Embossing powder...

...and bleach.

This was project number two from Saturday's workshop.

The base decorated layer for the card was created by stamping the butterflies randomly over the surface with Versamark...

...the sprinkling with black embossing powder & heating. The background card was the vibrant green you see here so you may be wondering how the 'colouring' on the butterflies was achieved. That's where the bleach comes in. Using a very fine paintbrush and some thick household bleach, the parts of the image without embossing were carefully painted - I say 'carefully' as just slapping the bleach all over will dull the embossing.

So now you are wondering about the 'texture' - after all, the workshop was "Colour & Texture".

Some additional butterflies were stamped, embossed and bleached...

...on a spare piece of card. Then as you can see here...

 ...they were carefully cut out and curled.

A bit of matt & layering to create the card...

...and the cut out butterflies were attached to the 3 'whole' butterflies. This next photo shows the card slightly from the side...

...and you can see the raised effect but the next phot with the card laying down...

 ...really shows of the depth & texture.

Just as a little finishing touch...

...the bodies of the butterflies were accented with some mini self-adhesive gems.

I have to say, this is the first time that I have 'painted' with bleach - I've stamped onto dark CS in the past using bleach instead of an ink pad - but this was quite a different effect and one that you can control quite a lot. If you want to create the effect of shading, just let the first 'bleaching' dry then paint over the areas that you want paler with another layer of bleach.

It was at this time we had a break for lunch so Hilary & I headed to the café - Mediterranean Chicken on Rice and pressed Apple & Raspberry juice to wash it down...yummy.

We then headed back for the final project of the day - which I'll show you another time........................................................................