Big on Christmas – Snow

Firstly… I want to thank all of you who have commented on my candy cane/barbers pole Dasher.  I really appreciate your support.  You have no idea how close I came to packing in the whole card.  Every bit of glue I applied to the card, I moaned and groaned and said.. no…. no way… nah… definitely not going to work.  The fact that you reacted to it so positively really made my day!  Talking about making my day – the divas on Stamping411 picked my Chic Boutique card as one of the cards of the week.  It was such a tough layout – one that really challenged me – but I loved doing it.  So… is being challenged by challenges the theme of my week.  Yep… both in my day job and my crafting.  :-)  The divas at Stamping411 are such a creative, supportive and talented group of ladies.  You really should check out their respective sites and play along with their fabulous challenges.

I've been really blessed – and thrilled – to have "met" so many amazing people during the two months that I have been blogging.  There is so much creative talent out there that I am amazed every single day.  So thank you to all of you who visit regularly, who read my ramblings – or who just pop by.  You are the reason I do this every day!

So… today's card is a departure from the last few cards.  It's 180 degrees from yesterday's card!  I was inspired by the card sketch on splitcoaststampers last week.  

I wanted to do a soft card and use bleach as my ink.  I decided it was time to highlight and showcase the dormant stamp set Big on Christmas (109266).  It's a fabulously whimsical set and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and put stamp to paper!

A couple of different things about today's card (other than the fact that it's a very muted card for me :-)_)…. I used my texturz plate with my big shot to emboss a piece of vellum and layered that over a piece of Bashful Blue card stock.  The most interesting thing though is how I got the white on the stamped image.  I've tried bleaching with stamps several times, and just never seem to get the look I want.  However, using bleach as ink is something that I love.  I took a small amount of bleach that I put into a tiny container and then used my Aquapainter to apply the bleach.  

Jaydee tips:  

• I stamped and embossed the Snow image with silver embossing powder.   
• I then took my Aquapainter and dipped it into the bleach (remove any water that is in the Aquapainter first!!!!) and applied it to the card stock between the embossed letters.
• Use long – very light -strokes and remember to stay a little distance away from the edge of the words.(or you end up doing what I did on the "n"!!!)  Once I have done all the words, I then use my embossing heat tool to dry the paper. Remember to switch to heating the front of the image – and the back.  This helps to stop the paper from curling. I find that heating the card stock whilst the bleach is still white gives me a whiter image – oh.. and means that I can go to the next step faster!  (yes… it's true… when I was supposed to be standing in the queue for patience – I missed it altogether!!!)
• Don't get too close to the bleached surface with the heat tool – or you run the risk of turning it it yellow.  So stay a good 6 inches away from the surface and gently fan backwards and forwards.  I promise you it's worth it 
• The key to remember with bleaching – every card stock will be different.  But with an Aquapainter and a little bit of bleach – you can do amazing things.   

I hope you have a fabulous Friday.  I'm really looking forward to the weekend – and to some serious time in my stamping space.

Peace

Jaydee