I Brake For....Bisters!

Hello crafty friends.  Nancy here and today I am sharing a gift bag made using Bisters for the colors.

 Bister is a wood stain that creates beautiful backgrounds. It is water soluble. To use, put a tiny amount on card stock and spray with water. You can use a light spray or a heavier spray, depending on the background that you want to achieve.

You can find Bisters on the IBFS store here.

For my bag I used Bisters in the Mahogany and Green colors to make the Poinsettias,  leaves and the background on the bag.  These colors have a rich and rustic look to them. They are beautiful and it is hard to capture the colors in a photo.

For the main flower I sprinkled mahogany bister on watercolor paper and spritzed water.  Here is what it looks like before cutting out the shapes.  The color is a rich dark red.

Here are the poinsettia die cuts -I used the Spellbinders Poinsettia dies.  I just put the pieces together and attached a dark red glittery  pearl to the center.

Here is the sheet with Green bisters and the leaves cut out.

Once I had the flower finished I made a bag using the We R Memory Keepers Gift Bag Punch Board.  I made several bags this season for gifts and really love this tool.  

I lightly sprinkled some Green Bister onto the bag before I put it together -it gives the bag a bit more of a rustic look. I also punched out some leaf branches and a tag with the leftover piece of green stained paper.

Hop on over to the IBFS store and check out all the Bister colors.  They are so much fun to work with!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

I Brake for Animals!

Hello and happy Saturday!

Today I'm sharing two cards made with the stamp set that I designed.

You can find it HERE over at I Brake for Stamps.

Today I used the sheep and cow.

You can get him as a SINGLE too.

On my second card I used

Cow set...

For the fun glitter stripes I use Scor-Tape from I Brake for Stamps.

It's a double sided tape so it sticks to the paper and then you can apply the glitter to the top sticky side.

1/2" tape

1/8" tape

The cool background was created by using Black Bister from IBFS.

I Brake for the Gnome of the Brave!

Sorry about the pun. I couldn't help myself. I decided that one of the gnomes from the Gnome Sheet (I Brake for Stamps) would be perfect on a July 4th card, then this sentiment sprung to mind. This fabulous gnome is one of NINE (9) gnomes and a plethora of mushrooms on that sheet. Please gnote that this sheet is a great bargain!

The Gnome was stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink (Imagine Crafts) and colored with Copic markers. The image panel was die-cut with a stitched rectangle die. The background was added with Copic markers, which were also used to color the Gnome.

Distress Micro Glaze was sponged over a star stencil onto the top part of a panel cut from cardstock. Blue Bister was sprinkled over the stars, then spritzed with water, and tilted to run a bit. The excess was brushed across the page with a paint brush.  This step was repeated several times, then a tiny bit of Blueprint Sketch Distress inkwas sponged over the stars and Blue Bister to match the colored Gnome better. The top part of the image panel was heat set.

Red Bister was sprinkled onto the bottom part of the panel, spritzed with water, brushed across the page, then heat set. 

***A Digression***

By the way, Bister is very similar to Brusho Crystal Colors. In fact, the only difference (other than the shape of the packaging) that I noted was that the Bister colors have some brownish tones mixed in with the colored crystals which creates a grungier look.

The Bistered panel was put under some books to be flattened a bit. It was then die-cut with a larger stitched rectangle die, removed from the die, and edges of the rectangle were lightly distressed with a scissor to add a touch of white and texture. The panel was then adhered to patterned paper from an ancient 6x6 pad.

Another sheet from the same pad was die-cut with a long rectangle die and a speech bubble die. Red rub-ons were used to add the sentiments.

The image panel was adhered to the card front. The sentiment strip and the conversation bubble were adhered, and the card front was adhered to a white card.

I Brake for Stamps has a huge and varied collection of rubber stamps that you ought to check out right now. Just so you know, I Brake for Stamps ships internationally!

Click HERE to be whisked over to I Brake for Stamps to check out all of the goodies!

Thanks for visiting today and be sure to enjoy your holiday!

Kathi

I Brake For.....Bister!

Hello my stamping friends!  I hope you are all doing well.  Today's card is using a product called  Bister.  It's my first time using it and I can see all sorts of possibilities.  You can find the Bister products at IBFS here. First, my card.

What is Bister?  Essentially water soluble wood stain, similar to watercolor powders, but these are different than what you may have seen elsewhere.  IBFS's Bister comes from the Netherlands.  It's a tiny bit more granular than other watercolor powders.  I believe it is made from crushed walnuts.  All colors have a wonderful earthy undertone to them.   They are very easy to work with - just sprinkle some on some watercolor paper and spritz on water.  Or you can put water on your paper first then sprinkle on the Bister.

In my experimenting I sprinkled some Blue and Green Bister on the paper and added water. ( I thought I had taken photos of he background before I assembled my card, but I did not - the background on the card shows a little bit of what it looks like.)

Next I took some Flower die cuts (from a Silhouette file) and did the same - here is my result.

And the ribbon?  I took some seam binding and wiped up the excess Bister and water from my craft sheet and ended up with some pretty dyed ribbon to coordinate!

I still had some errant Bister on my craft sheet so I added more water and using another piece of paper just wiped up the diluted color onto that paper.  This piece ended up being my base tag.

I wanted to try another color so I sprinkled some Mahogany Bister  onto paper....Oh My!!!!  The color was so beautiful!  I ended up cutting some leaf shapes with this color - here they are.  This color will look gorgeous for fall cards.  I have a bunch of leaf stamps and dies that will see  a lot of this Mahogany color! I added two of these leaves to my card.

So..no stamps on this card - I'll add a sentiment later when I decide who to send the card to, and for what occasion.

I hope you will give Bister powders a try - they are fun and easy to work with.  I made a feminine card here but because of their earthy colors I can see these being used for masculine cards, vintage, mixed media and so many other areas.

Hop on over to the IBFS store for all the Bister colors and many wonderful stamps.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

I Brake for Bister Shaker cards!

Hello and happy Saturday!

Welcome to my weekly I Brake for Stamps post.

My niece just celebrated her 17th birthday.

Since she's a little older now I wanted to do something pretty, yet still fun.

I think this suits her perfectly.  She's quite mature now yet still very young at heart.

I used a birthday verse from EVERY DAY PHRASES.

Inside the shaker I used the blue and yellow BISTER STAINS.

This is the same blue bister that I used on a card a couple of weeks ago.

As you can see the original card was almost navy blue.  By simply adding more water to the powder I was able to get this teal look.  Add more powder for a darker look...less for lighter shades.  You can also use the stains to create a water color effect.  Pretty cool results for a tiny little container of powder.  And, although the container is tiny the powder lasts SUCH a long time.  It's so potent that you need only a tiny sprinkle to get some pretty grand results.

I mixed the blue bisters with water as you're supposed to.  I treated the yellow a little differently.  I have a shimmer spray that I thought would be interesting to mix with the Bisters.  I was right.  I sprinkled just a tad of the yellow powder into a plastic palette and then sprayed a bit of the spritz into the dish.  I "scooped" up the liquid with my paint brush and splattered it onto the paper.  I really like the look it created.  It's tough to see the metallic look in the photo but it's very cool in person.

I Brake for Wine and Grapes!

Hello and happy Saturday!

Today I'm sharing a card that makes me happy!

I really love red wine.

The image is from I Brake for Stamps

and it's called 

WINE AND GRAPES.

I used some Bister stain on the card base to look like a little of the red wine spilled.

Then red is currently sold out but IBFS is hoping to offer it again soon.

For now they have several other pretty colors.  If you scroll back to last Saturday you can see the blue Bister also.

I Brake for Bistered Leaves!

Hello and happy Saturday!

Today I'm sharing a card that was inspired by Cheryl.  I kind of felt like I was being left in her Thanksgiving dust with all her amazing creations so I pulled out a stamp I hadn't used yet.

This is called Large Leaf.

The really fun part about this card is that I didn't color with my usual Copic markers.  I used BISTER powder stains to color the leaves.  I used Red and Natural for my leaves and then a little bit of yellow Copic marker just to add some highlights.  I know my fall leaves are never just one color.  I love how natural they turned out the color variations you get from the powders.

All I did was take some watercolor paper, stamp the leaf twice and cut them out.  Next I spritzed the paper with a little water and applied the powder.  You don't need very much powder at all for this.  I use my needle-nose tweezers to grab a little powder and I sprinkle it over the paper.  Then I spritz again.  Sometimes I just leave it as is.  This time I took a tissue and dabbed it around so that the entire leaf was stained and then just added a couple tiny little sprinkles of powder to make some darker spots.  Super easy and so pretty!

I used EVERY DAY PHRASES  for the Happy Thanksgiving verse.

I Brake for Bister Butterflies

{jane bosi}  Happy Monday!  I have an earthy butterfly collage to share today that's all colorful and such due to my favorite......bisters!

I'm kind of like a scientist when it comes to bisters.....I keep on experimenting, just sure I am about to make a huge discovery!!  Like, how to keep the colors nicely saturated and colorful.  For this experiment, I spritzed my water color paper first and then added the crystals.  I tried to limit the moisture while still breaking down the crystals.  I'm not sure if you can tell, but I feel like this piece has some of the best color separation I've achieved so far---I can't tell you how many pieces started with all the colors and just ended up brown :(

To finish things off, I added a beautiful collage image called Zebra Butterfly Collage. It has just the right amount of open spaces to show off a colorful background! 

TTFN-Jane

I Brake For Winter Trees

Hi Everybody and Happy New Year!

Regina here and this is my first post of the year.  Seems like watercolor and watercolor powders are all the rage now so I made a card using the Bister watercolor powders.  You can purchase these from I Brake For Stamps and they are very affordable to try at $1.65 each.  You can buy all the colors at that price!  


I used a stamp from I Brake For Stamps called Winter Tree.  I love scenery cards because they can be used for just about any occasion and for male or female recipients.  I used Blue Bister Powder on this card and spread it with a paint brush.  I love how there are flecks of browns and different color blues. I then stamped the trees with Versafine Onyx Black Ink while it was wet.  

There is no right or wrong with watercolor.  Play with it and have fun!  You can create such a masterpiece with Bister. 

Did I inspire you to use Bister watercolor powders?  I have more fun with these powders and they are very quick to use.  I only used one color for this card and look how pretty it turned out.  Try mixing two or three and see how beautiful it is! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Regina - Design Team Member

I Brake For Pumpkin Head Witches

Hi Everybody!  Regina here.... Have you started making Fall and Halloween cards yet?  I just made my first Halloween card!  I have so much fun making Halloween cards because I can just let loose and have fun and there's definitely no right or wrong way to do things.  I like pumpkins and I like witches so I figured this stamp would be the best of both.  The stamp I used on this card is from I Brake For Stamps by Rick St. Dennis and it's called Pumpkin Head Witch.  If you are a serious Halloween card person, then you HAVE to check out the stamps by Rick St. Dennis.  Some of them are really scary!  I used the stamp on the inside called Jelly Beans and Bit'O Honey.

 

I know, I know, the inside is cutesy and doesn't really go with what I did on the front but that's okay, no right or wrong and I knew I was making this for my boyfriend's Mother, who loves Halloween, so I thought she would like this. :)

Last week I showed a tutorial on how to use Bister watercolor powder.  This week I tried something in conjunction with Bister.  Have you used a Frisket Liquid Mask yet?  I bought mine at Amazon, here is a link to Frisket..

It's very easy to use.  What this does is mask anything you want to keep white if you're painting or creating a background.  I wanted to make a spooky background using just black Bister but I wanted my stamp to be in the midst of this background.  I didn't want to cut the stamp out with a die and put it on the background like I did with the Bister Barn card last week.  I wanted to color the image with Copics as well.  Wow, this is really asking for a lot isn't it?  Here's what I did:

I used 140# Strathmore cold press watercolor paper and stamped my image using Versafine Onyx Black ink and I embossed that with clear embossing powder.  This will keep the ink from smearing and allow me to use the Bister with water and also color with copics.


Next, I took an old paintbrush and painted the frisket over the stamped image.  This will mask the stamp when you make the Bister background.  Let it dry for a couple hours or so.  I allowed mine to dry overnight just because I couldn't come back to it that same day.  It will feel tacky to the touch but will still be dry.  There is a link above for this Frisket mask.

It's okay if you go out of the lines but remember it will be white if you do.  I did in a few spots but it's okay.

Next I made the Black Bister Background.  Here is a link to my Bister Tutorial from last week.  I think it's so cool how other colors can be seen from just using the one color, black.  I see gray, a golden color, purple.  Just sprinkle powder where you want it and spritz with water.  The water really makes the Bister crystals come alive!  You can add more in places or smear around with a paintbrush. (see tutorial link above)

It's very important to let your paper dry completely.  Why am I telling you this?  Well, because I didn't the first time around.  As I was pulling the frisket off the stamp, the top layer of the paper tore so let it dry completely.  I'm not perfect and this was my first time using it so I'll show you what not to do so you can learn from my mistakes.

See in the first pic where the paper tore where the boot is?  I didn't let it dry enough after I spritzed with water. 

 See how the ink is bleeding onto the image?  The first time I used Memento ink, forgetting that I am using water.  I had copics on my brain so I grabbed Memento. 

 
Then just take your finger and gently pull it off.  It will be gummy.  I was so amazed at how this protected my image.

Now you're ready to color with copics.  The colors I used are listed below.  I did use one watercolor pencil, the purple, because I don't have very many purple copics for some reason and I wanted the exact shade of purple I used here.  This was the first time I had ever used watercolor pencils and I have no idea if I did it the correct way but it worked.  I colored with the purple pencil pretty heavily and then dipped a paintbrush in water and just smeared it around until I liked how it looked.  I'm not too concerned with my coloring being super perfect, shaded, blended, etc, because I want to show how to use the Frisket Mask and the Bister background.

If you have never tried watercolor powder, you can purchase it at I Brake For Stamps for $1.65 each.  The Bister powders were put in small containers so they are affordable for everyone.  Try it!  It's so much fun!

I popped up the image layer with some black fun foam to give it some height and dimension.  I've been doing this a lot lately rather than using 25 pop dots, fun foam is quicker.  I used Scor-Tape to adhere it.  I scribbled a black gelato on a piece of card stock and dipped my paintbrush in water, swirled it around in the gelato and added a little bit of darkness to make a ground for the Pumpkin Head Witch to be standing on.  I finished the card off by trying to break up a little bit of the background with some color.  With the background being a matte finish, I thought using glossy vinyl would be a good contrast so I cut out a moon, bats and the word, Boo! from the Silhouette store with my machine.  Then added a few sequins in dark gray to add just a hint of shine and sparkle.  


Supplies Used:
Recollections 110# white card stock for card base
Gina K Designs Black Onyx Card Stock
Strathmore 140# watercolor paper
My Minds Eye - Haunted, patterned paper
Craft Medley Cup Sequins - Dazzling Metallics, Citrus on inside
651 Vinyl in yellow, black and orange
Artist's Loft Watercolor Pencils (bought from big box store) - Violet and Light Violet
Black Gelato
Ticket Tag Punch (corners)
Fun Foam in Black
Scor-Tape 1/2"
Tombo Dot Runner Tape Runner Adhesive
Copics Used:
Pumpkin:  YR12, YR15, YR16, YR18
Dress:  G05, G07, G09
Y02, Y15
Y26 for the buckle

Thank you for taking a look at my card this week for my I Brake For Stamps post.  I hope you'll try the Bister watercolor powder and the Frisket Liquid Mask.  Did I inspire you to run to your craft room to make a card?  :)

Please visit my blog for more inspiration at http://cardsbyregina.blogspot.com

If you would like to join my blog to follow my work please click on the 2 squares to the right of Join This Site.  It will take you to another window and there you will click on Join This Site on the right.  I don't know why the Join This Site button is not working.  I have written to some different people so hopefully someone can help me with this.  

Have a great day!


Regina - I Brake For Stamps Design Team Member