A Simple Yet Striking Nativity Card | Ink Smooshing for My Time To Craft Christmas

Hello, crafty friends!
I’m back today with my latest creation for the My Time To Craft Christmas Challenge Blog, where we’re continuing our series of technique-focused challenges. This time, we're diving into a fun and forgiving technique—ink smooshing!

If you've never tried ink smooshing before, it's a fabulous way to add texture and color to your backgrounds with minimal effort and maximum impact. For this challenge, I decided to pair this loose, artistic background with a classic Christmas image for a beautiful contrast in styles.

The Details:

I created an A2-sized card featuring a gold heat-embossed nativity scene as the focal point. I stamped and embossed the image first so that it would resist the ink smooshing and allow the details to really shine through.

For my color palette, I stuck with traditional Christmas tones—rich red, festive green, and a touch of gold—smooshed together on watercolor cardstock to create a lovely, blended background. I love how the metallic gold catches the light with the embossing.

To finish the card, I mounted the inked panel onto some red foil cardstock, which added an elegant bit of shine and framed the design beautifully. Then everything was adhered to a standard A2 card base.

Final Thoughts:

This card came together quickly and easily, but I think the end result is just stunning. The combination of bold, festive colors with the elegance of gold embossing gives it a timeless feel. Sometimes, simple is best—especially when the techniques do all the talking!

I hope this inspires you to give ink smooshing a try, especially if you’re working on your holiday card stash. Be sure to check out the rest of the design team’s creations over at the My Time To Craft Christmas Challenge Blog and share your own ink smooshed masterpieces with us!

Until next time,
Happy Crafting! ✂️🎄✨