Alaska Scene Cards - Part 2

Are you a fan of ink smooshing? I love it but my bestie hasn’t enjoyed much success when she’s tried it.  I recently told her that I think the secret is in the spray bottle you use.  I use one of those little ones you can get in the trial size section of your local discount store.  You know the ones that are about 3 ounces and cost a couple of bucks?  Yep, those are the ones I use for this technique.  I find that anything else gives too much water.  The little travel guys spray a really fine mist.  For Part 2 of my Alaska Scene Card series, I have four cards to share.  If you missed Part 1 you can check it out here.  Onto the cards.

For the first two, I created a sunset by swiping some distress inks onto a small square acrylic block.  Once my block was inked I spritzed the block with a fine mist a couple of times and pressed the block to my paper as if it was a stamp.  By using the spray bottle I suggested, you shouldn't get any drips when turning the block over to stamp.  If you do, you have too much water on your block.  Once my “stamping” was completed I lifted straight up to avoid getting any drips from the block as I removed it.  

Next, I hit the panel with my heat tool to dry my faux watercolor sunsets.  After drying was complete I added grass by masking the bottom and sides of my sunset with Post-It Tape and carefully ink blending green using my Newton's Nook Grass and Hills stencil.  This created a bit of grass for moose die cut to stand on, grounding him to the scene.  To complete the panel I stamped the greeting and glued my moose in place. 

Cards three and four have a bit of a winter vibe to them.  I used the same ink smooshing technique but opted for some pale shades of blue to create my faux watercolor sky.  I then stamped on a couple of trees from the Tim Holtz Tree Line stamp set and added my greeting.  

Card four has a little variation with lighter shades of ink and only one tree.  The trees from this Tim Holtz stamp set are very indicative of the black spruce that grow in Interior Alaska, making them the perfect trees for these cards.

These cards are very easy to create multiples of in a short amount of time.  I should point out that this technique will only work with water-reactive inks such as the Distress Inks.  With the combination of water-reactive ink and an acrylic block for your smooshing technique, your recipients will think you diligently watercolored your background.  It might take a few tries and some practice, but this technique can create some show stoping cards.  Now go smoosh some backgrounds!