock

Card Front - 5 1/4" x 4" Colored with the Watercolor Smoosh Technique using Orchid Oasis, Tahitian Tide and Fresh Freesia Classic Ink Pads

I am sure there are a lot of different ways to do the Watercolor Smoosh technique, but for me, I used the technique I learned from fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, Ruth Trice, during a recent online class I took with her. We had so much fun and got very inky as we explored so many different color combinations. To create this fun background, I used a Clear vinyl cutting mat from my kitchen for my work surface and added color to the surface using the different colored ink pads, covering an area comparable to the size of an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of Basic White cardstock. I alternated the colors on the mat so that when I spritzed it with water (using a Stampin' Spritzer), it created this pretty, watery pattern where the colors gently blended together in places. When I was happy with how the colors looked, I placed the piece of Basic White cardstock down on top of the mat, allowing the ink colors to soak into the cardstock. I gently smoothed out the back of the cardstock with my hands to move the ink around underneath and allow even coverage over then entire sheet. I then carefully lifted the cardstock up off the mat and set it aside to dry. As the ink on the cardstock dried, the colors did lighten up to create a soft and pretty watercolor background with the blues and light purple blended together.

Once completely dry, I cut a piece for my card front to the size of 5 1/4" x 4". I heat embossed one of the detailed foliage images from the Magical Meadow stamp set using Black embossing powder to the top left and bottom right corners. For the sentiment label, I heat embossed the image with White embossing powder onto Basic Black cardstock and punched it out with the Heartfelt Hexagon Punch. To assemble the card, I used Tear & Tape Adhesive on the back of the card front to make sure that it adhered flat and even to the Basic Black card base. I attached the sentiment label to the center of the card front with Stampin' Dimensionals and added several Matte Black Dots to complete the card design. I just love how this card turned out and how beautiful the background turned out with this fun technique.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. I hope that my card design will help inspire you to try this fun technique to create your own beautiful projects. There are so many wonderful possibilities to explore with different color combinations to create unique backgrounds.

Now it's time to visit Bree's blog and see what she has created with this fun technique. Just click on the Next button below or use the Roll Call List to find your way. Please leave us a comment and let us know what you liked about our projects. We would love to hear from you.

Roll Call List

Jan Clothier - NZ

Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Danielle Kassing - NL

Aurélie Fabre - FR

Mikaela Titheridge - UK

If you live in the U.S. and do not have a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, please contact me and I would be happy to help you with your creative projects. You may also visit my Online Store to place your order and have it shipped to you.