Thriving Art

Have you joined  The Flower Challenge?  there is still a wee bit of time for the Blue and yellow flower challenge. After all the holiday bustle I was ready to dig out some flower stamps and have a "play".   Here is the card I ended up with, and am quite pleased with it.  It took me a time to figure out the arrangement after stamping and die cutting the pieces.  I prefer to use 110 lb. card stock because it is a heavy weight, and I can use watercolor techniques on it without too much trouble. I inked the stamps, then spritzed with water, then stamped the images.....and before they were dry I die cut the pieces.  Amazing thing happened, the damp die cuts looked more like they were much thicker, as the edges seemed more bent than a very sharp cut edge......if that makes any sense???  It really doesn't show in the photo though....bummer!  Of course the cs did want to curl a little when it dried........all the more I liked it.........that...

Here we go with the start of a new week!  I still feel like I'm a little behind, but the Christmas decorations are up..........what I decided to use anyway.  I think I left about 50% of them in the storage containers this year. It is pretty bad when you have enough Christmas decorations to decorate 5 or 6 trees and 3 or 4 houses...LOL!! I DO LOVE Christmas and Christmas decorations!! Poinsettias are just beautiful at this time of year, hard to believe that they are NOT cold weather flowers.  I still have to pick up a few real ones for the holidays....yep, more decorations...LOL!   This card has a hand made background paper made with tin foil over card stock, inked, ran through the embosser, then heat embossed.  This is such a fun technique, and every one turns out so different! The floral image is an OLD red rubber stamp I have had for many years, but I still love it.   This is the second print of the same poinsettia stamp but placed on som...

Here we are smack in the middle of the week....and it's a great day to be alive!    I am taking a little break from all the fall and Halloween themed cards today, not that I'm tired of making them.....*grin*     I have had this card on the back burner....so to speak, waiting for a new challenge blog to start up.....more about that later. This hydrangea image is from a stamp and die set made by Stampendous.  I chose to just use the stamp for this card. To stamp the image I used a light Lilac marker to color the stamp then went back and used the marker inks for water colors....applied with a brush. Green inks were used for the background wash.......but the flowers didn't stand out very well, so I took a black marker and sketched around the flowers.  Mounting it on the black cs really made them pop and I fell in love with it! Doesn't it feel good when that happens??   Now about that new challenge blog.  It is called  The Flowe...

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 ...