Four Weeks...

Yes, it's four weeks until Christmas will be upon us. For me that means celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This year I've decided that it's a handmade Christmas. Everything I give must either be made by me, or bought from someone who has handmade it. So far I'm on track.

I'm notoriously bad for being slack about sending out Christmas cards. Usually I'll send out an e-card, which I make myself using a photo of my daughter and I with some photo art on it. This year, however, I've opted for scrapbooking paper, stencils and sparkles, and maybe some other embellishments. The photo shows my progress so far. Very basic!

Tonight I worked on one of my 'secret squirrel' Christmas paintings, which I absolutely LOVE! I can't wait to work on it some more tomorrow after I decide on some more colours.

Happy creating, Paula xo

#handmadeChristmas...

The title of this post is the hash tag I'm using on Twitter when posting photos of my latest creations. Yes, this Christmas is going to be a "handmade Christmas", ie everything will either be made by me or bought by another artist. I'm going with this mantra -

Aside from working on some coats of paint on stretched canvas and canvas on board last night, my other handmade effort has been preparing Christmas cards tonight. I bought some simple empty photo cards and scrap booking paper with a Christmas and/or red/green feel to it.

I cut the scrap booking paper down to fit in the empty photo card. As I'm a frugal, aka ikey/stingy, Christmas card giver (I usually send out an e-card created by me using a photo of my daughter and I with some photo art on it) I'll only be giving out 8 of these little beauties this year.

I then got out some silver paint and clear glitter paint and practiced stencilling letters and painting words. I will need a lot more practice as I am a rank amateur in the stencilling stakes, but kind of OK in the painting letter stakes!

I'm enjoying doing AEDM even though I'm only on Day 3 with everyone else being on Day 9. Love. Ing. It!