Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Using Your Smooch: Part 5, Inkblots

As I played around with my Smooch, I remembered how interesting Rorschach-style things can happen when you fold wet, painted paper. Shimmery, Smoochy Rorschach tests! What a concept!

So here's what I did:

1. Take a half piece of regular heavy white card stock or watercolor paper. I used PTI's white card stock in this example.
2. Score a fold in the middle, and fold it, then opened it on a waterproof surface. I used my cutting mat, which is easy to clean.
3. Paint one side of the inside of the folded paper with plain water until it's soppy wet, and then quickly add watered-down Smooch with an eyedropper on the saturated side of the paper.
4. Press the dry half of the paper down onto the wet and rub gently over the whole piece with your fingers or a bone folder. Inky water will ooze out the sides. Do not be alarmed.
5. Open the paper, and see what happened!


The more water you use, the more colors blend and flow. I used lime and dark green Smooch, and the lime ink seemed to sort of separate into lime and yellow, which really added a lot of interest here.  I think it would become a muddy mess if you used more than three colors, though. And remember that complementary colors (those opposite on the color wheel, like red and green or yellow and purple) combine to make brown.

If you tilt your head to the right and you have a dirty anatomically-inclined mind, you might see a uterus in this Rorschach image. Or not. Maybe I'm just weird.

Anyway, I made a whole bunch of cards using this 5.5" x 8.5" piece of shimmery yellow-green paper. At first, I used relatively larger pieces, so let me share those three cards today.


This first card allowed me to use a couple of giant blingy stickers to anchor the strip. I like how the crisp, angular lines of the "ribbon" of color are softened by the blended colors and large round shapes of the bling.


The largest piece of background plays up the wonderful drippy lines that look like some surrealistic rain storm. Did you know that the color green symbolizes hope? That made me reach for this sentiment from CASual Friday's Breathe set.

Of course, some war poet from WWI turned green's symbolism on its side when he wrote about the green glow of mustard gas in the trenches. Not very hopeful.

But I digress.




Finally, I wanted to do something interesting with this strip and thought cutting a free-form curve might do the trick. After affixing the two pieces to the card, I reached for a sentiment set from Clearly Besotted that has LOTS of sentiments, and realized that the division between the two pieces might perfectly represent the feelings of separation caused by loss of a loved one. For Christians, the idea is that we're separated from our loved ones only until we rejoin them in heaven, at which time things all fit perfectly back together again.

And there you have my first three cards with this particular technique. The remaining pieces were used in much smaller doses, and I think the results are superbly LateBlossom style. But you'll have to wait until tomorrow and Friday to see those.

I'm such a tease!

Substitution Tip: You could really use almost any paint or dye-based re-inker for this technique, including something like Glimmer Mist, although don't spray it...use the eyedropper to get lots of color in each squirt. Little dots of sprayed color will not spread like big, wet globs will. Just remember that the more water, the better, so don't be stingy, and don't use too many colors at one time.

8 comments:

  1. These are wonderful, Susan. The colors flow together in a lovely manner. The designs really fit the sentiments you have chosen. The sympathy card is truly amazing.

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  2. I love these cards Susan, they all look wonderful. Will have to try this idea. Also love the conversation you have as you talk about what you did to make the cards. I was brought up with the Christian belief that when we die we will be reunited with loved ones but being an enquiring mind I always wondered what happened if your partner died and you remarried what happened then?

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  3. _Fabulous cards and I love what you are doing with your Smooooch! I have several bottles of these too.....I have used them to marble paper....yes, Smooooch FLOATS!!! Makes a cool, subdued colored marble paper when floated on top of water. I know you are running for the smooooch as I type aren.t you:) So smooch does float my boat but now I have to try the Rorschach test....have fun!

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  4. I love these cards and am anxious to see the others that you made. I have never done anything like this before and think that I will have to play around with my things (I have no Smooch) and try this out. Thank you so much for sharing

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  5. Stunning. I love the "simplicity" of all of the cards, but what a great idea to not only play with inks, but to get your own unique designs. A must try!

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  6. This is great. I gave my 8 year old daughter unlimited access to the smooch and glitter glue the other day (it's a great way to use up supplies when I am feeling overrun, by the way) and she did something similar to this. Of course, I hate to toss any of my brilliant (*wink*) artist-in-training's masterpieces but this at least gives me ideas for using them!

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  7. Wow! I am catching up on reading blog posts and I am intrigued by your smooch posts. Thanks for taking the time to share all your thoughts and discoveries. I love today's cards, all that blended colour and the shapes you chose too.
    Heather T

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!