Hello lovely crafters! Karen Brown here and today I am excited to share with you a simple yet stunning way to create a floral background with the gorgeous new August Cling of the Month called Orchids.

Easy Yet Eye-Catching Ink Smooshing

Step-By-Step Tutorial:

I will walk you through how to make two colorful cards using the August Cling of the Month: Orchids.

• I started by making two background panels. I took a Clear Acetate Card Panel, dabbed Reactive Ink on the acetate panel and then sprtized with water. Some spots were watery and others were a bit drier, and I think this combination adds more character to backgrounds.
• I turned the acetate over, bent it so that it touched just a portion of my background, and applied the diluted ink to a section of Luxe Watercolor Paper. I continued adding different colors until I liked the look of my panel. I wanted contrast so I made sure to keep some white space. You can see my process photo below.

Below is a photo of my completed ink smooshing. I used Fruit Punch, Creamsicle and Taffy for Card 1 and Blue Hawaii, Paradise and Pool Party for Card 2.

• I let my backgounds dry overnight, but you could speed things up with a heat tool.
• I find I get a better result if I season my cling stamps prior to stamping my project. I inked up the Orchids stamp and stamped on plain computer paper and then discarded this test paper.
• I put my ink smooshed background and cling stamp in my stamp positioner and stamped three times with Intense Black Ink. I wanted a nice dark impression that really penetrated the paper.  
• Next, using the August Card Kit of the Month, I die cut my elements from Pitch Black cardstock.
• With my paper trimmer, I cut two 2" x 3 " white panels and two black mats.
• I stamped the sentiment (also from the August Card Kit) near the bottom of the white panel and then attached my die cuts with foam squares.
• I assembled my card, adding a bit of craft foam behind the small black mat.

Here is a final photo of both cards.

I hope you enjoy trying out this technique.  Happy stamping!