Sepia Technique: Bleach and Ink, Featuring Club Scrap Stamps.

If you have been following for awhile, you know how much I love techniques.  While surfing the internet I came across a technique that was presented using Stampin Up Ink.  Well I don't have any of the ink, but I do have Distress.  So, I set out to see what type of results I could get with my Distress and was pleasantly surprised.  When this months kit arrived, the umbrella and chair stamps was a match with my idea and technique.  Here is the finished card.

I only used two products: a brown distress and household bleach.  Which brown use produces the colored tones that remain.  This is Frayed Burlap and it bleaches to reds and golds.

In this image I used Walnut Stain and it bleaches to purple tones.  All of the browns bleach to different undertones.  So get out your distress and some water color paper and see what you get.  Experiment!!!

Lets look at the process:

I used 140# Canson Cold Press water color paper.  I did not try other brands, so your result may very.

Start by mixing brown and water and brushing onto the water color paper.  It needs to be streaky and have some white showing.

 Dry very thoroughly.  I did use a heat tool for this.  Just make sure it is dry.

Stamp your image in Archival Ink.  I used both Potting Soil (the cameo) and Black (umbrella and chairs).

Using the same Distress as the background, deepen the shadows.  I used water and thinned down the ink, but left if very dark in places.

Here it is finished with the shadow.  I left the streakiness, just enhanced it in places.  This photo is with Ground Expresso, it is darker, I created another card for the blog hop with this ink and it bleaches to teal.  Lovely isn't it.

Using household bleach and a fine liner brush, paint in the highlights.  It takes time to get down to the true color and have the action stop.  So add a little and wait, then a bit more if needed.  You can go back and add more ink, but it will not be the same as it was before putting the bleach on the paper.  Again experiment.   I think in this red card, I went back and forth with the ink and bleach, I came out lighter than I wanted, but is still nice.

Here is what it looks like with a little bleach

And a little more. Look close and you will see where I added the Distress Ink, along the top of the umbrella and sides of the chairs (Air side).  This is the image I cut down and created the card with.

To finished the card, I matted it in red, added embellishments and finally attached to an A2 Card base in Desert Storm by Neenah.

The embellishments were darkened with the same ink as the background a glued down with Glossy Accents as was the Brass Crab.