Inspire Me

Bleaching it with Unity

Today I want to share a technique that I taught this week in the store. It's a technique that has been around for a long while but certainly deserves revisiting.

It's Stamping with Bleach. The fun part is that you never quite know what color lies under the top dye on your cardstock.

As for supplies:

• Household liquid bleach (cheapest you can buy)

• Napkins or paper towels and a small plate or tray to lay them in

• Solid core cardstock (or other bleach-able paper)

• Stamps of your choice

Here is how you choose your cardstock to stamp on. Be sure to choose cardstock that is a solid color running all the way through it. To check this tear a small piece where you won't need it and if the core (center) of the cardstock is the same color as the top and bottom then it has a solid core. If when you tear it it's white that's not solid and typically won't bleach. I say typically cause I'm sure that somewhere out there is a white core cardstock that will bleach, I just haven't found it yet and I have had many more successful results with solid core cardstocks.

Okay, the how to:

1. Lay  3 to 4 layers of paper towels or napkins on a plate and pour bleach over them. You want just enough bleach that the paper towels absorb all of it. If you have extra liquid in the bottom of your plate then add another paper towel.
2. Lightly tap your stamp onto the bleach & paper towels. If you press into the paper towels you will pick up to much bleach and it will be very runny. You won't like the results. Your stamp should appear wet but not dripping.
3. Stamp onto cardstock. Stand back and watch the excitement happen. Not happening fast enough for you? Then use your heat gun to speed things along.
4. Finish designing your card or scrapbook page as desired.

Here are some samples of the items I stamped and how I finished them:

 This card was made using:

Unity Stamp Co, butterfly beauty set, paper from Basic Grey's Ambrosia collection, stickles, Kaiser Rhinestones.

Here's the really cool part about this card, the butterfly is stamped on this black paper that comes wrapped around large rolls of film from where a friend of mine works. They just toss it and so she brought me some and said find something to do with this. Well I just love how when you stamp on bleach with it, it bleaches to a sort of pale gold. After stamping I matted it on Gold metallic paper from CutCardstock, added some orange stickles. Now the other really cool part the lace/ribbon on the bottom of the card. Just a note the actual black card is two toned from CutCardstock. Black on the outside and white on the inside. It doesn't bleach but I love how it's white on the inside so you can stamp another sentiment or write your message.

2nd tutorial:

1 roll of paper self adhesive ribbon. Since this ribbon is paper I inked the ribbon with Bisque chalk ink (any ink will do, if it's the color you want) I then cut a piece of sticker paper the same size as the ribbon. Take the back off the sticker paper and take the backing off the ribbon, stick the two together. Now everywhere that there is an opening in the ribbon it's sticky, so I dumped Licorice Glitter from Pk Glitz. Rubbed with my finger and blinged it up! Although you can't see the shimmer in the photo take my word for it, it just shines! I don't know where the ribbon is from, the packaging had no information on it. Basically it came 12 rolls to a container - all different designs.

Here's the next bleached item:

This cardstock is from The Paper Company - True Red. This also bleached to an awesome gold tone when stamped. I used the Thanks to you set from Unity Stamp Co. What an awesome set and so versatile!

 I used the 2nd ring from the left for this card. Tapped it into the bleach and then used my scalloped Nestabilities to cut it out along with a larger scalloped mat. The mat on the base of the card is randomly stamped with a background stamp, also tapped in bleach. I added dots of red stickles to the larger scallop, matted on the gold from CutCardstock and a piece of ribbon on the bottom. I just think this is so cool and it makes a really awesome looking card!

I also have a few more samples to show you that aren't quite completely finished. But I want to share them so you continue to see what I mean about solid core cardstock when bleached.

Again using Unity's Butterfly set and that black paper:

This also has the paper ribbon on the bottom, colored with a light purple ink and covered with gold glitter from PK. Pearls are from Kaiser.

This is another butterfly from that same set - there are 5 butterflies in this set - and they are all gorgeous! This was stamped on Grape Slush Cardstock from Bazzill:

Isn't that amazing how this bleached to an Opal? And the True red bleaches to a yellow Gold and the Black to a gold also? I love stamping my image and then just watching it slowly turn to a new color. I think the fact that I had awesome stamps really made this tutorial/class perfect!

So until tomorrow, when I hope to share another new 3-D image with all of you.

In the mean time stay healthy, happy and Bling on!

Tiny Trinity Thrill

Okay, so I know it's a really corny title but I was looking for the Triple T thing. See there I go again Triple T Thing (3 "T's), bad, huh?! I suggest you grab your drink of choice and sit back this post may be long. I have a few cards to share and a great technique.

Last week I posted the cutest spring card using the Tiny Trinity set from Unity Stamp Co.

   

Well, I am just so in love with this set and I haven't stopped playing yet. In this card I used a great technique that was shared by Debbie that creates a diagonal background, using your Scor-Pal. (That has to be one of my most favorite new toys!) So playing off of that technique I made this card:

I used SU Paper in Sahara Sand & Very Vanilla. Kaiser self-adhesive pearls which I changed the color to a darker green with my Copic markers. The tree and Sentiment are stamped in Espresso Adirondack dye ink and the inside of the tree is colored with a green Twinklette marker. Who knows where that ribbon came from - oops. But isn't this sweet? Such a great technique that Deb shares and it makes such a huge difference on your cards. So if you don't have a Scor-pal then run to your nearest LSS or e-mail me and get one today!

My next card is also with the Tiny Trinity set but here's where I would like to share another technique with you. It's been called shattered glass or impress embossing or many other things. For today's purposes I'm just sharing a technique and you get to call it whatever you would like. First, here is the card:

 To start:

1. Using a piece of matte cardstock  and any colors of dye based inks. Rub, dab or smoosh the ink color(s) onto the cardstock. This is also referred to as the direct to paper (DTP) technique. Once you have your paper colored the way you like proceed to step 2. (I used ink spots to do my background) - Also note that you could stop right here and just use this as great background paper for any of your projects.
2. Stamp your image in any color Staz-On
3. Color your image, if desired. I colored the inside of my tree with various Twinklette markers. I love the shimmer and in real life (irl) you can truly see the shimmer come through in the final steps.
4. After you have stamped and colored, cover your entire piece with versamark.
5. Dump either clear embossing powder or clear UTEE (I used UTEE) onto your project and heat set. Repeat this step a second time.
6. Repeat step 5 for a third time, only this time have your stamp inked with any color pigment ink (I used encore metallic in copper). Cover image with UTEE  and heat set. While the UTEE/embossing powder is molten hot stamp your pre-inked image into the hot UTEE on the card on top of the original image. Leave it there. DO NOT TRY TO PICK UP YOUR STAMP UNTIL THE IMAGE HAS COOLED. Once cooled remove your stamp. You now have a totally awesome embossed and impressed image with great depth and dimension.
7. At this point you could stop and just use this image - I went one step further. When my piece was completely cooled (approx. 15 minutes) I bent and cracked the corners and edges. Being careful not to crack the embossed areas of the tree.
8. Using a very dark dye based ink, rub the top of your entire image. With a tissue or paper towel wipe off the excess ink. What happens in this step is that the ink clings to the cracks but not to the smooth embossed surface. This is sometimes also referred to as antiquing.
9. Then simply finish your project as desired.

Now, you could have stopped at any point and time in this process and just finished the project. So no step is mandatory. However I love what multiple layers of UTEE do when a stamp is smosshed into it. NOTE: If you do not have UTEE then you could also use regular clear embossing powder and you would need to do at least 5 layers of heat embossing before placing your stamp into the image.

To finish my card I used cardstock from Cut Cardstock, just love their metallics line. Patterened paper from Basic Grey, ribbon from Offray, self-adhesive pearls from Kaiser.

Okay I still have more to share with you. Using this same technique as described above only instead of cardstock as my base I used a broken CD. So let me share a few things before getting into the technique:

• In case you're wondering, Where do you get free CD's? At your local Wal-Mart or any place that has the free AOL or internet trial memberships. Those CD's are fine.
• To make breaking or cutting them into smaller pieces easier either run them under very hot water or heat for a moment with your heat tool. Be sure to hold the CD with tweezers.
• Then using a pair of junky scissors cut the CD into wedges or pieces of any shape and size.
• Once you have your CD piece you may paint or use Staz-on to color the silver side of the CD. Or you can leave it as is. I used Staz-on since I wanted to be sure that my colors would not lift or run together. Once you have covered your background, heat set.
• Then stamp your CD piece with your image. Of course I used the Tiny Trinity set again - so cool!
• If you wish to color at this point you can use q-tips and Staz-on. Do not rub in the color just dab it where you would like it to go.
• From here repeat steps 4 thru 6 from above.
• At this point you have a really awesome embellishment, piece of jewelry or larger pieces make great window hangings.

This technique is so easy that even my 4 yr old got in on the fun. Of course I did all the heat setting but he did all the inking and stamping on his own. To be honest with you I love his piece!

Here is a finished card with my CD piece on it:

Using my Crop-A-Dile I punched two holes in the top and two in the bottom. It is best to do this while your piece is still warm so that you don't crak and chip your UTEE. Adding a few jump rings allows for me to add ribbon and charms. I could have turned this piece into jewelry if I had wanted to also. Using the  Basic Grey Ambrosia collection papers and Cut Cardstocks metallics for the actual card, I finished with a few Hello's from the Tiny Trinity set.

Now for my 4 yr olds' piece. We haven't done anything with his piece yet since he wants it to hang somewhere. His CD piece was origianlly colored with three Staz-On colors and the taller of the trees was the stamp he chose. After cooling we edged it with a silver leafing pen from Krylon. Without further ado:

 

Doesn't this look like a stained glass window?

Hope you've all enjoyed this fun technique and that you'll give it a try. If you do try it I would love to see the results.

Take care!

Tiny Trinity

Well I'm going to try and get back to doing my posting. My son seems to be doing better and I'd to thank all of you for your wonderfully supporting comments and care that you sent our way. We still have no answers and are still waiting for some test results. Now if I could just catch up on some rest...... But I desperately am missing my craft room and all of you.

So onto a really neat project:  This is a spring card. I found the template for it on the Scor-Pal website. What a great site, there are tons of free projects and templates there for you to use. Plus I just love my Scor-pal, not sure what I did without it before. I had another scoring board but it is/was no where near as versatile as the Scor-pal.

So since you can get the pattern at Scor-Pal let me share the great stamp set I used for this. It's called Tiny Trinity from Unity Stamp Co. I have now purchased several stamps from Unity for the store and for my personal use. To see what I have in stock just click on New Products in the left column. But here is Tiny Trinity:

Isn't this sweet? So many cards come to mind when I look at this set.

For my Spring card I stamped in brown Staz-on and colored with my Twinklettes. (have to have some bling you know) If you enlarge the picture you can see the twinkle. My background is colored with YR31, Light Reddish Yellow Copic marker. But be careful not to touch your Staz-on with the Copic or it will smudge. And of course all my cardstock comes from Cut Cardstock's Metallic collection. The patterened paper is from A2Z.

Along with getting the basic instructions for this card on Scor-Pal I will also give you my version.

Download spring_card_instructions.doc

Since I need lots of directions I added a few measurements and steps.

So that's it for tonight, thanks again for all your support and be sure to check out the new products section. I guarantee you'll love these stamps. Oh, did I tell you that they come already cut out, mounted on cling foam and a re completely ready to use? Just grab an acrylic block and you're good to go!