Ah, yes, stretching and pressure. Those are key, and your light blood dots sound like you're pressing a little too hard. Stretch as tight as you can before your grip slips (I sometimes use a washcloth between fingers and skin to increase traction) and don't apply any more blade pressure than it takes to wipe away the lather. If your blade is shaving sharp, the hair will follow the lather off your face as a side effect.

Nobody's mentioned stropping; it's common for beginners to do a little damage to their razor by stropping too hard and bending the edge. As with shaving, stropping should be done with very little pressure. The spine should ride the strop with the edge following. Imagine a canoe with an outrigger--the spine is the canoe and the edge is the outrigger.

Dig into our Wiki and also read Lynn's introduction to straight shaving. Good luck with it and best wishes to you.