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Friday, 18 July 2025

My Lavinia Stamps Have Landed!

 My new stamps arrived, and here they are! This is the Twilight Tea range. 






Ooops, I forgot to take a photo of the other Sunflower stamp! 



Below are two of the new Rice Paper packs. They are much nicer than this photo shows.
Two new ink pads, and a white pen, plus another pen that is for masking. It writes like a pen and gives much finer lines than a paint brush does. I found it easy to use.
Below is a card I created using some of the new stamps. First of all I cut and glued a piece of the Rice papers onto a piece of LS cardstock. Once it was dry, I used various stamps to create a scene. I used a stencil brush to brush on some colours of Elements ink, just to give it a bit more colour. The Rice paper takes the inks really well and doesn't bleed. It feels very soft kind like suede! So that's my new stamps! As I create cards etc I will post them here. I hope you enjoyed seeing the new stamps!

Thank you for dropping in! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!





















Friday, 11 July 2025

"Frosty" The Snowman!"

 


Here's another rock I made and painted. It taken me awhile to paint it because our weather here is so wet and dark, and the paint takes ages to dry. I had to wait several days for each coat of paint to dry before I could do the next coat. It was very time consuming, plus I ended up back in hospital for two days this week. Anyway, the rock is made from quick dry cement and is four inches round. It was one I made a couple of weeks ago and never got around to painting it. I sketched the snowman and lights etc, then went over the top with a Posca pen, or an acrylic marker. I guess I will put him under the Christmas tree! We've had four solid days of very heavy rain, today being the 4th day. I am SO over it. 😠 The rain is really heavy and loud, and drowns out the radio or the tv. Yep, it's time it's stopped! The good thing is, as wet as it is, it isn't very cold! It's been a warmer Winter than usual. It's been so dark I have to have lights on otherwise I can't see. I bought a five cheap sets of acrylic paint pens from K. Mart last week. There are some metallic markers as well as bright ones and some more pastel ones. They are just as good as the Posca but much cheaper. When I got an email notification that they had been sent, it said they were each being sent separately. I thought that was dd and rather wasteful to send each pack on it's own. Why not chuck them all into one post bag and send them altogether?? Anyhow, when they arrived, they were all in one postal bag, but each pack of markers were in separate bags. Wasteful! There was a ton of plastic to throw out. In a world where we are trying to reduce our plastic waste, this is not good. I was tempted to pack it up and send it back to K. Mart telling them not to be so wasteful, and stop filling our rubbish tips with so much plastic. It wasn't necessary to use that amount of plastic. I had enough bubble wrap to build a Bouncy Castle for the cats!
So that's my art work for now, I have other rocks I can paint, but with this dark and oh-so-wet weather I'm hesitant to pain them. We'll see! Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!


Saturday, 5 July 2025

A Fluffy Pink and Violet Sunrise!

I took this shot early one morning. I love the combination of the pink and violet colours! Since taking this photo the neighbours have cut some of their tree's down, so I will get a better view of the sunrise. 
I don't have any artwork to share at the moment, but Lavinia have just released a new range of stamps! Of course I ordered them, lol! 
I spent two days in hospital this week after becoming unwell. My Potassium levels were way too low, so I spent two days back in hospital while they gave me some medication to bring my levels back up to a normal range. I got home just in time to order the new LS stamps! I think the range is called The Twilight Tea stamps. I've been watching their videos as LS is having their annual Summer Fairy Festival. They have it each year, and of course everyone dresses up for it. It's great to see all their live demoe's, and see what everyone is wearing. There's lot's of gorgeous sunflowers on their costumes. While they're having a stinking hot Summer, I'm down here in the Southern Hemisphere experiencing a very mil/warm Winter! Yes, we've had some icy cold days, but the weather has been really warm/humid. I am not complaining! 
It's a beautiful sunny day today, even the wild birds sound like they are celebrating this unusually warm weather.  We have had rain, some very heavy rain, but it's definitely a much warmer Winter than usual. Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and let you all know I am still here! I've been tired and haven't had much energy to create anything arty farty! But while I wait for my new stamps to arrive, I've been watching lot's of videos using the new stamps. One thing I like about LS stamps is, you can mix older tamps with new stamps and they all mix and match. Tracey is super talented and she always comes up with such amazing artwork for her stamps. The details on the stamps is incredible. Such fine delicate lines, and they all stamp beautifully.
Well that about wraps it up for today, I will be back! 
Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!



 

Saturday, 28 June 2025

I Made These For Lunch!

 

I don't (usually) post stuff about recipes or cooking, but I just made these for lunch and thought I'd share some photo's!  I cooked them in my Air Fryer, and it was so quick and easy. (And tasty!) Here's the "recipe"...1egg, milk, chopped Bok Choy (or any greens you like), small tin of drained tuna, (Romeo got the tuna juice!) sweet chilly sauce to taste, salt, and grated cheese. (Whatever flavour you like) I mixed the ingredients, then filled 3 small tin foil containers. I popped them into the Air Fryer for around 8 minutes at 180C. If they aren't quite ready, just pop them back for another couple of minutes. They are HOT when cooked, so be careful removing them from the Air Fryer. I let them sit for a few minutes before taking it out of the tinfoil.
I added a couple of slices of cold tomato to them before I ate them. Yumm!
This last photo shows a close up of what they look like when cut open. I used what ingredients I had in the fridge, and you can use all kind of different foods. My appetite is still not the best at the moment, but it will get better over the next few days. I didn't have an exact 'recipe', so I can't give exact amounts I used. But it's not rocket science and is a very adaptable 'recipe. I'm sure I will make these again some time!
Ok so who's coming to wash and dry the dishes...?!  Oops, that would be me, lol!
Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!




New Card!

 


I followed a video from Jo Rice (LS) and created this card. I started off using some yellow Distress Oxide ink for the sun , then Spiced marmalade and Wild Honey, both DO inks. The green bit at the bottom of the card, well to be honest, I can't remember which green I used, lol! Ditto for the blue around the edge of the orange/yellow bit. Sorry! I stamped the tree (LS) and the wee bird last. The "Quiet Time" sticker is also from LS. There are also some gold mica splatters. I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in hospital this week, and my brain is a bit scrambled.  Feel free to ask any questions about the card and I will do my best to answer! Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self and shine bright each and every day!

Thursday, 19 June 2025

Julie (Nicola)

Happy Birthday to my niece, Julie (Nicola). Born in Hamilton New Zealand June 19 1969) Wishing you a fabulous day!

Love from your Aunty Shona. xxx

OMG! I Made A Card...or Two!

I have to give credit to the lovely Jo Rice (Head Designer for Lavinia Stamps) for kick starting my mojo, and creating this card (above and below). I watched a short video she had done. She made a tag, but I made mine into a card. Yes, that's artificial moss under the flowers. (Temu) The flowers are from Lavinia, as are the corner stamp. The butterflies are little Lavinia stickers. And if you look closely at the photos below, you can see a wee sticker that say's "Reindeer Moss", also from Lavinia Stamps. I created the Turquoise and Lemon back ground on water colour card using Brusho's. Cutting out the flowers wasn't fun😡. I could have used my scan 'n cut machine, but thought I'd use scissors thinking it wouldn't be too difficult. NEXT time I will use my scan' cut machine!
  
I have to give a huge thank you to Andrea (please visit her blog, Snippets by Andrea) for this card below. I saw on her blog the other day, that she had made some beautiful cards using a card pack/kit. I was so impressed by the cards she had created that I jumped online and checked my local craft store to see what kind of packs/kits they had. I found  this 'Simple Stories" Classic Pooh kit which I purchased. This is the first card from a kit that I have ever made. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. It's not perfect, but I had loads of fun and am happy with it. So thank you Andrea for giving my mojo a kick start!! I can now understand why people like these kits. The choice is amazing!
I have finally found a fabulous photo editing program and it came with my new laptop! I 'accidentally' found it while checking out what the different icons were .So now I am able to edit my photo's so much easier than I was. The pink background was made using the new program. It's called Microsoft Design. It has so many editing options to choose from. Romeos trip to the vet went well, he is taking some probiotic which he loves. It's a powder that I sprinkle on his food each morning. His food has gravy (which he loves) so I mix it in with that. His sneezing has gone as well. He had a half of an antihistamine each day for two days, and that has stopped him sneezing. So we are  happy little vegemite's again! I just wish the temperatures were a bit higher. We had three awesome sunny days, but today has more clouds. I think it is supposed to rain later, and again tomorrow. Don't forget to check out Andrea's blog - Snippets by Andrea.
Thank you for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!