Splattered Ombre Roses

This card uses the Splattered Ombre Watercolours technique from the June/July 2014 issue of Technique Junkies.  I used Real Red reinker and Real Red paper.  The main stamp is called Roses and it's made by Technique Junkies Stamps but I did notice they had another stamp called Roses.  This one is #S183.

Stamps:  Technique Junkies Stamps (Roses), Stampin Up! (That's the Ticket)

Michael Strong 6th Anniversary Blog Hop

Six years ago the Michael Strong Yahoo Group was created by Hetty (who also did the above card) and to celebrate we are doing a blog hop with a stamp available for one lucky person who leaves a comment of one of the blogs plus another stamp for someone in the group that shares what their first Michael Strong stamp was with any card they made with a Michael Strong stamp.

I bought a bunch of his stamps at once to save on shipping so I don't have a true first stamp.  But the big Gecko was one of them and I still love making cards with him today.  Here's my latest card made with Bister.  I embossed the Gecko with Early Espresso, sprinkled some neutral Bister on the card and then sprayed it with water and let dry.  Here's the result:

Stamps:  Michael Strong (Cloisonné Gecko),  Stampin Up! (Weathered)


Hope you like it!

Next on the hop is Hetty's daughter --  Yael - http://yaeloc.blogspot.nl/ -- can't wait to see what she has to show!

If you get lost just go back to Hetty's blog:
http://craftchaos.blogspot.com

Watercolour Reinkered Koi

This uses the Watercolour Reinker technique from the Feb/Mar 2012 issue of Technique Junkies.  The reinker colours I used were Island Indigo and Pool Party.

Stamp:  Technique Junkies Stamps (Koi), Stampin Up! (Watercolor Trio)

Watered Crayons Koi

Just got some new stamps and I couldn't wait to try them out!  This uses the Watered Crayons technique from the April/May 2013 issue of Technique Junkies.  In all their examples the colours were so vibrant -- mine didn't work out the same way.  But I thought it was a good look for water so I used my new Koi stamp!  I also added a bit of translucent embossing for a bit of texture.  But I wanted the background to be the focal point so I didn't add much.

Stamp:  Technique Junkies Stamps (Koi)

Bistered Dragonflies

Here is another card I made with the Bister spray.  I clear embossed the tiny dragonfly twice then sprayed blue bister spray on the top dragonfly and yellow bister spray on the bottom one.  I let dry then put some computer paper on top and ironed off the embossing.  The colours are Chocolate Chip and Lucky Limeade.

Stamps:  Michael Strong (Mini Wings)

Kissed Seahorse

I used the kissing technique on this card.  I had a stamp with 3x3 flat square blocks that gave kind of a grainy look.  I inked that up with Pool Party, inked the seaweed up with Island Indigo and stamped the seaweed onto my 3x3 block stamp and then finally stamped on white paper. 

Stamps:  Michael Strong (Cloisonné Sea Turtle/Seaweed, Cloisonné Seahorse),  Stampendous (Shadow Tiles)

Salt 'n Pepper Seahorse

Here's a technique I haven't tried before.  The Salt 'n Pepper technique from the June/July 2004 issue of Technique Junkies.

Stamps:  Michael Strong (Cloisonné Seahorse, Cloisonné Sea Turtle/Seaweed)

More Bister

Here's another little sample of all the different colours I have.  On each of these I painted a little bit of water on with a paintbrush and then sprinkled just a tiny bit of Bister on each wet spot:

So today I tried something different.  I first stamped and clear embossed Mike's seaweed, then I sprayed with some green Bister colour spray and then I lightly sprinkled some brown Bister on top.  It was a bit too dark at first so I sprayed with water until I got a result I liked.  Here's the background mounted on paper:

I was going to add the turtle but there's the seahorse I love which also has a die cut.  No contest.  Here's the seahorse on this murky water background:

Bister -- the Amazing Fun Begins!

Here's what I did next.  This was amazing because I didn't know what it would do and I thought it was quite exciting.

Sprinkle some Bister (blue) on paper (I used watercolour):

 Then spray with a water mister:

Keep spraying and soon the colours will all start to run:

I also noticed that when you spray from farther away (so the paper gets a light mist) the result is different than when you spray close up (so the paper gets a full squirt).  The top part received the mist and the bottom part got the full blast of water.  Look how it reacts!:

 On this one I just sprinkled Bister and then gave the paper a full blast of water.  Here is the result right away:

I LOVED this! 

Here is a video you can watch to see it in action.  The video is in Dutch and Dutch is one of the hundreds of languages I don't speak, so after the first word (Hello) I didn't understand anything.  But he does have the pertinent information written in English on the video and it shows the Bister in action :
http://ibrakeforstamps.com/bister.aspx

Here are some many fun results I got:

Yellow:

 Blue:

 Black:

 Red:

Mohogany:

Green:

I just loved this!  All the different colours swirling together!  I'm also going to experiment with adding a few different colours together and seeing what happens.  Stay tuned.

So now to make cards out of this...

On this piece I just stamped on the paper:

This piece I added as an accent to give the card a bit of interest:

Bister - Used as a spray

The next thing I read on Bister was how to make a coloured spray to spray your cards.  So I made up a few of those.

Here I used just a tiny bit of Bister.  I was going to measure it accurately but my smallest measuring spoon was 1/8th teaspoon.  WAY too much!  So I'm looking around for a universal container that is really tiny and came up with a golf tee!  People all over the world play golf!  So I put a small amount on the head of my golf tee and scraped it flat.  Here's a picture with a penny for perspective:

That is the amount I put in my mini mister along with 1/2 teaspoon of water. 

I tried some experimenting with the green.  These both started off with Mike's large Medallion embossed in clear and then sprayed with green.  On the right one I immediately took a paper towel and sponged off the excess spray.  On the left one I just let the spray dry naturally.  You can see the left one is a more intense colour.

I'm an intense kind of colour person so I made the card of the day from that one!  Here it is -- I ironed off the embossing to get this look:

So, again, this was nice enough, but not heart stopping for me.  Can't see why this is any different from anything else that I already have.  This was not the reason I was so amazed by Bister.  You'll have to hang on until tomorrow to see what all the excitement is about!  (Cheer up -- if I was George R.R. Martin you'd have to wait 5 years!)

Bister -- Where have you been all my life?

I recently was introduced to this new (to me!) product called Bister.  So much FUN I decided to give a run down on them.

First of all it comes in 8 colours:

Natural
Brown
Mohogany
Black
Yellow
Red
Green
Blue

Actually it might come in more but I Brake for Stamps was selling only these eight.

I comes in a small jar and looks similar to sand.  Some grains are coarser than others.  When you dissolve the grains in water and paint on watercolour paper you get this result:

I tried to use more water on the right hand side so it would be lighter.  All the colours are very natural looking.  The yellow, blue and red aren't bright.  I like bright and really this wasn't giving me the result I wanted to get so so far I was not too thrilled.  I could get this look with any watercolour I'm sure.  But anyhow I decided to paint Mike's vase with grey and make a card.  Notice how I had to put in something bright!

 I'll show you more of what Bister can do tomorrow!

Stamp, Crackle, Popped Gecko

Here's a technique I haven't tried before.  The Stamp, Crackle, Pop technique is from the June/July 2005 issue of Technique Junkies.  It's quick and fun -- I quite like it!

The Gecko is stamped in Chocolate Chip, the leaf is stamped in Old Olive, the tiny flower is stamped in Melon Mambo.  I used Micro Pearl Pearl-Ex.

Stamps:  Michael Strong (Cloisonné Gecko), Stampin Up! (Voila, Paradise, Crosshatch)

Embossing Folder Stamping Seahorse

This uses the Embossing Folder Stamping technique.  The colours were Pacific Point (Seahorse, paper, sentiment, ink in the folder) and Radiant Rain Majestic Blue (in the folder).  I also used some translucent embossing paste and a stencil to make the bubbles.

Stamps:  Michael Strong (Cloisonné Seahorse), Stampin Up! (A Round Array)

Millefiori

The Millefiori technique is from the Feb/Mar 2001 issue of Technique Junkies.  I used Spun Sugar, Milled Lavender, Picked Raspberry and Black Soot ink.  The layout is from this weeks My Favorite Things sketch (#192).

 Stamps:  Michael Strong (Hannah's Busy Bee),  Stampin Up! (Simple Shapes)

Baja Sketch

I'm slowly getting rid of my stock of Baja Breeze.   Then I can make room for other colours!  The sketch is based on this weeks Mojo Monday sketch.

Stamp:  Stampin Up! (Voila, I Love Lace)

Baja splattered postage

The postage stamp is another Splattered Ombre Watercolours technique from the June/July 2014 issue of Technique Junkies.  I used Baja Breeze reinker again.  The stamp has some embossing paste on it for the bubbles.

This is another sketch from Viva La Verve August 2014 Week 4.

Stamp set:  Michael Strong (Cloisonné Seahorse), Stampin Up! (Sassy Salutations)

Splattered Baja

Another Splattered Ombre Watercolours technique from the June/July 2014 issue of Technique Junkies!  This time I used Baja Breeze reinker and didn't quite coat all the space. 

The layout was copied from last weeks Viva la Verve August 2014 Week 5 sketch.

Stamp set:  Michael Strong (Cloisonné Seahorse)

More Splatters

I love this technique from the June/July 2014 issue of Technique Junkies!   This time I used re-inkers (Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie) and didn't colour the whole piece of paper. 

Stamp set:  Stampin Up! (Garden Silhouettes),  Technique Tuesday (Classic Ali Edwards

My first Vase card!

Here is the first card I made with the new Cloisonné Vase stamp I just won!  I stamped and then sponged the Vase in Gathered Twig and then cut out by hand.  The background I placed it on is a mixture of Lemon Zest Dylusions and Lindy's Starburst Milk Chocolate Brown which I then sponged over with some Black Soot since it was a little too bright and took away from the Vase.  The leaf is a new die cut.

Stamps:  Michael Strong (Cloisonné Vase), Stampin Up! (Autumn Leaf Prints)