Technique Tuesday - Bleached Effects

Yes, you read the title correctly.  Today we are going to use bleach on our cards and projects.  I use regular household bleach, although I have heard of people using the bleach cleaners available for cleaning bathrooms, etc., such as Clorox cleaner with bleach.

What you'll need:  Bleach, Cut n' Dry foam pad or dense sponge, small bowl or plate, rubber stamps, makeup wedges

Stamping with Bleach

• Create a bleach "stamp pad" by cutting a piece of Cut n' Dry foam pad about 3" x 4".  Pour some bleach into a small bowl, and place the foam side of the pad into the bleach, allowing it to soak up the bleach.  Squeeze out excess so that the sponge is wet, but not dripping.  Place it foam side up in dish or bowl.
• "Ink" up your stamp using the above prepared bleach pad.  Ink it as you would ink a stamp in an ink pad.
• Stamp onto your card or project, making sure to hold the stamp down a few seconds to give the bleach time to work into the cardstock.
• Not all card stock takes bleach the same, and some card stocks will not bleach out.  Always test a scrap piece of your project to see how the bleach reacts with the card stock.  The color that the paper bleaches out may not be what you would expect.
• Clean your stamp immediately so that it will not dry out from the bleach.  The bleach will not harm your stamp, as long as you clean it with soap and water after using the bleach on it.

Edging with Bleach

• Pour some bleach into a small watercolor cup.
• Dip a makeup wedge into the bleach so that it gets some bleach on it.
• Run the bleached makeup wedge along a torn or straight cut edge of card stock.  The color will fade out from the areas the sponge touches.

Spattering and Painting with Bleach

• Pour some bleach into a small watercolor cup.
• Dip a watercolor brush into the bleach.
• "Paint" stamped image with the bleach brush.  Repeat if necessary until the color you desire is achieved.  The painted areas will remove color from the card stock.
• To spatter, dip the paintbrush into the bleach, then gently tap the brush over your card or project. The areas that get spattered will lighten and fade.

In this card, I embossed the images in black.  I bleached them as follows:  The top flower I painted the entire flower with the brush with bleach on it.  The center flower I colored with blue and green markers, the I bleached the outside of the flower, just outside the outline of the image, to create a white shadow effet.  The bottome flower I colored with markers the painted the outside around the flower with bleach, creating a whiteish background.

 

I created the background on the pink layer of this card by inking my stamp with bleach and stamping it repeatedly, as described in the directions above.

This card did not scan well, but the image is a flower which was stamped with bleach.  I also stamped the head of the flower with bleach on the letter G.

There you have it, three cards using bleach.  I hope you enjoyed this Technique Tuesday, and will come back for more.  Give bleach a try, it's fun, and it is always a surprise when you see the results!  Have fun with it.

Blessings,

   lynda