Index
(Click on images to see them at a larger size)

Antiqueing Cards
Bleach Stamping
Outdoors Backgrounds
Backgrounds to Dye For
Paper Beads
Blender Pen Refill Fluid
Card Holder
Cray-Pas Background
Découpage (Napkins)
Faux Polished Stone
Faux Shrink Plastic
Faux Wax Seals
Foil
Glitter
Heated Pearls
Hot Glue Art
Hot Glue Art II
Hot Glue Art III

Bleach Stamping

The bleaching techniques are very easy provided you follow just a few basic "rules".

1. Bleach is very strong smelling. If you have chemical sensitivities, be sure to ventilate your work area very well. This is a great spring project when you simply have to have the doors and windows open for that fresh spring air...
2. WASH stamps, brushes, stencils, etc. immediately to avoid any damage.
3. Have fun and experiment with different types of paper and stamps. This is NOT a technique where you can exactly duplicate a design or image. There will be variations from image to image and this is part of the charm of the technique.

There are three techniques that I use with bleach.

Technique No. 1

Supplies needed: card stock; rubber stamp; small pan, large enough to hold your stamp, with paper towels in it; bleach (Clorox regular is just fine).

Instructions: Put a padding of paper towels in the small pan. Pour in enough bleach to wet the paper towels. Tap your stamp onto the bleached soaked paper towels just like you would onto an ink pad. Carefully put your stamp onto the card stock. Be careful to put the whole stamp down at the same time. Don't rock the stamp. Remember that everywhere the bleach goes, you'll get a light spot.... Remove stamp immediately and wash off the bleach. Your image is now ready to work with.

In the sample, I used a pearl-ex palette to paint in the butterfly...

Technique No. 2

In this technique, you will "paint" your image with bleach....

Supplies needed: small bowl with bleach; rubber stamp, paint brush or water brush, versamark ink, clear embossing powder.

Instructions: First stamp your image using versamark and emboss using clear embossing powder. Then decide which areas of the image you want to bleach. In sample #2, I used the same image that I used in the first technique. I "painted", using a small brush, by dipping the brush in the bleach and using the bleach as if it were paint. When I was satisfied, I washed off the brush and then painted the rest of the image using a pearl-ex metallic palette. Once the bleach is dry, you can paint over it and the bleached area will not show. This is good to do if you get a bleach blotch you don't want....

Technique No. 3

For this technique, we will use a stencil (brass or plastic) and create our image using sprayed bleach.

Supplies needed: a small spray bottle with a fine mist, bleach, stencil, card stock...

Instructions: Place your stencil on the card stock leaving a fairly wide space between the stencil and the edge of the card stock. This area will receive some bleach spray and makes a great background. Mist the bleach over the stencil and around the outside of the stencil. Be careful not to get your fingers in the way of the spray since that will leave an unbleached area. Remember that you want to mist the area, not saturate it. Wait a few moments till you see the spray pattern develop on the card stock. Carefully lift off the stencil and wipe it clean of the bleach. Voilà!!!!

Jody M.
To see my latest creations, visit my picture trail at http://www.picturetrail.com/jodymorrcats

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Vinegar and Sugar Background

Mix one part vinegar with two parts icing sugar. Paint onto cardstock and then drop marvy metallics on it. They sort of explode and look like moon craters.

These are just gorgeous for backgrounds or alternatively you can frame them up by themselves. Coated paper runs further, mat ends up with more texture and black looks best. Only one downside to this background - it does take a long time to dry (hot weather 1 1/2 days - cold weather can take longer) don't try to speed up drying
with your heatgun or you will crave toffee and start eating the paper! However it is well worth the wait, as the affects look great. I will load 2 pictures in the photo's section, of an ATC and a card I made using this background (not oriental sorry), but you can get a good idea of what the end result looks like. It is also a good idea to put a coat of fixative over the top once dry. This background also has a lumpy texture to it, which isn't picked up on a scan.

For those with children, this is something they can do with you. My 5 yr old daughter makes the best backgrounds using this technique, as she is not particular (like me!) and just dots and dashes the Marvy around willy nilly, which looks great.

Just a little more clarification on this background.

When I paint on the mixture, I paint it on fairly thickly. When I say I blob (or dash - whatever works for you) on the Marvy Metallics and they should explode - by this I mean they shouldn't stay in the blob form and instead should spread a little into the mixture. To me that kind of looks like exploding, but in a small way, whereas when
I looked at the Vinegar Marbling PDF yesterday using the water soluble inks, well that definetely looks like it has exploded!! It's huge!! in comparison to mine. So I hope I haven't confused anyone more by this explanation.

Also once the mixture dries, the icing sugar crystalises and gives it that shiny and lumpy texture that I get.

I have started a folder on my webshots album and I have just called it Icing Sugar Background, so if you want to have a look at 2 examples of just the background (nothing mounted on them at all), with a little explanation with them, you can see them here - http://community.webshots.com/user/natalieb0603

Natalie B.

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StazOn Cleaner Technique
(By Annemiek v. d. G.)

To change glossy cardstock.

Supplies:
glossy cardstock (a dark colour works best)
StazOn stamp cleaner (I used StazOn, don't know if another works)
soft tissues (as in the blowing your nose kind)
heatgun

For the card:
stamp you like
I have used embossingpowder, but not really necessary
cateye DTP technique

Instructions:
Make your tissue wet with a little bit of StazOn Cleaner
Dab the cs with the tissue; you have to work a little fast, until the cover is totally done. Keep dabbing with the tissue, untill you have the pattern you like. Not too much on one place. After you have the pattern you like, you'll dry it with the heatgun.
The more you dab, the more you take away the colour.

Another way is rubbing with the tissue. In that case you will take more colour at once from the cs. After taking away the glossy colour; you can work on it with other colour from ex. colourbox.
In these two examples I have changed the directions:

1: take away glossy
2: stamp the birds
3: a little touch with cateyes colourbox

1: stamp the birds
2: take away glossy
3: a little touch with cateyes colourbox