Hi again. A lot of crafting done today…………….

I had some bad news from a dear friend of mine today. Her son has died from the dreaded Covid-19! Her son! How on earth do you cope with that? I don’t have children, so I couldn’t possibly imagine how that must feel. He must have been around 40 years of age, and was working as a bus driver after the lock-down………………..As nurses we are expected to continue to work, and as a bus driver, he who would be in more contact with the general public, was trying to get the rest of us to work during this pandemic. I can’t comprehend how she must be feeling right now.

I have a card planned in my mind, as I can’t go and give her a hug. I can’t go anywhere near her, with the lock-down in place, and especially as she is in the vulnerable age group, but at least I can send a card with some pretend hugs……………………at least she will know I am thinking about her!

I took to my craft room and tried a new technique to try and ease my own mind.

I tried some bleaching on my image. Here is the card before I tell you any more about my technique:

I ink blended the Distress Oxide ‘Barn Door’ as I wanted a very vibrant red colour, which would stand out from the bleaching. I dried it with my heat tool, then stamped and embossed the Uniko ‘Peony’ in Altenew Gold embossing powder then went hunting for some bleach……

Erm – as we have a septic tank – I didn’t have any pure bleach – we’re not supposed to use too much bleach – so I improvised. I took some ‘Domestos‘ – which is bleach technically – but it is ultra-thick…….and just tried it.

I noticed it took the colour away VERY quickly, but I also noticed I could determine how much colour was taken off depending on how long I left it there – so I tried a little ‘blending’. Removing some very quickly from the inner petals to try and create some darker petals, and removing a second or too later for the lighter and outer petals.

I then cut thisa piece into a square, and added a wonky stitched rectangle frame.

The sentiment is from a new Tracy Hey stamp set – full of encouraging words and phrases – I can see I’m going to be using those a lot in the next few weeks.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CAS Mix-Up – CAS – bleaching + stamping + your choice (embossing and die-cutting)

Craft Friends Challenge – atg

Crafty Creations Challenge – atg

Crafters Castle Challenge – atg