Fun is GOOD

Playing about in my Dylusions journal, I decided to make a page that could be entered into the Rubber Dance Blog challenge, the colours in the challenge were my 'go to' colours anyway, pink, purple and turquoise

Having thrown paints, inks and twinkling H2O's and stencils and stamps at it, I like the vibrancy - plus I thought the Dr Seuss quote was quite fitting!

Challenges entered:

rubberdance-challenge-november - turquoise, pink, purple

craftstamper.take-it-make-it-challenge-november.

Thanks for visiting, Rachel

Insect

So here is my picture for this fortnight's letter over at the Craft Barn's Alphabet Challenge - 
 I - Insect
One of those rare pictures that I didn't plan anything beforehand, apart from the idea I was going with  a butterfly.  It's nice just to go for it  - I don't know why I don't do that more often, seeing as with most kinds of mixed media art, there are always plenty of layers and so mistakes are usually easy to cover up!
Mainly used my Neo-colors here and stamped with a little, hexagon and circle Jofy stamp.

Challenges entered:

thecraftbarnblog.alphadictionary-challenge-I

rubberdance-challenge-november

craftstamper.challenge-november

Thanks for visiting, Rachel

Lucky Stars

WOW, WOW, WOW - I am SOOO happy!!

I think it must be my lucky week!!!! I have won stamps in both of the competitions I entered, I can't believe it! I have won one of Tracy Easson's beautiful, beautiful Wonky Tonk stamps and now have just found out that I've also won a Zini stamp (one of Elena Zinski's stamp set with Paperartsy). I've been excitedly waiting for my Wonky Tonk stamp to arrive with the postman today but I think it must take longer than I think to travel down from Scotland - lol!

Well, I am definitely attaching my lucky streak to this art journal page - because I love it so much!!

This is all down to my wonderful Gelli Plate - I just love using it and am really pleased I took the plunge to buy it. I started by basically throwing all the blue paint I had onto the double spread, that's probably about 5/6 different shades and makes, plus some orange, cream and gold. 

I was beginning to hate it and thought about giving up at this stage. But then looked through my notebook that I use to gelli print in and found the perfect page, tore it into 3 strips and added two along the centre and stamped and embossed stars onto the third. Some text stamps and stars made from texture paste, plus a quote and I very happy with the result.

The background has a sheen on it, where I had mixed some Paperartsy Metallic Glaze in with some blue paint - ooh pretty!

Challenges entered : 

countryviewchallenges.november-2016-stars

craftstamper.take-it-make-it-challenge-november

paperartsy-typographyfonts-and-quotes

Thank you for visiting, Rachel

Union Jack

So, we are so close to the end of the Alphabet Challenge over at the Craft Barn blog. Although it has been difficult sometimes getting a picture finished on time, I'm still really enjoying it and my book with each alphabet picture in it, will be a great memory of my first year as a 'blogger'!

I remember that it was at this time of the year, last year, that I started thinking about what projects I might attempt for 2016 and I find myself thinking that again. What worked, what didn't - usually time is a factor on how many projects we can take on and I certainly don't want to start feeling that any of my crafting is a chore!

I have managed to keep up with my diary/journal (just about) but I'm not sure that I will do it again. I'd like to experiment a bit more with new crafting techniques and if I give up with my diary I will probably have more time to do that.

Anyway, here is my U for Union Jack picture - mainly paper-piecing from gelli prints, the red was bubble wrap and the blue had my favourite Ellen Vargo stamp set stamped and embossed with white, it looks a mash-up because I have cut it up, plus a little texture paste on the white stripes.

Challenges entered:

thecraftbarnblog.alphadictionary-challenge U

paperartsy-typographyfonts-and-quotes

craftstamper.take-it-make-it-challenge-november

Thanks for visiting, Rachel x

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