Bleached Sunflower

Greetings, my friends! I hope you’re having a lovely week. Our weather has been so gorgeous, and I’ve gotten a lot of yard work done as well as stamping with my new products from the Stampin’ Up! 2021 Annual Catalog preorder. Demonstrators can order new products a month early so we can make samples and get ready for events after the catalogs are “live.” It’s a wonderful benefit! My preorder came yesterday, and I am already in love with the new In Colors! I have a card to show you later this month, but today I wanted to show you a fun card with products you can order now.

This card uses the Celebrate Sunflowers Bundle for this card. The bundle includes the Celebrate Sunflowers Stamp Set and Sunflowers Dies. When bundles are offered, they cost 10% less than purchasing the individual products separately. And while the products in this bundle are carrying over to the 2021 Aunual Catalog, the bundle pricing is not – so if you want to save 10%, order by May 3.

I stamped the large sunflower image on Magenta Madness Cardstock in Rich Razzleberry Classic Ink using the Stamparatus. Before I moved the stamp, I cleaned it, then stamped it again – over the original – with VersaMark ink, then embossed with Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder. I repeated the stamp/clean/stamp/emboss process with the leaves, using Just Jade Cardstock and Shaded Spruce Classic Ink. If you don’t have a Stamparatus yet, you really need to order one. There are so many amazing things you can do with it!

Next was the fun part! I used bleach and an old, dried up Blender Pen to lighten the petals of the sunflower image. Simply pour some bleach in a small container (I used small, disposable drink cups), then pick it up with the Blender Pen and paint on the image.

Here’s a fun fact about bleach. When it gets old, it loses it’s “bleachiness.” I’m not sure when we bought the bleach I used, but it was definitely old. It didn’t even have much of a bleach smell. While it lightened the petals, it didn’t totally whiten them. (And – another fun fact – different colors of card stock lighten differently. Some turn white, some turn more of a yellow, so it’s fun to see how the card stock and bleach are going to interact.) To make some of my petals a little lighter, I heated them with my heat tool. This causes the bleach to act really quickly. But you have to be careful; if you heat for too long, you get a really ugly brownish yellow, which I assume is a burnt bleach look. Of course, if you’re going for a vintage look, this could be a good thing!

When I was happy with the sunflower, I bleached the leaves a little. I die-cut the leaves and sunflower, then ran the Magenta Madness Cardstock the sunflower came from through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine in the Painted Texture 3D Embossing Folder. I added the embossed Magenta layer to a Rich Razzleberry card base, then added the sunflower back into the negative space using Stampin’ Dimensionals. I added the leaves to the card using Seal Adhesive.

The sentiment is from the Many Messages Bundle from the January – June Mini Catalog. This bundle is a stamp and a die. The stamp has so many sentiments that you can stamp all at once. Then you die-cut them – again, all at once – with the Messages Die.

Although I have stamped and die-cut the images using many different inks and card stock, here’s how I did this one with my Stamparatus. First, I used a Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker to ink the sentiment, then stamped on Basic White Cardstock. I used the Stamparatus just in case I needed to stamp again. Sometimes when you ink a stamp with Stampin’ Write Markers, you miss a spot or two. That may just be me, though.

Next, I used the Messages die to cut out the sentiment. I also die-cut the same shape from a small piece of Just Jade Cardstock. I cut the Just Jade shape in half horizontally, then added it behind the Basic White sentiment and used Stampin’ Dimensionals to adhere it to the card.

The good news about this card is that all of the products are returning in the 2021 Annual Catalog!

This was such a fun card to create, and while it took many words to explain, it didn’t take much time at all to make. Give this bleach technique a try, It’s a lot of fun!

Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy. Have a lovely day!

Product List