Watercolour Smooshing with Distress Oxides

Hi folks, not the catchiest of titles for a blog post but if you are not familiar with the Watercolour Smooshing technique, let me tell you it's great fun and one of those techniques where the results will be different each time. I'm sharing a trio of cards I made trying out different combinations of the recently released Distress Oxide inks.

For this technique you will need Watercolor Paper/Card, I prefer Distress Watercolor Card because it's bright white and will stand up to lots of water, a piece of plastic sheet, a Distress Sprayer and of course, some Distress Oxide inks. This was my practice run which I didn't end up using but I'm using it to show the technique. Tap the first colour (Chipped Sapphire) on to the plastic sheet, spritz with water and lay on to the watercolor card,smooshing it around a little and then leave in place for about 10 seconds to allow the ink to be absorbed into the paper and then dry with a heat tool. It is very important to dry each layer or you will end up with a muddy mess.

Clean off the plastic sheet and repeat with the other colours (Scattered Straw and Victorian Velvet), drying between each layer

Once you are happy with your background, dilute the colours you used with water and create splatters. Again it is very important that you dry the splatters right away to prevent the colours absorbing into the background.

Feeling confident after my practice run, I looked out a selection of the new Distress Oxide inks and created 3 backgrounds

and stamped them with the gorgeous snowflakes from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Mini Weathered Winter 

Card 1

I used Weathered Wood, Shabby Shutters and just a hint of Rusty Hinge for the background and stamped the snowflakes with Weathered Wood and Shabby Shutters, misting the stamps with water to create a watercolor effect. I love love love this colour combination.

Card 2

I used Shaded Lilac, Dried Marigold and Weathered Wood for the background and stamped the snowflakes with Shaded Lilac, again misting the stamps with water. Another favourite combination.

Card 3

I used Chipped Sapphire (one of my favourite Distress colours), Weathered Wood and Hickory Smoke for the background, stamped the snowflakes with Chipped Sapphire, misted the stamped image with water and blotted off the excess with a paper towel. I dusted the panel with an anti-static powder bag and stamped the small snowflakes with Versamark and heat set with Ranger Superfine White Embossing Powder.

I think this may be my favourite colour combination but hey ho, there are still lots of colour combinations to try out. I die cut the beautiful Christmas script sentiment for each card 3 times from Simon Says Stamp Ultra White card using Tim Holtz/Sizzix Retro Merry Christmas Thinlits, layered them using Ranger Multi Medium Matte to create dimension and stamped Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words Christmas sentiments on to black card and heat embossed with Ranger Superfine White Embossing Powder.

I trimmed the panels down to 4" x 5.1/4", on two of the cards I matted on to Simon Says Stamp Slate Grey cardstock, on the third I inked the edge with Shaded Lilac using a mini round blending tool and fixed the panels on to Simon Says Stamp Ultra White A2 card blanks. I added Pretty Pink Posh Clear 4mm Droplets for a little touch of bling.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Kath xxx