2016 #23 Pocket of Positivity {by Hazel Agnew}

 2016 Topic 23: Bleach Techniques

Hi everyone, Hazel Agnew from Mellifluous Meanderings here. I'd like to share with you this evening a post about using bleach to create interesting effects.

What a challenge to use bleach in my work. Especially for someone as messy as me. To be honest, when I accepted the challenge, I didn't have any experience of using bleach and played around for a while before I found the technique for me. 
I am so pleased that I did as I love what I have discovered.

Step One: First of all I sprayed a few tags with water and sprinkled on a variety of Paperartsy Infusions. I sprayed and dabbed to get the desired effect. I applied a dob of thick bleach to my Tear Off Palette, spread it around and dipped my stamp into it and straight onto the tag. Nervous at first and flying off to the sink to rinse the stamp but soon found that the stamp was very resilient. as you can see, the image bleaches out the infusions. In the photo is my pocket. A piece of packaging. 
The stamp that I chose is HP1604.

HP1604.

Step Two: Next, for the pocket. I chose a selection of "fragile papers",which I glued to the outside  , front and back. I sprayed the surface with water and added Burnt Umber acrylic ink, dabbing with a baby wipe to control the amount of staining.

Step Three: Back to the tags. Distressed the edges with Black Soot, Threaded some fibrous wool, and backed them with paper stash that is suitable for writing on. I also added some positive thoughts from TH Small Talk.

Step Four: Back to the pocket. To the front I added one of the tags; a photo; some corrugated card for added texture; a large pin to which I added tassels; hessian; delicious rusty wire, and a little butterfly which, to me, signifies hope. 

On the back, there is a poignant poem by Rupert Brooke and a word band.

So, that is my pocket of positivity, where I intend to collect positive thoughts, events, phrases, poems etc. throughout the coming year. Something uplifting and encouraging. Hopefully, by this time next year, it will be stuffed full of encouragement and have new tags added.

This bleaching technique can be used as an interesting background for many styles of work. Experimenting with different colour mixes of infusions opened up lots of possibilities for future playing too!

I hope that this has inspired you in some way to get out the bleach for more creative activities than cleaning!

Don't forget that there will be lots more inspiration on bleaching techniques to come on this blog. Hazel Agnew, from Mellifluous Meanderings, aka Craftroomgran, signing out and thanking you for staying with me till the end.

Thanks Hazel for a wonderfully inspiring project, I look forward to seeing more photos of it once you have it stuffed full. We see so many inspiring quotes everyday it is hard to keep track, this is the perfect place to store them for those moments when you need lifting up. 

~Darcy

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post; so please spare a moment to comment or make your own creative item. They all love to see your feedback and what you can do more than you realise!

We would love to see how you interpret this Bleach Techniques topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #23: Bleach Techniques on this page HERE. The Bleach Techniques link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Dec 11th 2016. The winner will be announced 2  hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store.