Greens

A funny thing happened on my blog the other day!

When I first set up my blog many moons ago, I added a gadget on my sidebar called Crafty Blogs. It gives you an idea of the amount of traffic visiting your blog. (lots of people visit to have a look  but don't leave comments, so you don't actually know they've been around.

It appears that my blog is usually fairly well visited and the number appearing on the gadget is usually between about 60 and 90. (Number 1 being the most popular of all) Not bad considering the number of blogs there are around!

The other day however the number was 287 or something like that! I find it really hard to understand how that drastic fall in popularity could happen overnight. Since then the number has been gradually climbing until it is now round about back to where it historically had  been.

Has anyone else had something similar happen?

What would be even better is if visitors could drop me a comment to say they have been and what they think of my cards!!

Anyway to get back to this one.

I based it on the sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches

I used the Ghosting technique with a Stamplorations Stencil on the pennant, adding a die cut  and water coloured foliage spray from Sizzix. The sentiment is from Personal impressions. The two pennants were cut with MFT pierced dies.

CAS Stencil Challenge

CASology - Earth

I guess that quite a lot of the earth is coloured with various greens!
Sunday Stamps

More Ghosting technique

Here I have used both the same technique and the same layout as on my previous card. This time I inked a piece of card with Black Soot Distress Ink using a sponge dauber. After laying the Tim Holtz Music Manuscript stencil over the card I spritzed lightly with water and  after lifting off the stencil, dried the card with my heat gun. The effect is subtle and I rather like it. The die cut over the ghosting is from Pink Fresh Studios. The sentiment is from Personal Impressions.

The butterflies sadly were an afterthought... I had just about completed the card when I saw a tiny dot of something or other... maybe a little ink... anyway it couldn't stay and wouldn't go, so a couple of butterflies miraculously flew along to help me out of my difficulty!

This is another contribution for the challenge at CAS Stencilling - Ghosting

Inspire Create - Sketch

I have just ordered a whole bunch of stuff for my granddaughter who has just started Baby Ballet... she is two and a half and has been trialling the lessons for a couple of weeks, she seems to be enjoying it so let's hope she wants to continue. I'll post a pic of her in her finery as soon as it arrives!

Ghosting

For this technique, I used several shades of green Distress Inks daubed randomly on plain white card. I laid a Maidenhair Fern stencil over this and spritzed with water from fairly high up, to give a fine mist. I lifted the stencil quickly from the card and allowed to sit for a few moments before drying it off with my heat gun.

The flower cluster die arrived today from Simon Says Stamp and it think it complements both the shape of the die cut and the ghosted image.

I cut the white background piece of card with a  large square die, cutting a partial circle from it and trimming it to a rectangle shape and embossing the cut edge with an embossing stylus against the edge of the Spellbinder dies. The stitched circular die is from SSS.

I chose a small sentiment from Lili of the Valley which I cut after stamping using a stitched pennant die, shortening it considerably to fit the length of the two words.

CAS Stencil - Ghosting

I used the sketch from Inspire Create

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!