Distressing Cowboys, Faux Bleach and Faux Silver

I wanted to try my hand at some different techniques the last day or so and pulled out a couple of very cool western sets from Stampin' Up- Bronco Buster and Wanted.  I have only used these sets a couple of times but they lend themselves so perfectly to distressing.  My good friend, Sherry, posted a wonderful technique yesterday on the Splitcoaststampers resource page called Color Wash Faux Bleach. I was really interested in trying this faux bleach technique as I loved Sherry's example project. My big problem was that I had no Color Wash or any alternatives that I could use to spray my project.  I decided not to let that stop me and just kick back a couple of steps on the technique and use a sponge to color around the image. I think this is simply called the Faux Bleach technique. 

I stamped the image on plain white cardstock with versa and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I used an ink blending tool and sponged on Distress Vintage Photo as well as touched the ink pad directly onto the paper and then sprayed with a little water to smoosh the color around.  I wanted to try and replicate Sherry's technique with the color wash but spraying the water didn't really do that.  I put the paper between two pieces of printer paper and ironed with a very hot iron to remove the embossing powder. Removing the embossing left an image that looked like it had been bleached into the brown color of the cardstock.  I used this technique on both the Bronc Buster and the Star Flourish. I wiped ink directly with pad on a both sides of a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock and cut into three thin strips. I ran both sides of each strip over the edge of my scissors to make more pliable and attached one end of the strips to my counter with tape.  I braided the three strips together to create the faux leather bull whip and secured both ends using Mod Podge. I thought this created a really fun embellishment. I distressed all the paper layers and sponged on additional distress ink and them assembled my card.

The Ways to Use It Challenge on SCS today was to find a way to use silver of some kind on our project.  We could use brads, eyelets, glitter, paper, and the list could go on and on.  I already had the Bronc Buster set out on my desk from last night and thought it would be fun to create a big, silver buckle with the Genuine -The One & Only image.

I applied versa directly to a piece of cardstock and sprinkled silver embossing powder over it and heated. While the powder was still hot and melted  I poured another layer of powder on and heated again, repeating this process to create five layers.  I stamped the image in Versa to coat and protect and stamped it directly into the the fifth hot and melted layer and held it firmly in place for several seconds. I would love to tell you that my first attempt worked perfectly but it didn't as the stamp had slipped a little when I first applied it.  I did not have to start over though as I only had to heat the embossing powder again to melt it back into perfectly flat surface and re-stamp.  The second time was much better. While the powder was still warn I used one of my eyelet tools to add distress marks around the image. I used the same process to create the little star charm and cut it out. I braided three strands of silver cord to create a silver chain for the star. I cut the buckle piece of paper down to size a little and then rounded the corners to match the line of the stamped image. I used a gray and beige Copic Marker to distress and age the buckle, the star and the chain.  The alcohol ink in the markers is harmful to embossing powder and thus allows you to get the appearance of wear, rust and aging. I can't imagine a guy busting broncos for his whole lifetime having a perfectly shiny belt buckle- can you?

I stamped the Bronc Buster image on two pieces of designer paper with Chocolate Chip craft ink and embossed with clear embossing powder/  I layered the two images with a piece of rust cardstock in between to add interest and dimension to the card. I distressed all the layers and assembled the card. I attached the silver chain and star charm to the buckle and mounted the buckle with mounting tape. I finished off the card with a piece of brown twill.  I am pleased with how this faux silver buckle turned out and the picture does not capture how much the silver embossing powder really resembles silver.

Stamps:  Bronc Buster, Wanted

Paper:  Really Rust, SU Designer Paper, White

Ink:  Distress Vintage Photo, Craft Chocolate Chip

Accessories:  Silver Embossing Powder, Versa, Silver Cord, Distressing Tool, Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool, Twill