Papercrafts: Homemade Cards Created With Bleach

crafts • me • hobbies & me time • decor & DIY

by Mom It Forward on May 10th, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Isn't it great when you can make crafts with common household items and totally impress your friends with your awesome cards or scrapbook pages? The secret to making this card stand out is bleach, of the regular old Chlorox variety. It's not that hard; don't be fooled by the long list of steps below. Nor is it as easy as buying a pre-made card.

This is the kind of thing you do when you want to really express thanks to someone by giving them a card you put some effort into making, or when you really want to show your love for someone by framing a picture of them on a scrapbook page using this technique.

Select two pieces of cardstock of opposing colors, in this case pink and green. The darker or more intense the color, the better the contrast with the bleach spots. You'll also need a little bit of white.
Cut 6 pieces: from the green a) a 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" (i.e., half a horizontal 8 1/2 x 11 sheet) piece, b) a roughly 1 1/2" x 2" piece. Cut this piece with fancy-edged craft scissors. From the pink, cut c) a 5 1/4" x 4" piece, d) a piece that is a hair under 5" x 3 3/4", and e) a 1 7/8" x 1 3/8" piece. From the white, cut a piece that is roughly 1 3/4" x 1 3/8". Put all except the d) piece aside for now.
Gather a) a bleach-soaked paper towel in a flat-bottomed bowl, b) two stamps, one with the "filled-in" part of an image, the other with the outline. In Stampin' Up parlance, it's called "two-step stampin'." You'll also need a brown ink pad and a "thank you" stamp.

4. With your third piece of cardstock on top of a scrap piece of paper, tap your "filled-in" stamp a couple of times on the bleach paper towel, then stamp solidly (don't roll) in random spots on the third, pink piece. Set aside to dry for 5-10 minutes. Immediately wash the bleach residue off the stamp.

5. Once dry, stamp over the bleach spots with the outline stamp and some brown ink. Don't worry about lining it up exactly. Distress the edges of the piece.

6. Add an accent color, if you want, with a q-tip and colored chalk.

7. Stamp "thank you" on the small white piece, and distress it a little with the brown ink. Mount it on top your small, pink piece (e) with double-stick tape or mounting squares. Mount those two to your fancy-edged, small green piece (b).

8. Mount the smaller, bleached pink piece on to the slightly larger pink piece (c). Mount the smaller pieces compiled in step 7 to the pink pieces, at an angle.

9. Punch a couple of small holes about 1/4" apart, roughly 1 1/2" over from left edge and in the vertical middle of the bleached piece, right below the smaller "thank you" pieces. Pull the two ends of a long piece of ribbon through the two holes and tie a knot.

10. Score and fold the largest green piece (a) in half, then mount everything to it.

Voi-la!

What are your favorite cardmaking crafts? Have you made cards using bleach? Did you find it easy or hard? What was your favorite part of doing this craft?