Field Flowers - Convention 2012 Swap

Hi everyone,

Well I am packed and ready to start the drive down to Canberra. Before I leave in about 15 mins I thought I would pop on and show you my 2012 Convention Swap. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute. I only finished assembling them about 1 hour ago. I still have to put the recipe on the back but it is printed and ready to be cut which I will do tonight.

Anyway here is my swap well sort of. I have adjusted the bow a bit but otherwise it is essentially the same.

I won't be updating my blog whilst I am away - too difficult to take the laptop with me but I will be back on Monday with some highlights of my first convention.

Thanks for looking.

'Til next time,

Juliette

I am Backkkkkk!!!!!

Hi everyone,

Wow my last post was back on the 13th May and now it is nearly the end of May. What have I been doing I hope you are asking?

DD8 is in her school Y1-Y2 Dance Group. They have a performance on the 6th June and someone needed to make the costumes. You would have thought that out of 30 girls and boys more than one Mum could sew, surely!!! But apparently not. So for the past few weeks my formal lounge/dinning room has been turned into a sewing room.

Fact: Did you know that it takes approx 5-7 mins to overlock (serge) around a full circle skirt? This means that with two layers of tulle and the skirt itself that is 15 to 20 mins to overlock. No wonder each skirt took nearly 2 hours to complete!!!

Anyway here are some photos of my what I have been up to.

The dinning room table with overlocker and sewing machine. My sewing machine is 20 years old (DH bought it for me for my 21st). The overlocker was my Mum's and is probably closer to 25 years old. It's funny but during this process I could hear my Mum say "I wouldn't do it that way". "It would look better if you did it like this". Mum was an amazing sewer and even made my Dad's suits so she knew what she was doing. I wish I had paid more attention to her.

These are some of the small sizes. If you look you can see a blue checked dress. What do you think they may be performing?

These are the some of the mediums.

Another chair with some more on it. These are the some of the large ones. Yes there is a black stripped one. Does that help with you working out their dance?

A closer view of the skirts.

What the boys are wearing. I said to the teacher that next year I don't care what the dance is but they are all wearing shorts. These took about 40 mins to whip up!!!

Any way I am off to convention tomorrow. My first one YAY!!! So I need to go back and finish off my swaps. I plan to post my convention swap tomorrow. I am excited but a little stressed. Can't wait to meet Shelli and all the fabulous demo's that I have been stalking, I mean following in blog land.

Thanks for looking.

'Til next time,

Juliette

Create a Cup Cake Meets Sunny Challenges and Creations

Hi everyone,

Happy Mothers Day to all you lovely Mummies out there. So far my day has been awesome. Breakfast in bed, presents and lots of hugs and kisses.

Despite today being Mothers Day, somehow I decided to make my card as guest designer for Sunny Challenges & Creations a birthday card. DD5 had a birthday party to go to yesterday so I made a card for the occasion.

This is the sketch for this week.

This is what I came up with.

I couldn't resist using the gorgeous Sweet Shop Specialty DSP that is currently available in our mini catalogue.

I really enjoyed working with this design so you may well see more cards like it.  Now don't hold back and please get your fingers inky and join us over at Sunny Challenges & Creations.

Thanks for looking.

'Til next time,

Juliette

Pedal Presents meets Sunny Challenges and Creations

Hi everyone,

So much for popping back sooner with another post for you. Over a week this time. I finally got into my craft room today for the first time in nearly two weeks. Yes I was having major withdrawals but unfortunately not everything went according to plan.

Anyway I did manage to produce this card.

It is using the new hostess set available in the Autumn-Winter Mini called Pedal Presents. I apologise for the quality of the photo but I only manged to photograph it this evening and we no longer have nice light evenings so can't use natural light and the flash went off. Believe me this is better than the one I took without the flash at least it is more or less in focus.

This card is for the Sunny Challenge and Creations blog this week. This week it is a sketch challenge and to use the colours Soft Suede, Tempting Turquoise and Melon Mambo and a neutral of Whisper White or Very Vanilla. Not a normal combination I would reach for but it works. The bicycle is stamped in Soft Suede and coloured in using Melon Mambo and Tempting Turquoise and the trusty blender pen. Note when I was making this card I kept singing Queen's hit "Bicycle" - probably because it is on my IPod and I had listened to it yesterday.

Here is the sketch for you to look at.

As you can see I turned the sketch on its side.

Anyway that is all I have for you today. Tomorrow is the schools Mothers Day stall so that is one less thing I need to worry about and hopefully means I will have a bit more time to spend in the craft room - I really must start on my convention swaps.

Thanks for looking.

'Til next time,

Juliette

Where have I been?

Hi everyone,

Now I know not a lot of people read my little patch of the world wide web - but I am hoping there may be a couple of you who have been wondering where I disappeared to this last week. I have been around but sadly not much time to create or even update my blog. I really do need to get more organised with my time but I am afraid that is something that is going to be a bit on the short side over the coming weeks. DD7 (8 on Friday) is part of the junior dance group at school. There are 30 gorgeous kids in her dance group that need costumes for an upcoming performance. Yep you guessed where this is going - who is the stupid Mum who said "yes I can use a sewing machine", when asked? That's right me!!! All the other Mum's were not stupid and they answered "No". So over the coming weeks I will be sewing rather than card making. I haven't even made my swaps for convention that is at the end of this month. The costumes need to be completed before the end of the month. Also the Mothers Day stall at school is coming up next week and as Convenor of the Parents Group at school I have to make sure that all goes smoothly. There are over 700 presents to wrap so that is what I am doing today, tomorrow and the day after...

Anyway enough of me whinging. I did come on here today to show you a couple of cards I made recently. I purchased the Simply Scored when it came out in the Autumn-Winter mini and it is fabulous. It is in Imperial measurements but we have a metric plate that can be placed onto it. If you make boxes or 3D items it is a must have. So much quicker and more accurate than using the scoring blade on your cutter. It is also fantastic for making rosettes. Rosettes are a great way to use up those left over scraps of DSP that you have lying around. You can use them for almost anything - scrapping, cards, decorations for boxes, jars etc. Here I have a couple of cards.

All the DSP on both of these cards is scrap from the Twitterpated DSP in the current Mini.

Dawn Olchefske from Dostamping with Dawn has a great You Tube video on how to make these beauties. Click here to check it out. She covers everything that you could possibly want to know about how to make these.

Anyway off to have my shower and get the day started correctly. With a bit of luck and some careful time management I should be back in a couple of days with something else for you.

Thanks for looking.

'Til next time,

Juliette