Thriving Art

  Well, hello deskers!  Yep! me and Betsy are still here and have we missed WOYWW , but there are only so many hours in a day and days in a week yada, yada, yada.....I've been busy being Grandma and starting a new Independent Consultant business.   Okaaaay! On to Betsy, a little on the sparse side.  My Dolphin shaped Ott light finally went to the bottom of the sea.........well, ok, to the bottom of the trash dumpster.  It quit and DH took it apart, thinking it was just the switch, well it wasn't.  Tomorrow I'll go get an other one.  Spoiled?  Who me?  Let's just say yes and be done with it.  I finally moved things around AGAIN and made space for my lap top that won't be in jeopardy when I work. (I hope)  I do keep it closed when I work.  So you can also see an electric pencil sharpener, Christmas card, brick-a-brack in the back.  My calander in the center piled with sketches for some challenges, dry erase pens and fine line Sharpie pens still in the packagi

  Good morning Blogland!  Have you linked up with Elizabeth the Altered Book Lover for the smashing Tuesday's Tea Party yet?  I'm running a little late (for me) this week.  Decided to clean house last night instead of blogging.  I know..............oooooo yuck!  But it had to be done and since I spent the morning and half the afternoon doing some cleaning and organizing with Betsy (my desk) that just left the evening after having a rest in between......grin.   So this week I'm showing the third page of my "Today" art journal, quite bright as it was done with Sharpie pens.  Even though this is a heavy water color paper they did bleed through.  Yes, today would be a good day to just drink coffee and create, but sadly that will have to wait until later this afternoon.  I have a list of errands to accomplish today that actually started last week, but having a funeral to attend mid-week threw everything off around here.  DH and I have become the creatures of

Our dear friend, Darnell is once again having a  NBUS challenge.  Don't know NBUS?  Well, this  little acronym is the brain storm of Darnell's, and it means Never Been Used Schtuff!  We all have it, no use in denying that fact, now is there?   Last year, once on clearance, I bought a set of Halloween stamps from Recollections.  I don't really celebrate this American holiday anymore.  Kids are all grown and gone, but I do have GKs and they love to dress up, and of course there is the candy............grin.  So I do make them each a card, just for the "fun" of it.  They ALL love to get their own mail, such an odd occurrence anymore. This first is for Danica, as you can tell by her name on the card.....duh!   This little witch I found to be a real cutie, reminds me of the first time Hannah wanted to be a pretty witch.   Now, little Taylor isn't two yet, but Grandma can't leave him out for sure.  There are still a few more that need

  Time, once again, to link up with Elizabeth the Altered Book Lover  and share for T.  This is the second page of my "Today "journal.  I have eight nearly finished.... LOL #7 needs a little tuning up, and #8 needs something, but not sure what at the moment.  So moving onto Journal 52 , this week the prompt is Rhyme Time.   This is not what this page started out to be.......but isn't that just the way it goes at times? If this had been my intentions as I started this page I wouldn't have glued down all those scraps of paper first, or at least left the center smooth to paint on......LOL  All the color is acrylic paint, the leaves, along the edges are modeling paste (note to self: Need to get more made ASAP) The falling leaves with the rhyme are die cuts from TH Tattered leaves.  I haven't drawn, or painted a Snoopy in y-e-a-r-s!!  Always loved that little mutt!     This is what happens when I am watching "my" teams play football on

Third post this morning.....I'm on a roll....LOL  This is a simple thank you card I made using scraps form my stash, some left over die cuts, and the sketch form Sketch N Stash   which looks like this: I am also entering this card in the following challenges: The Cutting Edge Crafty Boots: fall So that is it for today, time to get the "running" day started.  Wednesday seem to always fill up with errands.....LOL Thanks for coming by Inky Hugs Krisha

Over at The Cutting Edge they have a challenge, and I thought I'd enter this card in it.   Here is the inspiration photo. I chose to use the beautiful colors for my card.  Using TH Distressed inks to add the background, then TH Tattered Leaves Die Cut for the leaves.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkado, stamped in StazOn Walnut Brown ink. I am also entering this card in the "Anything Goes" challenge Inky Hugs Krisha

Some friends just make you feel like you're "two nuts in a tree" instead of "two peas in a pod"  This sentiment from Art Impressions is perfect to reflect that to my BFF Susie!  Oh, the stories I could tell you, like when we sat on the beach....in the rain....cause our kids were in the ocean and didn't know it was raining!  Or.....we drove to the beach and ended up sleeping in the car cause all the hotels were booked!  In other words, these are NOT wrinkles in my face but laugh lines from having Susie as my BFF!!   So, with Susie on my mind, this card was created.  I felt the acorns were a perfect match for the two of us.  They are die cuts and just simply paper pieced, and shaded a little (kind of like us....grin)  I followed the sketch from MOJO Monday.     Thanks for stopping by   Inky Hugs Krisha

It is that time of year that my mind starts going for the autumn colors, as I'm tired of summer and the long hot days.  Well, the days are getting a little shorter, the heat won't leave, but the temps drop some when the sun goes down......at that is good.....grin!       I made a couple of cards to kind-a get the autumn thing going.  This first card has a stamped image of a flower from Hero Arts, on a designer paper, then shaded with a colored pencil.  It sits on a happy dot background with a die cut sentiment and dark brown ribbon attached.  This was really much prettier in real life.      On this second card the bodacious flower is a TH Tattered flower die cut that had been inked and glitter added to the tips of the leaves, and button for the center.  A TH Label die was used as well as one of my "new" word dies, and sit on a piece of very old stash paper, mounted to a dark brown cs.   Are you thinking autumn colors yet?   Inky Hugs Krisha

It really has been a long while since this stamp has been used.  She is from the oriental card days, and one of my favorites from that time.  I did paper piece her with some designer papers.  The card base was colored with a couple of ink pads.  The gold and red die cuts are Anna Griffin, and the metal finds, in the corner are from a very old stash.  Sorry about the blurr going on in this picture, the operator of the camera didn't do so well.......but I'll try harder next time....LOL Inky Hugs Krisha

  Just an evenings doodling on the sofa.   The background for this page was done ages ago and then abandoned.  It is ink, and water wash with salt dropped onto it, with a balloon shaped left empty.  I think I was starting a challenge, at the time.  So I was cleaning up Betsy and the paint mess I had made, when this journal page came to mind.  Well, there was still some paint left so I painted the balloon shape and sat and looked at it and laughed!  So I added the face in white and the die cut "laugh" as the string.  Now it makes me happy....grin   Thanks for stopping by, remember: Life is too short to act NORMAL   Inky HUgs Krisha

Thought I'd take a moment and do my T(ea) post before going to bed.  It is 11 PM and that's almost Tuesday.......and I know Elizabeth the Altered Book Lover isn't going to mind. Grin This is the first page of a journal I call "Today", every page starts with "Today" and has some reference to a drink or a drinking vessel, it is a 5" x 7" in size.  As you can see by the lower left hand corner I started this last month.  I didn't draw the cup or the crown, I traced around some die cuts I made....no really I did!  This journal came about thinking of  T(ea) Stands for Tuesday and the showing of our drinks, and I have just the same ole cups (usually full of coffee) or the bottles of water.  Now how many times do you want to see them over and over again??  So I started this journal for the days that I really am not drinking anything different or exciting................or, like tonight, I'm just too tired.  Besides I just tossed the empty

    Week 36 prompt from Journal 52 was "Texture", ooooooh we like texture!  I really kept it quite simple for this one.  There is crumpled paper bag, modeling paste, cork and a rather large washer.  My mind was wondering (and I had to drag it back a couple of times) while I was putting each texture on the page......should I add more?  Should there be color?  Well....I decided the answer was NO to both.  I like the simplicity of the whole page, and since it is "my" art I left it......grin   Week 37, that would be this week, the prompt is "Newspaper".  This one was tuff to get started, we haven't taken a news paper in over 10 years!  I finally got fed up with all the bad news and all the advertising that I canceled it.  Well, I found a designer paper that "looked" like news paper ads, tore it up and glued it down!  Then I gave it a light wash of Gesso, and dripped some ink and water onto it. Then came the stickers to say "

Here it is Sunday, and all my good intentions of blogging regularly have fallen by the way side. :-( If you came by last Tuesday you know why last weeks blogging had to take a back seat to my real life...I do have one...grin  BUT that does not mean I haven't been creating....'cause I have!!    So what I have to share, today, is an art journal challenge I was invited to on Face Book.  Yeah, I know not everybody does FB, but with my new business and art journal groups AND all my GKs pictures  I have to keep it going.  Really, if it weren't for the kids posting and the Posh business I'd dump the whole thing!!!  But I digress......The 31 Day Challenge really doesn't start until October 1st. but Nicci gave us a quick prompt for the weekend.  It is a digi of one of her drawings, and I just love it, and had a lot of fun with it last night and this morning.   Here I printed out two 4"x 6" prints.  The one on the left I doodled in and shaded with penci

It's time to link up with Elizabeth for T(ea)  again.  Yes you've seen this picture before, but I AM drinking out of the same cup ( well I have four so it is one of them....LOL).  I'm on a very tight schedule today, and for the next couple of days.  Since I have become a Perfectly Posh consultant I have been super busy getting through on-line training, and tomorrow is a Posh Party and training event in Fresno, about 110 miles north of here.  That should be  super fun even to attend.  Thursday night I will hostess my first Posh party, and I am definitely excited about that. Come Friday I'll probably sleep through the day......LOL So that is THIS week in a nut shell.  If you didn't get here from Altered Book Lover then make sure you drop by and visit Elizabeth and Bluebeard.  You won't be disappointed, Elizabeth has some of her art up today, and her sense of humor is not to be missed. HAPP T-DAY Inky Hugs Krisha I have fallen in love with this pa

Hello happy bloggers, happy Wednesday!  I have had the LAST page of my tangle journal waiting for quite a while with a spritzed and sprayed background.  Last Thursday afternoon I finally grabbed a few markers and pens and took them out to the sofa.  I usually spend the morning working on Betsy, and blogging, but by the afternoons I need to get out of this room and away from the computer.  That's IF I don't have errands or appointments to make, such as today as soon as I'm finished with this post it will be time to "get with today's program". Anyway, back to the journal page and the graffiti, or I'll never get ready to run errands.  Jackie DeShannon's "old" hit "What the World Needs Now is Love" (sweet love) kept popping into my head and that is how this came about.  Once I had it all laid out and lined in black marker it looked really dark and FLAT!  So a metallic gold marker and a white gel pen came into play.  It really doesn&

Labor Day weekend is almost at an end and I am putting my feet up and calling it over!  This whole past week has been a hurricane of activities, regular everyday life stuff, getting ready for two birthday parties and sneaking in a long visit with friends. This was my wine glass from Sunday nights birthday party.  I was going to crop it, but the theme was UCLA Bruins.  Have to say I wrote the date on my calendar, that stays on Betsy, then went to the kitchen and wrote it on Saturday.  Needless to say we showed up a day EARLY!   LOL.  But it turned out to be a great, long over due, visit with our friends that evening.  And that's how I got roped into helping set up for the party! The birthday girl, Karen, turned 40!  I baby sat her when she was in Kindergarten........wooooop, sliiiip,......plop!  Just where did those 35 years wonder off to?  Well, Karen is a BIG Bruins ( LA collage football team) fan, and thus the colors on the table. I went out early that afternoon and helped ou

    New Stash, everybody loves it, and this time I am even USING IT!!!!   LOL.  Really trying to break the "habit" of buying and setting it aside for later.  A new Prima doll stamp takes center stage for this birthday card.  I did a lot of fussy cutting to paper piece her............ooooo such skinny ankles!  The sentiment is a new die set too.  Old stash is the embossed background, ribbon and the glittery sticker letters.  TODAY Rachel turns eight, she is the cousin of my GD Hannah (and Megan), only 5 days apart, and their mother's are sisters.....now how's that for timing?  Well, everybody thought it was GREAT until we started having birthday parties a year later........LOL! So, now I'm off to sign the card and get ready for her party this afternoon.  Hope you Labor Day ( here in the States) weekend has been a good one.  For us it has been a party everyday, and I thought I was getting to old to be a party animal.............LOL Thanks for stopping by,

  Happy Labor Day, to all that are in the States, the traditional ending of summer around here, even though we are still getting summer temperatures! Journal 52 week 35 ........Week 35! Where, oh where is the time (pun intended) slipping off to?   Great prompt for this week: "Make Time", and as soon as Chelle had the prompt up I was walking around singing "Tiiiiiiiimmmme is on my side, yes it is!" Okay so I'm not a Rolling Stone band member...LOL  Even though I was singing, or humming the tune it never made it to my journal page, instead a deep voice would cut in and say "Like Sands Through The Hour Glass.....So Are The Days of Our Lives" Now THAT really made me think about just how fast time does go by, we all complain comment about it almost every week So onto my journal page.  I used modeling paste and stencil, then a coat of Gesso.  The colors are Dylusions Walnut and Pure Sunshine ink sprays blotted with a baby wipe, to mute them, then I