Thriving Art

Confused?  Are you here for T-stand For Tuesday with Elizabeth and Bluebeard?   OR are you here for WOYWW 243 with Julia at The Stamping Ground?   I really don't like to double post, but technically it is still Tuesday (night) here and I really didn't want to miss a T Stands for Tuesday, BUT I see that Julia has already got her post up for WOYWW.  AND I am bone tired tonight, so here's my FIRST double post.....SORRY Elizabeth and Julia, just too tired to do two tonight.  So it your here for T then keep reading, IF your here for WOYWW then you cans just scroll down to the WOYWW heading OR if your want to do both go for it!  LOL I'm keeping it short for both!     Let's have tea first.  I set up a little vignette of my tea cup, tonight's tea and two old tea pots  that I brought home when we sold our cabin in the mountains.  We bought the cabin when our boys were quite young and it was furnished,  She didn't ta...

This is my second "One Layer Elegance" Christmas card for this January's challenge over at Rogue Redhead Designs-Holiday Inspiration Club.   This card was a tad bit quicker than the Last card I made.  I only used two masks to create the ribbon in the middle, used the holy stamp from the RRD Christmas Cheer plat RRD014  and repeatedly stamped the image across the card.  Using a ruler and red felt pen I drew the lines and then colored just the berries.  The Sentiment is from the same plate of stamps and red Staz-On ink.  I did do a boarder of holly on the inside of the card and I'm thinking I'll do the same boarder on the envelope.  I don't usually do matching envelopes, but making my cards this far in advance I have the TIME!  What a concept, huh?   You would think it would be easy to make Christmas cards in January, and normally it would (here it comes...LOL...) BUT It was nearly 80'(F) today.......January 25!!  Our Janua...

What makes me smile?  There were so many things on my list I did two pages, actually I couldn't take leaving a big white page (the back of the week 2 page) glaring at me.  I don't know if I will continue doing two pages per prompt or just get smart enough to a week on each side. The fellas at the top left are my sons.  Astute business men, both of them, but funny people to be around and will always make you smile.  Then of course my grandies for sure, but never to be left out is my best pal Dyna.  New Washi tape, blooming flowers, getting inky and painty , sun rises, sun sets, art, good wine, old rock N roll; all these things, and more make me smile too.  What makes you smile? Inky Hugs Krisha

You don't know about the Holiday Inspiration Club ?  It is hosted by Rogue Redhead Designs Click on either to get all the details.  The challenge this month is One Layer Elegance.  For this card I chose a snowflake embossing folder with an easy oval frame., and just ran the front through.  I laid the easy frame over the front and drew a green oval.  I also used the same easy frame to cut a mask to open the oval and cover the card face.  I stamped the Santa image ( RRD014-Christmas Cheer  ) with black StazOn ink, then cut a mask to cover the image.  Once the image and the front of the card were safely masked I chose the holy, from the same plate and stamped it with green ink to create the background behind Santa. After removing the masks I colored his hat with a marker and face and highlights with pencil. WAALA! a elegant one layer card! This Christmas Cheer, 1/2 plate, RRD014 is on SALE for only $10.00 until January 31.  It has some...

Isn't Parisian a cool description??  Since the Rogue Red Head's Rebel challenge #31 is paper piecing I had to take the challenge......right?  Actually I was over at Hobby Lobby, wondering around with my nifty 50% of one item coupon and I saw this roll of ribbon.  Well the lights flashed and the bells went off! ( and people were beginning to stare)  I knew right then exactly what I was going to do.  Back over to the pretty papers I flew and found just what I needed.  On an embossed background I stamped one of the Milliner Misses plate RRD007 , then pieced in the pink paper hat with black and white trim. I did use a pen for the top of the hat and the brim.  Her jacket was pieced with the same black and white print that is also the background print.  The pink ribbon was added and over that the black Eifel Tower ( my new TH die, LOVE IT)  The sentiment is from the RRD plate RRD011 Nature Notes, stamped on pink and two black rhinestones ...

Well I see the leader of the pack, Julia Dunnit , has already set up the link for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday .  That means it is time to PLAY!  Want to join this pack of weekly desk hoppers?  Just click on Julia's name, the other link will take you to the explanation of this phenomenon.   This week Betsy is sporting a clean mat that was proudly displayed yesterday, as you can see it is still clean but things are creeping back to the center (actually I dropped the Washi tape box there when I got home from Costco (( a big box store here in the US)).  Around the edges, of said box, is my nasty cleaning rag that hasn't made it to the hamper yet, the tip of my red monthly planner, a Christmas card that needs to get posted (probably Thursday) My water bottle, standard    containers of necessary junk   err tools and to the right of the box are some stamps that I used to make the card and a lone pair of scissors.  The pink page is the...

 "Holy tea cups Batman it's Tuesday"  "That's right Robin, and time to link up with Elizabeth and Bluebeard" LOL Ok so that is a little on the goofy side I admit, but hey it is that time of week again.  Time to go a blog hopping and see what everybody else is drinking today.  Won't you join us, just click on the link and find out what it is all about. This week my first picture is of a card I made a loooooooooog time ago.  I had entered it in a contest at a local stamp store that has been gone for ions.  I won a prize for it, but it has been so long ago I don't remember what I won.  I figure I made this card somewhere around 1998, due to the fact I entered the contest before I started submitted things to the Summerset Studio magazine and finally got published in 2001.   I have kept all the cards I've made that have won something or got published, and that is why I STILL have this card. LOL Talk about hoarding!    ...

Happy Monday peeps!  Yep, it's good ole Monday again and time for a new challenge over at The Cheerful Stamp Pad.   For the next two weeks the challenge weeks the challenge ( #78) will be "A snowy day".  Well now that fits for most of our friends in the northern and eastern part of the US, but here in SOCAL we are experiencing draught conditions.  The last rain we had was in November and there is NO snow in the mountains, and today was a balmy 74" F.  But I digress...... For challenge #78- a snowy day I decided to do a small hanging using a Victorian image From Vintage Image Crafts.  I used a piece of chip board and ran modeling past through a stencil.  Next was a good coat of Gesso.  I used my Gelatos for the coloring of the background, spritzing with water to get it down in the stencil grooves.  Once that was dry I sanded the high spots with a large, fine fingernail file, then dry brushed the edges with Gesso. The image was a...

Yowzers! This has been one busy week for me!  I have been sitting here tonight getting caught up on getting DT work posted.  I bet you thought I forgot all about using my own prompts, but here is the effort for this week.  The two prompts I drew were #1. use only ink and #2. use felt pens.  Good thin felt pens have ink in them LOL!!  Using my Jofy stamps I inked them with my felt tip pens, gave them a light spritz and stamped the images.  It looked a little blagh, so I drew around the edges, and added some color to some of the open areas.  I chomped the corners to follow the lines I drew.  I NOW like the light and airy feel to the card. I have found myself in need of birthday and thank you cards, with this simple technique I should be able to crank out a bunch of them.......................ok, one or two more at least. That's it for this quickly ending Saturday night. Hope you are all having a very creative weekend. How did your week ...

Here is my journal page for week two, the prompt was "somewhere simple".  I always find life at the beach to be much simpler, no phones, no t.v. and no intranet.  I love to get up and out before anybody else is awake, have my coffee and walk the beach.  I usually come back with pockets full of sand dollars and interesting bits of shells, especially if it is a low tide.  These pictures I took last September as the sun came up over the sand dunes.  It was just breath taking and these pictures really don't do that sun rise any justice.  These are just three of about twenty I took that morning.  It was so quiet (no quads, dirt bikes or dune buggies)  just me, the birds and the gorgeous waves. Yep! I really ready for a beach trip now. The background was made with Gelatos and spray inks.  After I added the pictures I went around the edges of the page with Gesso and a dry brush. Let me know you were here with a quick comment and I will ...

Betsy is all set and ready for me to work on my Journal 52 page, and my The Documented Life Journal.  All that seems to be missing is.....ME! LOL.  I decided to take a crafting break and clean house today (still Tuesday here) but before I did I just "got everything ready" to go for tomorrow! Starting on the left is the pile of journals, red one on the bottom is my monthly planner, then the Journal 52 binder and on top is my Documented Life journal.  Even a blank page is sitting ready in the middle, with my pencil.  Two printed pictures of the beach I took last summer are laying there, haven't decided if I will use them yet.  Around the edges are the same things that seem to be there every week.. Thanks to Julia our WOYWW hostess for allowing us to link up pictures of our work spaces so we can hop around the world and check what everybody else is doing. I did get my painting finished  Hanging in spare bedroom close up of textures I added m...

Good morning world!  It's Tuesday so your are most likely here for T stands for Tuesday with Elizabeth and Bluebeard  , if not welcome anyway, and you might want to check this weekly T-day out and join us! I was out at the mall last Friday to get my rings checked and cleaned, and while waiting I walked out into the mall.  There was a young lady, at Teavana, giving samples of tea away, and I thought "why not?"  The tea was wonderful and of course she proceeded to walk me inside to other tea samples. (She is a VERY good sales person, or I'm just a sucker....LOL) She was very knowledgeable about their tea, and very interesting to talk to, and also told her about T-day. ( I had left my phone in the truck and was really kicking myself  for not getting pictures of this place.....NEXT time.)    So I took the bait! Oh Ya, I bought some teas....LOL I bought this cup that will brew one cup at a time, see the little strainer in the middle?...

I think everybody is looking toward spring this year with so much cold weather.  I live in SOCAL and I'm looking forward to getting out in the yard and getting things cleaned up, but I know it is WAY too early for that! My tag was treated with Gesso then spritzed with inks.  I used a stamp image that came free with a magazine, they are called Pettit Prints. I used a Recollections pen on the can and gel pens on the flowers.  The sentiment is from different alphabet stamps I have.  I finger pleated the ribbon down the side and tie the tag with the same matching ribbon. This is my DT piece for the second week of challenge 77-use some ribbon over at The Cheerful Stamp Pad There is time to link up and play along with the challenge. See you there Inky Hugs Krisha

So here is the cover of my "new" art journal for Journal 52, just a 3 ring binder that I got all painty and inky with. You can get the details of Journal 52 HERE, a good place to start.  It is a FREE art journal workshop, don't forget to join the Facebook group if you can.  Why the Just under the wire in the title?  Well tomorrow they will give a prompt for this coming week, and I just finished week one LOL This is a plastic ( cheap version) binder, so I took it out side and sprayed it with Kiltz Primer.  I have used this before on plastic binders and it really works well when you want to decorate the binder. This is actually a re-do of what I started with, decided to go a different direction after watching a video by Cheery Lynn Designs, you can watch the video HERE  a REALLY GREAT video! I used acrylic paint and spray inks over the modeling paste was scraped through different stencils,  and adding strips of ribbon. Then I added die cut cl...

Drawing TWO prompts this week and what I drew was: use colored pencil and the second was use a stencil. UA HA!  ( you cab see the list of prompts HERE ) So in needing a thank you card in a hurry this is what I came up with.  I used a large flower stencil and my Inktense water color pencils.  After letting the flower and zig-zag, dry from running a damp/wet brush over the pencil; I laid the stencil back over the both and outlined it with a black Sharpie and doodled the circles.  A quick sentiment from Recollections and the card was finished!  Love to hear your comments if you drop by. Keeping it short and sweet Inky Hugs, Krisha

Sometimes DT work can be a challenge, and I had been wrestling around with what I wanted to do for this week.  I wanted to use my "new" stamps, but they are Christmas, and let's face it I am running on a burn out there! LOL   This started as a test of a new stamp from Rogue Redhead Designs' new Christmas Cheer (RRD 014) plate.  The test image is the spear looking image, once I stamped the image I was in love with it, and I had just used a scrap of cs.  Ok, what now?  Needing to do something different than Christmas style cards, I chose the sentiment from Rogue Redhead Designs This N That (RRD013)  plate and brought it close to the spear.  Masked off a square and shaded it with colored pencil, also adding a shade to the square itself and to the spear, still on the scrap of cs. The main white square is raised on pop dots and then mounted to the dark brown.  This is all mounted to a card base the same color as the main square.  I adde...

WOOT! WOOT! It's once again time for  WOYWW   with our illustrious hostess Julia Dunnit at the helm of this most notorious group of snoopers , errr I mean desk hoppers. This week Betsy is loaded with paints, dirty water pot, bottle of water (for drinking) paper plates full of dried paint, dirty rag, owl pot full of brushes, a bottle of Mod Podge and a journal page that got the very last drops of paint I could scrape off the plate.....LOL So where did the majority of all this paint go? HERE: I've had this wall rub on for some time and just haven't decided what I wanted to do with it.  Then as I was straightening the spare bedroom I grabbed the board and the rub on and got started.  So I kind of gave it a background of paint, let it dry and added the rub on. Then ran a coat of Mod Podge over it to keep it on for good.  On the corner is a heat I doodled over the weekend (check out last post)  Once I get a few more collage elements on I'll ...

It's time for T with Elizabeth and Bluebeard again.  Click on the link to find out what this is all about.  The house is very quiet this morning, DH is working and I don't even have my music turned on. My "mug" shot this week is my stay calm and move on cup that has plain ole black coffee in it, as it is still early in the AM here.  I admit this is almost a WOYWW photo, and if my day gets any busier it will be.  LOL   I know most of you "make" your calendars, and I really admire that, but I am a person that needs to see more than one month at a time.  So, while at the $$ store I picked up a cheap monthly calendar book.  I do mean cheap, pages are super thin, but hey! It was only $1.00!  I spent some time yesterday making some notes, adding DT deadlines, T-days, WOYWW days and making sure I marked when my photography classes start next month.  I am retaking the photography class I took in the fall.  It was a really good ...

Hello, and Happy Monday..........oh come now, you knew Monday would be back around after the weekend!  LOL Today is the start of a new challenge over at The Cheerful Stamp Pad !  For the newt TWO weeks the challenge will be "to use some ribbon".  How easy is that?? Here is my DT project for this week: Using a white cs base, I ran the front cover through my dot embossing folder, then added three strips of ribbon in a Washi tape fashion, repeating the dot pattern.  I found some matching buttons in my stash that matched the ribbons, so they were added to the far right.  A sentiment from Rogue Redhead Designs on a die cut finished it off. Quite a simple card, and I really like Washi tape, but it is so expensive and I never can decided on a design/color so I usually walk away without any. :0 !  I have  decided that I can start using that stash of ribbon as Washi ribbon, now HOWS THAT for a new term? LOL Take some time to join up with t...

  It's Sunday Madness!!!  Yep! Seems like this morning has been a mad dash to get DT work posted for this week, along with life's other little offerings.   Have ya ever started a project and nothing seems to go the way you have it pictured in your mind?  I know dumb question, LOL  I started this DVD book for one of my BFFs that was at our holiday reunion party before Christmas.  It is just a DVD of all the picture I took that night.  It was going to just be something simple, but decorative, with a few pictures on the inside and the DVD in a envelope that made the back cover.    Well, I finally finished it, what a struggle it was let me tell you! I used designer cardstock and a shimmery copper that I "dry embossed", thus checking off my first prompt from last week. YEAH!  I also used a dry embossing folder for tomorrow's DT piece, that's TWO for ONE prompt!   This booklet finally came together in a little less than...

These cards were made a couple years back, but STILL rank my favorites for this time of year, thought I would share them again. Yep! Time to relax, well maybe to some degree.  My crafting space needs a good going through. Number 1 resolution?  I don't make resolutions, haven't for many years.  It took me a long time to realize they are just a fantasy of my own making....LOL But I am a list maker, and always have been.  I make list for everything from what I need to clean to what new stash I want, to listing the stores I need to go to in the order I need to get to them.  Compulsive?  Probably so.... So I have been thinking about getting started with crafting, card making and stamping for the new year (that's today). I decided to make me a list of prompts to get me jump started.  I plan on cutting them apart, folding them and putting them into a container.  Then draw one out and take the challenge prese...