Wednesday 1 February 2017

Moon Baby - Bleaching Technique

I love the bleaching technique - it's one of my go-to techniques when I feel like doing something a little different with a stamp set.

There seems to be a pending population explosion in my circle of family and friends at the moment - so lots of baby cards will be needed in the not so distant future and I've never been good at baby cards.  However, at least this time, I won't have left it until beyond the last minute to make them!
www.thecraftythinker.com.au, Moon Baby, Bleaching Technique, #thecraftythinker, Baby card, Stampin Up Australia Demonstrator, Stephanie Fischer, Sydney NSW

Yellow seems like a safe bet since I don't know the sex of most of the babies. 

I cut my panels to size before I stamped the images with Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

I then painted bleach onto the images and let it dry (I did help a little by using a heat tool at the back of the cardstock).  

When the bleach was dry, I coloured the image of the baby with Daffodil Yellow, Pink Pirouette and Tip Top Taupe Stampin' Write Markers.  I didn't colour the stars but I did give them a liberal covering of clear Wink of Stella.


Tips:
  • This technique works best with medium to dark shades of cardstock
  • Different looks can be achieved by using coloured embossing powder
  • Test the cardstock for its reaction to the bleach to avoid disappointment (see image below)
  • Generally, the more bleach you apply to an area - the lighter it will become.  Therefore, it is possible to achieve varying shades with the bleach by using a dryer or wetter brush in certain areas


www.thecraftythinker.com.au, Moon Baby, Bleaching Technique, #thecraftythinker, Baby card, Stampin Up Australia Demonstrator, Stephanie Fischer, Sydney NSW
This image illustrates how different batches of cardstock can react differently to bleach

The image above perfectly illustrates why I do a bleach test on the cardstock first.  These were offcuts of cardstock.  One of them had been sitting in my collection for a long time (probably at least a couple of years) and the other was from a freshly opened pack.  Both pieces are Night of Navy and look identical.  However, probably because they would be from different dye lots, you can see that they have reacted very differently to the bleach.

www.thecraftythinker.com.au, Moon Baby, Bleaching Technique, #thecraftythinker, Baby card, Stampin Up Australia Demonstrator, Stephanie Fischer, Sydney NSW
The inside of the card is quite plain.
When I get the bleach out, I tend to do a batch of several images at the same time - so there'll be some more examples of bleaching and colouring on my blog in the near future.

Thank you for your visit
'Til next time
Stephanie 

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4 comments:

  1. I found your Beautiful You card on Pinterest and then I followed your link over to here. This post was easily explained and now I feel a little more confident in playing around with bleach! Thank you for explaining it so well in detail!

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    1. Hi, Renee! I'm so glad you've found this helpful and I hope you have fun with your bleach! Just be sure to wear old clothes!

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  2. I too followed your link here from your Beautiful You card on Pinterest. Never heard of bleaching. So simple and creates a desired result that would be hard to produce any other way. Thanks for the idea and instructions. Can't wait to test out and try!

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    1. Hi, Beverly! Thank you for your comment - it's so lovely to hear from you and I'm glad you like the bleaching idea. It's been one of my favourite techniques for a long time now because it's fun and easy! Have fun with it!

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