Crazicards Crafty Blog

I am sure you have all seen or even had a go at the bleaching technique and besides being messy, smelly and a little dangerous, especially when children are around.

And sometimes when using coloured card it doesn't always work.

By starting with a plain white card you can create your own bleach effect but with the colours you want and not a colour dictated by the colour of your card stock.

This faux bleach technique is quick, simple and anyone can do it if you have the right tools.

The effects you can create are endless using this technique so have a play and see what happens. 

What you will need

Plain White card stock
Stamps of your choice
Cosmic Shimmer Sprays or similar
Ink pads if you don't have sprays
Versamark ink pad or similar for embossing
Clear WOW embossing powder you can try coloured embossing powder for a different effect
A heat gun
A craft iron, travel iron or house hold iron - without steam
Scrap paper or copier paper

Step 1

To begin I created a tag from my white card stock. This can be any size you like. I chose to use 8.5 cm wide by 16 cm long. Snip off the top two corners and punch a hole to make your tag shape.

Step 2

Now take your chosen stamps. For this I chose Sheena Douglass's Best Friend Swirls.

Stamp your image onto the tag using Versamark ink and emboss with clear WOW powder or similar.

Step 3

This is the fun bit - Now take your Cosmic Shimmer sprays or which ever spray inks you have and cover the whole tag.

For this project I used Purple Violet, Peacock Green and Ocean Sunlight.

Once you have covered the tag dry it off gently with your heat gun making sure not to melt the embossing powder.

This tag is the dried result. Notice that although the swirls are prominent they are a little dull looking.

Note: If you don't have spray inks or Cosmic Shimmer misters then you can either create your own using a mister and a little water and ink or you can colour your background using your ink pads and cut 'n' dry foam or a sponge.

This takes a little longer but you will get the same effect. Just make sure to add enough ink.

Step 4

Now you can choose either remove the excess ink from the embossing powder and leave it as it is - this is known as the resist technique or you can continue on as follows to create the faux beached effect.

Make sure your iron is hot and that the steam is switched off.

Place your tag onto a heat resistant surface and cover with a piece of scrap paper or copier paper and then iron over the top of your tag.

If the iron is hot enough you will start to see the melted embossing powder melt into your scrap paper.

Have a little peep underneath to make sure all the embossing powder has gone. If it hasn't simply carry on ironing until it has.

Once your done your copier paper should look simlar to the image on the right.

Once you have finished remove the scrap paper and there you have your faux beach effect.

Notice that the swirls are a lot brighter on the finished tag once the embossing powder has been removed.

I hope you have enjoyed this little tutorial. I would love to see your creations. So please feel free to send me your photos with a little description of the colours etc that you used and I will be more than happy to add you creations to Crazicards web gallery and in this blog. Please send you images here.

Until next time Happy Crafting. xx