Saturday Show & Hels... Block Bleaching & Giveaway

Cor blimey indeedily... it's a yonk and a half since I last did a Show & Hels so last night I thought I would put together a little technique thingwotsit that I discovered by accident when playing around with Distress Inks and water. I don't know if this technique has a proper name... but the name I have made up for it is along the lines of the inspiration for the technique, which is Color Blocking, one of Tim's techniques that I lurve lots. Basically, in his technique, he fills up a blending tool with ink and then presses it onto a card/tag surface in a blocky fashion, building up the blocks to make a geometric pattern. This technique is the reverse of that one. All will become apparent in the pics (am saying that because I am rubbish at trying to describe lol) The giveaway bit is my tag here... which will be given away to one randomly chosen commenter on this post. The winner will be announced next Saturday, April 7th 2012.



INGREDIENTS

Bright Distress Inks + Black Soot/Walnut Stain
Blending Tools to apply above OR Cut & Dry Foam
Tag/Cardstock
Water Mister
Blending Tool with clean foam pad
Heat tool
Non Stick Craft Sheet



STEP 1

Using a blending tool/Cut & Dry foam, apply a few vivid colours of Distress Ink to your surface (I am working on a tag) I have found that the richer the colour, the better this technique shows up.



STEP 2

Use a dark colour (I have used Black Soot but Walnut Stain will work) and carefully edge your tag... this will "close" the design in and give the tag a "frame".




STEP 3

Spritz water onto your craft sheet and dip the clean blending foam into it, soaking the foam pad. Light dab the excess water back onto the craft sheet.





STEP 4

Press the wet foam onto your tag, leave in place for a few seconds. Lift up the tool and wait a couple of seconds for the water to react with the ink. Blot any excess water with kitchen paper/paper towel if necessary (you will be able to see if there's too much water)




STEP 5

Use kitchen paper/paper towel to blot off any ink collected on the foam pad to stop it transferring when you repeat Step 4. Dry the block with a heat tool. Repeat the steps until you have a design you like. Try to overlap a few of the blocks to add interest to the design.



TO FINISH

To finish my tag, I cut some Gadget Gears Alterations & Movers & Shapers from mountboard and coloured them with Pumice Stone DI. I layered them up and added some wires behind the bottom of the cog pile. I then made a teensy "basket" using some of the Destinations patterened papers... and then added some Idea-ology to the middle of the "hot air balloon". The chaps were stamped in Jet Black Archival and cut out, coloured with Pumice Stone and edged with Black Soot. I made a little ruler using Crowded Attic Paper, gluing it to mountboard and then sanding the edges. I did a smidge of stamping for the background (and stamped one of them upside down... whoops!)




So, there you have it... I hope you like the technique, I like that it is subtle and doesn't over power the whole finished look. Thanks for looking... have a fab weekend!! TTFN

Hels x