Hey! It’s Jill from Jill Cameron Creations. Today we’re doing one of my most favorite techniques that I don’t do very often. We’re ink smooshing! It’s a super fun and easy watercolor technique that creates intense depth.

Modern Christmas Watercolor Ink Smooshing

We’re using the Modern Christmas Watercolor stamp set, glitter, and Kaleidoscope Powders for this beautiful card.

How-to: Ink Smooshing

What is ink smooshing? Sounds a lot like you’re mashing ink around and that’s kind of what you’re doing. It’s so fun. I used Distress Inks for this but you can use dye-based inks too.

First, select all of the colors you want to use. I used a bunch of greens of various shades and hues. Some are super-saturated colors and some were really dull but all are green. This is what will give your ink smooshing more depth.

Modern Christmas Watercolor Ink Smooshing

Next, spray the watercolor paper you’re using and smash each ink pad onto a media mat. Then, spray the ink lightly with water. I used the acetate cover of the stamp set to pick up the ink. Smoosh the acetate onto the watercolor paper.

Between each layer of ink, you’ll want to heat set it. Repeat the ink smooshing. This is where the depth comes into play. Now, you can also just turn the paper over onto the ink drops and get layers of color that way too. Just be sure to dry each layer of color.

Modern Christmas Watercolor Ink Smooshing

Finally, use the same colors of ink to create splatters. The splatters will be darker and the top most layer of color.

Modern Christmas Watercolor Ink Smooshing

What else did I do for this card? Besides ink smooshing, I also heat embossed the wreath image and the Modern Christmas Watercolor sentiments. Also, I used glue and red glitter to create the berries on the holly and additional splatters with Kaleidoscope Powder in Yellowstone.

Thanks for joining me today to learn a little about ink smooshing. All of the products I used are linked below.