Thriving Art

Goodness, the weeks seem to be speeding up, or is it just the fact that the holidays are breathing down my neck?  Seriously, we are in the LAST week of September already.....wasn't it just July?   I'm not the only one, around here, that is having a hard time believing it's LATE September.......I just snapped this photo of my gladiolas this morning.   Here is one getting ready to bloom too.  Because we live in California, our seasons last a little longer, but this is really pushing it.....even for here. LOL!   These gladiolas are from my Mom's house.........I truly think she was a "flower whisperer".  After dealing with a horrible renter I decided to sell the house.  The only reason these bulbs survived was because they were near a dripping faucet. The sale is pending the buyer selling his other property ( which I am not afraid of him backing out)  He has other rental property, but wanted this house as it is in a really desirable ...

Hello, hello again!  Thank you for dropping by for this weeks T Stands for Tuesday !   It is corn dogs and beer this week!  I rarely eat corn dogs .........unless it is at the fair! So it depends on how many fairs I  attend as to how many corn dogs I'll eat in a year........  I CAN NOT say the same thing about beer! Sometimes, but not this year, it will also includes a giant cinnamon roll....fresh.....hot.....covered with icing and nuts............sound like a junk food run???  Yep! that's why we go.....LOL!!   The fair started last Wednesday and will run until next Wednesday.  The first Friday is Senior Citizen's Day.......and that is when we usually attend.  We get free parking and free admission until 4 P.M. that day, plus it is never packed with people.  Since we are well beyond the years of riding neck breaking rides, we just walk around and look at the exhibits, check out the animals our friends GKs are raising and...

  There is still time to join this month's Mixed Media Monthly challenge ......."RUSTIC"   I'm sharing something I made last spring, and never shared, after watching a video.................please don't ask me which one..............it's been too long ago...LOL!     The video was about painting Mason jars, and other glass containers.  Well, I didn't have any glass containers, and my Mason jars are kept for other things......BUT I did have a few beer bottles!  Yes, that is my Hubby's preferred drink after juice and water. *grin*  This whole project was just to see if different "things" worked, as I was really thinking of using some wine bottles for this.......those are still in the very beginning stages.....LOL!   I cleaned the bottles and made sure to get all the labels off first.  I used a cream colored chalk paint as a base coat.  Once that was really dry, I took a stencil and modeling paste and made some flower...

There always seems to be one teacher that stands out in your school memories......not all are your favorites, but they stay in your memories regardless.  I have two, from grade school that I've carried with me for years, one I loved and the other......well, she and I didn't really like each other, as I remember it....LOL!  The one teacher, that I have fondest memories of, was brought to mind while visiting some of my blog  friends' AJJ-Back to School  challenge pages.  Her name was Mrs. Moen and there are many reasons why she was my favorite, besides just being a darn good teacher.  She was my 4th and 5th grade teacher and she always read to the class 30 minutes everyday, and the books could be of our choosing.  We heard wonderful stories, of course we had to behave ourselves to have the honor of being read to.  She was strict, but always fair and always positive. She was also a neighbor, living on the next block down from us, ...

Friday, September 23, 2016 Royal Colors of Fall Have you ever noticed that, in fashion, the colors purple and rust seem to come "into" fashion at the same time?  Maybe it's just that I have reached the age where I have seen that fashion pendulum swing back and forth a couple of times.  I'm definitely NOT a fashionesta by any means, but I do like those colors. So, I guess it's not so surprising that I would put them together on a autumn card.....and here it is. This is an other of those older leaf stamps, that I've been playing with. Smudging the edges with purple ink..................stamped images with Memento black ink.........colored image with Spectrum Noir alcohol ink..........mounted on purple cardstock  and then onto my very last piece of this designer cardstock. :(  I used a paper ribbon, of the same purple cs to "hang" the image, all on a white card base.   The secret of this cards is:  After tossing and turning a...

Holy smokes! It's Thursday again!  I truly love all the autumn colors, my favorite time of the year, even though autumn "colors" really don't happen around here until mid-late November............but one can dream!    I have had this stamp, and two more like it, for many years and dig them out form time to time and have a play with them.  I swished the edges with Antique Photo, then stamped the image with Memento black and colored the leaf with Spectrum Noir pens............they blend so beautifully.  I layered the image on a black cs and trim to 1/16 of an inch.    From here I really didn't know where I was headed, until I saw a scrap of kraft card stock, but still needed a little pazazz.  I had this die cut laying on my desk that I had been playing around with, inking and blending, then covered it with Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen.....and then just put it aside.  Am I the only one that does this???  Well, it was just what I need...

It is harvest time in my area of the world.  They are shaking and sweeping the almonds........such a dusty time of year!  Allergies run crazy and when they shake the nuts out of the trees all may family have to find an other place to live LOL!!!! Here is one of the "test" panels I posted HERE.   This one has black Stazon ink and the distressed inks were dabbed onto a piece of plastic and then picked up with a damp brush and applied to the image. The sentiment was inked with two colors of Memento inks.  The panel was then adhered to a Gina Marie die cut.  I made sure that just the loops were showing to set off the image. Now there are only 4 more pumpkin panel to deal with.....LOL! Once again linking to this challenge: Autumn challenge

Getting an early start on Monday for T Stands for Tuesday, a gathering of super great bloggers over at Elizabeth's...The Altered Book Lover Blog .  I'm showing my, fall back to, picture from Pinterest again, since I've finished my coffee, and my protein drink and now just having some water......ALL of which you have seen many times.......and I LIKE THIS photo....*grin*     Since last we gathered for T-day I joined some friends for a Brush and Blush paint night.  This is what I painted.......everyone pretty much paints the same thing.  There are a few that get adventurous and paint some thing different....but not many.  All these painting are geared more for the beginners...and there is only about a two hour slot to paint the whole picture..........but I like to go paint with my friends anyway.  I am going to repaint this picture and give it more of a "Krisha" spin to it, adding more detail and a few other things........Might even work o...

Autumn colors are popping up all over Blogland, now that fall is right around the corner.  The end of summer is the 21st and the 22nd is the first day of fall...........and it is supposed to be 105' here today..the first triple digits we have seen in about 3 weeks.... I guess summer wants THAT last word! A couple new dies finally made it to my doorstep, on being this tree die from Gina Marie Designs........I just LOVE it! Grabbing a scrap of black cs and cutting, I simply placed it over a scrap of designer paper, added it to the card base and then a die cut sentiment that had been laying around my desk.....waaaalaaa! I can see many uses for this die in my future. I am going to enter this card in the following challenges, and I hope you take a little time and check out the DT works on these three challenges......you will not be disappointed ! Challenge #173-Autumn Challenge: cut and paste.....no stamps Color challenge HERE Thanks for stopping by, ho...

 You can find out about this year long course HERE  and, within their blog hop you can win a FREE spot..........Now wouldn't that be exciting??? 

I had a couple of requests to repost this painting from Tuesday's post. During the summer Valarie.......Bastelmania Blog posted this photo:   I just fell in love with it and asked her if I could "attempt" to paint it (always ask permission!) She said it would be fine, and I could use any of her photos..........in THAT case I'd be painting forever....for each week she has an array of gorgeous photos she shares.  But I thought I'd start with this one......or attempt it anyway........ I really, really enjoyed painting this, even though the bricks were a bit tricky. Being a stamper, I just made me a stamp, with friendly foam, mounted it on a piece of wood, dipped into the paint and stamped each brick..........I'm NOT the best brick layer......LOL!   THANK YOU VALARIE SO MUCH FOR LETTING ME USE YOUR PHOTO!!  

Here we are on Friday, this week has just woooshed by! Shorter daylight hours are telling us fall is nipping at our heals like a frisky little puppy.  Yesterday I took the morning and gave this floor a good pick up and vacuum, then did a small amount of organizing.....very small......more like......just put stuff away..*grin*.  It is no secret I have multiple coloring devices, and I sat here looking at them and wondering just WHY I think I have to have so many coloring options.  I am a person who does things in mood swings and by inspiration, but really........do I NEED a dozen different ways of coloring something???  Why yes I do.........well, in my mind I do....LOL! Still sitting here in denial, I decided to do a comparison of five ......yes only five.....of the one ones I use for card making.  I used the same stamp and the same Bristol paper and only changed the black ink when it came to using the alcohol markers.  As I colored each...

The monthly challenge over at The Mixed Media Month Blog is "rustic".  There is something about rustic things that tug on my heart........maybe 'cause they have usually been around a long time....like me! In the world of art we can "make" things look old and rustic.......which confuses people who do not live in the world of art.  So it is with this canvas board.  I had let my GD, Hannah, paint on it when she was about 4 years old ( she is now 10)  and when I decided I wanted to use it, I covered it with Gesso.  Well, I had let her use a water based paint and of course  the Gesso reactivated the paint and I got a tinted background.  The way the smears of color were made me think of the beach and I almost painted a beach scene on it, then I cam across the Challenge   and went a different direction. I swiped my Stazon Timber Brown ink pad across the canvas board, with a light pressure, and it made my wood planks. Some black marker...

  La Fonda is a (one of many) small Mexican restaurant, here in Shafter.  We have more than our share, but that's the demographic of this region.  DH and I prefer this one to any of the others, the food is authentic and it is always served piping hot!     It is a walk up and order, then they bring it to your table, type of place.     The menu has pictures too........incase you can't read Spanish.......LOL!  The prices are reasonable for this area. You might be able to read it if you click on the photo and enlarge it......or just take my word for it...*grin*   I snuck a picture, over the wall, where we were sitting, not many people last Tuesday.  It is usually packed at lunch time, but this was the day after Labor Day.  Rather a boring place, no art on the walls at all, there are three TVs, all on Spanish stations.  All I have is a very limited amount of Spanish, so I occasionally catch a word here ...

  The AJJ (Art Journal Journey)  challenge, this month, is "Back to School" which was chosen by Elizabeth the Altered Book Lover and her co-pilot Bluebeard.    I was putting things away and as I grabbed my journal it just flew open to a new page and said "Begin NOW!  Oooooookay, I reached for a little blue Memento ink pad and swiped it across the page, then an ocher colored one.  Some stamps came into play, then stencils were used along with some Stazon ink........now what???  All I could think was "When is recess and what time is lunch?" Standard questions for the first day of grade school don't cha think? So I wrote them in with a marker and put a red boarder around them. I did use a piece of chalk duct tape and a white Gel pen at the top, in remembrance of the "old" chalk boards we used to have in school. DONE!.........and journal is now resting in it's proper place *grin*   Have a great weekend, hope it is full...

Oh yes, over at the CASology Blog there is a "beach" challenge for this week, seems a little strange for a fall challenge eh?  It is a final salute to summer.............makes sense now?   CAS stands for Clean And Simple, and this card was super easy to make.   ..........what I used....those are Inkadinkado stamps.  The blank white, to the right is just a clear piece of plastic over a scrap of white so I can see the inks. Since I do not (gasp!) have an TH Distress markers (I know how do I not own more markers) I simply take my TH Distress ink pads and put a little swipe on the plastic......it really doesn't take much!! I did use two stamps, and here I have masked the first, with the shells and the second is the beach sign.  They just seemed to go together for me. ( the spray bottle is just for photo purposes) Since these stamp pads are water based a damp paint brush will turn them into liquid.  The more water, the lighter the colo...