Faux Bleach

The theme at Less is More this week is to use the Faux Bleach or Ghosting technique... also referred to as stamping with water.

If a layer of water reactive ink is used as a base, when water is added, some of the colour is removed, giving the appearance of bleaching.

To begin, I inked the vertical panel with blue and green Distress Inks using sponge daubers and allowed them to dry. I then stamped the flower stamp from Unity after spritzing it with water, drying the card with a heat gun, which seems to intensify the effect. I wanted to use this as a ghosting effect around the flowers, so  I stamped image again, using the deep green colour.

The sentiment is from Penny Black.

Here I used a stencil from Tim Holtz, over some sponged Distress Inks, applied fairly liberally with sponge daubers. The ink was spritzed with water and blotted then the stencil removed and heat dried. The bunch of roses is a file from Silhouette Studio cut with my Portrait. I think they match my stencil really well. I believe that the hello is a die cut from Winnie And Walter.

Ghosting

This technique is known by a few different titles. Here it's an example of the Ghosting technique, but it's also known as the Faux Bleach technique.

To begin I inked a piece of card with Distress Inks using sponge daubers, making sure I had good coverage. I then stamped, just using water on the stamps,which as it reacts with Distress Inks, removes some of the colour!

To accentuate some of the shapes, I stamped again slightly off from the first stamping using the same distress inks.

The 'thank' part of the sentiment from Memory Box, is inlaid and then triple layered. The 'you' is from Simon Says Stamp.

This fun technique is the challenge this month at Happy Little Stampers.

This challenge is sponsored by

Tutorials:
Ghosting with Sprays by Dyan Reaveley (4:06)
Water Stamping by Shery Russ (4:05)

Versamark Resist (Ghosting) Technique by Seasons of Stamping (4:15)

I hope you'll have a join in the fun!

Fabulous flowers

I just love the scribble style of these stamps from  Lil Inkers and I thought they were perfect for a technique I saw done by Jennifer McGuire on one of her videos.

The image was stamped in Versamark and embossed with white EP. The whole piece of card was inked with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink until the colour was quite strong and the card was well covered. The next step was to paint with water inside the image to remove some of the colour, then some Mustard Seed DI was flooded into the flowers and a final coat of Wink of Stella added.

It's such a pretty effect!

It's for the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and more - Make your Mark.

The sentiment is a die-cut from Waffle Flower, mounted over a section of the card embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.
CASology - Distress (Inks)

Recycle -It

At Less is More we have a challenge to use a recycled item on a card.

What possibilities!

I have discovered that the technique of FAUX BLEACH works well on card with a very smooth surface, so here is a piece that was in the packaging of a pillowcase. It worked really well for this technique.

I inked the surface of the card with Distress Inks using Sponge Daubers. The colours are Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold and Barn Door!

I then used my Uniko Gerbera stamps to create the design. I used the solid version spritzed with water and stamped, holding it in position for a few moments. I then dried it using my heat tool. The colours lift like magic!

I then went on to use the outline version of the stamp and over-stamped a couple of the flowers in Versamark and embossed it in gold.

The rest of the card consists of a piece of wrapping paper saved from a gift and die cut!

The butterfly is from Memory Box and the sentiment from Paper Smooches.

This one uses an Impression Obsession Die and ribbon cut from the shoulders of a jumper. The sentiment is from Magenta. More details are on the LIM blog!

For this I merely mounted the gift tag from one of our 40th Wedding Anniversary gifts onto black then silver card and straightened and retied the ribbon!

Easy Peasy... I stuck the tag down well so that the greeting on the back can't be seen!

From time to time we go to Speciality dinners at our club. The menus for the evening are often displayed inside covers made from this lovely matt silver card. I simply collect up those not taken at the end of the meal and add it to my stash. Well I couldn't leave it there could I?

DO join in with us it will be fun!

What can you find to use again?

Take it Make it Challenge!

There's another challenge over on the Craft Stamper Blog. It's based on a technique illustrated by Hels in the mag and involves a faux bleach technique.

I found that the secret to a successful outcome is to use very smooth, almost shiny card. I covered it with a layer of Distress ink and then another layer of a darker shade.

I then covered it with a stencil and spritzed it with water. The water reacts with the ink and some colour is 'bleached' out from the card. 

When it was completely dry I stamped the flowers with Versamark and sprinkled it with white embossing powder and heat set.

Here is another using the same technique.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted die cuts.