Back after a short break. . .

The new grandchild arrived and he's wonderful, so I've been busy. But, no matter how busy you are, there's always time for discovery. Recently I needed to make a "pin the tail on an animal" for our 2 yr. old grand daughter's Birthday. The animal was gray and I didn't have the correct color, but I did have a blue piece of poster board. I decided to do a sun bleach. Poster board is cheap, non-archival paper, so I knew it would bleach in the sun. I made an outline of the animal on a large sheet of paper, cut the animal out and lightly taped the outline down on the poster board. I put it out in the sun for a few hours. Ta-da! When I retrieved the poster board and removed the outline, I had a perfect, gray animal on the bright blue poster board which I went on to enhance with marker and paint.

This is a similar inexpensive and fun craft. Here's an easy way to do a sun bleach:

1. Get a sheet of construction paper and collect some items.

 2. Place the items on the paper and put it in the direct sunlight for several hours. (Use rolled tape pieces to hold the items in place if necessary.)

 3. Remove the items and see how the sun has bleached out the paper all around the items.

4. Outline the items if you wish.




Craft stores sell paper that is light sensitive and this process works faster using specialty paper, but any cheap construction paper will bleach out, so save the money. Try this fun project at home. Have fun!