Using an Ink Smooshing Technique for Your Holiday Cards

Hello, friends! Justin Adkins here from Just a Note by Justin, and today I am sharing my last September Release project on the blog! For this card, In used the new Reindeer At Play stamp set in conjunction with the A Snowy Breeze stencil
and the Signature Christmas Quotes stamp set to create snowy holiday card! I used an ink-smooshing technique to create a background with lots of of fun texture and color variance, so lets get into the details!

Picket Fence Studios products used:

Reindeer At Play Stamp Set
Reindeer at Play Coordinating Dies
A Snowy Breeze Stencil
Signature Quotes Christmas Stamp Set
Jingle All The Way Sequin Mix
Paper Glaze Luxe Seasonal Holidays Artcic Fox

I started off my card by stamping out some of the images from the Reindeer at Play stamp set and coloring them up with Copic Markers. I used the coordinating dies to cut them out and set them aside for later.

I stamped out the sentiment "Christmas time is the best of time" from the Signature Christmas Quotes stamp set in embossing ink onto purple paper. I then heat embossed the sentiment with a white embossing powder. Once fully dry, I used the coordinating die to cut out the sentiment, setting it aside with my reindeer images.

For my background, I know that I wanted to use the new Paper Glaze Luxe Seasonal Holiday Sampler, but I wanted to put it over an ink smooshed background. Taking an A2-size piece of blending cardstock, I smooshed down some Prize Ribbon Distress Oxide Ink directly from my ink pad onto my glass mat. I then watered the ink down with my spray bottle, and then smooshed the paper lightly into the ink at multiple angles. I heat set the ink on my paper with a heat gun. I repeated this process with the Mermaid Lagoon and then Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Colors. Once all of my colors were complete, I splattered the panel with watered down Prize Ribbon Distress Oxide Ink.

I applied some Pixie Spray to the back of the Snowy Breeze stencil to give it a bit of extra grip, and placed it over my panel. I applied a thin and solid layer of the Arctic Fox color that is provided in the Seasonal Holiday Sampler of Paper Glaze Luxe. I removed the stencil, set my panel aside to dry, and washed my stencil immediately.

Once my panel was fully dry, I cut it down to 4" x 5.25". I also cut down a piece of purple cardstock to 4.125" x 5.375", and adhered my stenciled layer directly on top of the purple layer so that it was nicely framed.

I took my sentiment die cut and lightly distressed the bottom edge with Villainous Potion Distress Oxide Ink to give it a bit of shading. Using Foam Tape, I adhered all of my reindeer images, along with my sentiment, to my card panel.

I adhered my panel to an A2-size card base, and finished off my card by adhering a few embellishments from the Jingle All The Way Sequin Mix. My card was completed!