Watercolor Bleaching with Distress Inks and Oxides: WaffleFlower

Hello Crafters! 

I'm a day late but let's be honest that's early for me. 

We've nearly made it to Friday ya'll. Praise Jesus Hallelujah!

I was over on the WaffleFlower Blog yesterday sharing these two cards using a fun watercolor bleaching technique. I've done this before but I thought it would be cool to see a side by side comparison of the technique with distress inks and distress oxides. So, that's what I did! 

I started with watercolor paper as my base to make sure I could cleanly removed the ink for the technique. I heat embossed the peony bouquet in white on the watercolor cardstock. I chose the exact same colors in each type of ink so it would be a true apples to apples comparison.

The backgrounds were done exactly the same way. I covered the entire background with Cracked Pistachio. I then added Evergreen Bough about 3/4 of the way down. Peacock feathers the embossing and slightly outside. The Mermaid Lagoon over just the embossed portion. The technique works best over darker colors. 

I then spattered both backgrounds with clean water, perfect pearls, and Nuvo Mica Mist for all the shine! 

For the actual :bleaching portion" there's no bleach involve. We're just going to remove some color with clean water. I prefer to use a smaller brush but you can use whatever you're comfortable with. 

You'll just lay clean water down  on top of the embossed image, let it sit for a few seconds and then blot it up with a clean paper towel. I like to work in small sections because it's easier to control the water that way. Once you've removed all the color from your embossed image, and it's dry, you can add some dimension with alcohol markers. 

You can see what I mean in the video below.

While I don't think the cards look drastically different from each other I do prefer the distress ink one just because the colors are slightly richer. 

Which one do you prefer? 

Thank so much for stopping by! 

See you soon! 

Supplies:
Affiliate links are used

Waffleflower Water Media Mat Shop at: SSS | SB | WF	Waffleflower Peony Bouquet Shop at: WF	Waffleflower Peony Bouquet Combo Shop at: WF
Waffleflower Oversized Thank You Shop at: WF	Waffleflower Oversized Thank You Die Shop at: WF	Waffleflower Oversized Thank You Combo Shop at: WF

Affiliate links are used

Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Shop at: SSS | SB | HB	Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB REAM Smooth Solar White Paper Pack 250 Sheets Shop at: SSS	Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS Shop at: SSS | SB | HB
Ranger MINI ROUND FOAM REFILLS for Mini Round Ink Blending Tools Shop at: SSS | SB | HB	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad PEACOCK FEATHERS Shop at: SSS	Copic Sketch Marker C1 COOL GRAY Shop at: SSS | DB
Copic Sketch MARKER C3 COOL GRAY Shop at: SSS | DB	Copic Sketch MARKER C5 COOL GRAY Shop at: SSS | DB	Copic Sketch Marker BG11 MOON WHITE Shop at: SSS | DB
Copic Sketch Marker BG45 NILE BLUE Shop at: SSS | DB	Copic Sketch Marker BG49 DUCK BLUE Shop at: SSS | DB	Canson MONTVAL WATERCOLOR 9x12 Pad Shop at: SSS | DB
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad CRACKED PISTACHIO Shop at: SSS | SB | HB	Simon Says Stamp LARGE GRID PAPER Pack Pad Shop at: SSS	Precision Heat Embossing Tool Gun Shop at: SSS | SB | Tonic USA | HB
Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK PAD Shop at: SSS | SB | HB	Inkadinkado EMBOSSING MAGIC Powder Bag Shop at: SSS | SB | HB	Simon Says Stamp EMBOSSING POWDER WHITE Fine Detail Shop at: SSS
MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping Tool Kit Shop at: SSS | SB	MINI MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping Tool Kit Shop at: SSS | SB	Ranger Studio Paint ARTIST BRUSHES Shop at: SSS | SB
Silver BLACK VELVET Brush Size 2 Round Shop at: SSS | DB	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad CRACKED PISTACHIO Shop at: SSS	Jillibean Soup WITTY WHITE Happy Hues Acrylic Paint Shop at: SSS
Dreamweaver 3/8 inch STENCIL BRUSH Shop at: SSS	Wplus9 Coal Mine Cardstock Shop at: SB	Ranger Perfect Pearls PERFECT PEARL Individual Pigment Shop at: SSS | SB
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad PEACOCK FEATHERS Shop at: SSS | SB	We R Memory Keepers TRIM AND SCORE Board Shop at: SSS | SB	Tim Holtz Tonic CRAFT PICK Shop at: SSS | Tonic USA | WF
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad EVERGREEN BOUGH Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad MERMAID LAGOON Shop at: SSS | SB	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad MERMAID LAGOON Shop at: SSS | SB
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad EVERGREEN BOUGH Shop at: SSS	Nuvo Mica Mist Beryl Swirl Shop at: SB | Tonic USA | WF	Fiskars PREMIUM CUT LINE Paper Trimmer 12 Inches Shop at: SSS | SB