I had a request for a Stamping School video to use the Pleasant Pheasants
stamp set with the Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers or watercolor pencils.
I found myself googling  ‘pheasant colors’
because I had no idea which colors to use!
They are very pretty birds, especially the male.

I did the video and while I ended up liking all the colors,
I wanted a quicker way to NOT color the pheasant
so I went old school and bleached them instead!

Bleaching removes the color from the cardstock,
so every color reacts differently.
In this case, Cajun Craze became a vanilla color.
Here are some tips for bleaching:

1.  Stamp image with VersaMark ink pad and use clear embossing powder to heat emboss image.  This sets it and protects the image from getting bleached.
2. Keep a ventilated work space.  I only used 1 tablespoon bleach and dipped an old blender pen into the bleach and ‘colored’ the cardstock where I wanted to bleach.
3. It dries fast and the bleaching happens as it dries.  If you are impatient, you can use your heat gun to quicken the process but again, ventilation is important.
4. You can reapply more bleach to lighten the areas more.
5. Cardstock that is white on the inside or the core won’t work as well. Try it with our Stampin’ Up card stocks, which have color all the way through.
6. Be prepared for everyone to say how clean your stamp room smells!  They will think you’ve been cleaning all day.

I used the Merry Christmas Thinlits dies for the sentiment label
and added a cute copper brad and some copper edged ribbon.
The paper strip is from the Country Lane designer series paper in the Holiday catalog.

I hope you try it if you haven’t yet!

Stampin’ Up supplies used – click on any item to view in my store