A Good Day!

Gotta love happy mail!  :)

Recieving my Di Bella order is almost as good as scrappy mail.... almost,

but I received scrappy mail too!!

Just being thankful for small pleasures.

A good day.

Gotta run, but will be back with a share later.

Cheers,

Jules

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Our Spot

The final palette for the month of Maja sponsorship at TCR had 'seaside' written all over it!  Obviously I wasn't the only one who thought so if you have a look at the awesome Colour Room DT reveal today.

I had to celebrate this palette with a layout depicting the beach we played on daily whilst away on holidays this January.  Moffatt Beach on the Sunshine Coast is definitely 'our spot'.  A great family beach with a fantastic foreshore, cafe's, boutiques, day spa... ;)  totally 'our spot'!!  The balcony of our unit overlooked this beach, with just a small park between us and the sand.  It was just so idyllic, I know it won't be the last time we stay there.

{our spot}

Layout photography is definitely not my forte as you will no doubt notice!  :)  oooh it frustrates me so much at times!  Any tips will be enormously appreciated!  lol

And yes, I did raid the kid's shell and coral collection!  And the Dusty Attic folliage chipboard, smothered in rough, stippled gesso took on a suspiciously nautical bent in the company of all those beachy elements too!  :)

Cheers for now lovely people.  I hope you all have a fantastic weekend.  Cooper has hung up his soccer boots for League this year, so we have a very footy filled weekend ahead.... with a very nervous mumma on the sidelines covering her eyes with her hands!! 

Hugs and thanks for stopping by,

Jules
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Maja Designs.... #3

Yep, this is the third week of Maja Design sponsorship over at The Colour Room and consequently my third Maja inspired page! 

I struggled a little with the colours in this one.... those who know me know of the battle I have with purple, esp the lilac variety!  :)

This page is also a celebration of the day Maddison got her braces off last month.  She was counting down the days for at least 2 months prior and was just so excited.  Well worth the time and money I say!  :)

{her new smile}

and the palette:

Hint:  Don't forget that you can add white, kraft, cream or black to any palette.

Plenty going on on the creative front, just nothing more that I can share right now.  I have not been buzzing around online much of late ... life is just such a blur at the moment and all of my time management skills are being tested - fully!!  lol.  The kids and their activities just seem to have really ramped up this year (I wouldn't have thought it possible!!) and I'm struggling to fit everything in.  I think I really need to re-assess and cut back a little, regain some balance and enjoy things more.  {scoff}... yeah, I can dream!!  Maybe in my next lifetime.  lol

Thank you so much for popping in.  I read and appreciate every comment so much.

Cheers for now....

Jules
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New Colour Palette Time...

It's week 2 of Maja Design month at The Colour Room and the DT got to play with some absolutely beautiful papers.  This page contains all the usual suspects too though - glimmermist, DA chipboard (corner flourish #2 and angel wings), painted cardboard, muslin, Prima mistable canvas and some gorgeous flowers from the lovely Nicole at Craft Queen.  :)

{leap}

I am totally smitten with these DA angel wings.... looove them!

Oh... and the palette:

Little tip:  If the dark colours are a bit much for you, just add them in small quantities as accents rather than full block of colour.  ;)

Best be off...  house full of sick kiddies this week.  We are all exhausted!!  : (

Cheers for now,

Jules
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Dusty Attic Loveliness...

Just a quick post today to showcase some more of the lovely Dusty Attic new release.  I've actually mixed a bit of old with the new, but it all works so well together, there is no reason not to mix it up really.  :)

{my baby girl}

I've snapped the beautiful Corner Flourish #2 into two pieces for this one to make it fit in with the design.  The new birdcage and label are on this page also.  I simply coated all the chipboard with gesso and a little spritz of white chalkboard glimmermist for a little bit of shimmer.  The light colours blend in well with my background so as not to take over.... we know how much I love my white space!  lol  The white flourish was also nice and soft againt the watercoloured background that I created with teal chalkboard glimmermist and meadow glimmermist.  I gave the label a little tide pool glimmerglam and placed some torn strips of Hambly Washy Tape on it while it was still wet too.

Thanks for stopping by.  Must rush, lots of horrible paper work and phone calls to make today...  : (

Bye for now,

Jules

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It's Friday!!

... and yes, it has felt like a particularly long week!!  :)

But Friday means new palette day at TCR.  This month at TCR we are sponsored by the gorgeous range of Maja Design papers.  Absolutely sensational designs from Sweden of some of the best quality papers I have seen.

Here is my layout for this week:

{A Shared Love}

Using this palette:

I've used some TA glimmermist as a soft watercolour type background and used my favourite circle style layout with lots of layers and lots of Prima yummies too.  I've kept the Dusty Attic ferns and my aphas raw, which I think married in nicely with the whole 'outdoorsy' theme of the layout.  The twine photo border served the same purpose too.  I don't think I'll ever stop loving circles... they really are my favourite design element!  :)

My printer finally passed away the other day and I haven't yet installed the new one, so luckily I had this photo sitting around from a previous layout that I ended up not using.  It's colours were just perfect! It's very old (pre Lachlan in fact)... but I love it nonetheless.  The girl's just look so little... lol. 

Have a fantastic weekend and I'll see you soon.

Cheers,

Jules
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Summing Up

Hello lovely friends....

So, the kids are back to school and settled in nicely.  The holidays are well and truely over.  The torrential rain and dark skies are making it impossible for me to photograph my layouts that are waiting patiently in my nook.  Lachie is now on the casual short list at day care for a bit of social interaction with his own age group.... and started his first day today!  I'm all alone... and completely at a loss as to what to do with myself!!  I could do some housework or cooking.....  or not!  :)

Instead, I decided to play with my holiday shots from ... omg, was it only just over a week ago that we came home?  Feels like weeks already.  We had such a fantastic time.  We spent two nights at Cania Gorge on the way to the coast, then a glorious week right on Moffat Beach at Caloundra, with fantastic views from our balcony (and the Day Spa right across the road... how fortuitous... lol), then a few more nights in Brisbane with my family before heading home.  DH and I even managed a night in the city on our own... completely on our own!!  Only happens about once a year, so we really enjoyed it while it lasted....  :)

1. Moffat Beach  2. Brothers  3. Bird feeding at Cania  4. The view from our Moffat balcony  5. Cousins re-unite  6. Bird chasing at Cania (grrr)  7. Me & Him relaxing  8. Cania water park fun  9. Spiderman

By far the most exciting and momentous event in January for one girl in particular though, was the removal of the braces last week!



Beautiful girl.

She is just so happy with them and flashing them off to anyone and everyone!  :)

And I must also share another shot of my other 'beautiful girl' competing (and coming second) in the Australia Day triathalon!!  Well done sweetheart.  Boys and girls all competed together this year, so it was really fabulous to see the girls taking out first and second place against all the boys too!

And finally, just cause it's cute, a shot of Lachy this morning before day care.  It will only be a one day a week thing (if that), and he was so happy to go.  No tears.  No 'don't go mummy'.  Nothing.  Just excitment.  So cute!

So, that's my month in a nutshell.  Sorry for all the family shots... hope you don't mind.  Just felt the need to share... :)

I can see the sun finally trying to peek it's head out for a look, so those layouts might get photographed today after all!  Best be off before it disappears again!

Cheers for now,

Jules

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It's all about the chipboard!

Hello lovelies!! 

We returned from a beautiful holiday yesterday, which was replete with lots of sand, surf and sea.... plenty of relaxation.... and tonnes of photos!!  I haven't even downloaded the camera yet, much less edited them for posting, so I guess I'll have to do that later in the week, once the back-to-school flurry of activity settles down!!

For now, I just wanted to quickly share with you my very first official Dusty Attic DT layout!  These pieces are from the new release, which is just completely gorgeous.  They are so new in fact, that we don't even have the names and codes for them yet!  I layered a few different components for the door piece and then set about weathering it with paint, glimmermist and ink.  For details, check out my tutorial over at Dusty Attic and keep your eye on the DA shop for the new release for 2012.

I had a lot of fun with this page, exploring a couple of new techniques and looks... just trying to keep things interesting...  :)  I actually fussy cut around the floral detail in the bottom left of the Kaiser pp and slotted the chippy door and the canvas tag/photo down inside it, further embellishing over the top also.  I tend to 'blur' the boundaries of large elements on a page in order to make them a little less imposing.

{seek}

For now, I have to try to snap out of holiday mode and get my mind into back-to-school mode.... no mean feat!!  :))  Good luck to all my Queensland buddies who are in the same situation!

I'll be back later in the week with more stuff...  :)

Cheers for now,

Jules

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It's a Lift!

Hello lovely people!!

This is a scheduled post, so as you read this, I'll be either splashing around at the beach on the Sunshine Coast, or laid back at the day spa... probably snoring!  lol   We were so looking forward to this break away that I'm sure coming home is going to be a little tough!  :)

Anyway, back to business.  It is my turn to pick a layout from the Boxx Gallery ... and shamelessly lift it!  I couldn't go past this stunning page by the gorgeous and super talented, Heather Jacob.  I just love the white on white with a touch of cream and golden tones.  I've wanted to do something like this for ages and this gave me the perfect opportunity.  I also loved the layered strips of punched paper and the white chippy element on white cs... and of course the stitching (duh)  :)

I've also had this lovely Dusty Attic peacock feather for ages and just didn't quite know what to do with it.  I had seen it used so well by other amazingly talented ladies, that I just didn't know how to do it justice.  I love it white with the little metal detail in the head of the feather.  Even in this plain colour scheme, I think it still manages to stand out.

{my xmas gift}

Thanks for popping by... try not to think of me sipping mai tai's by the pool!  hehee

See you soon,

Jules
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December Book of You

Hello Again... :)

The Winks household has been busy trying to catch up today, following all the general busy-ness of Christmas/birthday/New Years... it's a pretty big party week in this place!!  :) 

Somewhere in the middle of it all, I managed to scrap two layouts for my Book of You Kit project at The Boxx.  Out of necessity, they were really quick and simple layouts... no time for fiddling and playing.  Most of the time, my pages are a real labour of love and I actually enjoy fussy over them for a while.  Every now and then though, it's quite fun to see what you come up with when you don't overthink things.... just cut and stick.  And, difficult as it is for me to do, that is exactly what I did.  :)

The December Book of You is all about "The Things I Love About Christmas".

For me, Christmas means simply, spending time with my special people and really cherishing those everyday moments and taking the time to focus on the fundamentally important things... like just giving your children the gift of your time and attention. Only then can we really appreciate these special moments that might otherwise go un-noticed.

My first layout is all about a photo I took of my eldest son on Christmas Day this year. He’s a very active little man and just doesn’t stop from the moment his eyes open in the morning, until bed-time. It was nice to watch him find things to do on Christmas Day when we were camping at our local camping spot, especially in such a lovely tranquil setting.

{tranquil}

My second layout is all about my youngest son. He gets away with soooo much more than his brother and sisters ever did at the same age.... even chocolate before breakfast on Christmas Day! I just adore the ‘and what are you going to do about it’ look on his face... although I know I shouldn’t! :)

{sweetie}

Tutorials for these layouts are available to kit subscribers in the BOY Kit Group over at The Boxx.

This was my final BOY kit for now as I pass the flame on to Gina.  I'm absolutely certain you will love what Gina has in store.

Another busy week ahead with scrapping commitments, scheduling posts ... and packing for our holiday!!  I'm so looking forward to getting away... beach and day spa, here I come!  lol

Cheers for now,

Jules
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