Thanksgiving Card | Cut It Up! Challenge #186 - "Thankful/Thanksgiving"

Hello!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I'm so excited because this is my first Design Team submission for the "Cut It Up!" Challenge Blog! The challenge theme is Thankful/Thanksgiving while also using the "smooshing" ink technique. I decided to focus on an autumn color palette in combination with this beautiful sunflower SVG that I chose from Scrappy Dew, who is our prize sponsor for this fun challenge. Cut It Up! Challenges have great themes but do require using some type of die cut(s) in the projects and I know that for most paper crafters, this is a given! 

I used the simple sunflower design from the "Happy Fall Y'all" set but resized and reshaped some of the petals in the Cricut Design Space to create the multiple layers necessary to give this flower face a lot of depth. I die cut multiples of each layer on heavy weight white card stock and set them aside. 

Using MFT's now-retired Geometric Star Stencil, I inked it with Antique Linen Distress Oxide Ink, secured it face down and ran it through my Big Shot to make the imprint onto white cardstock; this panel was then die cut with an A-2 stitched rectangle die and adhered to a top-folding card base. I really like the way this gives you subtle color combined with a "letterpress-like" imprint in the background. I cut four rectangles from kraft card stock using MFT's Elegant Rectangle Die-Namics, glued/stacked them together, and adhered this frame to the card front.

Then came the fun part!!! I smooshed Distress Oxides Inks onto my Ranger Craft Mat, sprayed it liberally with water and started smooshing! I have found that this technique works best for me if I only try to combine 1-2 colors together at a time - if I try to add more colors, the end result looks a bit gray/muddy. I let the pieces dry between applications and kept adding layers until I achieved the depth of color I wanted. I then sprayed the flower petals with a gold shimmer mist to give it some additional shine. After everything was completely dry, I hand curled and scored some of the layers to give the flower a bit more detail then I assembled the pieces by gluing everything together from the bottom up! 

I stamped/die cut my sentiment strip, added a small layer of gingham pattern paper and adhered it into place with foam tape. The flower was then glued inside the frame and the card was finished with a few brown sequins and gold baker's twine. 

Head over to Cut It Up! to see the great projects the Design Team has created for this challenge and GET SMOOSHING! Here is a LINK to my recent blog post which shows lots of photos of this  technique in action.

Additional Card Challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday #245 - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Die Cuttin Divas - AG #444

Thanks so much for joining me today and I really appreciate you taking the time to comment!

Rachelle ♥