Bleaching Technique with Melissa Bove

Hi everyone! My name is Melissa Bove. I am so honored to have been asked to create something for the Simon Says Stamp and Show Blog! I love anything vintage and shabby! I am currently on the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog DT and love every minute of it! So it is a nice change to come over to here and visit. Today I am going to show you how to add some highlights to your stamped images using Bleach.   

First you will have to stamp your image onto a darker colored cardstock using an Embossing Ink. Distress Ink will work too.

Next you will add your embossing powder onto the image, shaking off any excess. Melt the powder using an Embossing Heat Tool.

Using household bleach and a brush, color in all parts of the image.

When dry, color in image with Copic Markers or any coloring medium that you choose. This technique gives some subtle highlights to your image as well as an aged almost stained glass kind of look.

The materials I used are as follows:

Kaiser Crafts True Romance Clear Stamp Set, Kaiser Crafts True Romance 6.5 x 6.5 Paper Pad, Kaiser Crafts True Romance Die Cut Shapes, Top Boss Tinted Embossing Pad, Ranger Clear Embossing Powder, Copic Markers RV11, RV13, RV52, G02, G14, Black Staz-On, Spellbinders Large Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, Kraft and light pink cardstock, Circle Pop Dots, Bleach, Ranger Heat Tool, Seam Binding

For my second card, I decided to use some black cardstock and white embossing powder. And what I noticed with the bleaching technique on black cardstock, is that it leaves rich golds, browns and greens colors. So since I wanted earth tone colors, there was no need to even color in the image!

I first stamped the entire image with white ink onto the black die cut cardstock.

I then stamped it again with embossing ink onto a second piece of black cardstock, added the white embossing powder and heated until melted.

As I did with the first card, I colored in the image with the bleach using a brush. Once done, I cut the butterfly out and adhered over the original stamped image. Once the bleach was completely dry, I added a layer a Rock Candy Distress Stickles over the image to give a subtle sparkle to it.

Materials used:

Tim Holtz Easter Blueprints (Butterfly), Tim Holtz Idea-ology Collage Mini 8x8 Paper Pad, Hero Arts White Embossing Powder, Top Box Tinted Embossing Ink, ColorBox Frost White Ink Pad, Black Cardstock, Ranger White Opal Liquid Pearls, Martha Stewart 3in1 Butterfly Punch, Spellbinders Labels Eight Nestabilities, Tim Holtz Rock Candy Distress Stickles, Seam Binding Ribbon, Ranger heat tool, Household Bleach

Thank you so much to May and the rest of this fabulous team for having me this week! It was a lot of fun!!

Thank YOU Melissa for sharing such a cool technique! I love the results and how the look varies depending on the cardstock color. This is a cool idea. I hope you've enjoyed Melissa's cards as much as I have.

Now are you feeling inspired to get a little stamp-y yourself? Then join us in this week's challenge! Click here to see the rest of the design team's entries and to enter your creation. For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.

Challenge: A Little Stamping

This week we challenge you to use a small stamp, or use a stamp in some small way on your project. You could finish a project with a bit of stamping on an edge, use a tiny heart stamp, or perhaps you’ve got some small stamp on a set that you’ve yet to use. Now would be the time!

Want to use stamps in a big way too? Well you could! Feel free to run the opposite direction and do a tiny bit of BIG stamping! It’s all good - and we can’t wait to see your stamped creations.

Anna-Karin used tiny stamps and embellishments to make this small shadow box:

I loved the idea of using tiny stamps and since they can disappear on a large project I made a small shadow box, using the packaging of Prima wood icons. The box was dyed with a mix of walnut ink, and tiny texture, word and flower stamps were stamped on top. Small bird and house stamps from Hero Arts My Favorite set were stamped with Cerulean ink and stamped with even smaller sentiment stamps The boxes were filled with Prima embellishments distressed with paint and embossing enamel, wood veneer shapes, and Stampendous mica flakes and color fragments.

"Go big or go home!", is usually Anita's feeling on most things, so tiny stamping proved to be somewhat of a challenge for her.

I often find myself ignoring those tiny images on a stamp set, and nearly always go for the larger, so I really combed through my stash for this challenge searching for the mini stamps that really caught my eye. Finally, I ran across Tim's new Tiny Things Stamp Set, and all of the images are mini, vintage, and just plain fabulous! I decided to use three of them to make the 'time flies' hanging in this altered Idea-ology Assemblage Clock, along with the perfect stamped saying from the Way With Words Stamp Set.

Sandra Mouwen played in her art journal with lots of color and with little text stamps.

It was such a long time ago that I played in my art journal, and I had to give my Gelli Plate another go. It's always a surprise what you get, it's always different when you play with it. This time I used 3 colors Distress Paints, Broken China, Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed. These Distress Paints work beautifully with the Gelli Plate. I used the positive and the negative of the Bert stencil from Dyan Reavely. For a little bit of stamping I used Script, Dictionary Meanings and Cherish stamps from Kaiser Craft.

Dan thought that Tim Holtz's "Tiny Textures" stamp set lent itself perfectly to the "little stamping" theme.

My first instinct with this week's theme was to use some really big background stamps and cut them down into smaller pieces.  As I looked through my stamp collection I came across the Tiny Textures set and realised that it was perfect for this theme.  As you can see, I still cut them down into smaller tiles.  The dapper gent from Wendy Vecchi's European Art set is one of my favourite stamps and I had a lot of fun chopping him up into differently coloured sections!  A couple of the panels were made with the GelliArts printing plate and I also used Wendy's All Bottled Up stamp.

When Suzz thinks of little stamping she thinks of stamping in small spaces. 

I love using small stamps to add texture in the background or to draw the eye different directions in my design.  This time I used the frames and sections provided by the 7 Gypsies Ticket Journal tags to frame out the images in my tags. I decided to put the tags with sweet images from Artistic Outpost Kudzu Kafe into a tag pocket.  I created the tag pocket by folding over a manila tag and adding a few stamped rulers from the Measure Twice set.

Tracy created a dimensional tag this week with lots of texture and a surprise element.

This box tag was great fun to make adding wonderful dimension using the Sized Ovals die to create an aperture and I added lots of texture using Wendy Vecchi's White Embossing Paste in conjunction with the Crafters Workshop Templates Mini Letter Chaos and Mini Tile Texture templates. I added bits of stamping using the text stamp from the Stampers Anonymous Classics 9 adding a touch of stamping to the Locket Book too. I had great fun with this piece, challenging myself to only use a bit of stamping!

Candy really took the challenge literally this week when she created this small accordion domino book. 

I had so much fun with this small stamp challenge.  What is smaller than Tim Holtz' Tiny Things stamp set?  I created this little vintage domino accordion book; each panel bearing a different image from Tiny Things; stamped with Jet Black Archival Ink.  They are colored using various Distress Ink colors and a Tim Holtz Detailer Water Brush. Tim Holtz Chit Chat provide some inspirational thoughts. The edges of the dominoes are covered with embossed Metal Foil Sheets. Renaissance Treasure Gold provides beautiful highlights to the edges of the pages and also the high areas of the embossed metal.

Ashli's birthday, so she used this opportunity to do a little stamping about herself.

Yep! Today is my 35th birthday. What a perfect occasion to do a layout about me and my "now." To get started, I grabbed the adorable Amy Tangerine Draft and Hey There Stamp Sets. Using the Zing Embossing Powder in Blue, I placed those little images all about my page. Once I had my layers of Mint Julep 6x6 papers all in place, I used those little images and prompts for my journaling. This gave me a great way to document where I am today at the big 35! To finish things off, I simply added some Crate Paper Pinwheels and Chipboard stickers. This is a fun layout now, and will be even more fun to look back on one day.

Meihsia loves to use small stamps on her project. This week she use some of them on the background of this layout.

Small stamps always show beautiful details so I love to use them on my projects. On this layout, I sprayed Color Shine and stamped some small text and images using Tim Holtz stamp, Stamendous clear stamp and 7 gypsies cling stamp on the background. This photo was taken on Natalie's 10th birthday so I also stamped the date using

Dear Lizzy Roller Date Stamp on this layout.

 

 

This week we also welcome Melissa Bove to be our guest!

Melissa actually created two cards, and she will be sharing the how-to this Wednesday as well so be sure to tune back in! Melissa is a designer for Simon's other challenge blog (Simon Says Stamp Challenges) where she frequently creates amazing cards and projects. (you can join in their challenges here) and we're excited to have her crossing over here to share with us here at Stamp & Show!

For more inspiration click on our design team's blog links so you can see more photos (and full supply lists) for their projects.
 

As always, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by Random Generator. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here. This challenge will end at 11:59pm on Sunday July 14 Eastern time.
 

We will also be choosing some of our entries to put in the spotlight - a special honor where we talk about why we loved that entry in particular and award a special badge too!
 

For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.

Stripe challenge spotlight entries & voucher winner:

It's that time of the week - time to announce last week's spotlight winners as well as the winner of the $50 voucher to the shop!

This is our second week for our new feature - and wow. The stripe challenge had so many takes, so much inspiration, and has me thinking I need to get stripe-y more often! Without further ado - here are the entries in this week's spotlight:

With bold colors and a striking design, #8 Amanda caught my eye immediately. Candy says: What makes this card so striking for me is the use of the random vertical paper strips complimented with the stark black and white filmstrips.  With the face also being embossed in black, this is one outstanding design!

A soon-to-be member of the Stamp & Show team, #29 Michelle's creativity pops with this 6x6 paper quilted block. Anna-Karin says: Love all the different patterns and colours she used. I great idea for using paper scraps too. Ashli says: Her creative interpretation of our stripes challenge is genius and I just love the vibrant colors of the whole piece!

The stripes in this piece had me picking my jaw up off the ground. #88 Buttons uses different mediums and techniques to get a soft effect that I can't stop thinking about. Anna says: Jenny created a wonderful textured background using different mediums, crackle paint, distress paint and alcohol ink. Very cool! The card is beautifully embellished too. Suzanne said: Not only does she have beautiful stripes created with a stencil she has several crafty techniques that she shares as she goes through her creative process.

Making a mixed media flag full of texture and detail, #99 Jessica Sporn embraced stripes and created a meaningful piece this week. Dan says:  I love all the texture she's incorporated into her stylized take on the flag and I'm in awe of her hand painted lettering on the red stripes!

# 100 Barbara made a tiny suitcase I really just can't believe! Anita says: This is grungy goodness at it's best! Dan says: Loads of texture, I love how she's recycled the sample grunge tag that comes on the packaging, the tin star and the zips she's incorporated into the stripes..

Congratulations to each of you on a challenge well done! Please email May for the spotlight badge to display on your blogs. I've got to tell you guys - (and I know I've said it before!) but this was an amazing challenge. I LOVED so many entries, and I could go on and talk about a bunch more - if only I had the time and space. So inspiring - thanks for joining us!  

But wait, we haven't forgotten the big prize of the week! I'd like to thank Simon Says Stamp for another great chance to win a $50 voucher!!

The lucky (randomly drawn) winner for the "stripe" challenge is...
 
#31 Jan

Please claim your prize within the next two weeks by emailing May.

 

I'd like to thank everyone who took part in the challenge as it is always a joy to see what you create. I'd also like to say thank you again to Simon Says Stamp for their generosity - each week we give away a $50 gift voucher to the shop that you can use to buy all kinds of fabulous stamps, inks, and paper crafting supplies.

Remember - you just need to enter the challenge each week to be entered into the drawing!

Introducing: Andrea Ockey Parr

Her use of fabric and other materials, not to mention her amazing style and how much fun her projects are have made her blog a favorite for me - and I'm very excited to announce that Andrea Ockey Parr will be joining the Stamp & Show team this month! Here's Andrea to tell you a bit more about herself.

 

My name is Andrea Ockey Parr and I'm a total lit nerd, crafter and eternal librarian who gets giddy about both Shakespeare and yarn.

My artsy style is whimsical with some stringy and straggly mixed in. Though I failed to make an A-worthy 80’s floral vest in my junior high sewing class (patterns still give me hives), I do love to incorporate fabric and stitching into my projects.

Some of my creations have been featured in Cloth Paper Scissors, Stuffed, Somerset Studio, SEW Somerset and The Stampers’ Sampler.

I’m grateful to have the best family support system in the universe and a patient husband who doesn’t think I’m weird for staring at a jar of buttons for half an hour.

Please join me in welcoming Andrea to the team! For more of her work, you can check out her blog here. Also don't forget this week's challenge is "Anything goes" and you have a few more days to enter. Happy crafting!

Introducing: Michelle Zerull

This week the challenge is "Anything goes" here at Simon Says Stamp & Show - so be sure to enter your creations! Since anything goes, we'll be introducing our new design team members here this week - starting with the fabulous Michelle. Her use of color, inventive designs, and wonderful creative spirit will really inspire - I can't wait for her to get started with us! Here is Michelle to tell you a bit about herself.

Hello, my name is Michelle Zerull. I craft and create in beautiful Little Rock, Arkansas, where I live with my husband, Bob. Although I currently live in the south, I was born and raised in the Midwest. It was there that I learned to craft just as my Grandmother and Mother before me.

My creative journey began with textile arts and quilting. When I was introduced to rubber stamps in the late 90’s I retired my thimble and became captivated by rubber stamps and paper crafting. Cards and scrapbook layouts are my favorite projects, but I also enjoy creating seasonal décor, mail art, journals and mini books. Often, you can see needlework influences in my stamping through geometric patterns, sewing notions, and stitches.

Distressing and glitter also appear in most of my work. I do love shiny things! Vintage elements are also prevalent, as I have a fondness for old paper and ephemera. This includes older postal elements, which I adore.

 

Although I love my grungy and tattered antiques, I am equally drawn to bold, graphic shapes and vibrant colors. This wonderful juxtaposition of old and new excites me and fuels my creativity.

 

When I am not stamping, I work as an administrator for a major department store. This environment surrounds me with current trends, as well as new textures, shapes and colors. I enjoy traveling whenever possible. Two of my grown children live out of state and it is always a pleasure to pack up the car and drive off to visit them. All of these daily experiences inspire me and influence my stamping. I consider myself privileged to be a part of the Simon Says Stamp team and I am so glad that my creative journey has brought me here.

Please join me in welcoming Michelle to the team - and for more of her work be sure to check out her blog. Michelle will begin sharing her creations with our July 22 challenge - I don't know about you but I can't wait!

Introducing: Mona Pendleton

It is my pleasure to kick off our our new team member introductions this week with Mona - you're going to love her amazing attention to detail, amazing shabby chic style, and all of the cool techniques she uses in her projects. I'll let her share a bit about herself...

My name is Mona Pendleton and I’m honored to be a design team member of the Simon Says Stamp and Show DT. I am married to best friend Scott, I have 2 adult children, 2 teenage step children and 2 West Highland Terrier dogs. I work part-time as a Registered Nurse in the Operating Room of an Orthopedic Hospital and in my spare time, I enjoy creating just about anything including but not limited to art journal pages, scrapbook layouts, greeting cards, tags, altered art, canvases, etc.







I would describe my style as Shabby. I prefer pastels but love to adventure over to the dark side occasionally as well as adding a burst of color. I can never have too many layers on most of my projects.

I currently design a line of stamps, dies and stencils for My Favorite Things and have a passion simply to be creative in some fashion.


Please join me in welcoming Mona to the team! For more of her beautiful work you can check out her blog, and watch for her to join in the challenges starting July 22.

And reminder: the "Anything goes" challenge is our focus this week - so be sure to enter!