July Technique Blog Hop

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 prizes this month are:

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 A Piece of (my) Heart’s blog, so be sure to check her blog on Sunday the 23rd to see if you are the lucky winner.

You should  have arrived here from Kim's blog, Katydid Cards. If you're visiting  here first, you might want to start at the beginning so you don't miss out on increasing your chance of winning by commenting on  each blog.

Now, on to the cards!

I REALLY enjoyed this technique - I just couldn't seem to stop once I started bleaching little scraps of card stock! By the time I ran out of different colors to try, my craft cave smelled like a laundry room, and the bleach actually seemed to be losing potency. Later I read that you have to be sure and use fresh bleach, and I'm thinking there's something to that. Here are the cards I made with my experiments. I had to make something with every single sample, including one that didn't really work out too well - I tried making a watercolor background, then stamping on it and bleaching color out, but the watercolor didn't seem to bleach as well as card stock. I also tried it on a bit of black card stock, but that didn't lighten either....might have done OK on a different brand, but I didn't try. I have no idea which company each scrap is from, but either Stampin' Up or Fun Stampers Journey. Most of them bleached just fine, and it was interesting seeing what color was going to emerge!

To start, I just smeared some bleach around with a cotton ball.
Then, when it dried, I stamped with one of my newest Fun Stampers Journey sets, Flower Swirls.

This gorgeous butterfly stamp is from FSJ's Bold Wings set.
I stamped the image with clear embossing ink on Cocoa Powder
card stock, heat embossed in black, then applied bleach with a
small brush. I almost added a hint of other color to the bleached
areas, but then decided to leave it alone. I'm glad I did.

These butterflies are from a retired FSJ bundle. I created a "stamp pad" of
folded paper towels soaked with bleach, and stamped the small
butterfly randomly on a leftover scrap of textured card stock, then
added die cut shapes to compliment the color that emerged.

Here's another using the bleach pad. This uses Dandelion Wishes
(except for the random dragonfly stamp that was floating around
my craft cave), and Must Have Sentiments. 

This card started out by flicking and splattering bleach onto a piece of
Cranberry Bliss card stock. The flowers are stamped on Banana Cream
with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then colored with Copics.
Memento is my go-to ink when using Copics.

I stamped Peacock Pride with clear embossing ink, then heat
embossed with black. That gave me all those little outlined
areas that were just perfect for painting with bleach and a
 little tiny brush. (The bleach kind of ate the brush...)

Here's another one, heat embossed in black, then bleach added
with a Q-tip (because my brush had been eaten...). I fussy cut
the flowers and mounted them on a piece of scrapbook paper
that's been in my stash for a REALLY long time!

Well, that's all for me this month. Now you’re off to visit with the Card A Day Challenge Team. Hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by. (If you'd like to see a whole lot more ideas and samples using this technique, there are plenty on SplitcoastStampers.com. If you've never visited there, I highly recommend it.) 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