Bleached Flowers for YouTube!

EDITED TO ADD: Here's the video link: Mother's Day Card Tutorial!

I was asked by fellow Starbucks partner and aspiring videographer, Aldo, if he could make a video of me making a card for Mother's Day. After several scheduling hiccups, we were able to make it happen at the almost-11th-hour this afternoon. I can hardly contain my excitement as I wait for him to finish post-production on it, and as soon as it's available, you'll see it here, and on YouTube, and on Facebook!

Let me post a few pictures of the card I made using the Watercolor Trio that's in the current Summer Mini Catalog and a technique called bleaching. Aldo wanted to post a video demonstrating how to make a card if you had limited resources and limited time. It occurred to me that someone might have stamps laying around, but no ink. What would you do then? Make your own ink pad using bleach!

The most important thing you need when using this technique is dark card stock. This just doesn't have the same effect if you don't. It's so cool to watch the image appear, as if out of thin air. Wait 'til you see it in the video!

I repurposed a Chinese takeout container for my bleach pad by lining it with several layers of paper towel and saturating it with bleach. I didn't dilute it; I just poured it straight onto the towels. I stamped the images and used a simple mat to help it stand out a little more.

The final result makes it appear as though I somehow was able to get Pale Plum ink to show up on Perfect Plum card stock. Love it! Hope anyone in need of a last-minute card who's surfing YouTube, the internet, and Facebook will too.

Inspired by Nature, Part 2

The set I mentioned and used in my first post today, Inspired by Nature, actually is a double-mounted set. This means that there is an image adhered to each side of the block! Double the pleasure, double the fun! The second image is that of prairie grass swaying in the breeze. Beautious, my friends. Instead of using it alone, I decided to try pairing both images with the help of bleach. Yes, you read correctly.

In order to get the black-eyed susan flower image to stand out from the grass, I wetted 2 paper towels with undiluted bleach and used it as a sort of "ink" pad. I stamped it, let it dry, and this is what the result was. Way cool, huh! Let me back up and share that the grass is stamped on Pacific Point, from the InColor Collection, with PP ink. It stamped darker than I anticipated, but I like the effect.

The base of this card is Baja Breeze, another of the InColors, and Not Quite Navy is the border that frames the Very Vanilla strip with the words "thank you so very much". That phrase is from another set from convention called Flight of the Butterfly. (Cards forthcoming...) I stamped this in Pacific Point. Here's a closeup for those who enjoy detail shots.

I was enjoying this look so much that I made a second one while everything was on the table, and then I remembered that I had a sympathy card to make for a friend of mine whose father passed away last week after a four-month battle with cancer. I've had to make too many sympathy cards this year!

This time I used Kiwi Kiss as the base, so now you've seen all 6 new InColors in action. I thought incorporating this "kissing cousin" of Old Olive would evoke the feeling of the grass, even though it was again stamped in PP. I had hoped that SU! would bring out a good sentiment set that had a variety of sayings in it, one to address the death of a loved one. Didn't happen, although there are 2 new ones with stamps that say "with sympathy".

So, I went back to the one I always pull out when I want to send something comforting. This verse is from the Bible, Psalm 46:1. It really says it all for me, and it's what I want to be reminded of when times are hard. This friend of mine is newly married and early in her 30s. Too early to lose her daddy. I hope it accomplishes what I want it to, to be a sort of long-distance hug.

I know I'm ending on a somber note, but that's life. Full and complex. Find someone to bless with a card, a phone call, a word of encouragement, or a simple hug today. Don't put off until tomorrow something good that you could do today.