Variations of Bleached Tulips

The Group of Cardmakers are trying the technique of bleaching on cards.  I don't mind using actual bleach but if you don't like using bleach, you can try using water (though I found it much less effective).  Since spring is just around the corner, I decided to use three different tulip stamps.

The card I am most happy with is this one:

I created a smooshed background with various red, orange, and yellow Distress inks on watercolour paper.  I used a bit too much water and it all blended into this dark peach colour.  I put it in my MISTI and stamped the tulip in Versafine black and heat embossed with clear powder.  I then used bleach and a waterbrush to lift the background colour from the tulip.  I also splattered a bit of bleach on the panel.  I chose to leave the tulip white and not add any colour to it. Trimmed it with a stitched rectangle die and added a sentiment.

Next up:

Another smooshed background - this one on white cs with yellow and orange Distress inks.  I then stamped with Distress Walnut Stain and heat embossed with clear powder.  I used bleach and a waterbrush to lift the background colour from all of the flower heads.  The embossing powder had not stuck to all of the image so I lost a bit of my stamping when I did the bleaching.  So I put it back in the MISTI (luckily I hadn't taken the stamp out) but the restamping ended up slightly off set so there's a bit of an out of focus look to the bottom of the image.

This time I added some colour - I used a bit of Distress Candied Apple to add colour to the bottoms of each flower head.  It came out more pink than red, likely because of the bleach residue on the cs.  

I trimmed the panel, popped it up on fun foam on a text embossed background, and added a sentiment.

The third one uses a collage style stamp:

I used various red and orange Distress inks on white cs for this smooshed background.  Again too much water and I ended up with a mostly pink background.  Like the second card, I stamped with Distress Walnut Stain and heat embossed in clear, and again, not all of it ended up embossed.  So I found when I bleached the flower heads, some of the brown lines bleached out and in other spots I ended up with pink bits mixed in with the brown embossed details of the flower heads.  I liked the effect so didn't add any additional colour in the petals, but did use a brown coloured pencil to add back some of the outlines of the petals.

I trimmed the panel, added it to the card base, stamped a sentiment that I cut into two sections and angled on the card.

Final impressions:

• I prefer using watercolour paper to regular cardstock as I found I got better bleaching.
• Heat embossing creates a dam to help you keep the bleach where you want it.  
• If you stamp with a water-based ink and don't manage to heat emboss it thoroughly, the bleach will lift it.  Therefore I will avoid Distress inks for my stamping as they are not as effective for heat embossing.  The pigment ink I used for the first card was much better. 

Brushos (or other powders that work with water) are also effective.  Here's a card I made several years ago using Brushos for the background.  See this post for details.

 

Head over to the Group of Cardmakers blog to see how the rest of the group used bleach.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - AALL & Create tulip, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, various red, orange, and yellow Distress inks
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, bleach, Lil Inker's stitched rectangle die, Spellbinders oval die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Stamplorations Framed Tulips, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Distress Walnut Stain, various yellow and orange Distress inks, Distress Candied Apple
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - bleach, clear embossing powder, text embossing folder, fun foam

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Darkroom Door tulip collage, Tim Holtz sentiment
Ink - Distress Walnut Stain, various red and orange Distress inks
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - bleach, clear embossing powder, brown coloured pencil