Ghost stamping

Those of you who know me will know that one of my favourite blogs to visit is Ronda Palazzari's 'Help [ME] Ronda' blog.  Not being a mixed media expert, this is a source of expertise and inspiration for me, and when I saw this tutorial, I just had to watch it.

I am the proud owner of 5 distress inks - none of them very bright, so I wasn't ever going to to achieve the vibrant look that the tutorial reaches, but nevertheless, blue, green and browny grey are colours I use a lot.

So what is ghost stamping.  It is removing colour from a background paper coloured with (in this case, blended) Distress inks by spraying a stamp with water and using it to pick up the ink on it's surface area, leaving behind a ghostly imprint.  Highly effective.

I finally put to good use a foam stamp by Teresa Collins for Junkitz (that should give you an idea of its age), which I have had forever as a decoration hanging off my tote, but never actually use.  This will not be the case in the future as I love the effect it gave me.

I stamped the image twice on a smallish sheet of card.  Being too impatient to find my blending sponges, I used some little ones instead which didn't give nearly such a subtle effect - spot the too bright green lol!

I highlighted one half, just to have a little play and see what it might come out like, and ended up with this - inspired by another of Ronda's projects - her Doha notebook which is doodled with wonderful leaves.

A journalling pen and a couple of stamps were all it took to make a quick card.   Below are the two together, but I really love the subtle blended colours, reminds me of cloudy skies and I am definitely going to be brave enough to try this on a layout background now.  Thank you Ronda - great tutorial.