Watercolor Smooshing with Distress Inks

Happy Thursday, crafty friends! I hope you are having a good week so far! We are two days from my brother's wedding, and have LOTS going on. But I wanted to pop in and share a card set with you featuring the Heart & Soul and Scripted Bold Sentiments 2 stamp sets from Pinkfresh Studio. I've also done some watercolor smooshing with my distress inks.

I find it easiest to do this watercolor smooshing technique on Arches cold pressed 140 lb watercolor paper {SSS | EH}, as it gives a really beautiful effect. I used distress inks in the following colors for my watercolor smooshing: Victorian Velvet, Evergreen Bough, Dustry Concord & Stormy Sky. All colors are linked at the end of the post to both SSS & EH. I have found that watercolor smooshing also works best when using a transparency. So I twist a little bit of Distress Ink in all the different colors to a sheet of transparency, then spritz them down with a Distress Sprayer. Then I just smooth the colors here & there to watercolor paper panels until they look how I want them to.

I stamped or heat embossed the majority of the sentiments directly to the watercolor panels. I use my MISTI {SSS | EH} when stamping to the Arches watercolor paper, because it is quite textured. So it typically needs 2-3 impressions to get a perfect one. I've used a combination of onyx black Versafine and Gilded gold embossing powder for my stamping (both linked below).

For this card I stamped & heat embossed the floral image from Heart & Soul, then cut it out with the coordinating die. I watercolored it with the same distress inks using a size 4 brush. All pieces were mounted to the top of a light blue A2 card base with foam adhesive, then accented with jewel trios to finish.

For this card, I heat embossed the floral image around the edge, as I wanted to share how versatile floral images like this can be. You can stamp it in full as shown above, or use just bits & pieces of it around an edge. This is a great way to highlight the watercolor work you've done! This time I did stamp the second part of the sentiment to matching watercolor paper and trimmed it into a thin strip with a banner edge. I adhered everything to the front of a light purple A2 card base with foam adhesive, then accented with clear iridescent sequins to finish.

And because I DO NOT waste Arches watercolor paper, I created a cute little tag out of a leftover scrap. I used the Tag You're It diecut set {SSS | EH} from Lawn Fawn for this. I heat embossed just a small part of the floral image to it, then accented with sequins. I finished it off with a double bow from ivory twine, and this tag is ready to go on a gift bag or package!

That is everything I have for you today! I hope that you enjoyed my latest card. Before you move along with your day, I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media for you get on with your day. I would love to be crafty friends!

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Have a wonderful Thursday!

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