The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

As the title of this blog suggests, we are on the countdown to Christmas!!

This makes me very happy as it is my favourite time of the year. For the most part, it is a grand celebration when families come together, whether their relationships are good or bad. For most, it's a time to call a truce on bickering and miscommunication, for others, it's a time when personal reflections may not be as clean cut as we'd like.

To others, it is simply a time of year to pig out in front of the telly, with a turkey leg in one hand and a glass of beer in the other, while watching the Queen's speech and falling to sleep halfway through.

Now, for us crafters out there, Christmas can be a year-round event when it comes to making our wares. 

For me, Christmas starts when the calendar rolls around to July time. This is when I start getting itchy Christmas fingers. 

I love making my own Jams and chutneys, so local foraging spots are a burned into my memory. I spend all my time, from the end of July right through until September, crab apple tree spotting through the car window on our travels. I grew up going blackberry picking every year as a child, so I know where they grow in abundance locally to me. I make my Jams and chutney are to give as Christmas presents, Jarred and topped with a festive bit of fabric, tied with a ribbon and a handmade tag. but these are not the only festive makes that I love to make at Christmas time.

 In our house, it's all about spending time together, following our homely traditions and cooking up a storm in the kitchen. My two Daughters and I spend lots of quality time together in the kitchen in the last few days leading up to Christmas. We cook and bake our little hearts out. for years we spent a few days before the main event, making gingerbread houses, preparing homemade stuffings and pies, then baking. Our baking usually involves jam tarts, last minute Christmas cakes and of course the obligatory mince pies! Now I am not overly keen on the plain, crust topped, traditional mince pies like most of the country make, the kind that gets made in vast quantities, that get stored in old tins, that are still there come New Year's Eve and beyond, and are so tough you could probably use them as  deadly projectiles. I don't see the point in wasting the money to make them like that. I choose instead to make Viennese topped mince pies, which I sampled when I was still at school and fell in love with their melt in the mouth, delicate, biscuit tops. When I started seeing my Husband 8 years ago, he introduced me to the concept of Iced top mince pies, the kind that are baked without a top, and then once removed from the oven a disc of fondant icing is placed like a crowning glory atop the pie. the icing doesn't melt completely while the pies cool, but the underside started to ooze and self-secures the icing in place. Though last year saw the idea of adorning the top of the pies with a sweet crumble mix, and this in it'self, proved to be a revelation.

It has also been a long-standing tradition that we make some sort of chocolate sweet treats to give as gifts. and over the years we have made things such as peppermint creams, as well as strawberry, and coffee creams. But the longstanding favourite of my girls is making marzipan chocolates. These are simple small balls of marzipan, dipped in chocolate and left to set up...that's if they make it that far as the girls love them. All of these make for thoughtful gifts.  

For many Christmas involves sending out Christmas cards to friends and family alike. And the cardmakers out there know that that is another thing that needs to start very early on, especially if your recipient list is a mile long! Others choose to make these simply out of pleasure and then hand their makes off to local charities as a means of bringing in a little extra funding for their chosen worthy cause.

As a newly appointed design team member for The Artistic Sloth, Christmas designs are of course inevitable, so please use this post as fair warning of the festive makes to come.

                     So however you spend the festive season, do it with love in your heart.

                                                                    Xoxo

The Artistic Sloth Design Team member baby!

 Hi guys!, 

I am aware it has been an age since I posted anything on my Blog, but I was falling short on things to post...

Not any more!

 This post came about after I became friends with a lovely lady on Facebook. Her name is Trudie. She has a long line of crafty bragging rights, including Papercrafter of the Year 2017.

This very talented lady has branched out into designing her own digi-stamps. Trudie reached out to her friends and followers on Facebook to establish a design team, to work with her amazing images, and help her promote her new Etsy store. I applied for the chance but was unsuccessful. I still joined her fan page, and enjoyed looking through all the samples that her new team had been putting together. Another friend of mine did make the design team, and I knew from seeing that, that the bar had been set high. My friend is uber talented when it comes to crafting and colouring with alcohol markers. I was pleased for her, but a little disappointed that I didn't make it onto the team.

You see one of my dreams in life is to make it onto a design team. Now that might sound sad to some, but I live a simple life really, I have brought up my two daughters, and been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia...Besides the odd course here and there, I've not really achieved anything else in life, and the whole deal for me wanting to make it onto a design team is so that I can finally feel like I'm good at something other than being a mum-which I love with all my heart.

 I have lived in the shadow of fellow family members; often being put down and told I wasn't good enough. All these things build up in us, and begin to obliterate any kind of confidence and self-esteem that we ever had. 

Anyway...

My friend shared a status, saying that she was giving up crafting and selling all her stash. This also meant she was leaving any and all design teams.

The following day I received a PM from Trudie, asking if I was still interested in being on her design team.

I read the message, then clicked onto something else, all the while convincing myself that I had read the message wrong, and thought I'd give myself a good few minutes before going back to read the message again. 

When the invite finally sunk in, I messaged Trudie back, saying that I would be delighted and honored to be a member on her team. She was pleased and asked me for my email details so that she could add me to the relevant admin groups and send me my watermark. While all this occurred, I finally let it sink in and turned into a giddy teenager, trapped in a middle-aged woman's body!

I hooked up the printer and printed out Zombielocks

I then looked at her and panicked!

I had NEVER made a card or project for a DT and I then started to get anxious that my work would not be good enough, I started questioning myself...but I made a start regardless.

I was convinced that the Boss lady would take one look at my card and give me the 'Thanks but no thanks' spiel. 

Before I could talk myself out of it, I uploaded the card to our private group and wrote a small note saying not to alarm anyone, but this card was my first ever design team piece.

                                                           this was my finished card...My very first (ever) DT piece.

I printed her onto Neenah Classic Crest cardstock and coloured her with my new, complete collection, of Spectrum Noir alcohol markers (an anniversary present from my husband)

I created the background using stamps, distress techniques and mixed in some die-cuts; inking it all up to look grungy with Memento Tuxedo Black. 

I created the sentiment freehand style and coloured to match Zombielock's top. I also added a black and white gingham strip of ribbon, that I finished with a bow.

it turned out all my fears were unfounded, and my work was met with lovely appraisal. 

Go check out The Artistic Sloth's store on Etsy

to see Zombielocks, and many other amazing designs by Trudie.

Thanks for stopping by

XOXO