Here are this weeks

1. I am (and always have been) attracted to the art journalling and the whole concept of getting abit messy and random creating pages. I have been reading about people's experiences with art journalling and have been admiring their pages. You can see whose works I have been checking out lately HErE, hEre and HERe!

I have just (barely!) started my own art journal so hopefully I can also share some of my pages with you soon :-)

2. Corrie shared links to her favourite baby knitting patterns in THIS POST - many of the projects were suitable for beginners. I've just added more projects to my ever-growing list ;-)

3. I met THIS awesome gal back in March at the E2C retreat in South Australia. She shared the layout she created about meeting me on her blog HERE this week. I am so in love with the page - layers, bold and bright colours, and glittery chevron...just so me! Totally adore it!

4. I made THIS side dish this week. It was really yum. Will make again for sure.

5. The lovely Janelle shared an outfit post this week on her blog and linked up the following video! I thought it was awesome. Will definitely give some of these styles a go.

I haven't blogged much everyday 'goings on' in our life at the moment. This would most likely be due to the fact that we had school holidays and time just goes swoosh!

Anyway, I thought I'd pop in and share some piccies of my fam and what we have been up to over the last couple of weeks or so...

It's definitely Winter here. We got a tad low on wood there for a while so I was taking Little K on small walks around the house to collect some bits of wood, sticks etc to burn in our fire to keep it going and to save wood and make it stretch further until we could get some more. It was quite a fun little exercise to keep up busy and active so no complaints here :-)

I received this awesome canvas from the super talented Jodie of Polka Dot Creative - I love everything she does. And her script writing is just divine!

Now just to get it mounted on my wall somewhere - I'm thinking in my bedroom so I wake up to it EVERYDAY :-)

Because of holidays, my town days now involved both my children which was interesting. It was Macca's for tea this particular town day and they were rather chuffed with their StormFly dragon figurine in their Happy Meal :-) Huge 'How to Train Your Dragon' fans here!

We went for walks and played in the park (dodging the rain as best we could!)...

Picked flowers on the way home from the side of the road and I enjoyed many cups of tea to warm up ;-)

Being school holidays, some treat times were in order. A few times, we made a trip over to the 'Road-shop' as Miss J refers to it as -- bought some drinks and maybe an ice-cream or a chocolate and walked around to Daddy at the shop and had a little picnic style catch-up together...cos we can :-D

There was sleep-ins...well for me anyhow. The kids still got up at their unearthly hour but they know they are not allowed out of their room until 7am. And then they entertain themselves fairly well while I have a little bit more of a snooze. Miss J enjoyed coming and sitting beside me in my bed and reading one of my mags -- "Once upon a time there were fairies..." *I had totally missed the part of my knitting/crochet mag having fairies in it ;-) hehe

One weekend we stayed in town for a couple of nights so I could complete my First Aid training. It was nice having the Golden Arches close-by again for the purposes of a special midnight snack ;-)

I got my First Aid certificate :-)

Playgroup Fun!!!

On Sunday night we headed off down the road to our neighbour's and had a bonfire night!! Much enjoyment was had by all :-)

Life must be rather eventful and fun -- sometimes Little one didn't quite make it to bed before falling to sleep ;-)

Precious xx

So what have you been up to my lovelies??

With Sprinkles of Sunshine...

Anna

Time for another list of my

1. My kids would love these headbands. I've popped this on my knitting 'to-do' list ;-)

2. My husband sent me this link via twitter last year. I re-visited it over the weekend at my husband's prompting that I probably should. No subtle hinting with him ;-)

I know that sleep is important. I know I need to get to bed earlier. The whole idea of 'I'll catch up on the weekend' - yep! Have so used that!

It just never works that way I plan though!

This all still needs some work.

3. Came across a new blog this week. Looking forward to what Andrea has to share in this space :-)

4. I purchased THIS NEW APP yesterday - another one by Elsie and Emma of A Beautiful Mess.

5. The girls watched The Croods again the other day - I always love jigging along to the song at the end when the credits are rolling...
Shine your way folks! Shine your way :-)

Just popping in quickly again to show you another challenge layout.

This time its mine for the July 1-2-3 challenge. 

With plenty of colour, arrows and some awesome thrown in too ;-)

Here is my take on the challenge...

I love all the brights against the white background! And I haven't just used the word 'awesome' once but TWICE!! hehe ;-)

Supplies used: Cosmo Cricket DeLovely papers, Teresa Collins wood veneer, Studio Calico wood veneer, Flutterby Designs 'Fussy Cuts' tags and flair, Greatest View flair, Bella Blvd stickers, washi tape, enamel dots, Basic Grey frame, Maggie Holmes frame

Hope you like :-)

With Sprinkles of Sunshine...

Anna

So, we are in the last week of school holidays here.

And...

Jot Kids is back.

Both Miss J and I were quite excited when this was announced.

Kim Archer and fellow Jot girl, Lauren had been busy putting together a great little activity for the kids to enjoy and get crafty! 

There was a mood board and some free printables to use - see HERE!

On our town day last week, I let Miss J loose in our local scrapbook store with the mood board pic in hand. She found quite a few little goodies for her piece of art! 

SIDENOTE: I think she hadn't quite grasped the concept of a mood board completely as we had a few issues when it came to what we did or didn't have that was in the picture -- "But we haven't got all the things that are in the little basket"  - hmmmm ;-)

She got the part about the colours but I just needed to do some extra explaining and reassuring that we were all good!

I had been putting the activity off as I just could not handle the house getting any messier and I just knew that Little K would make matters harder.

But...

The other day I just decided to go for it!

Out came the stash (I had created a little bag that was just hers with all her little goodies for the activity) and she got her craft on!!

She loved spraying the page with some Mr Huey's white colour mist - she didn't like the being patient part while it dried ;-)

She had lots of fun arranging where she was putting things - vetoed many of my suggestions...she is one strong-willed child and loved being in control ;-)

(I have two lovely children like this!)

I did help her with the banner on the top and cutting the words YUM out of purple tissue paper.

And then it was DONE!!

This is how she wanted to pose with her creation...

What a kook ;-)

She makes me laugh!

I mean - just look at the photo and her writing 'I have ice-cream lips' AND she put two smily faces after it...one is me and one is her -- 'Cos it makes us BOTH laugh Mummy, so I drew both of our happy faces!'

Funny kid :-)

Well done Miss J!

You did good AND...I survived ;-)

With Sprinkles of Sunshine...

Anna

Happy Friday!

Here are my week's worth of...

1. How to stop yelling at your kids! Find out this mother's simple tip.

I'm generally pretty good at keeping my head and have even been praised for my level of calm amongst the kiddy storms BUT there has been some times where I have gotten to the end of my tether and resorted to yelling I must admit. This tip that the mother in this post suggests could be a nice little key to more control :-)

2. I know nearly every Linky Loves post I've linked up to this blog. I really can't apologise though because I get so much out of what this fella writes ;-)

This week, I really enjoyed this post and all the links he had in it too. I particularly liked the article on 'How to Live a Happy Life' - the idea of placing a notebook at the side of your bed and each night before turning off the light, writing down three things that you are thankful for in your day. Then a quick sentence highlighting why this is so and how it happened for each thing.

I like the idea :-)

3. I can't say that I agree with everything in this article but I did find it interesting nonetheless.

4. Why would I buy this hair product from the shop when I can make my own!?!

5. I was introduced to this Etsy store this week owned by blogger, Caylee Grey. I nabbed this awesome, very-well-put-together planner kit. It's pdf so you just print off whichever parts that suit you. She has thought of pretty much everything so I'm fairly well covered across all areas of our lives here. Can't wait to print it off and get it in action!!
And...mint and gold...umm - totally sold me right there ;-)

Enjoy the weekend :-)

And I'm back with another challenge layout for the D-Lish Scraps cybercrop!!

This one is for Challenge #2 by Kylie.

Kylie had supplied a sketch and her sample page.

Here is what I came up with...

I didn't have three of the one photo so I used patterned paper in the same size as the photo for part of the background.

My attempts at arty backgrounds have never been really successful BUT after these challenges from D-Lish and having a sketch to work from etc - it has done wonders for my confidence in this area. I'm absolutely chuffed :-)

SUPPLIES

D-Lish products

- Journal Its

Other

- circle mask

- paint (charcoal)

- Heidi Swapp chevron mask

- impasto medium

- Mr Hueys colour mist

- 6x6 papers (Studio Calico 'Wanderlust')

- black archival ink

- KaiserCraft grid stamp

-washi tape

- Teresa Collins 'Daily Stories' letters

- Basic Grey scrabble letters

- Flutterby Designs flair

- Greatest View flair

- cotton

- Teresa Collins adhesive chipboard button

- frame

Thank you for popping by here in my little space of the world wide web.

With Sprinkles of Sunshine...

Anna

Hiya!

I'm back again with another layout for the D-Lish cyber crop. I mentioned it all in my first challenge post here.

This one is for Challenge #8 - yeah I've gone straight from the first challenge to the last BUT when this technique challenge popped up, I was rather intrigued. I couldn't WAIT to have a go!

 I'd never heard of or come across using plastic as a way of creating painted/inked/watercoloured backgrounds on layouts!! And it looked easy! Why I had never come across it or tried it before - I don't know! But I am well and truly hooked now :-)

Here is what I created...

It wasn't just the technique that inspired me but the topic of Karen's sample as well. The garden theme shined bright as I knew exactly what photo I wanted to scrap! The progress of some flower seeds growing in the garden that my girls planted with their Grandma. Perfect!!

SUPPLIES

D-Lish products

- Journal It's

- resin triangles

- camera paper clip

- flower sequins

- Skipping5 puffy camera sticker

Other

- white Bazzil 12x12" cardstock

-gesso

- Large Kraft Bag (chevron)

- Kraft card

- 'Studio Calico' 6x6 paper

- 'Sweet Vintage' floral embellishments

- A Piece of Cake Designs flair

- Flutterby Designs flair

- cotton

- washi tape

- 'Studio Calico' Mr Hueys watercolours

- Pebbles letter roller stamp

- Amy Tangerine thickers

- date stamp

-shipping tag

- twine

 Thanks for popping by!

With Sprinkles of Sunshine...

Anna

Hi everyone!

A new mood board is out NOW over on the Jot blog.

Created by...ME!!

Here it is...

These are not typically colours that I use much in anything really, especially the mustard - but I just love this colour combo. I thought I would have trouble finding things to put a layout together but after looking, it turns out I had heaps. It was the photo to use on my page that stumped me abit -- in the end I decided to use some pics of myself and my husband that I had printed with a sepia tone which worked quite well I thought.

Here is my layout...

I kept the layout fairly simple. No layers. Just the photos stuck down onto mustard cardstock and then embellished with different items in the teal and mustard colours. The wood tape and stamped arrows add in a splash of the brown to mix it up a bit.

Supplies used include:

- Thickers letters

- Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic die-cuts

- Elle's Studio

- A Piece of Cake Designs flair

- Basic Grey enamel dots

- MME paper

- Heidi Swapp colourshine 

- vellum die-cuts

- Studio Calico wood tape

You can see all the other Jot team samples and find out details HERE.

With Sprinkles of Sunshine...

Anna

Hi All!

Over this weekend, Fri 4th until today Sunday the 6th, D-Lish Scraps have been celebrating with their 5th Birthday Bonanza Cybercrop. 

There has been challenges, spot sales, games and just a whole lot of fun and inspiration going on this weekend.

The first challenge popped up on Friday and I got stuck into it.

It was a scraplift by Tarrah.

I'm quite fond of layers so I really liked Tarrah's layout. And I do love the natural colour scheme she has going however I went a completely different colour scheme :-)

Here is my layout...

SUPPLIES

D-Lish products:

Journal It's

resin arrows

camera paper clip

heart wood shapes

Pick 'n' Place bows

Other:

12x12" Elle's Studio 'Shine' paper

6x6" Studio Calico 'Wanderlust', Dear Lizzy 'Polka Dot Party' paper

4x6" card - Elle's Studio May 2014 kit

Bella Blvd paper pieces + stickers

Basic Grey vellum bits

A Piece Of Cake Designs flair

WOW wood banner

mini doilies

Studio Calico mini peg

As always, I had fun creating this.

Hope you enjoy as well :-)

With Sprinkles of Sunshine...

Anna

Welcome to another week of my...

1. The title of this article attracted me straight away! We have recently had a few issues with our 5 year PrePrimary child having difficulty in some situations of conflict which we have 'nipped in the bud' and seems to have been successful. Reading this article allowed me to feel validated in our actions towards teaching our daughter better coping skills in these negative situations. It's a good read!

2. Ali Edwards hits the nail on the head with this post - I'm a memory keeper and I am in for the long haul :-)

3. I really like what Elsie & Emma do - looking forward to the release of their new book!

4. I've started reading Elle's blog more regularly over the last couple of weeks and I really like it because pretty much every time I read what she writes, I'm nodding my head. She is on my wavelength..and I like that. This post sticks out to me alot - There is POWER in the POSITIVE stuff people!!

5. I'm pretty sure anyone who watches this would think of the term 'like a girl' quite a bit differently afterwards. I got emotional and all fired up in one pop when I saw it! I want my daughters to be confident, resilient but compassionate human beings - and they'll do it like the strong, capable girls that they are :-)

Enjoy the weekend.