Christmas already?

Last year was the first year I had a bash at making my own cards....and I started early, back in August. I hadn't started my blog at that stage, so no evidence of the actual card as I didn't save any but I did remember it took me longer than I had predicted!

With this in mind, I looked around for a simpler project this year. I'm not the greatest at 'clean and simple' or giving the precision needed to generally making cards too - I'm just too messy! 

In the end I chose a Jofy stamp - JM01 - the sentiment came from the stamp I used for my Christmas cards last year - Christmas Wishes by Lindsay Mason and the trees came from another Christmas set from Lindsay Mason. I added some glittery dots around the words.

Carried the trees around the back of the card too! Sorry couldn't turn the picture around!

So here are a couple of cards finished.I'm pleased with how they turned out and most of them are perfectly 'clean and simple'! Job done for another year!

Challenges entered:

thatscraftychallenges.clean-and-simple-challenge

craftstamper.blogspot-take-it-make-it-challenge-october

Thanks for visiting, Rachel

Violet

Yeah!!! Finally, after a few weeks I have worked out why the quality of my photos on my blog have deteriorated. I have been sending my photos in a small file, so the quality was being compromised.
I would consider myself with very, very basic computer skills, that have improved since I've started up my blog....yeah, go me!! It is a big learning curve and thankfully my husband (ok, I had to confess it was him that solved my problem....yeah, go hubbie) has helped me, SOOO frustrating when you are happy with a piece of art and then posting a picture results in a fuzzy image!! When I get a chance I will re-edit some of my old pictures from past posts, so they are nice and clear.
I have to admit that I still don't know what lots of the settings on the right hand side of the blog page mean, you know the ones under the heading 'Post settings', ie labels, permalink etc - it's a slow journey in the world of computer learning for me - I am leaning more and more on my kids for help, lol!

Anyway, back to the art, this week over at the Craft Barn it is V for their alphabet challenge. I have chosen Violet and thrown a few different shades of violet at it. I started by getting out all my violet shades of paint and working out which ones worked well together.
The main pinky/violet Gelli print background is Violet by Dina Wakeley and the flowers and border are Violet by Graduate. Still really happy with my Gelli plate, I use it alot. The flowers are Jofy stencils.

Funny because the colours that I have chosen are real Halloween colours, completely by accident! I never make any Halloween art as I have no Halloweeny stamps or stencils!

Challenges entered:

thecraftbarn-alphadictionary-V

craftstamper-challenge-october

pennyblackatallsorts-challenge-autumn

Thanks for visiting, Rachel

Echinops

Late again!! Must try better! We get 2 weeks to complete our piece of art on the Alphabet Challenge over at the Craft Barn and I seem to sit back and relax in the first week, thinking about what word I will choose and generally getting on with life and then before I know it, it is Sunday and I am dashing madly to finish my picture and post it!

Never mind - this fortnight is E and I have chosen what I think is a beautiful and architectural plant called an Echinops or globe thistle, the flower heads are a bit like spiky alliums. 

Only the background has stamping on, music paper stamped onto green tissue paper and some more Ellen Vargo abstract printing at the top. The leaves were me looking at pictures of Echinops on the web and creating some stencils to paint through and then painting lots of long blue brush strokes as spikes for the flowerheads.

The dictionary definition is painted yellow right at the bottom, not very clear in this picture though!

Challenges entered:

thecraftbarnblog.alphadictionary-challenge-E

craftstamper.take-it-make-it-challenge-october

Thanks for visiting again, Rachel

A tree full of Love

So, by the skin of my teeth, I have finished my X picture for this fortnight's Alphabet challenge! Of course the letter is X and following in the footsteps of one of the design team, I decided to cheat a little and make an Xmas tree - with a love theme twist.

Sometimes when you leave things to the last minute, you end up just doing it without too much fuss and umming and urring! It takes me ages sometimes wondering just what colour or stencil or stamp to use next but I loved that I just went with my first choices and that I am happy with the result.

The picture just blurred when I tried to enlarge so I have kept it this size instead -  

One bit that I especially love is my star. You can't really see the glitter but I just drew the star, coloured it in with neo-color crayons and over-stamped with the rectangle stamp from the Paperartsy Ellen Vargo EEV02 set - I bought this set with the money from a Paperartsy challenge win and have used it ALOT, very pleased with it. It then has some glitter glue squeezed on - looks fab and the kids oooed and ahhed when they saw it!

Challenges entered:

thecraftbarnblog-alphadictionary-challenge - X

theartisticstamper-octobers-challenge-patterns

Thanks for visiting, Rachel