Two Frisky Mice!

I used two Anita Jeram (Colorado Crafts) mouse stamp sets to create these two cards. The mouse stamp measures around 2 1/2 inches tall, by 3 inches across which includes his long curly tail! (Bottom photo) I didn't take much notice of the size when I ordered them, and presumed the stamps were much smaller. So when they arrived I was surprised to see they fit perfectly on a 5 1/2 by 3/4 inch card. I like that the images are "open", and don't have lot's of fiddly area's to colour. I don't (anymore) enjoy a lot of colouring. I used water colour pens to colour these frisky mice! So quick and easy! I had made more cards, but someone called in and bought them, and silly me forgot to take photo's of them before she left! Oh well too late now!

Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self and shine bright each and every day!

 

I Attempt Water Colour Cards!

I watched a live video from Amanda Branston to create these two gel print cards. I used pink, blue and yellow ink splatters  to create the backgrounds for both cards. Then pressed the gel plate onto some white LS multifarious card stock. I added the sun using yellow Dinkles, and then used one of the hill masks (LS) to make the hills under the sun. I filled in a few patches with various Dinkle colours. I painted in some pale brown clouds, and added some brown shading under the grass stamp to kind of ground it. The first photo was matted onto a piece of black card. I have yet to mat the second card. Both are similar, and I had so much fun creating these! When I started I had this 'belief' that I could not water colour. However, did you notice there's a 'lie' in my belief?! Just like nothing is 'impossible', because the word itself say's "I'm possible". Enough English lessons for today!

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

Two Cards

Both of my cards for today, were inspired by the lovely and very talented  Eileen Godwin. I love her artwork and always find it inspiring. I doubt she is reading this, but incase she is...thank you Eileen! I'm still having some issues with the colours not coming out right on my laptop. I'm not sue what's going on, but I am investigating it! For the coloured 'stripe' on the top card, I used three of the new Versafine Clair ink pad colours.  For the top colour I used a stencil brush with some Baby Pink ink, second colour was Arctic, and the las colour was Very Peri. I just love the new colours!

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

 

Sepia Clouds and A Surprise Visitor In My Backyard!

I took this photo of the moon a few weeks ago. I took it because the clouds were a sepia colour around it. I'm not sure why the clouds were this colour.

These next four photo's, starting above and below, are of a Pukeko (Swamp Hen) I saw in my back yard. While I have seen plenty of these birds before, this was the first time I have seen one in my back yard! 

I used to see these birds at my horse paddocks, there was a small stream and swampy area they used to hang out at. 

This bloke was just quietly wandering around the lawn, checking out what bugs and insects he could snack on! He is on the top of my fence because Wookie had spotted him on the lawn, and had run towards him. He was way too fast for her and flew up on to the fence! I couldn't get too close to him, so used a zoom lens to get these photo's. 

Look at the size of those claws! I wouldn't want to tangle with him, I doubt I would come out unscathed!

While I was outside taking these shots, Romeo was inside meowing to get out. He could see the Pukeko and was fascinated by it. The first time he had ever seen one! And Wookie? I'm sure she was thinking of a second breakfast!

Mr. Pukeko was here for about 3.4 of an hour, sometimes disappearing into the bush, then reappearing on the lawn, digging for bugs etc to eat. His feathers were iridescent in the sun, and he looked to be very healthy. I hope he comes back sometime! Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

Blogger Is Driving Me Nuts!

 

As the heading says, Bogger is driving me nuts! It keeps loading my photo's up in the wrong order. No matte what I do, the photos load up in the wrong order:-( Frustrating. These first two photos show how I have displayed some of my cards I've made. I used Command adhesive hooks that are not permanent and come off the surface easily when required. I had to take the photos at night, otherwise there would be a glare from the sun on the cards, as they are all in cellophane bags. My art room is still messy, as I have yet to put things back how it was before I moved stuff. Lots of stuff will not be going back as I find things I no longer want or need.

Below is a clearer photo of the Eclipse I made. I used white Brilliance ink to stamp with, then used some white pan pastel over the top of the images. I used a circle mask for the moon and just flicked white pan pastel off the mask and onto the card, around the circle mask. I hope that makes sense!

These last three cards are stamps by Anita Jeram who is an illustrator. I fell in love with the little characters that Andrea had used on her cards on her blog. Check out her blog - Snippets by Andrea, she has some awesome cards she has made!

The stamps on the cards above and below measure 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches.

The stamp below measures 5 x 4 inches. I love these cute images! I don't enjoy colouring in, and on these cards I have used a scribble effect using water colour markers. I added a few sparkly sequins to finish the cards. The snowmen images come with a few sentiment stamps, some of which I used on these cards. I added some glitter, which doesn't show up well in these photo's. These images are such fun to use and don't necessarily need a lot of colouring if you don't want to colour them. I have three more Anita Jeram (Colorado Craft) stamps coming.

Last but not leas, is  Lavinia Stamps card I made. The Fairy is called Scout, and this is the large one, there is also a smaller version of Scout. I think she's looking for the recent Eclipse! The circle of stars has some metallic bronze dots on some of the stars, and her wings have some gold Wink of Stella on them. I added a black border around the finished card, using a ruler and a black marker.

Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self and shine bright each and every day!

Colorado Craft Cards!

I made the three cards above using some new Anita Jeram (Colorado Crafts) stamps. I had seen some cute stamps that my blogging friend Andrea had used, and just loved the little characters. I chose the snowmen stamps as I love snowmen! And the little bunnies/mice are just sooo cute! Luckily my local craft store had some of Anita Jerams stamps. I used water colours pens to colour them. There's a ton of glitter on them, but it isn't showing on here.

This card, above, is my version of the recent eclipse! I used chalk and pan pastels to do these images. I stamped in white ink firs, then went over each image with some white pan pastel. I lightly sprayed the card with hair spray to stop the pan pastel from smudging.  It looks better in real life!

I'm still struggling with a head cold/sore throat, and it's driving me crazy. My nose alternates from being blocked or running. I'm hoping it clears up soon, because I've had these symptoms for two weeks, and I have had enough of it!

Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self and shine bright each and everyday!

Flying Pig Day!

I made this card for a blogging friend, Lorraine, who celebrates "Flying Pig Day", every March 1st. She started this because a find of hers had Breast Cancer, and the friend did not want sappy get well cards. Instead she she wanted something more positive. So Lorraine  decided on Flying Pigs, because nothing is impossible. (The word itself say's, "I'm Possible...") Somehow I became one of Lorraine's "Pig Ladies", and also celebrate Flying Pig Day. This is the card I made and sent to Lorraine this year. It was late because I had ben unwell and in and out of hospital. I used one of the little bottle stamps from LS, and found a label with Flying Potion written on it. Perfect for this card! I received a beautiful little ornament Lorrain made, which I will post a photo of here later. I think the pig stamp I used is from SU. It's not my best effort at card making, I was still not well when I made it. 

Anyway, thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self and shine bright each and every day!

 

Some New Cards At Last!

The card above was inspired by a card Amanda Branston (Lavinia Stamps DT) created. The background was done with Pan Pastels, then I stamped the images on top. I used Pink Posca pens for the blossoms on the tree.

The next two cards were inspired by Elaine Langford-Pugh, also of Lavinia Stamps. I used a square gel press to make the outline of the card below. Then lightly brushed around a circle shape for the sun. I used Morning Mist grey inkpad for the grey flowers, and the little Dragonfly (LS), then Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide ink pad for the blue flower heads. Lastly I added some Caribbean Ocean Nuvo Crystal Drops for the centers of the grey flowers. These Drops add a bit of height and texture to the card.

I used the same technique on the card below, using the same gel press. This time I used Elements Emporor Red ink for the flowers. The flowers are called Garden Poppy, from Lavinia Stamps. I used some Red Berry Cyrstal Nuvo Drops in the center of the grey flowers. 

I had fun making these cards! My hip pain is much better than it was, so standing/sitting/sleeping is easier for me now. Which means I can get back into my artwork! And FINALLY I have an appointment with my Specialist, in a months time! It's been 'scheduled' for the last six months, and after contacting the hospital and hurrying things along, I finally got an appointment come through today. Hopefully I actually see my Specialist and not one of his colleagues, like I did once before. Eve though they had access to my files, they still put me on the wrong medication. Anyway, thank you for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

 

A Little Bit of Crafting!

I used Tombow water colour markers for the cad above (LS Fairy Bells). I inked up the stem with my Versafine Clair Nocturne ink pad first, then used the markers to colour the petals. Thats the only way I know how to colour them. If you know another way, please let me know! What you can't see, is there's some sparkly clear gel pen on the petals, and the Dragonfly.

I used white embossing powder on "Indra" (LS) above. However, after heat setting it, I discovered it is not a good 'white' powder at all. It's more f a vanilla/cream colour. I have since bought a Wow! Bright EP. I have yet to try it. I made the background using my Dinkles, then stamping some faded (LS) words over the background. I also used some Posca pens to draw some dots. Lastly I splattered the card with some gold paint, and added some water splatters. I think I went overboard and did too many! Whoops!

The card above uses2 of the new LS stamps, to make a butterfly. This card is much prettier in real life, sadly the colours are not showing up as the true colours. Those darn laptop gremlins have taken over my laptop:-( 

 I managed to make these 3 cards, in between a short trip back to hospital. Luckily they got things sorted quickly, so I was only there for around 10 hours. The worst part was, my new stamps had just arrived before I was whisked off to hospital. In spite of being very unwell, I just wanted to play with new stamps! It was torture knowing they were at home waiting for me to try them out! I can laugh about it now, but not at the time! On the card above, the frilly bit of the butterfly has ben stamped twice. Once to the left and then again slightly to the right. This makes up the butterfly wings. The head is a separate stamp. Hope that makes sense!  I lightly stenciled the corners of the card. Ok, that's it for me! Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

Another Card, and My House Not My Cat, Kind Of!

 Here's another card I made, using the technique in the previous post. They are so quick, and so much fun to make. You can make them with any shaped lid, have you tried this technique. I splattered the card with some brown Dinkles.  To keep the splatters off the Badger, I just placed the stamp over top of the image before I did the splatters. Oh yes, there's a "whoopsie" on here! I stamped the word 'Nature' too close to the Badgers foot. So I inked up the top of the letter "N" in white. Probably not the most creative idea I've ever had, but I couldn't think of anything else to fix it! Oh well!

This is "Wookie". She is not my cat, and she does not live here, kind of.  She belongs to my friends who live behind my place.  Last year she 'left home; and started visiting me. I had met her some time before, but this time she did not want to go home. My friends (who own her) had recently got two little dogs, ad "Wookie" does not like them. She's not scared of them, she just does not like them. She is a little skittish and when the dogs run at her (to play) she runs, which makes the dogs think it is a game. "Wookie" has other ideas. Long story short, I said I was happy to feed her, and that she was welcome here any time.  She does sometimes go "home" to visit her owners, but mostly she is here at my place. "Romeo" (my cat) loves her! 

At her "home" she has a cat door to get in and out when she likes. We don't have a cat door, but as you can see, "Wookie" comes in one of my dining room windows! I have the screen thing on the window so "Romeo" cannot get out. He has health issues and has to be an inside cat. But as you can see, "Wookie" can fit through the screen just fine! There is a large oblong pot planter about 6 inches below the window, and she jumps into there, then pops in through the window! I saw her one day and quickly snapped these photo's!

So, as Andrea said, I have been adopted by "Wookie"! I feed her and her owners drop food and flea treatments over for me to give her. If I didn't feed her, it's quite likely she would wander further afield. At least this way, my friends know she is loved, fed and cared for.  I enjoy her company, as does "Romeo", and they are good company for each other. 

Does anyone remember the "I Can Has Cheeseburger?" cats??! I do! This is "Wookie" doing her best, "I Can Has Cheeseburger" look, at me! And yes, I was eating a cheeseburger at the time, lol! Ever since I came out of hospital, I have had weird food cravings.  Cheese burgers was one, which is really weird because I don't eat take away food like this. It's been about 23 years since I last went to eat at McDonalds, up until recently. Take away food like this would normally make me very unwell, as I cannot tolerate fat/cream etc.

Anyway, I just thought I would introduce "Wookie", and tell you her story! She's about three and is such a sweetheart. She has the cutest purr, and a very tuneful "Mrrrp"!

Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

Drama's In Pajama's!

OMG, I've been out of action for the last few weeks.

Unfortunately I have been very unwell, and in and out of hospital multiple times. Not to mention back and forwards to see Doctors. I'm back home again now, and slowly getting back to my usual routine. I am very slow and my vision is a bit blurry, due to the medication I am on. That will settle down over the next few weeks. I had these cards made and ready to post but kept ending up in hospital. On top of that hiccup, they kept loading up in the wrong order this morning, so I had to re-loading them one at a time so they made sense. Frustrating😣.

So here's the firs card, using Lavinia Stamps.

I used LS Multifarious cardstock, and a Distress Oxide stamp pad. I haven't tried this idea on other cardstock, so don't know how it  would work.

So here's what I did....I inked up the LID of the stamp pad...

...then 'stamped' it on the cardstock. Don't worry if the image is a bit patchy, it will be fine! 

I used a very wet paintbrush, and brushed the water UNDER the stamped image, and dragged the water down into the empty space. I  did this going all the way around this inside of the image, making sure the tip of the wet brush just barely touched the inked image. Keep wetting the square, dragging  the water down from the stamped square. The card will get quite wet, so keep the card on  flat surface. If you wet the stamped image from the outside (top) of the image, the ink will run on the outside of the image, which is not what you want. You just barely touch the wet brush under the stamped line.

Once I had done that, I used my Ranger Heat gun to dry the card. I used this because this heat gun is more gentle and doesn't blow the water off the card, as my Milwaukee heat gun does.

So this is what you will end up with. Hard to see in the photo, but the entire inside of the square now has a pale blue colour to it. Use whatever colour ink pad you like.

When you have finished all the above steps, stamp your chosen image inside the square. I also did a very feint bit of stenciling around the image.  Add sparkles if you wish! Then the card  is finished!  I made another one and backed the image onto a piece of black card. This technique is really simple and quick to make! I had heaps of fun making these cards! You can use any lid off any stamp pad to make these "Cubies"! 

These last two cards I made using a 6 inch square gel press. I inked the gel press in a pale pink distress oxide ink pad, blotted some ink off, placed an LS stencil on top , then placed my white card on top and rubbed it to get an image. Once I had dried that image, I stamped on top, and added the words.

I take ne responsibility for any spelling (or other) mistakes on this post!  The medication I am on scrambles my brain!  It will take me another week or so until my brain fog has gone - please be patient with me, lol!! As well as being in and out of hospital, I  have somehow injured my left hip, yes the hip I had the replacement in. It's kept me off my feet for the last nine days, and I'm having to take painkillers every five hours. Even though I sit on an orthopedic cushion, my hip is still very painful. I had x-rays done, and the hip joint is not fractured, just very painful. The pain wakes me around 4 am every morning, which means I feel like a zombie all day! Apart from all that, I am still here and slowly getting back into my crafting, which I have missed so much! 

Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Always be your authentic self and shine bright each and every day!

New Cards!

This photo above, is of the moon last night. It was just a finger nail clipping of a moon, and I thought it looked interesting! You can even partially see some of the craters. 

Last Christmas I was given a card just like this one, from Robyn, my stamping friend in Australia. When I saw it, I cracked up laughing, as I thought it was so funny! I think I was having one of those MM's - Mad Moments! The witches hat is from Lavinia Stamps, and the legs are from Stampin' Up! The legs on my card are from a stamp from Temu. I had advertised to buy the SU "Bewitched" stamp set, but had no luck. So I found this set on Temu. I prefer the SU set, but haven't found anyone selling it. It was lot's of fun to make, and think I will make more throughout the year!

The card above uses two Visible Image stencils - the heart and the flower, and one of their stamp sets. As yo can see, there is some clear glitter gel pen on the hearts. I think I used Distress Oxide inks to colour with, and added some water drops to the finished card.

The following three photos are of "Wookie", one of my neighbours cats. She visits me almost every day, and I feed her. Her owners know and are fine with this. "Wookie" lives with two other cats, and two small dogs which she is not fond of at all. So she comes to me because she knows I don't have dogs, and knows she will get fed here. She is quite happy to come inside -Romeo is fine with that and mostly ignores her! I took these photo's of her last night. I was hanging out of a dining room window, looking down on her, and used my zoom lens. Just below the window is a small narrow ledge, which she eventually jumped up on! She's such a sweetheart, and loves pat and tummy rub! 

So I was back in hospital again last week, but thankfully was only there overnight and was back home by 9 am the next day. I made the card with the stenciled heart when I came home, it helped me to relax. Note to self - take your own pillow next time you go to hospital! Their pillows are not comfortable at all, and I end up with a sore back/neck when I use theirs!! Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

 

Home Is Where The Heart Is.

Here is another card I made yesterday, using some of the new LS stamps. I do like the Snail House stamp! I stamped and then masked the Snail House, then stamped the mushroom's so they appeared to be behind the Snail House. I then used one of the Forest Moss stamps under the Snail House. There's a set of two stamps, I used the smaller of the two stamps. I stamped the flowers around the Snail House. In hind sight it would have been a lot easier if I had stamped the flowers while I had the Snail House masked! Hind sight is wonderful, if only it was foresight! Anyway, that's what I did. I then used Mondeluz water colour pencils to colour the Mushrooms and the Snail House. I coloured the Forest Moss with my Clean Colour Real Brush markers.  I added some white Posca pen dots to the mushrooms, and the Forest Moss, as well as the Snail House. I outlined the entire image with a pale grey CCRB marker. The background I used a stencil brush to add some LS Blue Atoll ink pad, and some Wilted Violet Distress Oxide ink pad. Lastly, (I think!) i stamped the words, which is another new stamp from Lavinia Stamps. Oh, and I carefully splattered on some water drops just to add some texture. Although I had fun creating this card, I was very tired, having just come out of hospital again. I had suddenly become very unwell the night before and needed medical help, and ended up in the local hospital for around eight or nine hours. I was discharged later that day and when I came home I just wanted to create and take my mind off my health issues. I'd had the total of two hours sleep the night before, so I was pretty tired. I find creating cards or whatever, is very absorbing and relaxing. And this is the card I made!

Feeling much better this morning, after getting a full nights sleep! 

Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to a always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and everyday!   

Update four hours later! I forgot to mention, I added a little red enamel heart sticker to the center of the Snail House after I had coloured the Snail House! Have a great day!