ACETATE SMOOSH TECHNIQUE

Many of you are familiar with a technique often elegantly called the Smoosh Technique. From what I've been able to find, most of the times this is done with drops of re-inkers. 

This time, however, we are going to switch it up just a little bit. Instead of using re-inkers, in this card sample, I applied the ink pad directly to the acetate.

The great thing about this particular technique, as in so many others, you will NEVER be able to reproduce the effect. Each and every time, you will produce a unique look. In that sense, this would be a form of monoprinting. In monoprinting, no matter the technique you use for your printing process, the result is a singular, unique print, never able to be able to be exactly replicated. 

To do this style of the Acetate Smoosh technique, I used a sheet protector. With my guillotine-style papercutter, I trimmed off two more of the edges, so only one of the long edges remained closed.

For this particular experiment, I used two of the new In Colors, Lemon Lime Twist and Tranquil Tide. I opened up my sheet protector, and starting with the Lemon Lime Twist, I applied dribs and drabs of the ink directly from the ink pad to various spots on the piece of acetate that was lying on my work surface. I repeated this process with the Tranquil Tide.

Next step was to spritz the ink-daubed areas with water until the ink beads up somewhat. Close the protector and smoosh the ink/water combo around just a bit. Re-open the sheet protector.

Then, taking two 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" pieces of GLOSSY CARDSTOCK, I stacked them back-to-back so the glossy sides were on the outside. Place this little sandwich within the sheet protector.

Closing the sheet protector, smoosh your hands over the concoction. Gently open up the sheet protector once again, and lift out the two background pieces you've just created. Grab a paper towel or two and dab up an excess color.

These pieces dry quickly. Doing two pieces back-to-back, you end up with two backgrounds for your cardmaking use. 

The piece shown in the photo below was the other one I got with my process. Initially, I was going to use it for my card because it was so much more uniform <read BORING> in its looks. However, in comparing it to the other one, which was so much LESS BORING, I decided to use the other one instead for my creation.

These finished backgrounds do bend up slightly at the edges. But, if it is adhered securely in place upon its base, you will never realize how warped it is.

Because I wanted this smooshed background to be the star of my finished card, and not have too much of it covered up, I opted to use silhouettes of foliage cut with a Sizzix die for my focal point.

I MUST point out that I made the little black dots on the background! I'd purchased a 3-pack of Enamel Accents by Ranger in red, blue and black. I had thought I could make little brad-looking embellishments with this product.

The night before putting this card together, I made a few rows of each color on a piece of waxed paper. Anxious to see how they actually turned out, I was thrilled to discover the following day that I had cute little slightly raised dots! Yay me!

I removed them from the waxed paper with a craft knife and glued them in place on my background.

And, yes, last night I made several more rows of the dots for future projects. How exciting, eh?

One thing to be extra cautious about when doing an Acetate Smoosh project is the number of colors you use and the COLORS themselves. This technique can easily result in mud. A safe color combination to use is that of the primary colors: red, blue and yellow. You can use all three or any combination of two of them. These colors play pretty well together if not mixed TOO much. Otherwise, you are always safe if you use similar colors, such as all greens, as I did in my card.

Are you going to give this fun -- but messy -- technique a try? 

Since Stampin' Up! is re-introducing their Glossy Card Stock in their upcoming big catalog (going live June 1!), I thought this would be a great time to re-introduce this old classic technique, but with a little bit of a twist. Have fun!

Smoosh-y

Smiles.