Special Edition Moving Along With The Times..Happy 5th Birthday MAWTT - BLOG HOP!!

Hi!

Welcome to a very special 5th birthday edition of Moving Along With The Times. 

Our theme this week is Buttons, Bunting and Birthdays

My caRd today was made using 'Chicago' by Rick St dennis, one of our sponsors this week - so much fun to colour in and I chose the paper, because it fits the theme so well. I coloured the stamp using Promarkers and Stickles glitterglue. The sentiment was created using my fave eksuccess punch.

As it's a birthday edition we have PRIZES and a BLOG HOP.....So what is the blog hop all about? 

To be eligible for the pRizes you must visit all the blogs and collect a letter from each. Then email Hazel at didosdesigns@yahoo.com with the word you have made with Blog Hop Word in the Subject Line.  You must send the word to us to be in with a chance of winning!!!! 

I am offering you, this bumper stack of goodies...

...and the best bit about it is I will choose 2 winneRs - yay!! Leave me a comment and I'll choose 2 of you and announce the winner of my prizes here next week. The MAWTT prizes will be announced over at MAWTT.

Here are links to all the DT blogs.

Hazel (Didos)
Sue
Pami
Hazel L
Carole
Judith
Wendy
Janice
Debs
Karina
Laurie
Tammy
Susan
Claire (You are here)
Jessie

Sarah

Hope you have fun playing and don't forget to look for that letteR...

Cx

Shabby Chic...

Hello,

Hope you are having a nice weekend.

I have just got back from a Dim Sum lunch with Hubby and the neighbours -YUMS!!

Following my failed attempt at entering the Shabby Tea Room challenge, I thought I'd have another try :) This week it is a great sketch -

#201 Fun with Sketches

I had quite an extensive play this morning before lunch as I couldn't find the right central element...Then I remembered I had a little stash of Teresa Collins Fabrications tags and sentiment banners...

I love how my card has turned out, once again it is a bit of a departure from my normal style, but it's good to make different things, keeps the mind fresh!

Here's a detail shot for you..

My card - close-up

I used free papers for the backing and the little strips you can see, the Teresa Collins tags, Recollections flowers (a gift from JT), a doily and pearls from my stash and I punched the bunting using my Stampin' up punch.

I especially love the flowers, they have all different prints on them.

A fun Saturday morning project.

Cx

A year early...

Hey,

I thought I would post a 'non card' project...I am always referencing these other things I do..but always forget to take photos!!

Anyway, a couple of years ago when our nephew Otis was 10 months old, I made him an advent calendar to use for Dec 2012 (and many years after that hopefully).

He used it for the first time last year and loved it.

Otis and his advent calendar

So as we now have a niece (Florence) who is Otis' baby sister I thought she should get the same treatment...however this time I learnt some lessons.

1 - do not make the calendar in a rush
2 - do not buy a kit to cheat that ends up being the same amount of work
3 - plan it out better and simplify it

The main photo is the finished calendar. I am very pleased, it has come out beautifully.

How did I do it?
- 2 pieces of plain duck cloth (calico) for the base
- 24 coloured squares (+ 8 extra for the name)
- Felt letters and shapes as required
- Iron-on numbers.

I cut the coloured squares first - 32 in total incl the ones for Florence's name - they measure 7x7 (inches) and I used pinking shears to cut them out. The coloured squares are actually napkins that I bought on sale (8 for $4). I bought napkins instead of actual fat quarters as each napkin is the same size as a fat quarter, so I got a lot of variety in colour and a lot of fabric for a lot less money.

I pinned all the squares to the duck cloth (tedious) - before cutting it, as I wasn't sure how much I would need - being as I decided not to stick to conventional ways of doing things... Cut away the excess and then I stitched all the letters and the stars to the squares, before sewing all the squares to the duck cloth
I used two pieces of the the cloth, as I felt it wasn't substantial enough, but you don't need to do this.

Then I used a decorative stitch to create a border - love this Daisy Chain stitch on my new machine.

The numbers were cut using the Silhouette Portrait and I went off piste here and used iron-on glitter material that is meant to be used in a Cricut...one digital die-cutter is much the same as another...

Iron-on  numbers were the best thing about this calendar, super easy to make and use, will be using more iron-on stuff!

I decided against adding a hanging tab...why? Because I am lazy..

Florence won't get to use it until Dec 2014, but no doubt she will enjoy her's as much as her big Brother enjoys his.

Next project for Florence will be bunting as Otis already has some..

All the Christmas prep has been done, Hubby is working from home and we are playing non-Christmas music, the fur children are asleep on the bed and all the presents are wrapped.

Happy Christmas everyone..see you later in the week.

Cx

Three times lucky...

So I am super excited today, Hubby and I are off to our first live Basketball game since we moved to NYC...can't wait and we have great seats :)

As I am loving a challenge right now I thought I would enter 3 challenges with my card today...

RetroSketches - #85

Daring Cardmakers - Birthday Bunting and Banners

Stamping for the weekend - Anything Goes

I combined the sketch from RS with the Daring Cardmakers theme..I love the little bit of bunting around the beach hut and reminds me of a birthday party that was thrown for me when I was at Uni..The sentiment makes me want to open the card, which is always a nice touch.

Following on from yesterday's post about my obsession I have used another one of the Pink Petticoat Beach Cottage images :) Coloured with Promarkers and glitter glue. The orange paper is by Michaels, I used a Martha Stewart loopy border punch to create the border and the Heart paper is by Amy Tangerine for American Crafts and I used a Candi, to embellish the tag.

Love this card, I am thinking it might go in the growing pile of 40 for 40 :)

I'm also very pleased with my photo, as it was taken late at night using my new photo tent - thanks Hubby!

Have a great day.

Cx

Over complicating things!

As you are all aware I love bunting and have been enjoying making bunting cards. Recently I wondered if I could add a twist to the bunting cards. So I had a little play and I came up with this little sketch - 

I drew the sketch using PPT - which I often do, when I am working on new ideas.

Sentiment banner - unfortunately I broke the eyelet!

It all looks nice and simple and the result is stunning - today's main picture, but it is a total pain in the bleep to make. Mainly because you can't stick all the flags down before you sew them to the card, as the top row overlaps, so you have to sew the bottom row first, then stick down the top row, then sew again.

Essentially I took my nice simple bunting idea that I have used a bejillion times and over complicated it. Needless to say, I have only managed to make 2 of these cards and no matter how beautiful they are, I will not be making them again!

Here are a few close-ups for you.

The fabric and foam flower, with jewelled brad

Close-up of the stitching

I made this card nearly 2 months ago, but I have been so traumatised by the experience it's taken me all that time to recover :)

Rule no.1 - do not over complicate. A rule that I think might be handy for more than just crafting....

Cx

Bunting Part Two

As I mentioned before I have been inspired by the cards that I have seen lately that feature sewing techniques and by MoonMum.

I've also been rather over excited by the arrival of my new Pennant punch.

This weekend I tried out a few ideas using both the punch and the sewing machine, so easy to do and lots of fun - I spent a few hours making tons of these. Here are the pictures of some of them.

1. Bunting Card - Black and Blue

1. I wanted to use the spotted and black papers to make pennants, but felt they needed a contrast of colour to lift them up - hence the blue paper and the eyelets. I like the perky 'birthday!' stamp. The closeup (1a) below shows how the pennants are stitched to the card.

1a. Bunting Card - Black and Blue Closeup

2. I think the card below is really fresh! It made me feel very spring like. I like the pop of the green against the blue gingham. The mismatched patterns of the pennants works well, must remember to do this again. The letters are from Michael's and I'll be buying more when I go back to NYC this year.

2. Bunting Card - Blue and Green

Below is a closeup (2a), it shows my sewing was a bit off! But I am thinking that you don't really notice and it adds to the charm of the card!

3. This card is slightly different, as I didn't use the sewing machine, I used the Sew Easy tool! Not 'sew easy' at all, hence it's sale on eBay and me returning to my sewing machine! I made this card for a friend - I think she'll like it.

3. Bunting Card - Pink Spots

This closeup (3a) shows that the stitches made using the sew easy (and my own hands) are not as good as the machine ones.

So what do you think?

I am really pleased and part three of bunting will be some pictures of a card I made before the punch arrived. Its not as easy as you think to cut triangles freehand!

Cx

Bunting Part One

I thought we'd have a mini break from cards - I do make other things, but cards are so easy, as sewing is far from therapeutic - all the pinning, ironing, turning, etc. So unfortunately I don't sew as often as I like and when I do sew, I forget to document it! This post is part one, as I'll be returning to cards for part two to show off some bunting cards - which are made using my new found sewing + card making skills!!

Anyway, my sister in law asked me to make bunting for our Nephew's room. I haven't made bunting for a while, so was quite excited by this little project.

Making bunting is really straightforward, but if you haven't done it before I would suggest using this tutorial, which is amazing!

I used most of the techniques shown in the tutorial - I especially love the continuous sewing of the triangles, makes life very easy.

I did do a few things differently:

• I didn't iron all the triangles once they were turned right side round

• I pinned the un-ironed triangles to the bias tape

• I found it easier to sew the triangle to the tape, whilst pinned on, stopping to remove the pins - this means the bunting takes a bit longer, but I think this is easier than the 'free sewing' technique used in the tutorial
• Finally I only ironed the bunting once I'd have finished sewing

Crisp ironed bunting 

Today's main pic, is the finished bunting, with Otis' name on it (I used iron on transfers for the letters). I love it so much, I don't want to part with it! I am hoping that Lucy will love it too.

Cx

Fun Times

Well it has been a busy old 4 weeks since Superbowl Weeekend.

I had great fun in Amsterdam with Amy my 16 year old goddaughter and Lemon. We laughed and ate non-stop. It was great to show Amy one of my favourite cities and have her respond with such enthusiasm. It was also nice to dispel some of the pre-conceived ideas about Amsterdam being all sex and drugs.

I have completed the bunting for Otis' room and will have pics for you soon.

I've also been working on lots of lovely new card ideas and have taken pics and they'll be here too. I also decided that I need to have a clean out of my papers - as I have been holding on to scraps for far too long!

As I was weeding through the scraps I realised that some of them would make good 'bunting' style cards and made a couple, which I am pleased with, but the cutting of the triangles is a pain and time consuming, so I have invested in a Stampin' Up Petite Pennant Punch (pic below). Yay!

It should arrive this week, just in time for my craft playdate with JT on the 31st.

Cx