Thriving Art

The challenge over at the  Craft Barn Blog   is   MARRIAGE and/or  AGE.   I have never entered one of their challenges but I was inspired by Elizabeth at The Altered Book and thought that I might just give this a go, and so I chose AGE. This is actually the first page of a new journal, and I am thinking this journal may just be about quotes or prompts, but we will see how things turn out.  Anyway I thought AGE would be a good first page prompt.  I had already made the background with left over gesso, paste, inks and etc.  I did added a little more yellow and some red that turned pink....LOL  I found this picture in a magazine and knew right away it was what I wanted to represent my (me) page. I wrote a quote from Margaret Atwood over the picture, that I THINK says it all about me!  Then I continued to doodle more quotes  around the page.  This was a great challenge, check it out, there is still almost a month to join.  It doesn't have to be a journal, it can be most anything.

 In fact four of them! Today I am offering up four little note cards all made with the Rogue Redhead Designs Winter Women plate #RRD015   This plate of stamps is so much fun to play with, and the vintage images are just perfect for ATCs.   These note cards are just slightly larger than an ATC.  The background paper is G45.  I used a white stamp pad and embossed on black cs, then fussy cut the shoe and mounted it with a pop dot.  The sentiment is adhered to the background paper and then each card also received an old button from the stash pile.  LOL I hope you have a chance to droop by the Rogue Redhead Designs  website and check out all the interesting and inspiring stamps and stamp plates that are available, and at very reasonable prices.  The rubber is deep etched and makes great impressions every time. Inky Hugs Krisha

 Woot! Woot! Time for T(ea) with our hostess Elizabeth and her fur-baby Bluebeard  This week it is pictures of actual tea in china tea cups!  Last Friday I had to pick Hannah up from school, cause her daddy was out of town for a business meeting, and he mom doesn't get off work in time.  Then get her to gymnastics, but with a couple hours in between.  We decided to have some tea together.  I let her smell all the teas and pick out which one she would like to try.  She chose the Berry Mint Classic.  So while our tea steeped, she put on her gymnastic clothes.   Since this was our very first "tea" together, and using real tea, I thought it called for the good china cups and saucers.  She used a spoon to sip hers, as it was still rather hot for her even after adding an ice cube.  This is one of the teas I bought at Teavana.  I did sweeten it this time.  It really was a good cup of tea.  Then it was off to gymnastics. Tuesday's chuckle I bought a new stamp, whil

Going with a mixed media page this week.  Since I am WELL past wanting a "job" or having dreams of some fantastic type job that over pays and not much effort is needed (grin) I had to think about this "Your Dream Job" prompt. I really do not remember a time that I did not want to be a mother and a grandmother, actually I wanted to just skip to grandkids. But now having gone through the process I can't imagine what life would have been like with out my boys.  So, in REAL truth I do have my dream job! The background is Dylusions sprays and some alcohol sprays.  I had spent one afternoon just die cutting flowers and leaves then spritzing and spaying them, and since they were just laying there..... I did buy a couple Prima Doll stamps over the weekend, so one was added with paper piecing.  I dug out all the sticker alphabet (well not ALL) and added the words. Some people are having a hard time with the Journal 52  idea.  I have read on Facebook, that man

 Whoa! It's Wednesday again!!??  That means it is time to link up with the Queen of the HOP,  Desk Hopping that is.  Julia what's her name   (well we have all discovered it really isn't Dunnit, that just something she did LOL)  So snap a photo of your work desk, link it up with Julia and come join the fun as we hop all around the world. This week there really isn't much happening on Betsy, I'm kind of in between putting junk stuff away and dragging more out to get some challenges and DT work done. What's here?  My red monthly calendar, with an old ink pad sitting on it, along with some little white alphabet stickers.  My finished J52 page, that really needs to be put into my binder before I spill something on it.  The post for that will pop up on Thursday if your interested in knowing about it.  There in the back is a sample of a bottle tag, hanging on a glue bottle, thinking of getting some of these made for the holidays this year.  Which holiday?  Depends

 Welcome to T and Tuesdays with the Queen of Tea  Elizabeth and Bluebeard . This week my drink is an adult beverage, a golden Viogner wine, while sitting on the patio area of a winery over on the coast.  We were there for a Winemaker Luncheon and to pick up our spring collection of wine. Here is the tasting room, which is open to the public for wine tasting.  They always pair it with on appetizer and will give  you the recipes.  The winery sits on top of a hill, here is the view you can enjoy while sitting in chairs, made of wine barrels, and tasting your wine.  This is the patio area, where they had those of us there for the luncheon, gather.  It is also a spot where you can sit and sip your wine during a tasting. Two of the employees, that were our hostesses, and got everybody checked in  and made sure we all started with the Viogner.   The tables were set up on a lower level, just outside the doors to the working part of the winery The gentleman in

  A little behind in getting these journal pages posted, BUT I did have them finished in time....LOL Week five was all about abstracts (I love abstracts) This was a ruler and variety of pencils type page.  I did add a couple scraps of paper too.  Like  Zentangle these make my mind go completely blank and I just enjoy the moment. Week 6, which is this week it is all about the lost art of Love Letters.  I started out with spritz and sprays of inks, water base and alcohol.  I love to mix them up on the page, then spray some water on them.  The heart was created with gelatos and then watered down with a very wet brush.  The Y and the U are painted with acrylic and a sticker for the O.  I added some die cuts around the corners, since I had just spent some time playing around with the Cricut. I started out with some quotes in mind, and then some mushy stuff. Like "You fill my heart, or My heart would be empty without you".  When I had reached this point I just went for

Yes, it is that time of year again, time for hearts and flowers and a little kiss?    This cute image is part of a  S.W.A.K Stamps a NON RRD stamp set .  It really is a larger image, but I just wanted to  use the little kiss part, and in doing this made me think of the first "real" kiss I got from a boy.  He had red hair and freckles, so this little guy got the same thing.  Remember your first kiss?  Oh do tell! Inky Hugs Krisha

Time to share What's on Your Work desk Wednesday, as always all set up by our dearest Julia at the Stamping Ground every Wednesday for one and all to take a quick, unedited photo of your work desk and post for the whole world to see. This week Betsy ( the name of my closet desk) is sporting a bunch of die cuts from the Cricut machine.  There are silhouettes of street lights, vintage bicycles, lacy corners, feather pens and ink wells.  I also cut a bunch of simple flowers to tint and stack for cards, or what ever.  I had started spraying the leaves with inks, so they are set to have a little detail added to them.  The paper they were laying on when I was spritzing and spraying turned out just as pretty.  Me thinks I shall hoard that one away for some journaling later.  There are a tea set silhouettes in the back and some rocking horses over to the right, behind the round paper weight. What else? Hmmm, my dirty water pot, small calendar, remote for I=Pod docking station, couple

This week T stands for travel. My cup this week is a paper cup full of coffee.  We made a quick trip to the San Diego area to visit our youngest son and family, over this past weekend.  When it is just a quick weekend trip we usually stay at the same hotel, The Aries.  It is really a pretty place and Sunday morning I had gone down to get a cup of coffee and enjoy the sunrise.  Yes, there is a coffee maker in the room, but not the sun rise......LOL  I did run back to the room (well more like a quick walk) and grabbed my camera so I could share this pretty spot on a very pretty day. This first picture is looking into the lobby.   This is where I was sitting having my coffee, a little patio type area across from the lobby.  Petunias in hanging baskets were glowing as the sun came up and through the trees   This red and purple basket was closest to me, love the sun coming through the leaves and the petals of the flowers. I do believe these are orange trees in these pl

 Rogue Redhead Designs is proud to announce its 15th unmounted rubber stamp plate - Winter Women !  With vintage sophistication, Winter Women will wow you with its fabulous and fashionable focal images, elegant elements and smashing sentiments!  Our mini background is the perfect size to adorn an ATC or add interest to a graceful greeting card.  Winter Women is available for its introductory price of US$12.00 (reg. $15.00) until March 8, 2014!  In addition to the great price on this new plate, we also have several bargains in the Specials section of our website and some fabulous deals among our limited availability Singles .    Here is my first offering from this wonderful new plate.  I chose to do a tag featuring this wonderful image of a woman walking in her hat, coat and muff.  She was stamped with black Staz-On then colored with colored pencil.  Then a mask was used to cover the image while I used a sky blue pearlescent ink pad to color the background.  I tore th

The Rogue Redhead Designs Holiday Inspiration Club is still focusing on just doing ONE layer. I decided to make a semi-commitment to try and get at least one Christmas card a week done.  Notice I said semi commitment ............if I go full commitment I know I'll fall off the proverbial wagon and not do it.   Setting myself up for failure????? I can handle it LOL! Okay, for this card I chose the NON-RRD stamp Barkley: Festive Fun BR001   I stamped the image then masked it off, and took a red stamp pad and swiped it all around the card (fast yes?) I outlined the image with a green marker, and used markers and colored pencil on the image.  I did add glittered nail polish to the snow and snow flakes but the scan doesn't show it well.  Super fast and super easy card.  The sentiment is also from the same set of stamps. Have you checked out the Holiday Inspiration Club  yet?  A great group of Rogue stampers and lots of ideas to get you started on your Christmas and holiday

Time for WOYWW and everybody should know what that means, that's right a day of desk snooping .....I mean desk hopping, brought to us by our Queen Julia at The Stamping Ground! So here is Murphy, a goofy looking thing who is actually a prototype for my GD Megan, who will be visiting tomorrow (Wednesday).  I saw this thing on Pinterest and thought Megan (  a very advanced 3 1/2 yr old) would have fun creating some goofy characters.  You can see I pre painted the toilet rolls in the background. Here's the wide angle of Betsy, loaded with bits an pieces to make our goofy people, along with a folder full of cut out hearts to make sun catchers with.  It should be a fun day.  Her Mommy's birthday is February 14 so we always try to make some special decorations for her. With Megan arriving early in the morning (for the day), and I start an other photography class from 6-8 PM I really don't know how many desks I will get around to this week.  Thursday DH is having cor

notice the note to myself to pick up my wine?  grin  Yes, my friends is plain old water tonight. I really am trying to get myself to drink more of it.  Too bad the water out of the faucet tastes just like the chemicals the dump into it to make it taste better and be healthier.  Humph!  Our water used to be the best tasting around until they tested it!!!  So now the DH and I drink it out of a bottle, that most likely comes from a faucet within ten mile of here, AND we have to pay for it.....LOL   At least I can stand the taste of it. January 31 my daffodils was starting to bloom.  The bud was open today so now I have two!  Right next to this pot is my potted poinsettia, still blooming........now that is the picture I should have taken!! It has finally cooled back down to winter temperatures around here.  We even had some sprinkles a time or two.  You know just enough to mess up the windshield of your card and make a dirty car look even worse!   Thanks to Elizabeth and Bluebea

February sure seems to have gotten here quickly, don't ya think?  Mom was right when she would say "The older you get the faster time will slip by."  That and "Stop wishing time away" when I would wish it was time for  whatever.  Do you remember your Mom saying things like this?  My family seemed to have a ton of them, something for everything! There have been Valentines all over Blogland for some time, but I just can't get in the mood for  another holiday in the middle of January.  So I wait at least till the last week to get started.  I really only send them to my grandkids, so I don't need but four. This is my first step card attempt, and fairly proud that it turned out at all.  It is mainly die cuts and a few snippets from some Graphic 45 stash.  So check off one from the bucket list.....LOL Do you make and send very many Valentines?  As a kid, in school it was always such a fun time, all the decorations and getting to decorate your "mai

This weeks prompt was "Building Character".  So here is my two page layout.  Yes the page to the right is larger.  While my GD, Hannah (who is quite smart for 7 yrs. old) was here last Monday, I was showing her the journal and telling her I'd wished I had started Journal 52 in one of my larger journals.  "Well Grandma, why don't you take the pages off that spring thing (the coil binding) and put them in the binder?"  So while she was here to help me hold this or that I took her suggestion.  Now the holes for the middle ring didn't line up quite right so I just removed a couple of the holes and wha-la!.  The pages are much taller at the top, and a 1" wider, but that's OK.  I really prefer the 9"x 12" journal pages, and the fact that they are heavy duty for mixed media........AND I can still use my binder that STILL need to be finished on the inside......LOL Thanks for stopping by Inky Hugs Krisha