Ghost Stamping Tutorial

What is Ghost stamping? When you think of a ghost, you think of something transparent or a faint white object. The basic concept of the Ghost stamping technique is to create a see-through effect using white ink. To create this effect you simply stamp an image with white ink first and repeat-stamp with a dye or chalk ink on the top, slightly offsetting the designs. This technique gives an illusion of a lighter shadow behind the colour and is very effective on kraft cardstock.

Silhouette stamps are ideal for Ghost stamping as you need a solid image to achieve this effect and clear stamps are the easiest to use as you can see where to place the image when stamping the colour over the white. I have used Frost White ColorBox pigment ink as this appears quite bright on kraft cardstock. Make sure you have a really good coverage of white ink on the stamp and press firmly when stamping. It is very important to make sure the white pigment ink is dry before adding the coloured ink. If the pigment ink isn’t dry the dye or chalk ink will not soak into the kraft cardstock and you won’t get the full ghosting effect. I would advise drying the white ink with a heat tool to be sure. Once the white ink is dry, stamp the same design over the first with coloured ink – ensuring you offset the stamp slightly to create the shadow. By offsetting the coloured stamping you will create a dark line on some edges and a white line on others which looks like a ghost image. Creating a shadow also adds an illusion of dimension to the design. You’ll notice that on some of the flowers I have added details to the centres with either a black or white pen to add detail.

I recommend matting and layering the stamped panels onto co-ordinating coloured cardstock to create a coherent design, this also prevents the cards looking too brown with large areas of kraft cardstock. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about Ghost stamping, this technique is easy-to-do with super-effective results. So what are you waiting for? Get stuck in!