Dina Kowal Creative: Splitcoast Tutorial: Ghost Stamping

It's my turn to share a tutorial over on Splitcoast this week, and this week we're Ghost Stamping! This isn't a new technique, but I thought it would be fun to experiment with some different inks and product combinations to come up with some varied looks.

Writing up the photo tutorial was a little bit humorous to me, because this technique is actually just two steps... stamp a background image in watermark or white ink (pigment or chalk inks work best), then stamp over the image with dye inks, or mist with a dye-based spray. The first stamping layer shows through the second.

I tried a bunch of combinations and came up with some variations to share - for this card I stamped a base image in chalk ink, and then misted over the area with a ColorBox Spritzer. The silhouette image is actually stamped in a dye ink too, but because I'd done some test swatches, I knew that this particular ink wouldn't react with what I'd stamped beneath it. This is ColorBox Black Bean Premium Dye Ink - I reallly love this line. They're foam pads and the ink is a little thicker than a typical dye.

For this second card, the effect is quite subtle. I stamped the full background in white chalk ink with my Leaf Ledger background stamp, then stamped and brushed to fill the panel in with the solid leaf from the Layered Maple set.

One more fun card since Fall is in the air and Halloween is coming! I stamped the panel with a repeating pattern, then used one of Clearsnap's new Art Screen Trios for the inked background. These are sets of 3 stencils that layer together beautifully.