Stamping with Bleach

Hello Everyone! Shellie here.

I love the Woodgrain background stamp in the Occasions Catalog and knew instantly what I wanted to try with it once I got it in my hands.

I've always like the way whitewashed wood looks and when I decided to do a set of cards i knew I wanted the focus to be the wood texture. I had 2 other cards but they became casualties in a mishap my husband had in my studio. These ones were, thankfully, out of the way :)

 

Shellie Grindy - Craft Smashup

To get this pretty white-washed look I used the bleach technique. I used a bleach pen rather than liquid bleach basically because it's what I had. I used a paintbrush to brush the bleach gel onto the Woodgrain background stamp. I figured using the bottle applicator would allow the bleach to get too gloppy. I still had to be careful with the paintbrush though. The ribbon for each card was dyed with either re-inker or directly on the inkpads. Once the ink was fully imbedded in the ribbon I used an old towel to absorb the excess ink so that the ribbon wouldn't be too dark. Turned out just right if you ask me :)

 

To make sure I got the wood-grain pattern in about the same spot on each card I used registration marks on the back of the whisper white matting. After i brushed the bleach onto the background stamp I applied the card stock to the stamp and burnished it lightly. 

After burnishing carefully pull the card stock up and allow to rest pattern side up for at least 15 minutes. NOTE: because I used the bleach gel I lightly tamped the bleached card stock and then let it rest for a period of time. Once it was totally dry I brushed any little bits of bleach off that were still there. 

The butterflies were stamped with Whisper White craft ink and then embossed with the white embossing powder. I then applied bleach to the colored portion of the butterfly.

Once all the bleaching was done I finished assembling the cards. I used different sentiments on each one because (once I remake the other 2 cards) I'm going to give them as a gift to my mother-in-law for Mother's Day and we can all use a variety of different cards at any given time.

You can find one way to stamp with bleach

 HERE

Here are the list of supplies i used

Card stock: Melon Mambo, Marina Mist, Whisper White

Ink: Marina Mist, Melon Mambo, Whisper White Craft

Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Woodgrain background,  Thoughts and Prayers, Another Thank You (photopolymer)

White Stampin Emboss powder

White Taffeta ribbon

Basic Rhinestones

Modern Label Punch

Hope this has inspired you to try the bleaching technique. It's a fun and simple way to stamp.

Have a wonderful weekend and don't forget to come back on Monday to check out the color challenge :) 

Happy Stamping!

Shellie