A Year Of Card Techniques–Bleached Cards

Welcome to A Year of Card Techniques Blog Hop where each month we feature a different card technique.  We’ve assembled a team of card makers who range from new to advanced, so you’ll see a great variety of cards and ideas.

From laundry, to disinfectant, to fashion, bleach is a staple in many households; but did you know you can use bleach in your card making and paper crafting? Yup, from stamping, to painting, and several techniques in between, we’re going to share our experiments with you. And if you would like to check out our past technique hops, you can do that here:

• January-Shaving Cream Marbleizing

• February-So Sketchy

• March-no hop this month

• April-Stamp Set Showdown

• May-World of Watercolor

• June-Basic Card Folds

Our amazing sponsor this month is Debbie Bonczek of Close to My Heart.

Please take a moment to check out the great products Close to My Heart has to offer. To visit Debbie's blog, click here.

And the awesome prize this month is:

We really appreciate feedback, so please leave a comment on each of the blogs in the hop today. While you are encouraged to comment at any time, only comments received by Friday, July 21, 2017 at 8:00pm (EST) will be eligible to win. The winner will be announced on Sunday, July 23, 2017 on this blog, so be sure to check here on Sunday the 23rd to see if you are the lucky winner.

Since I’m the first stop on this hop, let’s get started!  But don’t forget to continue on with the hop once you are done here so that you don't miss out on increasing your chance of winning by commenting on  each blog.

Good golly, I’m not going to lie to you, I found this technique one of the hardest I’ve ever tried.   It took me a while to find my groove, but once I did, I think I managed to pull off some half decent cards.

Making sure I was in a well ventilated area, I poured some bleach into a small cup, selected a paintbrush, and went to work. 

 

I kept the first card fairly simple.  I stamped the daisies onto my dark blue cardstock with VersaMark ink.  Then I added some black embossing powder and heat set it.  I did this to try and keep the bleach confined to each area.  The embossing powder on the top left flower kind of clumped a little because I forgot to rub my Embossing Magic pillow over the cardstock before stamping.

I painted each petal with the bleach and watched the color start to fade.  I had to be careful not to go crazy with the amount of bleach I used because it would saturate the paper too much causing it to tear.   I found it intriguing to watch how the bleach reacted with different colors of paper. 

Once I had finished up with the bleach, and after it had dried thoroughly, I added some color with a Zig Clean Clear Color Brush and some water.  I finished it off by adding some twine and a sentiment.

My 2nd card is a little ‘ode to Christmas in July.   I have had the Stampin’ Up set “Snow Much Fun” for years and I’ve never used so I decided this was as good a time as any.  I stamped the snowman onto some red cardstock with some VersaMark ink and embossed it with black embossing powder.  I painted the snowman’s body, face, and snowball with the bleach and was happy to see it turning white (or at least some shade of white).  I colored the hat, scarf, nose, and boots with Copics.  I printed off some patterned blue digital paper to layer on top of the card base as well as a colorful snowflake digital paper which I adhered behind the image.  I added some snowflake brads and a sentiment to finish it off. 

My last card is my favorite!  I decided to use the bleach in a different way this time and I love the way it turned out.   I’m going to share more details on this card in a separate post so if you want to find out how I achieved this look, please visit me here again on Sunday.

That’s it for me.  I hope you enjoyed the cards I shared today.  Now you’re off to visit with Claudia, but don’t forget to comment first for a chance to win our awesome prize!  Hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by. See you next month with another technique!

Here’s the full line-up in case you get lost: 

• Sharon
• Claudia
• Kim
• Wilma
• Card A Day Challenge Team
• Sandy
• Jodie
• Debbie
• Ronda