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Sunday, 2 March 2025

Reminders

 Travelling around to various blogs and seeing what other people are making often serves as a reminder of a technique which we might have forgotten about as well as sometimes being introduced to something new.  Recently I've spotted a couple of reminders of the faux bleach technique or reverse stencilling as it is sometimes known.  This involves colouring card or watercolour paper using water-based inks such as Elements, Distress, Distress Oxides or similar and once it is dry a stencil is placed over the top and water sponged on (best to try not to make it too wet otherwise it can seep under the stencil and spoil the effect).  The water lifts the colour leaving the design of the stencil.  I used blue, purple and yellow on heavy watercolour paper and a leafy stencil..  Once I'd trimmed the piece to the size I wanted I spattered it with some mica mixed with water.

I've trimmed a snippet of my piece to make a panel for this card which I'm taking along to the challenge at the  Snippets Playground for this fortnight.  Had a rummage and found snippets of silvery glitzy card and some toning purple which were almost the right size for a couple of layers so very little left over from that.  The dragonfly layers were die cut from snippets of the silver and faux bleached pieces, also the fun sentiment came from the piece I'd coloured..


Here is a picture of the smallest snippets and I still have some of the coloured piece left


Dragonfly and sentiment - dies from Gummiapan
Element inks in yellow, purple and blue (from Lavinia Stamps)

One of the 'reminders' of this technique came from a video by Chrissie Stokes who used 'Mr Magic' sponge (a domestic cleaning product) to apply water to the stencil and this is what I used - works well. Link to her video  https://youtu.be/MzSjRRvijWQ?si=h-nEUruH6RkqcVqu


9 comments:

  1. Think we all inspire one another Val, one of the great things about this hobby of our. Love blue and green as a colour paletter.

    B x

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  2. That's a gorgeous card using the faux bleach technique . Love the colours used and the way your eye is drawn to the silver dragonfly. Very pretty snippets card Val.

    Thanks for coming to play in the Snippets Playground. See you up in the treehouse shortly. xxx

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  3. Beautiful faux bleached panel Val, and I love the pretty dragonfly as a focal point on top. I think I must try this technique xx

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  4. Love the card Val, and thanks for the link. I’m getting a pack of two so I have one for the house 😃

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  5. Hi Val
    A really lovely card, love your colour choices.
    Yes, you are right .. .. we all get inspired by each other .. .. to try something new or re-visit techniques or our crafty stash .. .. .. but more dangerously we also see things that we have to try and resist buying!! LOL!!!
    Hope all is good with you.
    Love and hugs
    Jules xoxo

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  6. Love the colour palette and the perfect placement of the dragonfly. Not sure I have ever faux bleached through a stencil, I usually just flick my paint brush. Might need to give it a go.

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  7. What a wonderful post and a stunning card, Val! (I swoon for dragonflies!) I haven't done the water lift technique in ages and I appreciate the reminder, as well as the tips. I'll definitely give the Mr. Eraser a try! Hugs, Darnell

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  8. I love the bright blue, purple and green tones of this bright and pretty background and the faux bleached leafy stencilled background is terrific Val, and the added glittery silver dragonfly looks beautiful over the top, and also the matching sentiment cut from the same coloured piece brings it all together...a brilliant card! x

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  9. Gorgeous card Val - I need to have a play with this technique again! So pretty! I'm here and will reply to your email asap I promise.
    Love
    Di xxx

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