Expressiomistic Trees Three

Today's technique lovers challenge on SCS was a fun one with a really neat effect. It's called "expressiomistic". To do it, you ink your stamp, then mist it a lot with water. Then you stamp the image on your paper, leaving the stamp in place for a few seconds so the ink sort of spreads out. Then, when the ink's dry, you reink the stamp in a dark ink and stamp over the blurry image. I've stamped with misted stamps before, but I don't think I've ever stamped back over the images before.

I used the retired Trees Three stamp set for this technique. I stamped the trees image a few times across the Very Vanilla panel, then went back and added leaves in fall shades. I stamped over the misted images with the same colors as I originally stamped them in. It probably would have had a better effect if I'd had darker shades to use . . . I used a sponge to add a kind of sunset sky and some grass to the scene.

I assembled the rest of the card using fall-like colors and set the image panel on the cardfront on a slant. I couldn't decide on a sentiment to use, so I just left that part out.

I hope that all of Inking Aloud's readers who will be celebrating Christmas have a wonderful Christmas eve and are able to enjoy their time with friends and family!

Materials Used: Trees Three and Sanded stamp sets, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, More Mustard, and Garden Green inks, Close to Cocoa, Barely Banana, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie, and Very Vanilla cardstock, wide Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, sponges (Stampin' Up!); copper brads (Making Memories)