Thriving Art

  Hello, Hello again..........Welcome to an other T-day post, a time for linking up with Altered Book Lover to be ever so nosey as to what other fellow bloggers are drinking.  As is every morning my cup has coffee in it.....black if you please.  You might want to get a "full" drink before continuing this post......it's a LONG one......so I will apologize in advance....but you have been warned!!   I must say, you just missed it last Tuesday!  What????  Here in the San Joaquin Valley we felt the earth mover under our feet........Thank you Carole King!!  "A 4.8-magnitude earthquake shook the Wasco area of Kern County Tuesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor hit 22 miles outside of Bakersfield at 4:10 p.m."  Well, Wasco may have gotten the headlines because it happened in their city limits, but it was located about 6 miles west from MY house! Hadn't felt one in quite a while, so the first jerk and boom got my attention, the n

  It isn't birthday time....yet but they are on their way and I actually got a head start on them this year!  This card is for our youngest son who will be turning........well, he will have a birthday...LOL!   The background was made using the pearl powders and embossing ink, really doesn't show well in this scan at all.......I'm about done with scanning, since my camera is sitting right here and it really isn't any more work to get them onto the PC.  Of course you should recognize the bird, he was already cut and colored, making this a quick card. I don't always prepare the insides till time to give them, but I couldn't resist doing this one.  It will be signed Mom and Dad.  I paper pieced the one on the left in a plaid shirt......which is what DH almost always wears....... and I have so many baseball caps and straw hats ..........they have both become   family jokes so it is a fitting inside.....LOL!   I'm entering this card in the fo

Two drinks, TV remote, my readers and my cell phone................all set to watch a couple of taped programs.  That was AFTER I did a post, three loads of laundry (one folded in the basket, one laid out on the spare bed and one still in the dryer) then there was a trip into Bakersfield to do two errands and buy something besides condiments for the refrigerator......phew!!  Why am I sharing this?  Cause it is time to join the T-gang over at Altered Book Lover .......you know, for a jaunt around the world being nosey about what others are drinking!!!!   I don't normally put ANYTHING in my coffee, but I needed to sit down and relax and a latte sounded good.  It is just sugar free syrup, coffee and heavy whipping cream.........a generic SB but I like it a latte better..................couldn't pass that one up....LOL!!    The Smart Water is one I bought on the run.................nope it hasn't helped at all, I feel no smarter than before I bought it.....*grin*  I

All right! A new week has begun.........Wooohooo!  Mondays have gotten such a bad wrap over the years.....having to "go" to work made me feel the same way, but retirement has changed the light on Mondays.....for me anyway.  My weekend was a total "wash out"!  With DH home we just puttered around here....watched a lot of TV ....er....he did.  I'm the one that just puttered around.  We did go to the Spring Home and Garden Show Sunday......but I'll cover that later. If you dropped by last week, you will recall I have been on a card marathon.......no, not one with a prize for finishing, or anything like that.  Just one made up in my own mind...*grin*  My cell phone has the Pinterest app on it.....yeah, I've gone tekkkkie.....LOL  So, while DH is watching all "his" programs I usually sit and play Word with Friends and scroll through Pinterest.  I found a card I wanted to CASE This pretty card was made by Biggan at http://bigganed.blogspot.

Hello, hello, hello again! I saw a challenge......sometime back....and thought I'd join in the fun.  I'm not sure how I got so de-railed but I didn't get these cards entered.  The challenge was: Use an embossing folder to stamp with.  Just spritz some ink on the raised side of the folder and press it onto your card stock. Fun and quick.....CAS too!  I added an embedded die cut hello and it was finished......................... BUT the embossing folder was laying there with some ink still on it........I gave it a spritz of water, inserted some card stock and ran it through the embossing machine, mounted it on a pale yellow and added a couple of die cut flowers.......DONE!   Well.............this technique is so fast and simple I just had to try it again......LOL That die cut hello really got washed out by the scanner.   This is the 2nd half of the above card, all washed out too.......hmmmmm.....I might be having a problem with that scanner..............

Autumn had a super tutorial over at Stamps and Stencils  last week, and I thought I'd give it a try. It involves something I have had around here for many years and was very popular way back when.... Powdered Pearls and Pearl Ex........remember them??   She gave a really good tutorial on this technique.  I did  take some step out photos, but hers are much better and explained really well......so take a moment and check out her blog or the post she has on   Stamps and Stencils   Here is my background all inked and then stamped with an embossing ink.     Once the Powdered Pearls were added and then gently wiped away it leave a shinny pearled print.  Sorry about the messy desk......*grin*  I was having too much fun to really care about the mess!!       The first finished card...............still working on those dreaded sympathy cards......but determined to get a stock pile of them into the card box. Of course scanner will not pick up the shimmer

  Sympathy cards.......the most dreaded card to make, and most of us DO NOT make them ahead of time......and I have always been one to put off sympathy cards until I need one.  I found myself in THAT exact spot a week ago, and my brain just went blank.  Now, that really isn't a new feeling, but I mean it was REALLY BLANK!  I needed a card for a woman I've known for years, and was actually attached to our family by marriage.    I sat at Betsy ( the name of my desk......yes I named it!) seemed like for hours trying to figure out what I wanted to do.....no inspiration came!  I finally got on Pinterest and search cards and sympathy cards.  I did find an old technique I had forgotten about and finally chose to use it.   It involves scribbling a water base marker on an acrylic block......well is doesn't HAVE to be acrylic.....but you get the idea.  Spritz it with a little water and press it onto the card stock.  So simple!  So much fun and each time it is different!

Monday......President's Day.....and NO school ( here) so that meant I got to have the GDs for the day!!  I didn't make any BIG plans for the day, last time I did it rained all day and all my plans got " washed " away........I know, I know....but I just couldn't resist that one LOL!!! It didn't take them long to ask to paint, and they wanted to try painting by video.  So I pulled up  "Kawaii Elephant with Rainbow Bubbles", by  The Art Sherpa  on YouTube.  It is one that she did for kids. I had them use craft acrylic paint, so they would not have to mix the pastel colors. As you can see there is my coffee cup in the lower left hand corner, and Megan's water glass there too.  They started our morning, but we quickly changed water.......... I was out of canvas board and small canvas', but I did have a loose leaf canvas pad.  I did tape the pages to a cardboard so it wouldn't move around as they painted.  They were surprised that i

  Right now I have quite a bit on my "plate" and almost didn't attend the "Tea Party"  this week, but as I came in to finish this painting I set my coffee down and grabbed my camera......... So instead of getting this finished and getting some sympathy cards made I am sitting here chatting on my laptop, just long enough to drink that cup of coffee......LOL The painting is called "Winter Birch Trees" and I watched a video, by the Art Sherpa, on You Tube.  You can see the video HERE .  I still have the "eyes", as Cinnamon called them, to add and then some splattering for falling snow.  I enjoy her videos, and there are a few other I'd like to "try". I also received some Happy Mail from our Jinxxxygirl....Deb.   A really sweet Valentine's post card, but haven't had a chance to get it scanned, so that will be up coming.  Thanks Deb!! Sympathy cards! Ugh! Why do I wait until I NEED them?  Every tine this happens I tel

  One more card for the Art Impressions Stamp challenge: Paper piecing, and it all started with an idea...*grin*   It was just one of "those" evenings that I didn't want to watch what ever my DH was watching on TV, my mind wandered on back here to a pile of AI stamps on my desk......so I followed along behind.  All my AI stamps (and that is quite a few) are piled on Betsy, waiting to live in a new binder. BUT! before I can even start moving them to the new binder Mr. Mojo said "Let's play first!".......now who am I to argue???    It ended up being an other paper piecing project......and a bit more of a challenge. I was sailing along when I had this "idea" to use kitchen towel for her coat.  My kitchen towels are two ply (two layers thick).....so I stamped the image, fussy cut it out and then pulled....ever so gently.....the layers apart.  Waalaaa! now how to adhere it to the full image?? hmmmmmm........glue makes the PT disappear, so I