Southward Bound...

Our journey continues on another 500 or so kilometres from Goodiwindi to Dubbo.  We arrived in Dubbo on Monday, Day 3 of our road trip to Melbourne, and were immediately taken with the place.  Fantastic caravan park and gorgeous weather, we set up camp and made plans for our trip to the Taronga Western Plains Zoo the following day.  I can thoroughly recommend it.  We had an awesome day and took our time meandering around the 6km track and enjoying all the animal enclosures.  The kids especially enjoyed the African animals and were keen to view all the feeding times and presentations by the keepers.  I thought I’d share just a few of my favourite shots…. I won’t bore you with the four thousand others!!

After two nights in Dubbo, we hit the road early again on Day 5 for the 550 odd kilometre drive to Tocumwal, just shy of the Victorian border.  With not much to see in the way of scenery…

I decided to spend much of my trip doing this…..

Hahaa…. Trust me, if I can scrap efficiently in such a confined space, anyone can!!  It certainly encourages you to think simple and not over-complicate things. :)   I’ll share my first few pages soon.  As our trip progresses, so too does the travel journal process.  The idea of scrapping something from every day has evolved into the decision to only record the things that I feel are relevant or something that I want to look back on.  We may do a few things in one day that I want to document and then nothing much on the next day.  I’m okay with skipping days, or not working on the journal when all we really want to do is relax.

After a rest day today, we are off to Melbourne tomorrow.  I anticipate needing to rest in readiness for the shopping I have planned!!  Hmmm… I may have neglected to inform Troy of that intention, although I’m sure the girls will happily keep me company.  :)

Thanks for tagging along.

Cheers for now,

Jules
x

Off We Go!!!

Finally Day One has arrived!

Packed to the rafters (do campers have rafters?) .... mum, dad, 4 kids, 1 camper, 1 tent, waaaay too many clothes to cater for the 4 seasons we will be experiencing, 1 very dejected puppy with big sad puppy dog eyes as we locked the gate on him.... and bucket loads of excitement!

Day One was uneventful but long, with plenty of this type of scenery...

It will be interesting to compare and contrast the Central Queensland landscape to the Tassy landscape shots in a couple of weeks time!  :)

Day Two we reached Goondiwindi and met up with my mum and dad for the continued trip to Melbourne through the centre of NSW and Victoria.

 

 

 

Dubbo today for a two night stay, including a visit to the Dubbo Zoo tomorrow.  Ridiculous as it sounds, my kids have never been to the zoo!!  They are pretty excited right now... :)  The mercury has finally started to drop today and I took this as a positive sign....

 



The cool air that vapourised the fuel up there is bound to settle down here tonight, right?  That's what I'm counting on anyway!!

Hopefully I'll get some travel journal done in the next few days and have something more to share soon.

Cheers for now!

Jules
x

Scrap The Girls!

The drought has broken.... well, my creative drought at least!  :)

Thanks to Mal and Scrap The Girls, I put this layout together as part of the December Birthday Celebrations.  Scrap The Girls is 4 years old this month!  Congrats Mal and all the girls on putting together and maintaining such a fantastic challenge site.  Head on over and check out the multiple challenges for this month.  All challenges are open until 31st January, 2013 and there is bound to be something to suit everyone.

The challenge this week is to scrap a girl based layout in teal, white and a neutral colour (I have used kraft) with the option of including a 'life lesson' message to your loved one.  At this particularly introspective, family oriented time of year, I thought it would be nice to scrap some words of wisdom and then maybe even gift your layout when you are done.

This layout is based on Maddi's recent achievement when awarded with School Captain for 2013.  Yep, proud mumma.... that's me!  :))

{wings}

Tonnes of gesso, glimmermist and stamping on this layout... nothing's changed there!  :)   The gorgeous Dusty Attic Decorative Scroll #1 (DA0213) takes centre stage and acts as a perfect photo frame too.

So, as I am currently weaving my way down the centre of Queensland, NSW and Victoria on my way to Melbourne, this is a scheduled post.  Promise to keep you updated during our travels with plenty of pics and travel journal updates  :)

Cheers,

Jules
x

Happy Tassy Travels...

Hello long lost friends!  I'm not even sure if anyone is listening anymore... and I totally understand if you've given up on me, considering my ridiculously long absence.  I'm not even sure where to start, except to say that I was completely swept up by family and life demands and was attempting to keep too many balls in the air at once.  Something had to give and unfortunately my 'me time' took one for the team.

Well, I've scrapped, and it felt good!!  ... but more on that later.  :)

The subject of today's post is our up-and-coming camping trip to Tasmania for Christmas!  Excited beyond measure, I've no doubt that a major contributing factor to the anticipation is a quick study of the maximum temperature comparisons between home and Tassy.  42 deg/C :  20 deg/C.  BRING IT ON!!  lol

Does anyone remember this:

... from Issue No.94 of Scrapbook Creations?

I put together this travel journal several months ago in readiness for our Christmas holidays this year.  Instead of a December Daily, I will be documenting our epic Christmas camping trip one day at a time from Dec 15th to Jan 27th.  A big undertaking I know, but I am totally ok with only using a 'one picture speaks a thousand words' approach for some days, if that is all I can manage.

I have my base pages and vellum for journalling all prepared for action and have even jotted down some initial thoughts before our trip even begins.  It is a very eclectic mix of papers, scraps, altered book pages and embellies and I would like to keep the content and style very informal and ad hoc.  I envisage a bursting-at-the-seems collection of bits and pieces of precious tokens, snapshots and memories from our trip, randomly stapled, with notations just jotted down on the run.  No measuring, no typing, no fussing and NO straight lines!!  :)

I am prepared with my travel scrap kit, portable printer and a 'Big 4' caravan park wifi subscription in advance, because I will of course need to blog as I go too!  There will be some rugged camping where wifi just won't be an option, but I will record and blog as much as I can, when I can.

Our trek begins with a 2,500km road trip to Melbourne, followed by 10 hour ferry ride with car and camper across the mountainous seas of the Bass Strait before we even get to Tassy!!  (Actually, the kids and I will fly from Melbourne to Hobart direct, because it was cheaper .... and less tumultuous for the digestive system, while Troy keeps the car, the camper and my mum and dad company on the ferry ride over).  Not only are mum and dad travelling and camping with us, but we are also visiting and holidaying with many more of my relatives in Tassy too... some, Troy and the kids have never even met.  I can't wait!!  I know they say it's all about the journey and not the destination..... but I'm completely amped for the journey, the destination AND the trip home!!!

With just one week of preparing and packing and Santa organising to go, I've plenty of 'to'do' lists that I should be consulting right now... so I'm outta here.

Oh, and I'll be back soon with my first scrapping attempt in ...... no!! .... has it really been 6 months??

If anyone is still listening... thanks.  I know now I will always still need to create something, no matter what else is going on in my crazy and demanding everyday, so stay tuned and I promise to continue sharing.

Cheers for now,

Jules
x

Playing in the Background...

As I frantically add last minute items to the car and camper for our camping trip.... departing tomorrow morning!!  ... it occurs to me that I need to blog about this week's palette over at The Colour Room.

I had a bunch of fun with water, glimmermists and salt to create this funky little background technique and teamed it up with a silhouette photo of my ds#1 and some 'really old' rubon numbers  (love using up old stuff). Thanks to Feature Art for the sponsorship this month.

{count the ways}

Yummy Dusty Attic cogs helped to set the boy theme and were simply gessoed to offset them against the watercoloured background:

Cogs Frames Set : DA0327

Mini Cogs: DA0689

Thanks so much for popping in guys.... but i really need to finish packing!!  A little bit more than a week in a warm sunny beach in Far North Queensland is beckoning!!  :))  Promise to update with lots of piccies.

Cheers for now,

Jules
x

Another Canvas Creation....

Eeeek!  Last week was all about catching up on all things family.... that were so disgracefully ignored in the build up to the Brisbane Expo!!  :)   We've had a birthday and a sleepover party, an away game for football that required an overnight stay, one stressed Year 11 dd in exam block requiring lots of support (because apparently an A- is considered a 'fail'!), and a horrible temperature/headache virus thrown in for good measure!

Time now to revisit my neglected online family..... :)

Just in the nick of time, and because I enjoyed my first canvas so much, I decided to do another one for this week's palette at The Colour Room.  I have also incorporated the Feature Art papers, this month's sponsor at TCR.

{happiness}

Feature Art tissue paper was also used to build the background textures, which also includes old book paper, offcuts of cardboard (I never throw away any cardboard scraps), lots of gesso and acrylic paints, glimmermist, plastic netting, muslin, buttons and trinkets.

The ever-present Dustic Attic chipboard also features... :)  In typical fashion, I have painted and misted it to incorporate it into the background, outlined it with darker glimmermist and a fine paintbrush, then touched it up lightly with gesso and a dry brush to help distinguish and highlight it.  One of my favourite techniques.  Some tiny little scattered glass beads have also added a touch of sparkle and interest.

The chippy used:

Scroll Border #1, DA0219

Don't be afraid to snip up your chipboard shapes to suit your purpose or design.  I do it all the time!

Thanks for popping by.

Cheers for now lovely ladies,

Jules

x

Brissy Show Wrap Up...

Fresh back from the Brisbane Scrapbook and Papercraft Expo and what a blast!

I had a fantastic time and (aside from the learning experience of a rather chaotic class on Saturday), I thoroughly enjoyed my first 'in person' teaching experience.  Thank you to the many wonderful and kind ladies who took my class and made me feel at ease.  Your comments and feedback following the classes were amazing and I am truly humbled and thankful to have been involved in what I'm certain will be a regular event for me.... whatever the capacity.

A big thankyou also to Nicole and Craft Queen for the fabulous opportunity and for all your help and support.  You are a true professional and I don't know what I would have done without your guidance and assistance.

To Kim and Tina.... you are wonderful!!  Your help on all three days was just astounding and I could not have gotten through each class without your tireless efforts.  Big hugs... again!  :)

I can now show you the layout that the class was based on, in full .  Quite a detailed layout, it was a little bit of a challenge to get this completed in the designated time.  I had toyed with the idea of making a much simpler page, but decided that that just wasn't me.  I would much rather give people something that was authentically me and have them leave my class with a little homework, rather than feel duped or short changed.

{she dreamed}

In need of a couple of catch up days and hopeful that I have avoided the nasty flu bugs that almost every second person at the show seemed to be hosting.... I'm now off to clean floors!  What an anti-climax!!  lol

Quite sad that I just could't manage another bag on my shoulder and hence no camera, no photos!  : (  I'm hopeful that I will receive some from the lovely Annette and Kim soon...  ; )

Thanks so much for visiting,

Jules
x

Catching Up....

Hello scrappy goddesses!!

A few things I need to catch up on.  Firstly, Dusty Attic is now doing a fabulous little ATC challenge every month.  I've never done them before, but at just 2.5' x 3.5' they are just sooooo cute and really achieveable in a small amount of time.  Great if you don't have time for a layout, but still feel the need to get your hands messy...  :)  The month of June is all about birds and flight, showcasing the gorgeous new release chippies...

{give me wings}

{to soar}

This is what I used from the new release:

Make sure you check out the rest of the DT ATC inspiration over at Dusty Attic, and come play with us!

A couple of Colour Room layouts also need sharing as I've been a little distracted with other things these last couple of weeks... sorry Bloggers!  :)

First of all, a card!  Yep, that's right..... me, a card!  lol.  Running a little short on time, I whipped this little fella up for palette #112 over at the Colour Room.

{just because}

More Dusty Attic goodness of course, this time the gorgeous Heart Flourish  (DA 0667) was perfect for card making.

This little guy is also the subject of my sketch challenge over at the Boxx this month, so make sure you head over for a little peek.... I'd love for you to play along.  :)

And secondly, this next palette (#113) was developed in conjunction with Feature Art papers...

{wings}

Thanks so much for popping in.... I so hope things slow down a little for me when I return from Brisbane next week!  If you are going to Brissy, see you there!!  :)))

Cheers for now,

Jules
x

Brisbane Expo!!!

Yep.... it's looming and I'm super excited!!!  How about you??

I don't know what I'm looking forward to most, doing my class, or meeting so many totes gorgeous ladies and having a social blast all weekend!!!!

Aside from my class layout, this show layout and card kit is also going to be available at the Craftqueen stand, so make sure you stop by and say a big 'hi' to Nicole at stand 11.... if for no other reason than because she is lovely!!  :)

{the look}

{a little birdie told me}

 Can't wait to see you all!!   :)

Big hugs,

Jules
x