Ink Lifting Technique with Distress Oxide Inks and Studio Katia Stamps

Hi everyone and happy Monday!!  Today I thought I'd show you a technique!!!  Exciting, right?  Actually, this is far from new but really fun and easy.  It's the "ink lifting" or "ink bleaching" technique.  Let's get started!

I started by heat embossing the large floral image from the You're So Ranunculus set in white onto some watercolour paper.  I stamped only the top of the image on both the bottom and the top of the panel.  The Original Misti and the Misti Creative Corners make this really easy.  All you have to do is rotate your paper 180 degrees and you get the perfect mirror image!

I picked two colours of Distress Oxide Inks, Picked Raspberry and Worn Lipstick.  One of the keys to this technique is to use LOTS OF INK.  Really saturate your paper.  You can take the ink pad directly to the paper if you want but because I wanted a bit of a blended look, I used my blending tools.

Now, all you have to do is apply a liberal amount of water to the inside of the embossed image.  Because these inks are reactive with water, the ink will start to "lift" or "bleach", giving the image a whiter look!  I would let the water sit for a few seconds before dabbing it with a paper towel.

I probably could have added more water for a brighter white but I was happy with this.  I also took my wet paint brush and flicked some clean water across the background, because I totally couldn't resist.

I took the "lovely" word die, also in the You're So Ranunculus bundle and die cut that directly out of the panel.  My original idea was to do some inlay die cutting but after I layered this piece onto black cardstock, I changed my mind!

I used the positive die cut to help with placing the bits and pieces of the letters.  To finish off, I stamped the You're So above the Lovely in Versafine Black Onyx ink.  Now, I'm going to show you what happened next....

Yup!  I adhered that beautiful panel onto the wrong side of the card base, with my ATG adhesive, no less!  I just sat there, so annoyed with myself.  I could have just trimmed around the card base but this is quite a heavy layer already, so I didn't want to have THREE pieces of cardstock on top of a cardbase.  So, I took my bone folder and carefully lifted the panel off and adhered it the RIGHT WAY!!

To add a bit of sparkle, I used sequins from the Crystal Clear Sequin Fusion and a little Shimmer Pen over the flowers.

Thanks for joining me today!!  Have a great week and see you soon!!

Laurie