Pink/orange piggies

So, I've been viewing lots of altered boxes on various people's blogs and one of my favourite things is recycling! My daughter received a set of little cardboard boxes with different flavours of hot chocolate inside, these boxes are such a cute little size - only 7cm tall and 5 cm wide, very dinky, soooo........

Here is a before and after or actually the way I have positioned the boxes, an after and before! I wanted to have a focal image that was repeated on each of the 4 sides and decided on little 'Cookie', as we have named her in our house, she is a Paperartsy Zini stamp that I won in a challenge! I have embossed her in a black/silver sparkly WOW embossing powder, so each panel has a sparkle to it.

 I actually really love it - isn't it great when you get a pure happy feeling from a creation, doesn't always happen! I'm hoping to purchase a few more ElenaZinski's little monster stamps and maybe alter a few more boxes, I think there are 6 in the hot chocolate set.

Challenges entered:

paperartsy.topic-pink-and-orange-challenge

theartisticstamper/january-anythinggoeschallenge

countryviewchallenges/january-anything-goes

simonsaysstampblog.wednesdaychallenge-anything-goes

Thanks for visiting, Rachel

Pink/orange journal page

I love bright colours and over at the Paperartsy blog, they have a pink/orange challenge. So out comes my Dylusions journal and my trusty Gelli-plate.

I embossed the rectangle background shapes with white powder and painted over the whole of the background with my Dina Wakley pink acrylic paint. After gelli printing a page with orange paint, I added the same Paperartsy rectangle background stamp over this but with a black archival inkpad.

The flowers were just hand-drawn over a brayed orange and pink piece of card found in my stash. 

I like the black 'ribbons' around the flowers, these are quite sparkly, created by laying down black paint on card and painting a layer of Paperartsy Metallic Glaze - I love this stuff as it's a quick way of adding sparkle to anything.

Challenges entered:

blog.paperartsy.pink-and-orange-challenge

countryviewchallenges.january-2017-anything-goes

theartisticstamper-january-anything goes

simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge

Thanks for visiting, Rachel

LET IT SNOW

It's funny how when you upload a picture onto your blog, you can have varying results. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised that it actually looks better on my blog than in real life and sometimes the opposite! While I was very pleased with my picture Let it snow (created mainly for the song challenge over at the Craft Barn, now I have uploaded it onto my blog, all I notice is the doodled 'beard'!! I doodled around the whole of the girl and I like the look of it but not when it makes her look 'gruff'!! Hehe, well never mind, one to learn by.

I was especially pleased because this picture started off as a humble gelli-print - lots of blues, white, red and pink - you can see the circle stencil under her scarf and all the white lines created by placing cardboard on my gelli plate first before I took a print.
Anyway, I do like her teddy bear/sea-lion winters hat with the white embossed bobbles.
The snowflakes are also embossed and shiny from the Visible Image snowflake stamp set.
....and Dean Martin's name has been added as one of the singers of the song at the bottom - this is an added rule of the comp.

Challenges entered:

thecraftbarnblog-the-song-challenge

rubberdance.blogspot-january

theartisticstamper-january

countryviewchallenges.january-2017-anything-goes

craftstamper.blogspot-january.html

Thanks for visiting, Rachel

Silver and gold journal page

I love my gelli-plate....so much! Just had to say......

So, after spending a happy hour creating lots more pages of gelli prints, I had a quiet word with myself. Whilst I do love creating and then, sitting and admiring all the prints and then usually using a fair few of them. I did think, what I really need to do is have a gelliprint background in my journal. Wouldn't that be so nice, to turn over a new page in my dylusions journal and find some colour already there, instead of a blank page!

Well, that got me thinking...I found some good quality thick paper, torn out from my daughter's unfinished art book from last year (oops, naughty mummy, well at least I'm saving those blank pages!) - I thought, what if I make my own journal, with a few pages dedicated for arty stuff each month - not too onerous, plus I can pre gelli print them (love that) and then sometimes take inspiration from some challenge themes. It's enough to keep me busy but not too much!

I will have the year to find out how to bind them - now that will be challenge!

Anyway, this is a page out of my new journal - love that it is still only a piece of paper, it's so much easier working on one sheet of paper instead of in a book I find!

So this is tying in a gold and silver theme they have going on over at the That's Crafty blog, plus it's still only January and 'the possibilities' of creating anything this year 'are endless'!!

I doodled the quote and painted inside the letters with my gold Dina Wakley Media paint, love this! Plus I love the January stencil with silver paint dabbed onto a black background turned out.

Challenges entered:

thatscraftychallenges.silver-and-gold

craftstamper.take-it-make-it-challenge-january

countryviewchallenges/january-anything-goes

stampotiquedesignerschallenge.sdc264

Thanks for visiting, Rachel

January snow

So, this year over at the Craft Barn blog they have a new challenge for the year. Each month, we will be asked to make a piece of art depicting the 12 months of the year from a special poem written by Sara Coleridge.
I originally saw this challenge, went away and after forgetting a crucial part of it, produced my Cookie in the snow post from yesterday.... as I re-read the challenge, I realised that the art needed to have a welly and a bird in it.....doh!
After giving it some thought today as to how I would go about it for the second time, I really wanted each picture to have some similar thread running through them - so I've decided to try a little watercolour, for the first time.... I guess it will involve some drawing but hopefully just basic stuff.
The picture is only 10cm by 10cm - I've also used some white WOW embossing powder for the snow and snowflakes - I think the boots look more like Ugg boots than wellies but it's the best I can draw.

I enjoyed using the watercolour - it will be nice to have the excuse to practise a bit more throughout the year.

Challenges entered:

thecraftbarnblog.twelve-month-challenge-January

thatscraftychallenges/anything-goes

Thanks for visiting, Rachel

Cookie in Winter

Although it isn't snowing outside, we have had a covering from Jack Frost the last few days. I won this little Paperartsy flying monster stamp in a competition where I had to name her.....I chose Cookie, that tummy doesn't come from eating lettuce you know......
Well, even though she looks like a piggie, I like to pretend that she is my cat, who seems to have that face of 'disdain' when she too is walking through the frost!

Challenges entered:

stampotiquedesignerschallenge.01/sdc-january-

countryviewchallenges.january-anything-goes

theartisticstamper-january

thatscraftychallenges.anything-goes

Thanks for visiting, Rachel

Partridge in a Pear Tree

Happy New Year to everyone in the crafting world!

I have finally finished my Alphabet Challenge Journal - every single letter of the alphabet completed (just in time) - such a lovely memory of my first year as a craft blogger in amongst a world of extremely, encouraging craft bloggers - thank you everyone that has given me words of advice and positive feedback throughout 2016.

My very last page ended up as a double spread, partly as a way to properly finish the journal but mainly because I thought that I could go a bit more crazy with the size of the tree! The 5 glittery pears are just hand drawn and cut out of sparkly paper and seeing as I didn't have a partridge stamp... I just had to do my best at drawing something from the internet. Lots of fun with practising shading the tree using paints, luckily I made lots of stamped Jofy leaves to hide some spots.

I would love to make a montage of all the pictures that are included in my journal, but this is beyond my computer skills at the moment! Maybe I will come back and do that at some point in the year.

Challenges entered:
thecraftbarnblog.alphadictionary-challenge P

countryviewchallenges/january-anything-goes

thatscraftychallenges.anything-goes

stampotiquedesignerschallenge/sdc263-christmas

Thanks for visiting, Rachel