Bister Thanksgiving Card

This bister background was made with an assortment of left-over bister granules.

I emptied the remaining granules of some bister samples onto a craft sheet, 

then spritzed with water.

A 4 x 5-1/4" piece of cardstock was placed on the dissolved bister water.

Once dry, I dry embossed it with the Sizzix Thankful texture fades folder.

Distressed the edges with a tool, then sponged with spun sugar ink.

Attached this layer to a card made with light pink cardstock.

Added a home made lace flower and some fibers.

The Hero Arts " happy thanksgiving" sentiment was stamped with Stampin' Up! really rust ink.

Then I sponged  distress spun sugar and some SU creamy caramel on the edges.

Halloween Pumpkin Cards

Thanks to my stamping friends, 

Heidi Wegman, Lynette Stewart and Michael Strong 

for motivating me to make Halloween cards.

How did they do that, you ask?

Heidi sent me Bister samples.

Lynette shared her Sizzix Branch Tree die and wanted to try the Bister.

Michael Strong generously shared his digital cloisonne pumpkin image on his blog.

 Here you can see that I printed Mike's digital pumpkin and colored it with an aqua painter.

Just touch the brush to an ink pad directly, or add some ink to a non-porous surface. I used my craft sheet. The brush picks up color and you "paint" it on the paper. Easy-peasy!

 The pumpkins in the two cards above were cut from left over pieces from our Stampfest. 

The set is Lynette's. I am not sure of the name of it.

When I ran out of die cut trees I cut my own branch trees, 

then dry embossed them with Woodgrain by Sizzix Tim Holtz.

I hope I have not overdone it with too many cards here. 

Wanted to show the various Bister backgrounds.

Materials

Sizzix Branch Tree Die

Bister-various colors

 1-3/4 inch circle punch

  Stamps: Hero Arts, Stampin' Up!

 Inks

 Stampin' Up!--Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Romance, Wild Wasabi

Distress-- Dried Marigold, Seedless Preserves, Stormy Sky, Walnut Stain, Frayed Burlap, Pumice Stone, Black Soot

Stampfest with Lynette Oct. 22, 2014

 Lynette and I enjoyed a day of stamping last Wednesday.

 We thoroughly enjoyed working with the Bister from my friend Heidi at The Reluctant Blogger.
We made some Pin-inspired cards too.

Below are some close-ups.You can always click on an image to see a larger view.

Lynette started this card with a bister layer, adding 3 Michael Strong's Cloisonne Leaves
stamped with

Brilliance Pearlescent Purple
Distress Walnut Stain
and Distress Seedless Preserves.
Coordinating fibers were added.

This card was inspired by Krystie Lee's Clean and Simple Cards blog.
In two places we stamped a rectangular shadow stamp, inking just the edges to create a "soft frame".
Stamps:
Dimensions Clear-on-Clear Dawn Houser
Hero Arts rectangular shadow stamp
Stampin' Up! Nature Walk
Inks:
Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip, Blue Bayou
Color Box Yellow Ochre chalk ink

Our pumpkin card was inspired by Lisa Johnson's Poppy Paperie post.
Lynette stamped repeatedly with a harlequin stamp on a cream strip, 2' wide by 5-1/2" long.
We punched three 1-1/2" wide circles in it.
Then we stamped the pumpkins on a layer behind it.
We made pencil dots on 4 places on each circle to guide the stamping of the pumpkins.
With a Peeled Paint Distress marker, we drew the pumpkin stem and curlicue.
Stamps:
Hero Arts Harlequin Border C3192
Stampin' Up! Little Layers II for the middle pumpkin
I am not sure of the name of Lynette's pumpkin stamp-1st and 3rd image.
Inks:
Stampin' Up! Creamy Caramel, Pumpkin Pie

This design was inspired by Heather Telford's Autumn Reflections post.
We stamped the trees in brown on the paper.
Then we stamped the trees in brown on an acrylic block and pressed that below the trees for the reflection.
Inking the tree stamp in orange, we stamped the trees again, between the brown trees.
Using a post it masks, we sponged brown distress ink at the center.
From the edge of card to the center, we sponged Distress Inks-
Stormy Sky, scattered Straw and Dried Marigold.

And here is a special treat...Lynette's amazing 7 Gypsies Printers Tray all ready for Halloween!
Her little Owl Friend has many Halloween Costumes!

Here we are with our cards at the end of the day.

Bister Birthday Cards

 

Bister (also spelled Bistre) is a granule that bursts into color with the addition of  water. My friends on the  Enjoy Michael Strong Stamps Yahoo Group introduced me to it. Heidi sent me samples of all 8 colors.
You can see Heidi's  bister cards here.
Herma has some great bister/bistre cards here, here and here.

For these cards, I sprinkled bister granules on white cardstock, then spritzed with water.

 When completely dry (I used a heat tool, but ended up letting it sit overnight) I ironed the first between 2 pieces of paper. I used a distress tool to fray the edges on the 2nd card. I inked the edges with broken china distress ink.
On the first card, I added twine, a stamped scalloped layer with a stamped polka dot "paper ribbon".
On the second card, I inked Michael Strong's smaller leaf stamp with vintage photo and broken china distress markers for a multi color look. Tied fibers on the left side of the card.

Stamps: Hero Arts, Michael Strong, Stampabilities, Stampendous

Inks: Tim Holtz Distress, Stampin' Up!
Ranger Distress Markers
Twine and Fibers from my stash

Harvest Time Challenge on EMS

This is my entry for the Harvest Time Sept.-Oct. Challenge at Enjoy Michael Strong Stamps Yahoo Group.

Michael Strong recently provided a free pumpkin digital image on his Born Doodler website. I printed it on thinner cardstock--Paper Company Value Pack. My laser printer didn't like my usual white cardstock--110 lb. Georgia Pacific paper. 

I colored the pumpkin with colored pencils and fussy cut it.

Used the Woodgrain embossing folder by Sizzix/Tim Holtz on brown paper. Then cut it to look like a tree. Leaves were made with a leaf punch.

To create the sun, I punched a circle in a post it note, using it as a mask when applying stormy sky distress ink to the top of the 4 x 5-1/4 inch layer. 

Used the punched out portion to ink just the circle-sun with scattered straw distress ink. 

I made "hills" cut cutting curves into cardstock. Then applied Stanpin' Up! old olive ink with a sponge.

I wrote the text on small rectangles of white cardstock that was distressed with scattered straw ink.

To print on the inside layer, I opened MS Word and added Mike's pumpkin image twice.

I had planned to create 2 inside pieces that would each be 4 x 8 inches and they'd be folded in half.

  I was figuring to make a 2nd card so why not print both at once. 

However, I was confused and thought "landscape" instead of "portrait". 

So I just trimmed the paper to 4 x 5-1/4 inches, which works fine.