Playing with patterns

Still dabbling in Illustrator.  Today, I started out with this shape that I drew with the pencil tool:

It kind of reminds me of a mushroom.  At this stage of the game -- as a beginner -- I love how the program automatically smooths my strokes. 

After some copying and colouring and resizing and flipping, presto-chango, here's what I came up with:

It's quite simple, but I'm loving that there are so many creative possibilities for someone with no formal artistic training.  One of my goals is figure out how to put colours together better.  I tend to like desaturated combinations, but when I see them up on the blog, they don't have the same oompf that I find attractive when I first put them together in Illustrator -- if that makes any sense.  So that's something to work on.


Next project -- another printable card to share.

Edited to add:  If you click on the image, you'll see a version of the jpg that's a bit more crisp.