Gettin Picky Again

Woohoo!! The next Inspiration Challenge is up at Get Picky!  Because i was the winner of Inspiration Challenge # 1, i got to feature over there are a special guest artist for Inspiration Challenge #2.
Very excited!  Thanks for the opportunity Tanya!  :))

This is the awesome 'Inspiration' pic:

I was instantly drawn to the black on biscuit colour scheme... i LOVED it!

So that was my main inspiration for this layout:

I used a dry brush technique with a blend of paints to lighten the bg pp a little bit, then started adding black embellies, paint and alphas.  I also used the quote as inspiration for the title/journaling as well.

Raining (again!!) today.... great for mojo.  i actually scrapped a lo on my poor neglected dh today.  He always seems to miss out on featuring in my work... that's what you get when you have 4 kids i guess!!   i have soooo much other material and stories to tell!  hehe

Still scratching, but getting better  :)))

Now... off to get all the christmas lights/tree/decos out in readiness for tomorrow.

Will be back really soon with more to share.

Thanks for the visit!

jules

x

On the Border

So, this weekend didn't exactly net a mass of creative output!  Just one lonesome layout that i put together on Sunday afternoon.  I spent the majority of the weekend scratching.  I appear to be allergic to these nasty midgee things that have decended on the town as a result of all this rain we have had of late.  To treat these saucer sized hives (and no.... i'm not exaggerating!), i took two doses of phenergan (at the prescribed interval).  Unfortunately, phenergan rendered me unable to get out of bed on Sunday morning!

So, i stopped taking phenergan, had a go at the latest KIU challenge... and i'm still itchy! 

Just in the nick of time, i managed to put this together.  Kraft (of course) and using decorative borders somehow in the layout.  i used some border punches on a heap of scrap paper and layered them in a peek-a-boo style to produce this:

As we will be turning the calendar over this week to December, i'll be putting my December Daily album to use!  Looking forward to it and hope you'll follow our progress

here and over at The Boxx.

Thanks for stopping by.

jules

x

Happy Travel's

Just a quick hello and thank you to all the fabbo ladies on Bons Cyber Cropping Blog Hopping Train!  Thanks so much for the love.  Appreciate all the lovely words!

Happy Hopping!

jules

x

Yellow and White

What was i thinking?  i had no yellow... then i discovered i had no white cardstock left either!  But i went ahead and did the White With 1 challenge anyway!??!

i found a scrap of gingham fabric... some century old fat ric rak.... a lonesome doiley.... and some paint! i pulled apart an old dictionary of the kids that was falling apart anyway, stuck it to some old pp that i didn't like and whitewashed it....  painted some alphas and a chippy fence, then positioned my measley supplies on the page.  i really wanted to tell this story and this was the perfect palette for it!

When Lachlan snuck up to the kitchen bench and made off with half of the lemon that i was using to make dh a cheesecake for his birthday, i thought it would make for the perfect sour-faced photo opportunity.  i should have known he would foil my plans.... he has the most amazingly adult taste buds.  He loved it.  He licked and sucked for the best part of an hour!!  LOL

Oh... and another boy related story.  A question really.  Why do i keep finding these poor

little headless lego men strategically positioned all throughout the house?

.... yet another fabulous little idiosyncrasy!  Gotta love little boys...  hehe

Thanks again for visiting.

jules

x

Sketch Challenges

Ahh... so much to do, so little time!  but always time for a sketch or two....  hehe

funny the similarities you find between layouts that you do at the same time.  I spent more time on these than i intended to, but i'm happy with the way they turned out.

First is the Get Picky sketch.  I turned it on its side and replaced the square mat at the back with a more subtle stitched shape and also the suggestion of a square in the dress makers pattern paper.  That gave me my oh-so-coveted white space!  :)  The circles are a bit random i know, but i just threw them on after i had 'finished' and found that i quite liked it.  So this is me doing random... lol

yep.... that's a piece of an onion bag that i slapped a bit of paint on  :))

Second one was the Stuck?! sketch.  First time i've joinined in at Stuck?! and this sketch was totally up my alley.  i did however replace the one photo with three smaller pics in order to tell the story a bit better...

One of my favourite things to do right now is tearing strips of that yummy Tim Holtz tissue tape (that's the one with the 6 and 8 on it below) and using it to 'layer up' my pp's, or randomly sticking it around page borders. 

I really must start organising some christmas pressies today!!  and i may even find some time for TCR palette this week again.  I moved papers around on the weekend with a view to starting one... and totally fell in a hole.  Not an easy palette for me.  Will have another go  :))

and yep, it's still raining!!

Thanks for visiting.

jules

x

Rain Rain Rain ... and more rain!

Well it's been raining here for days.  The odd downpour, but mainly just constant drizzle.  It's just raining steadily atm.... perfect for scrapping!!  The kids are snuggled up in our bed watching Harry Potter movies.... what a cool sunday!  hehe.  I must admit to popping in there myself every now and then for a quick snuggle too!

Yesterday was our regular 6 week pilgrimage to my hairdresser, who lives in the next town!  Troy keeps reminding me that they have hairdressers here too (hehe), but they can't compare to my good friend of 10 years and this is our way of catching up too!  LOL.  The creeks are all up and running.  It did occur to me that we might not be able to get home, but that's a small price to pay .... right??

The garden is just loving it of course.  I've just come inside after taking a few snaps.....

Sooo grateful for my dryer.  I never use it unless i really have to ....
and i really have to!!  :))

Have a couple of completed layouts that i can't share just yet and hope to get a couple of
challenges finished today/tomorrow too.

Happy scrapping... and thanks for the visit.

jules

x

Butterflies Everywhere!

First things first though... i won the inspiration challenge over at Get Picky this month!!! YAY... i was speechless!  i get to be the guest dt member for the next inspiration challenge, so keep your eye out for it!

I'm really hooked on butterflies right now... thanks to the increasing popularity of the Butterfly Effect.  Many of you will have already heard of it, but if you haven't head over here for all the details.  The lovely Elise from the Boxx Design Team has also started a thread over at the Boxx to showcase our creations, and then collect them all for onsending to the museum.  Go here if you'd like to join in.  Fabulous cause and it has started a real tidal wave of butterfly creations!!

This is what i started with:

...but i couldn't stop there.  So i made more and put them on a layout for the latest CR palette.

The butterflies are made from two sheets of transparency that has been spritzed with glimmermist and water and pressed together to blend the colours, then pulled apart and set aside to dry.  The blue ones were spritzed with 'patina' and 'frozen lake', while the orange ones were sprtized with 'golden terracotta' and 'candy apple red'.  When dry, i ran them through the printer to print the gorgeous little ink drawing onto them that i found on the net.  The rest was all hand cutting... and of course the ever-present muslin! LOL.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a great week!

jules

x

Getting Picky Inspiration

Just a really quick share.... this is the one i got stuck on a few days ago!  i've had another go - totally different challenge, so i hope this ones proves more successful!  hehe..

i had a look at the latest Get Picky challenge and instantly fell in love with this pic:

it wasn't so much the candy but the gorgeous blue and white striped wall in the background and the whole 'whitewashed' look of it that really screamed at me ... yep, weird - show me lollies, and i see the wall!! lol...

oh well.... this is what i came up with:

{nearly summer}

look!  i did flowers!!  hehe

... love the colours in these little prima babies,

and they matched the echo park pp (the stripe), and the golden teracotta and patina glimmermist beautifully.  i stitched like mad (as always), tore up strips of muslin (as always) ripped up some hand made paper for a rough border and whitewashed a couple of chippy elements.  i also crackled the little twiddleybitz fence too... first time i've used one of those little fellas.  the bg pp was the wrong side of some of that beautiful ink resist pink paislee range (doh!)  i didn't mean to use the wrong side, but i just LOVED the script.   ... and those feet belong to dd#1 - she took this pic during our september school holiday trip  to Yeppoon, whilst we were doing a reconnaisance for camping spots...  i guess she got bored!!  lol

oh good news ... puter is kinda feeling better than it did... fixed the registry problem, but did a BIG cleanup too!!  Fingers crossed that we have prolonged it's life somewhat!!  :))  the main plus is that i can now download my camera and use my printer!!!  YAY! 

.. and we are now the proud owners of a TBox too!  the digital tuner on our 2yo TV died!!  (what next), so rather than spend a fortune to replace it, we decided to get a TBox instead, which is a digital tuner... with benefits!  hehe .... the kids are kinda happy (understated)...

thanks for stopping by

jules

x

Mixed Bag

Another bits n pieces post!  Plenty going on a the moment.. including more work

on my December Daily Not-So-Mini Album!!  lol.  But first things first:

(you'd better go make a cuppa .... this is much longer than i thought it was going to be)

lol

The Boxx Newsletter was out last week and these two layouts were created from the October Boxx of Scraps... which was really yummy.

Check out this and more here.

This brilliant, colourful and fun Echo Park pp's pack is just perfect for those summer holiday picks... here is what i did:

and...

a bit messy and over-dramatic with the paint work on the last one i know,

but if you knew my Cooper you'd realise it kinda suits him ... hehe

Now onto my December Daily... i've finished the bones of my album!!! yay

i've enjoyed this process so much, i'll definately be doing one again next year.

i will however give very careful consideration to the shape of my next album.

i still have a little numb spot on my right hand index finger from all the hand

cut artisan shapes .. about 5o in total!

i decided to do one double sided page per day for photos and journaling,

but also a header or divider page in between.  some of these divider

pages are just transparencies with label stickers on them, others are envelopes

for little treasures or goodies relevant to that day, others are journaling cards...

and there is even just a scrap of cardboard in there too for variety!

i haven't numbered each divider yet, because it will depend on what we get

up to on each day as to which divider will be relevant  ie. on a quiet day at home

i might not have anything to stash in an envelope.  i'm also doing the full 31 days

as we will be in Brisbane with extended family and will have a pretty

busy and social christmas period, up to and beyond nye!!!

Here are just a few select pages, just to give you an idea...

lots of kraft paper, lots of stitching... and lots of red (my favourite)  :))

the front and back cover were a little too 'clean' looking for me, so i stained

some tulle and stuck it on with lots of mod podge (might be a bit hard to see).

i quite like the cross hatched, textured effect.  i also had tonnes of 7Gypsies ephemera and journaling cards in my stash that needed using up,

and they suited this project just perfectly, so i'm really pleased i got to use up

lots of old existing stuff.  that hambly music note transparency (last photo)

has probably been in my stash for 4 years!!!  lol

also some of the new yummy pink paislee old school range in there too.. LOVE it!

oh ... and some MME Lost and Found ... LOVE it too!

ok... sorry, i've done it again!!

just realised how long winded this post is... LOL

Better be off.

my puter is dying a slow and painful death atm and i have to reinstall

windows this week due to a corrupt registry file.  We have to operate in 'safe mode' which doesn't allow for use of any drivers....

no downloading the camers, or using the printer!!  Eeeeek!

lucky for me i have a fabulous neighbour who downloaded my camera

and emailed my DD mini album pics to me ...

yep - that qualifies as 'totally obsessed' i know!  hehe

Anyway, hopefully i won't kill my puter good and proper and will be back

later in the week with more shares.

thanks for stopping by (hope you enjoyed your cuppa!!)

:))

jules

x

Stuck

Please tell me that it has happened to you too!  I got so stuck on a challenge layout yesterday that i just shoved it in the draw because i didn't want to look at it any more.... :)  is it just me, or do you feel the best thing to do is put it down for another time?

Anyway... today being a new day i decided to start a fresh one... no challenge and no other purpose than because i just wanted to do it.  i've gotten into the habit of scouring challenge sites before i do a layout EVERY time.  Don't get me wrong... i love challenges, but sometimes it's nice to do something just because.

This is what i did today with a fresh unstuck head ... well sort of... unless you count the sniffles and sore throat.  Thank you darling Lachy:

Love the new Bo Bunny Cambridge range right now.  i teamed it up with some of the new Basic Grey writers block set... and even some 7Gypsies transparency

Oh, and i printed the big photo on transparency too.  I originally had some book paper behind it, but decided it looked better as the more subtle transparency on it's own.

I've been tinkering away on my December Daily album too, but plan to put all the bare bones together over the weekend.  Feel free to pop over the the Boxx and have a look at our progress.  I think we'll have something to show soon!

Oh and how could i forget my little present i got from the lovely Leanne

Thank you Leanne..

So here are the rules to passing this award along....

1. Thank the person that gave it to you!

2. Post it with pride on your blog!

3. List 3 things you love about yourself!

I love my job  :)
I love that i make beautiful and healthy babies

I am loving my hair right now

4. Post a picture you love!

hehe ... i've posted this one before, but i just LOVE it!

Cooper was having so much fun and the light was spectacular

with the sun shining behind us and a storm brewing in front of us.

5.  Tag 5 other people with the award.

Stacey

Min

Leanne

Cathy

Jas

Thanks ladies  xx

That's all from me for today.  Be back soon, and thanks for stopping by.

jules

x

Compare the Pair

Well... the visitors have left and, much as i enjoy visitors.. it is nice to have my creative time back!

 My MIL left us with DH's baby album (she too has done a little spring cleaning it would seem) .. lol!

While snapping away with the camera last week i took a shot that i thought looked

a little familiar... here's why:

{Troy at 3}

{Lachlan at 2}

Not too hard to see where that cheeky grin came from!!  hehe

I know Troy's hair looks really ginger in this pic, but he isn't even remotely red!

This pic of Lachlan, by the way, is my new favourite photo!!

He completely shattered his brothers' peace and quiet on this

particular afternoon.  All Cooper wanted to do was sit and read

in my hammock ... (gotta love that!) ..  :))

Lachlan of course had other ideas, as that hammock looks like

too much fun for just one person!

I just had to scrap it today, considering i had creative withdrawals.

The colour palette at tcr this week was this:

and i totally loved it, so i had to have a go... and did this:

One thing i did do while the in-laws were here is shop online .. :))

I just love the 7 Gypsies pp and the Tim Holtz Filmstrip... i couldn't wait to use them!

Thanks for stopping by... and i've got so many ideas atm due to my little break

i'm just busting with creative enthusiasm! :))

see you soon

jules

x