Does this color make me look fat?

I had a little time to do a fun card (non design team) and I decided to try the bleach technique, which is also the challenge at Blockhead Stamps this month.  This is the first time I've tried this technique and I learned a few things, including that all black cardstock isn't created equally.  The first piece of black cardstock I tried was cheap and didn't bleach evenly.  As a result, the color was blotchy too.   I also discovered that embossing ink works much better than watermark ink (Versamark) because it holds more of the embossing powder and you get a sharper outline.   Lastly, you need to be patient.   After coloring the image, it didn't pop - at all!  It looked quite dull in fact.  I didn't have water based markers, so I tried pigment and dye ink markers (all waterproof), Smooch pearlized inks, and Distress Inks with a water brush.  All of them looked dull.

Since I wasn't getting anywhere, I walked away for a few hours.  When I came back to my craft room, the colors were much brighter.  And I was much happier.  Not only did I do the ladybugs, a rubber stamp from Unity Stamps, I also stamped and bleached one of the Unity butterflies (I'll didn't have time to create a card with this one, but I will soon because it's gorgeous!).  Out of all the different inks I tried, I liked the Marvy dye based markers and the Smooch pearlized inks the best, as these were the brightest.  I used both on this card.  I also used Smooch Spritz on my sentiment tab.

This was an interesting technique to try and I would like to do it again with water-based markers to see if there is a difference.  Have you tried this technique before?