I still don't get BLEACHING!!

[glovekelly]

I have read all of the forums on bleaching but I still don't get it. here is my main question: Do you dilute the bleach or use it straight?? It seems like if you didn't dilute it it would eat a hole in your paper. I have heard about putting bleach in the aquapainter. So is that diluted? Then what do you do with it? Rub it on the stamp and stamp it, or is that for filling in areas that you want to bleach. I am sorry I am slow with this. Any help you have would be great. thanks.

[dstfrommi]

Hi! You can use bleach straight on your paper and it won't eat holes in it. What I do is this. Take a styrofoam plate or a glass shallow bowl and put a capful of bleach into it. Then take a paint brush and paint the areas you want bleached out. Or, you can take a folded paper towel, put into the bowl/plate, pour several drops-to a capful of bleach on the paper towel and then use the paper towel as your stamp pad. On this technique you will have to play around to see how saturated you want your paper towel. You want it moist but not drippy wet.

When you are "painting" with bleach you can use full strength in some areas and then diluted in other areas for different effects. Different papers take bleach differently, in some cases they will turn white, in others you get a different color. I recently tried using bleach on my new bashful blue and it just turned a different color of blue! Never had that happen before, they usually turn white of off-white.

Also, the new chlorox bleach pens can be used to paint with. Just make sure you shake them first, or a few drops of watery bleach will come out and ruin your project.

The bleach will not hurt your brushes or your stamps, but do clean them good when you are done.

Hope this helps!

[longtimestamper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dstfrommi

The bleach will not hurt your brushes or your stamps, but do clean them good when you are done.

The bleach WILL hurt your brushes if they are made from natural fiber so be sure you are using synthetic. And the key to making sure it doesn't hurt the rubber is to clean the stamps off as soon as you are done using them. I keep a second tray with a paper towel soaked in vinegar water near by. After I stamp I set the rubbon on it until I am ready to go to the sink for a good rinse off. The vinegar neutralizes the corrosive action of the bleach.

[needsmorestamps!]

Another way is to make a stamp pad out of felt.

I used to have a plastic container that I used to hold my felt bleach pad but I found that it never dried out but that the bleach would get old and wouldn't work and then I'd have to add more bleach and have way too much. The plastic plate idea is a good one!.

[longtimestamper]

If I remember correctly, bleach only has a shelf life of 6 months or so. Less if you leave it where the light can get to it. That's why bleach bottles are always opaque.

You can also use some of the gel dishwasher detergents if they have bleach in them.

A friend of mine does her bleaching in a different way. She stamps on white cardstock and colors as usual. Then she paints the bleach over some of the colored areas to lighten them. It's a very pretty look.

[glovekelly]

thanks everyone for the feedback. can't wait to try it out.

[Chef Mama]

I did bleaching for the first time earlier this year. I found a Clorox Bleach pen I'd never opened. It was too goopy to use on the cardstock, but I squeezed it onto an old sock, rubbed it around & used that as my ink pad! For painting it wouldn't work, I guess ,but for stamping w/ bleach it did work well.

[ann2]

For my bleached cards, I first embossed the outlined image, like in Summer by the Sea. I usually used a clear embossing. Then I used straight bleach on one of my OLD worn out blender pens and "painted" in the areas that I wanted bleached out. Let it dry for a little while, then color it in with regular coloring techniques. I like to use a watercolor brush and inks that have been dabbed onto an old CD with the markers. This makes a nice palette to "paint" from with the brush. I have one in my gallery if you want to see it.