Silver Elephant Craftique: Blank Page Muse: Ink Smooshing Steampunk Card

Ink smooshing is one of my favorite techniques to create backgrounds with very little effort. Each time I do it, the results are different. This technique is great for steampunk cards since it's easy to achieve that vintage, rusty look. After creating the ink smooshed background, all you need is some stamps, gears, and a sentiment to create a fabulous card or scrapbook page.

Today's card is ink smooshed using Distress Inks and one large stamp from Blank Page Muse called Bingo Collage Art Rubber Stamp. This stamp is 3.5"W x 5"H so it fits perfectly on an A2 size card. I added a few gears and cogs and decided just to use bold letters to add the word, steampunk to keep the card generic so it can be used for any occasion. You can save 15% on this stamp and all purchases at Blank Page Muse by using my special code BPMBetty.

Supplies:

Blank Page Muse Bingo Collage Art Rubber Stamp
White A2 card base
Black cardstock mat 4-1/8"W x 5-3/8"H
Watercolor paper for card front 4"W x 5-1/8"H
White and black cardstock for sentiment 5"W x 3"H
Distress inks or stains in Chipped Sapphire, Salvaged Patina, Rusty Hinge, Ground Espresso, Pumice Stone
Water spray bottle
Heat gun
Craft mat
Black ink pad (Dye or pigment)
Stamp positioner or block
Gears and cogs die cuts (see previous post on how to make your own)
Large letter dies to form the word "steampunk" (I used Sizzix Alphanumeric Classic Lower case dies, that are 1" to 1-1/4" tall)
Your favorite liquid adhesive
Low tack tape or washi tape

Instructions

Ink Smooshing:

Apply Distress Inks in Chipped Sapphire, Salvaged Patina, Rusty Hinge on a craft mat. Spritz with water.

Dab the watercolor paper over the ink, then turn the paper and dab again. Try not to mix the colors or it will get muddy. Dry with heat gun and repeat until you have the desired colors/design.

Stamp the Bingo Collage Stamp onto the ink smooshed paper using a stamp positioner or stamp block

Ink the edges of the card front with Distress Ink in Ground Espresso

The Sentiment:

Swipe the pad of Distress Ink in Pumice stone over a piece of white cardstock approximately 5"W x 3"H. I used a bigger piece of paper so I can use the negative piece for a future card.

Using large alphabet dies, die cut out the word steampunk. Tip: line up the dies on a lined mat, then place light tack tape over the dies. Place over the cardstock and die cut. Use the negative piece to line up a glue the letters onto your card. Repeat steps to die cut the word steampunk using black cardstock.

Adhere the black letters by offsetting to show the white letters as a shadow.

Adhere the card front onto the black cardstock mat, then adhere onto the card base.
Adhere the gears and cogs onto the front of the card and the card is finished.