Faux Bleaching on Colored Cardstock

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Summer may be over, but it’s still okay to make cards with tropical flowers on them as long as you use fall colors, right?  Right?  Well, anytime I get a new coloring medium in my hands, I usually have to try it out on some kind of floral design…and I just didn’t think sunflowers were the right fit for this technique!

The new Spectrum Noir Colourblend Pencils are a highly pigmented, wax-based colored pencil coming to HSN on October 5th (less than two weeks from now!).  I’ve always loved the look of pencil on kraft cardstock, but today I thought I would try something a little different and use deep maroon instead.

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I wanted to emulate the look of painting with bleach on colored cardstock – I’ve always thought this technique yielded a subtle and pretty effect.  To start, I stamped two of the floral images from the “Orchids” stamp set in opposite corners on a 5.25″ x 5.25″ piece of cardstock in Versamark ink.  After adding white embossing powder and melting it with my heat tool, I began by coloring the center of the flowers with a color just a bit lighter than my cardstock (Red Flame) and blending toward the edges with progressively lighter colors (Clementine, Honey), and eventually white.

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For the leaves, I repeated the process, using the Fern Green, Sage, Pear Green, and White Colourblend Pencils instead.  Though I usually aim for big, bold color, I really liked the subtlety of this coloring method combined with the white lines of the images.

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To finish the card off, I added a sentiment to the center from the same stamp set, some dots and lines to the empty corners with a white gel pen and a T-square ruler, and a couple of mats in white and mossy green.  And I’m kinda loving tropical flowers all dressed up for Autumn!

Thanks for stopping by today and I’d love to hear your comments!

2 Comment

  1. Elyse says:

    This one is a realy beauty!

    1. Annie Wills says:

      Thank you so much Elyse!

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