Tutorial - Faux Bleaching (or Watercolor Stamping) with Distress Oxide Inks

My craft area is a disaster -- and that is a good thing. I have been having so much fun playing with a technique I think I discovered (I certainly haven't seen anyone else posting it) for my new Distress Oxide inks.  I am not one to jump on the bandwagon, but this is SO. MUCH. FUN. I just have to share it.

Watercolor stamping is an awesome technique and I am using the same steps with the Distress Oxides to get a Faux Bleached look, or a Ghost-Stamping look -- you decide.

For this I used my ink, a mini mister, a chunky or silhouette style stamp and some darker colored cardstock.  Lots of combos to play with there.  (Please click on the photos to enlarge them for detail.)

Ink up the stamp with Distress Oxide ink.

Using a spray bottle that applies a mist, spray with water 3-4 times, until the stamp looks like this.  This step is variable, you can decide to add more or less to get a more of less flowing image.

Stamp onto your cardstock.

This is the result right after you stamp.  You will be able to see the color of the dye part of the ink prominently -- but that will not last as it dries.

Here is the result when it is almost dry.  Most of that dark halo of dye ink will eventually completely disappear, depending on how much water you added.

Every time I did this, I said, "ooOOOoo!"  Lol.

Now, I found this worked with nearly every color of the inks BUT I did have trouble with the blues.  I also found that you get a better result on darker cardstocks, so it if doesn't look right, see if you can go darker with your cardstock color.  

Tim Holtz did show in a CHA Demo video that you can stamp your image and then spray the whole cardstock with water to get other effects, however, this Faux Bleaching look with Distress Oxides really is much much cleaner looking AND the water you stamped with moves in a controlled manner  after you stamp to give that lovely watercolory image that I find really awesome.

Here are two projects I made with the technique.

This was Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide Ink on Gina K Passionate Pink cardstock.

And this is one of the FUN surprises - Fossilized Amber on Gina K Wild Dandelion Cardstock.  The yellow ink turned a lovely pink!  I have no idea how, but that is so cool!

Supplies:  Distress Oxide Inks by Ranger/Tim Holtz, Just for Fun Rubber Stamps Flora and Fauna sheet, Just a Note sentiment, Crate Paper DIY Shop patterned paper, KI Doilies patterned paper, Versafine Smokey Grey ink (for sentiment), Spellbinders Oval and Scalloped Oval dies, Avery Elle Wonky Rectangles Dies, Vellum and Embellishments from my stash.

I have a few other cards I have already made with this technique I will probably share tomorrow, along with my experiments for this technique on all colors of cardstock.

Thank you SO MUCH for stopping by! I hope you will leave a comment so I know you were here.

I would love to enter these cards into the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - Florals

SimonSaysStamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes