January Technique Class: Bleaching

This is th last month of the Fall/Winter Technique Series. This month's focus is bleaching, both with rubber stamps and a brush. This example uses a fresh color combonation that I haven't used in a while. It feels nice to use "springy" colors again. The flower focal image is stamped with bleach on Pink Passion cardstock.

Stamps: Pocket Sillouettes
Inks: Pink Passion, White Craft, Bleach
Papers: Pink Pirouette, Pink Passion, White, Kiwi Kiss, Bella Rose DS Paper
Accessories: Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon, Cutter Kit
Notes: I sponged some Pink Passion ink on the edges of the patterned paper. I roughened up the edges of the white cardstock. This design was inspired by a similar card in on of my Stampin' Up! publications.

This card also uses rubber stamps to create a bleached image on colored cardstock. I used various stamps from "Embrace Life" on each of the panels of this card.

Stamps: Embrace Life, Warm Words
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Bleach
Papers: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Blush Blossom, Ridinghood Red, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Paper piercing tool and template, Button Bouquet button, Ivory button
Note: This card was inspired by a sample in the upcoming Sale-A-Bration Catalog. I modified it to showcase the bleaching technique.

For this last card I used a paint brush to apply bleach to various portions of the stamped image. It took lots of playing around to get the look that I wanted. Not all papers fade significantly when bleached so as you can see, in the picture below, there was a lot of trial and error with this one.

Stamps: Serene Spring (hostess set)
Inks: Stazon Black
Papers: So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black
Accessories: Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, Filigree brad, So Saffron brad
Note: though I didn't do it in the finished sample, you can add color to the bleach parts after the bleach dries. I did this in a few of my trials below using colored pencils.