Thriving Art

Only a scant few days left in the  Art Journal Journey challenge: Light and Darkness  , so this will be my last entry for this challenge. It has been a very interesting challenge, and if you haven't been over to their blog, NOW would be a great time to go and take a look at all the interpretations of Light and Darkness.  I would give you a few examples.....................but that would spoil it!  This started as an old "mop-up" page of acrylic paint. Tinkerbell is a stamped image I just colored it all black.  The rest is a combination of just about everything on my desk...LOL!.......or maybe it was just an excuse to try out some paint pens I bought "on sale" while Christmas shopping! So Happy New Year to all the AJJ crowd, looking forward to all the great challenges you have up your sleeves for 2017!! check out the challenge HERE

Only 4- 5, depending on where you live, days left in 2016, are you ready for the new year??? It is frosty out this morning so I hope you brought along something warm to drink. I know the  T-gang  are here with their drinks in hand.  My coffee always comes with me in the mornings. I came in here to work on a journal for the new year.  It had been put together and some paint put on the pages over a month ago, then set aside as the holiday grew closer and things started to really get busy around here.  I have it set up, like a planner, with a week spreading across two pages......Monday through Sunday.  Well, the 1st of January is a Sunday hmmmmmmm! Hadn't thought about THAT! So the first day of the first month is on the first page....LOL!  Here are a few pages from my trial run. You can see the 2017 journal under it waiting for a bit more of something.  It started as just a journal, a week on each page, but I wasn't consistent about writing in it, until

Twas the week before Christmas,  and all was set just right.  The cards were all made,  and presents taped up tight. So on the sofa I sat by the trees bright lights. Watching Christmas movies, I had taped through the nights. When what to my ears do I hear? my cell phone is ringing ever so clear. My friend is calling me, "Lets do our Christmas lunch my dear" So, the date was all set  and the time was too. But just a bottle of wine  for her wouldn't do. So off to the stores I did fly, look at the people standing in line...oh my! What does my mind remember this day? Oh shoot! I forgot Ronda's birthday. So into the cart things got loaded, checking off the things I had noted. Now everything is wrapped,  for both of these friends, but this is not where the story ends...... Now my memory is old  and starting to fade, I almost forgot  an appointment I made. To the beauty shop I needed to be for a hair cut, so I cou

Well, we are off on a new week................not many left in the year 2016....scary huh? I had this 9" x 12" canvas, that I was never happy with the original work on it.  I finally  just glued some tissue paper and designer paper over the top and started again. I had added the boarders and then sat thinking "what next?" I finally set it aside, but pulled it out last week and finished it.  Still not my favorite..............but way better than it was! Last Tuesday I said I would share my decorations I put up this year.  I really wasn't in the decorating mood and seriously thought about NOT decorating this year, 95% of the time it is just DH and I here.  BUT this year our youngest son and family are coming the weekend after Christmas...New Years weekend.  So I thought I should at least put up a few things.  Now, I'm happy that I did decorate, even though I left over half still in the storage containers....LOL! The dinning room table and fireplac

I was still in the creative mood, yesterday, when I saw this saying and thought it would be a good one to use for the  Art Journal Journey challenge . It is all acrylic paint with black sharpie lettering, and a Washi tape boarder. Do you create first...then add a saying or sentiment? OR Does a saying or sentiment inspire you to make the art? Kind of like what came first the chicken or the egg.......LOL! Thanks for stopping by. Inky Hugs Krisha

  Just finished this journal page, inspired by Valerie's  blog post.  She has photos of the most amazing sun rises on her blog.......and she is the hostess for this month's  Art Journal Journey  challenge: Light and Darkness.   I wrote the sentiment, then traced it with a black sharpie. Then I covered the words with Washi tape and painted all the negative space black, since Washi tape is slightly transparent you can still see the letter.  Once I got all that negative space painted....phew! I painted the sun rise over some mountains. To make the words pop a little more I went around them with a white Gel pen.......now writing over the texture the tape left was a little tricky.....as you can see.....LOL! Thanks for stopping by..... Inky Hugs Krisha

  Art Journal Journey  has a new challenge for the month of December: Light and Darkness.  This is my first attempt at the challenge, stamps, ink, marker and Gelatos.....and a white gel pen. There are some really, really great journal pages for this challenge.  I hope you take a moment out of your busy holiday schedule to drop by and take a look........and don't forget to leave a little LOVE when you do!!   Inky Hugs Krisha

  Welcome T-Gang , followers and anybody else that has just dropped in!  Having missed the past two weeks I am going to do some really quick catching up, but promise NOT to load this post with tons of photos......all though I DO have them....*grin*   We did spend our Thanksgiving up on the desert, only a small group this year, only 4 RVs (three trailers and one motor home) but still a nice size group. We decided to do it pot-luck style this year with turkey, ham and no side dish left out....LOL!  Everybody lined all their tables in two lines, one for the food.....................  and one to sit and eat at.  Sorry about the glare from the light, it was 5 P.M. and already dark, so we needed the light to eat by.  As you can see it was a bit chilly when the sun went down so we were all in jackets by diner time.  After diner we all sat around the campfire and drank a little wine, beer, champagne and soft drinks for the kids..............and then it was time for pumpkin and

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 some shiny decorative paper.

This year I decided to use a lot of my dies to make Christmas cards.....it started that way over a month ago when I created the following two cards......(ssssh! I just finished the insides this morning ) So stating early really hasn't helped me much as I am dashing to the finish line today, so I can start sending them out this afternoon.   I love this framed tree die from Gina Marie Designs.  For this first card I did remove the center trees so I could insert my reindeer standing in the snow.  Background and snow drifts are made from a very fine glittered paper and then I added some extra snow with Pearl Pen.  The snowflake is a left-over from last year. My Time to Craft is having a challenge of Christmas Animals and I think my reindeer will fit right in.     Challenge 335 Christmas Animals      Here is the same framed tree die cut, with all the trees left in place, and an other left-over snowflake. This card I am going to enter in the Dies R Us challeng

    Wednesday, November 30, 2011 My first Christmas card-vintage style 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 fl

  Well, hello there! Seems like I haven't gotten to post in forever, instead of two weeks!  We no sooner got back from our Thanksgiving jaunt to the desert and things began to jump around here.  Good thing I managed to get some Christmas cards made while we were on the desert. My friend's birthday was the 28th, so I spent a couple days making her a journal with a challenge to list at least three things, daily, to be thankful for in it.  I didn't get any photos....bummer....I think it was still damp when she opened it.......ya, that's how close to the wire things have been around here. Next up was the sell of my rental......the house I grew up in.  We had it pretty well lined out, just waiting for the buyer to close escrow on a different property to get the money for my rental.  I signed the escrow papers at 8 a.m. and it closed by 3 p.m.! But it took three trips into town to get it all done. LOL! Yesterday was our #3 granddaughter's birthday, unfortunately t

  Hello T-gang, and new followers and anyone else who has just dropped in.  I started Monday morning with coffee and then switched to a bottle of good clear water, as I was anticipating a new journal page.......thinking "collage" for the Art Journal Journey challenge I've been going on about all this month.......but also something for T Stand for Tuesday . The white line across Betsy is the sun shinning through the blinds......it was a very pretty day today.   Here is how the page eventually turned out.  So here is to all the T-gang !!   Next week I will be MIA as it is time for our annual Thanksgiving trip up to the desert......can you believe Thanksgiving is already upon us??  Who is having traditional turkey?  We usually have both ham and turkey ( because we love the leftovers) and of course all the trimmings......even though we have cut the portion sizes way down as non of us eat as much as we used too. Sorry about the flash reflection, but it doe

Oh, yes, it is THAT time of year when we have to start looking at getting holiday cards ready. This background for this card was made by wrapping tinfoil around a piece of card stock, then using an embossing folder to emboss it........I do love snowflakes!  The snowman is from a stamp and die set and he is popped off the face of the card with pop dots. I am entering this card in Unicorn Challenge Blog #15 snow-snowflakes I do want to take a moment and thank my new followers for following my blog....hope I don't disappoint.

  Years ago I put "collage" work back on the shelf and forgot about it......then, Art Journal Journey put up a challenge.......COLLAGE but with the 3 NO, NOs........no faces, no wings, and no leaves. Plus I have joined a group of Mixed Media Madness, over at The Inspiration Place  ......GAME ON!!! I have pulled all the collage materials back OFF the shelf and have put them in motion again.  I forgot how much I really enjoy collage.....AND mixed media! Please forgive the horrible photo today, I'm trying to use up all my Mod Podge........which glares with a flash.....and move into a matte medium. A little closer look so you can see the designer paper I used for the hearts and the script tissue paper I recently purchased ( but I don't remember where). This challenge runs through the whole month so there is still time to join in the fun.

I have a friend.....much younger than me.....in fact I knew her through her childhood, ( her girls even call me Grandma) and her birthday is this coming Saturday.  Aren't birthdays fun....when they happen to someone else?       So, with a wink and a nod I created this card for her.  The image is an AI image and quick to add a little watercolor to.  She is definitely a "glitter" girl so the balloons were stamped on glitter paper, then trimmed to fit the card. I chose the fuchsia, turquoise, and purple glitter as they are the colors  for the Rubber Dance Challenge for November  .  Such a quick and easy card to create, and I love using a black card base.   Here is the inside.   Thanks for stopping by and taking a look......I do hope you'll leave a comment. Hugs Krisha