Last night was Technique class and our focus this week was bleaching.  Now I’d always kept bleach out of our household because things always seemed to end up with the colour taken out of them and white patches all over the place (and that was before I’d even begun cleaning).  But that is exactly the desired result in this technique.

This card was inspired by this one from Marelle , I was suckered in again by those cute little berries from the ‘Oh So Lovely” hostess set.  However instead of using the white watercolour crayon to create the blank palette on which to colour as Marelle did, I decided I to bleach the colour from the cardstock and then add it back in using a Blender pen and Inkpads.

The berries were stamped repeatedly on Sage Shadow cardstock using both Versamark and the new Basic Grey ink pad followed by clear embossing powder.  Embossing the image helps to stop your bleach from bleeding and yes, leaving white patches where they’re not supposed to be.

I applied the bleach using my Aquapainter.  If you are going to do this I suggest you keep a designated brush just for this purpose and don’t forget to label it.  I use Domestos as I like the thick consistency which helps me keep the bleach where it’s supposed to be however I  should think any household bleach would be suitable.

Once the colour has faded, a quick blast with a heat gun will help this process and this card is dry I reapplied colours of my choice with a blender pen and classic ink pads.  The image was layered on Not Quite Navy cardstock and then onto a base card of Soft Sky, stamped first with the Baroque wheel in Soft Sky.  The sentiment is from ‘Life Definitions” and is stamped in ‘Not Quite Navy’ ink.