A modern winter card

Over on In Love With Stamping there are challenges all day today. This is to make those demonstrators who aren’t at the Stampin’ Up!® convention feel better about being left behind but anyone can take part – you just have to join the site so that you can upload your projects into the gallery.

I only managed one of yesterday’s challenges, which was to make a modern winter card. This is a bit different – and was inspired by a screen printing I saw at an art exhibition in Ambleside last week. I loved the artwork’s verdancy (yes it is a word, I just checked!) so thought I’d have a go at something using the brighter greens.

First I brayered all over the card using Gable Green and Green Galore, then made a paper mask in the rough shape of a hill and brayered again with Tempting Turquoise. How bright and scary is that?

I wanted snowflakes in the sky but couldn’t find my Sparkly & Bright set (found it now!) so went a bit random with these sprigs from Autumn Days. I thought they looked a bit Northern Lights-ish but Alison reckons they look like the wind, so I’m happy with that.

I didn’t want to use the new Whisper White craft ink for this because you can’t stamp too well on the top so I used bleach. The thing with bleach is that you never really know how it’s going to turn out and, because its power fades with time, you get different results as time progresses. So if you want bright white, work fast! And if you want a surprise, work slowly. I have a bleach tutorial here if you want more info.

Finally, I stamped the trees – bare ones on the right and an evergreen on the left. The “thanks” was masked with a scrap of paper and then stamped in Whisper White craft ink.

And I'm delighted to say that my card was chosen as the project of the day and I won a prize! Enter your project today and you could win, too!

Stamps: Trendy Trees, Autumn Days
Cardstock: Whisper White, Taken with Teal, Glorious Green, textured Whisper White
Ink: Gable Green, Green Galore, Taken with Teal, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White craft
Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig®, brayer, bleach

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the link on the right to view it online.

Stamping with bleach

Stamping with bleach can be very exciting - because you never really know what’s going to happen.

There are several important things to know before you start:

1. Work in a well-ventilated area and don’t get bleach on your hands or clothing.
2. If you want to keep a small bottle of bleach specifically for craft use, make sure the bottle is clearly labelled to avoid accidents and don’t store it in a clear bottle as the light will reduce the effectiveness of the bleach.
3. Work quickly – the power of bleach is soon diminished by light. However, you can use this to your advantage to gain different effects.
4. Clean your stamps thoroughly immediately after stamping.

Will it harm your stamps? If you used the same stamp with bleach over and over again, in time I would expect some damage to occur. But for occasional use, as long as you clean your stamp thoroughly straight away, you should be fine.

You will need all your stamping supplies to hand plus a pad of kitchen roll in a small flat pot. Today I placed my pad of kitchen paper on a plastic takeaway pot lid.

Have everything you need to hand before you open the bleach. When you’re sure you’re ready, pour a small amount of bleach onto the paper pad then stamp…

Put your stamped cardstock to one side and wait for a few moments for the bleach to take effect.

On this card I then overstamped with the co-ordinating stamp using the same colour as the cardstock. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig® to position the images where I wanted them.

I made this card for an Inspiration Challenge I’m posting over on In Love With Stamping next week, so this is a sneak preview for blog-readers. The inspiration piece was an Andy Warhol painting called Four Monkeys which you can see here.

Stamps: Heartfelt (p20), Daily Flexible Phrases (p65)
Cardstock: So Saffron, Basic Black, Bravo Burgundy, Rose Red, Always Artichoke, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: Bravo Burgundy, Rose Red, Always Artichoke, Elegant Eggplant, White StazOn®
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Elegant Eggplant (p86), Round Tab Punch (p80), Stamp-a-ma-jig® (p81), household bleach

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.