Thriving Art

Last night I sat down and decided I need to start my Christmas cards.  What to do, what to do, I have some new Santa stamps from Stubby Stampers, and the new stash I bought last year.....hmmmm. Then I remembered some vintage post cards that had been in my Grandmother's album when I was putting her info on the Family Tree.  So I got them out and scanned them into the PC.  This one has always been my favorite.  The original is almost a 5x8, but I printed 3x5 and trimmed the edges.  I mounted it on a darker blue background paper I had made years ago, then onto an embossed snowflake, then a mirrored silver.  The card I stamped a snowflake in a Pearlescent Sky Blue, before putting all the layers onto it.  I added a powder blue ribbon down the side.  Using the same pearlescent ink I stamped the sentiment, trimmed it small enough to add to the corner.  Powder blue pearls accent the middle of the flowers on the card, the center of the grunge flower I made and the flourish. I bought those p

So, I had this idea floating around in mind before Thanksgiving and had to give it a try, before we took off for the desert.  I just didn't have time to post it with getting the trailer loaded and all.  I used one of those twinkling, flameless tea lites, some vellum paper, a small candy cane stamp and some ribbon to make this little light.  It only stands about 2 1/2 inches tall, that is what I cut the vellum at and about 5 inches long, just long enough to wrap the lite and glue the edges.  The tea lite is about 3/4 inch tall, so I marked the vellum before I stamped the candy cane, so they would show when I turned the tea lite on, I also trimmed the top with deco scissors.  Around the base I added a bit of Christmas ribbon for when the lite is off.  The stamp is from Stamping Up.  I tried many versions before I got one to turn out the way I had it pictured in my mind.  I tried taller, about 3 1/2 inches but the tea lite wasn't strong enough to lite it all the way to the top. So

I feel like I am loosing ground, and fast!  I have been sooo busy trying to get my scrapbooking caught up I almost forgot to post this before putting it in the mail. :0. Just a quick, simple card with lots of layers and raffia.   Raffia being the challenge over at Gingersnap Creations.  You can find the challenge here: http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com Stamp Credits: Recollections Inkadinkado  I have been fighting bronchitis for a week, and the pin comes out of my toe/ foot tomorrow.....YEAH It will be an other week or so before I can drive and HAVE to go back to work...yuck! Next week is for getting ready to head for Dumont Dunes (up on the dessert) for the holiday.  Yep, we will be smoking a turkey, baking a ham and fix'ens all the trimmings there. It's an annual trip and so much fun. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you and all your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving.........

Yep! it is Lynn's 3rd anniversary of her blog: http://trashtotreasureart.blogspot.com/2011/11/three-year-blogaversary-giveaway.html  and she is giving away so nice candy, but to honor her blog friendship I decided to make her a little hanging.  Of course the arrival of my new Rouge Redhead stamps was also a great incentive!!!  So with no further ado Happy Anniversary Lynn!

I finally got to get out of the house Friday, this not being able to drive is driving me crazy! The silver lining is that I have had to use what is in my stash for stamping and for playing catch up on my scrapbooks. So out of the house I went, with a designated driver (LOL) and went to Michael's, just to look for scrapbook fillers, and what to ya know........I found a set of stamps I didn't have!!!! I combined some of the smaller ones with this beautiful Indian, with gentile features, to make this tag  for Vicki's Thanksgiving inspiration challenge over at: http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/2011/10/thanksgiving-inspirations.html   I used T.Holtz distressed ink for the background colors, then layered it onto a very dark green tag.  The Indian, from Commotion Stamps, was stamped onto a light brown cs and shaded with colored pencil and markers.  I had a small down feather (from the nests in my trees) that was added over the image feather.  I used the new stamps, from Reflec

Farm Fresh is the challenge over at the Gingersnaps http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2011/11/gc125-chestnut-theme-challenge-farm.html   I love apples so this, I thought, was a fitting card to add for the challenge.  The basket is from Stampa Barbara, one of my favorites, the background stamp is  from A Stamp in the Hand.  The apples were cut using my Cricut, yes, individual apples cut, shaded and colored, then glued into place. The basket was stamped onto a tan cs and then highlighted with different colored pencils. It became a little tricky when I decided to do a portrait format, but it all worked nicely ( about the third time around ) A little touch of ribbon along the bottom finished off the layering. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my Fresh from the farm apples!

Enough of the dark gloomy, now it is time to celebrate the colors of fall........... my favorite time of the year! Using my Hero Arts leaf stamps, I stamped the images on different colored paper and cut them out. I embossed one background paper and layered it onto a reddish brown, added ribbon, then layered the leaves onto it. They are all layered onto a white card. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado, stamped then trimmed out to finish the card.

Happy Halloween!!!! Posting for the Gingersnap Creations challenge seems fitting today. Great challenge: Black and Gray, but staying with the Poe and fright theme. This card went together rather easily, even though gray is sometimes hard to work with. Sentiments were PC generated, as well as the picture of the book of Poe's works. Stamp credits go to Artistic stamps. After the stamping and layering I added pieces of a fabric softener that I had melted with my embossing gun, makes great webbing, don't ya think? The challenge is going on so go check it out and get your entries in. http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2011/10/gc124-color-challenge-black-and-grays.html Okay, so what is Halloween without a pretty little witch? Here is Hannah all ready to go to a bowling party with friends last week. She is only 5, but Mommy made her a pretty witch (now we know how pretty she will be at 16). Hannah wants the green faced ugly one for tonight, so Grandma will go and do her ma

Okay, it is time to put away the Halloween stamps and start thinking of the fall colors and the up coming holidays, but I had to do ONE MORE card. LOL I love these little Halloween trick or treaters from Craftsmart . I used T.H. die for the edge and then sponged ink over it, then placed a black strip behind the edge to make it stand out more. Spider webs are from Martha Stewart ( I got a lot of miles out of that one ) A little layering behind the sentiment and more orange and black ribbon to finish it off.

After playing with my new Halloween stamps I kept wondering it the witches hat would fit this dancing lady from Diamonds. It finally got the best of me and I gave it a try and it worked :0 LOL . Then I had to figure out the rest of the story......... so out came the rest of the stamps and ideas. My favorite Halloween candy is the candy corn so I danced with that! Embossed background, some color blocking and a touch of Diamondz from Sue Weinberg finished it off. Stamps from: Diamonds, Martha Stewart, Inkadinkado . Fun card and I know just who I am going to send it to! Thanks for stopping by.

Poe, one of my favorites, had to read a lot of his works in collage. The image was taken off the Internet , loved the original old portrait . "QuotethThe Raven", spooky old poem, I liked some of Poe's other works better. I used Cricut for the raven, stamped some texture to him and gave him a red eye, as Poe talked about the eye of the raven. The stamped images are from Martha Stewart and unknown. I am entering tis card in two challenges over at Gingersnap Creations Horror Stories: http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2011/10/gc123-random-redhead-challenge-ravens.html Ravens: http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2011/10/gc123-random-redhead-challenge-ravens.html

http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com The challenge: Pink, Green and Black. I started with a pink marbled cs and used a Tim Holtz die for the edge. I used a light sage green ink pad on the die cut area, then just a touch of black rubbed over the very edge. I use Martha Stewart's stamps for the images on solid and print paper. A touch of pink rick rack for the final touches. This was a fun challenge, I usually think of oriental or cute with these colors, but being in the "witchy" mode I chose Halloween. I getting as many miles out of these new stamps as I can before they get put away for an other year. LOL Don't forget to check out the challenge over at http://critterchallengeblog.blogspot.com

"Three little pumpkins sitting on a fence, A witch came flying by, HA! HA! HA! I'll take you home. and make a pumpkin pie!" And that little pre-school jingle from a LOOOOOONG time a go was the inspiration for this tag. It is a large tag, about 3 1/2 x 5 3/4" made of laminate so it is very sturdy. My original plan was to ink in different colors for the background and then decoupage tissue paper onto it. I didn't like it and started to rub and tear the tissue paper off, and WA LA! The effect was even better....LOL. I did re ink the yellow to highlight the witch a little better and added the bats behind her. These were part of the Martha Stewart set I got on sale. The fence was with the Cricut Happy Hunting's, and the jack-o-lanterns were stamped then trimmed out. I am going to enter this in Vicki's challenge # 27 over at http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com Let me know what ya think and make sure you check out the challenge and join in the fun. Onl

OMG! 6 months since I have added anything to this blog, yikes!! Bet ya all thought I fell off the face of the earth. Not quite! It was a very busy summer with work and keeping up with 3 granddaughters. PC finally went down and DH invested in a new one with TONS of memory, PLUS as much memory in an outside drive for backup! So there were numerous things that I HAD to add, like a new scanner and printer! But I digress! So, I had not really been inspired to do much stamping, but I had been on e-bay buying things ( I have to have stuff, and more stuff ) Funny where ya find inspiration and how it the ole mojo can kick into high gear at a nano-second! LOL So there I was wondering through Michael's, always have to check out the $1 stamps and low and behold there were these cute little Halloween stamps! Now I am not much for Halloween, but I thought I could make trick or treat boxes for the girls. And so it began. I made these little boxes and decorated them with all my new Hallowe

Fans are the theme for the random red head challenge over at http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2011/04/gc99-random-redhead-challenge-fans.html AND red and gold are the color challenges AND because they have been following an eastern theme, with Geishas this card came about. My Geisha is from my supply of "OLD" stamps designed by Judikins. I stamped on printed paper for her kimono and on gold for her fans. The large fan in the background is also an oldie but goodie, but I failed to label it way back when and my memories is toooo full of junk to remember who created it. LOL I embossed the gold background and added some oriental paper I found stuffed in a drawer. It is all layered onto a red card. The large fan was stamped onto tracing paper and the colored with ink. It stared out as a mask to do some back ground stamping and then I went a different direction :O This second card was made for the Geisha challenge, but alas I didn't get it posted in time. This image was

Girls with Culrs is the challenge over at http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/ and this is my DT card for the challenge.The sponcer for this challenge is Mo's Pencil Design. When I sat down to make this card I just couldn't get any layering ideas to work. (Needless to say I now have a few of this image colored and layered onto different backgrounds laying around.LOL) So I went "old School" and stamp directly onto the card. Sound simple? When was the last time you tried this??? Well it was FUN to just go back to basics. I colored her with pencil and markers. I found that if I color with a pencil and find a matching marker, it makes the greatest blender and a strong color. I added silk flowers and pink rhinestones to finish it off. The images are from Imaginations and Inkadinkado. Thanks for stopping by and having a peek.

Yes I have been MIA with the worst winter/spring cold I've had in ages. It has been 3 weeks and I am just now starting to pick up my stamps and play a little. Allergies have been horrible this year and triggered the head and chest cold, but now the almond blossoms have fallen and things are getting better. Over at: http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/ Vicki is having a Be a Sport challenge. Dude Time Doodles is the sponsor and Boni was nice enough to send me "Leif Blower" to use in this challenge. Isn't he just great. So, get out YOUR sport stamps, or what you think SHOULD be a sport and join in the fun and a chance to win!! I colored Leif with pencils and double mounted him on dark green cs and some hand made paper I had laying around here. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to join the challenge!

Heart ache on heart ache......." I've been going around singing, until I finally down loaded the Bobby Vinton ( say who?) album form the I tunes store, now it's playing in the background. Oh the memories!!!!! YES, I am really that old! LOL Such good inspiration for my blue on blue card. The image was a gift from an image exchange, so I don't have the foggiest who makes it, but I really like the results after using 3 shades of blue to color it in, I did use black for the tile look. ( I get to color a lot of images at work when the phones are slow ) Three blue grunge flowers with blue rhinestones, mounted on the same blue cs strip finished it out. Sorry about the crooked scan, kind makes the neck a little stiff just looking at it. So thats my blue on blue card and it got me that good old music down loaded to my PC, now to get it on my IPOD! Thanks for stopping by.

Yikes! I cannot believe it has been a month since my last post!! Where oh where does that time fly off to? I have managed to steal a few minutes here and there to finish the Gingersnap challenge: Art exchange-coasters-hearts over at: Gingersnaps I chose the oval shape and managed to get all four finished Mr. Mojo took a leave of absents and left me dangling, but as I gather some ideas and found the supplies I started on a roll ( I did have to steal some time here and there from the drama in my life ) I did two ovals vertically and two horizontally, using graphics I have gathered from place to place. They are all mounted on chip board and then covered with canvas before starting. After applying the graphics in a heart shape there were lace, feathers, pearls, flowers and rhinestones added, along with stamped images. Loops were added for hanging purposes, if the recipients wish to hang them. I almost kept them and did 4 different ones, but time being what it was I had to get them in the

Oh, these die cuts from K & Co are so much fun when it comes to adding that vintage look to a card. This card was made for Vicki's challenge "Be My Valentine" over at http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.com/ You need to hop over there and enter this challenge, the winner gets a TJ Fancy Fold CD!!!!! I used my Cricut for the heart, ran a pigment ink pad around the edge and used a Craftsmart stamp for the sentiment, then embossed with an antique gold. Vintage print for the back ground with a touch of sheer metallic ribbon and small silk flowers finished it off. The die cut has glitter in different places that the scan does not pick up. I need to spend some time and just practice my photography and forget the scanner. Thanks for taking a look and as always your comments are appreciated. ;-D

....and here are three cards to prove it ( well part of it, still a few things on the back burner waiting for a challenge to begin ) This first one is my Victorian Valentine. The big red heart is a stamp from Rubber Stampede, stamped on a glossy white cs, with red ink and embossed with clear. I took a red marker and colored over it creating a resist, to make the heart shaded darker a the bottom, then trimmed it out. The paper and lace are scraps left from here and there. The die cuts are from K & Company. I have a whole bag of these and love all of them. Everything is layered onto a floral paper, then onto a dark green cs and then onto a white card. This second card has an image that is one of my favorites ( I know I keep saying that LOL, but it is true!! ) The shoe is from Rubber Necker and I have created this shoe in as many ways as possible, just so much fun to play with. I stamped it on white cs and embossed with clear. I colored in the sole with black marker, then trimmed it

Hot coca or maybe a Hot Toddie? It has been so unseasonably cold for southern California this year that warm drinks are in every one's hands. No, we have no snow but the days are GRAY; that includes the ground the air and the sky, very depressing. Gingersnapcreations has a couple of challenges going right now. One is "Hot Beverages" and the other is 2011; that is 2 stamps, 0 die cuts, 1 ribbon and 1 bling . Thecheerfulstamppad will be starting a new challenge in about a week ( don't tell Vicki I have let the cat out of the bag ) I won't go into details on it but I think that a cup of a hot beverage is relaxing, don't you? So 3 challenges for this little fella to compete in, of course he is a House Mouse and the wreath is from that abounding collection of "I don't remember". I used markers to color it all in, then added my lavender ribbon bow and heart shaped rhinestone for the bling . Thanks for checking my 3 in one card out, now I

Two things that I love to do, and one of them I am not so good at any more LOL ! ( DH's fault he doesn't take me dancing but one in a blue moon ) So I was just sitting at my stamp counter wondering what I really wanted to do ( my Mojo was still in the deep regions of the Caribbean on vacation ) I started fiddling with little scraps of paper and remembered my Rouge Redhead Stamps and dug them out. The little sentiment brought my Mojo back and we got started. My dancing man is from a contest I won YEARS ago and do not remember who I won him from, and frankly this is the first time I have used him =O The stack of books fall into the same I don't remember category . The small open books are from Rogue Redhead Stamps. So that is how this card came together on a lazy afternoon. It is good to have my Mojo back home and keeping my imagination warm in this cold winter weather we are having.

Okay, so for a little fun I created this card using a stamp from Red Rubber Romance, and did a little paper piecing. Boy! this is how I felt New Years Day!! I LOVE the holidays, but like a long vacation, I am ready to get back to the normal (?) daily activities. It even felt good to go back to work this morning (: O I did this card for the Cheerful Stampers challenge." Relaxing": what do you do to relax. What DO YOU do to relax? I usually stamp, read, work in the flower beds ( during the nicer weather ) or just lay around and watch the telly. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at some of my silliness, hope sthe new year is off to a great start for everybody.