First of all, be careful not to get the bleach on your clothes (duh). As soon as you can, clean the bleach off of the stamp using an alcohol free baby wipe or soap and water. The bleach won’t hurt your rubber stamps but it will dry them out if it is left on too long so you want to limit the time the bleach is on the rubber. I don’t know about the safety of bleach on clear stamps but it is safe for rubber stamps.
Fold a paper towel and put it on a plastic or foam plate. Add enough bleach that your stamp is noticeably wet when you stamp it onto the paper towel but not so much that it doesn’t leave a crisp, clear outline when you stamp it onto the cardstock. The bleach evaporates fairly quickly so if you are stamping a lot you may have to add some bleach as you go. You use this makeshift “ink pad” like you would a regular inkpad. Just stamp onto it with your stamp and then stamp on your paper.
It does take a minute or so to completely dry and bleach out the paper completely. Be careful not to smear the bleach before it dries. Generally, darker paper will show the image better than lighter paper and the bleach will color the paper in a yellowish color. It will turn green on blue paper like on this layout and will turn orange on a bright red paper.
Fold a paper towel and put it on a plastic or foam plate. Add enough bleach that your stamp is noticeably wet when you stamp it onto the paper towel but not so much that it doesn’t leave a crisp, clear outline when you stamp it onto the cardstock. The bleach evaporates fairly quickly so if you are stamping a lot you may have to add some bleach as you go. You use this makeshift “ink pad” like you would a regular inkpad. Just stamp onto it with your stamp and then stamp on your paper.
It does take a minute or so to completely dry and bleach out the paper completely. Be careful not to smear the bleach before it dries. Generally, darker paper will show the image better than lighter paper and the bleach will color the paper in a yellowish color. It will turn green on blue paper like on this layout and will turn orange on a bright red paper.
Notice on the sample colors I stamped how the bleach turns yellow on the green shades of cardstock but on the very deep green and the black it turns a very beautiful gold color.
On the pale yellow and peach it turns white. Interesting effects. I stamped a couple of the colors with a more solid stamp so you could see how that would look. It is hard to get good coverage of the bleach on the stamp but I kind of like the mottled look I got when I put less bleach on the brown and dark blue. The stamping is nearly imperceptible on the light blue but I was surprised on how well it showed up on the pale yellow.
Have fun experimenting with this technique but wear old clothes! Something else to try if you like to mess with your husband’s mind – use this technique when he is around and when he asks what you are doing (the smell of the bleach will surely bring questions but you may have to prompt him if he doesn’t ask) just say that you know you can’t afford EVERY beautiful color that Stampin’ Up carries so you are just using something you already have to stamp with. Either he will feel sorry for you and say that you can buy some more ink pads or he will be amazed at what a wonderful, thrifty wife he has. Either way sounds like a winner to me!
On the pale yellow and peach it turns white. Interesting effects. I stamped a couple of the colors with a more solid stamp so you could see how that would look. It is hard to get good coverage of the bleach on the stamp but I kind of like the mottled look I got when I put less bleach on the brown and dark blue. The stamping is nearly imperceptible on the light blue but I was surprised on how well it showed up on the pale yellow.
Have fun experimenting with this technique but wear old clothes! Something else to try if you like to mess with your husband’s mind – use this technique when he is around and when he asks what you are doing (the smell of the bleach will surely bring questions but you may have to prompt him if he doesn’t ask) just say that you know you can’t afford EVERY beautiful color that Stampin’ Up carries so you are just using something you already have to stamp with. Either he will feel sorry for you and say that you can buy some more ink pads or he will be amazed at what a wonderful, thrifty wife he has. Either way sounds like a winner to me!
I've been anxious to try the bleach technique. Thanks so much for doing some of the "detective" work. Some of the color changes are a neat surprise. Thanks!
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