Just an Ordinary Day on our Street when Will and Kate Stopped By

           I have just had a very surreal hour of my life pass by.

           Today was a big day for us lowly folk in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, as The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were visiting our town. They were stopping by to pay their respects and gratitude for the works done by the Charity Centrepoint, of which His Royal Highness, Prince William the Duke of Cambridge, has been a patron of for 13 years- following in the footsteps of his late mother, the wonderful Princess Diana. 

          Centrepoint is a wonderful charity which was set up to help homeless youths- aged 16-25-year-olds- get their lives back on track, by providing housing and support as well as life skills. Upon their visit, the Royal Couple donned their aprons and mucked in to help serve lunch to some of the young people currently sheltering at our local centre.

So back to me and why it was surreal.

My oldest Daughter and I were sat watching Hater's Back Off (a cheesy guilty pleasure of mine...don't judge me) when we heard a low flying helicopter pass over our house. We thought nothing more about it as we sat there in front of the telly.

A short while later my Niece rang and told us that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's helicopter was on the Pit field across the road from us!

We live on a main road/street that runs alongside a large playing field that once housed one of our towns many, long closed coal mines. It has since been dubbed a memorial park, in memory of all the miners that died during a big explosion that happened at the pit that was there, many years ago. It is now a popular walking park and known as a local sports field, where many a Sunday league team plays.

It's also the perfect place locally to land a Royal helicopter.

My Niece rung us to tell us that 'Will and Kate' had indeed landed on the field, that is no more than one hundred metres away from our home. We scurried around the house to see if we could see them through various windows, but our view was obscured by the many trees that line our street. As autumn still hasn't claimed all of the leaves from them yet, it meant that any chance of seeing them this way was a lost cause. So we did what anyone else would do, we got our shoes on, grabbed our camera's, rushed out of the house, and over to the field for a better look.

We were not disappointed!

There on the field- in all, it's grandeur- sat the beautiful, gleaming Royal 'chopper'. 

as I took photographs of it sat there, my camera flashed up to tell me that the internal memory was almost full, and to my horror, I realised I had left my SD card in my laptop! 

I was gutted as it meant that I had to delete the few I had taken, and couldn't risk taking many more if I wanted to capture a nice one of the Royal couple.

           For a while, we wondered if they were already in the helicopter, waiting to be transported by road to our local Centrepoint, or whether they were actually on their way back to the makeshift helipad.

A small crowd of onlookers had gathered around us. and many cars had slowed down to ask what was going off. 

After being sat on the field's boundary wall for ten minutes a procession of police motorbikes started to come down the street right by us, followed by a very nice car. Will and Kate sat in the back and were happily waving to us all, through their opened car window. I wasn't quick enough with my camera to get the shot before they had turned into the field to drive back to their waiting 'chopper'

As they got out of their chauffeur driven car, they took another moment to wave to the crowds again, before climbing aboard 

This isn't your everyday occurrence, especially for someone like me who's just a regular Jolene! it certainly wasn't something I expected to see when I got out of bed today.

Thanks for stopping by

XOXO

            

Dashing...no other introduction needed

 Dashing...No Other Introduction Needed   

     

       So...I have already made a few cards now as a design team member for The Artistic Sloth, and I have to say, I'm loving the task at hand! 

I will be sharing my pieces on this blog, not because I have to, but because I want to as the images are so beautiful and easy to work with.

So today I bring you Dasher, by the very talented Trudie Howard, owner and designer at The Artistic Sloth.

Click here to find him and so many other wonderful stamps by Trudie.

For this card I used :

a generic 6x6 card blank

Red and green generic card stock, embossed 

with a free Christmas embossing folder 

from cardmaking and papercraft magazine.

10cm x10cm Christmas papers from Craft Sensations.

Spectrum Noirs were used for colouring.

Generic dies from my stash.

please feel free to follow me.

Thank you for stopping by

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

It Only Takes A Miniature...To Fall In Love

Ok, I sense a new direction for my blog...

 

In my last post, I told of the tale where I got my first Dolls House. I regaled about how it was the one that I had wanted, and that I have well and truly fallen in love with it.

 

What no-one told me was how addictive this all is...This wondrous world of tiny things!

 

Nor did anyone tell me that these houses seam to multiply when you're not looking!

 

LOL

 

I went from having my one -what I considered to be- large 3 storey Victorian shop, to having said Victorian shop, a four floor Edwardian townhouse AND an Edwardian Mansion!

 

ALL IN THE SPACE OF 3 WEEKS!

 

 

These should keep me busy for a while.

 

 

I asked my daughters if they would like to decorate a room each and they both jumped at the chance...So three houses became four!

 

I bought them a smaller house so they'd have more to do.

My oldest daughter has really surprised me, as she doesn't usually join in with craft stuff but she has also found a love for making small things, which warms my heart, as we now sit and do things together.

 

So this post is just to let you know where I am with this Blog, and the direction I want to take it.

 

There will be posts about my progress in restoring them, as well as video tutorials via YouTube, on making miniatures 

 

XOXO

 

 

Wait a Miniature Take Two

Wait a Miniature, Take Two

Hey guys, I got a new laptop and video editing software, so I'm hoping to be able to get more tutorial done, one various mediums.

I'm currently revisiting and adding to my Wait a Miniature post from a few months ago.

the reason why? this baby!

I've wanted a dolls house for ages! But I've never been able to afford to buy a really decent one.

I've asked to be considered for a few on free-cycle, but was never a lucky recipient.

I had given up on being able to get one if I'm honest.

So I haven't made anything in miniature for a good few months, up until Monday just gone.

I had woken up on that morning, and received a phone call from my Mum.

it kind a went like this:

me: Eyup, what's wrong?

(this is my usual greeting for her, it's said with love)

Mum: Are you still wanting a dolls house to do up?

Me: ermm...YEAH!

Mum: Well get your arse up here to Bernaodo's...it will need some work as it's in a bad way

Me: give me five minutes!

I have never got dressed so fast in my life!

As we pulled up outside of the store I saw it and got even more ecstatic, as it was same as one I had fallen in love with on Ebay..

within the first 24 hours of owning it I restored it to this point

(see picture below)

 

I still have a way to go, but I don't think I've made too shabby a start.

If you want to follow my progress throughout this restoration, then please feel free to add me to your favourites.

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Summer Surprises

 

hi guys, I thought I'd drop in to say...

 

MY CARD IS GOING IN A CRAFT MAGAZINE!

 

AND NOT JUST ONE, BUT TWO!

 

I recently made a few cards, and shared them on various social media platforms. I one was to share a summer themed card, over on

 

Quick Cards Made Easy 

 

I recently got a set of Chameleon Pens, free when I subscribed to another magazine, and used them along with Dovecraft 6x6 paper essentials, the Twirlies Stamp set that my sister designed (see my older post for more details, and the story of how they came to be) using the stamp based on my late Nannan Hilda, sat sunning herself in a deckchair.

 

I layered various colours of the paper essentials, to create a beach scene, using the tearing of paper away from you, to create a white, ragged edge, known as a white river edge. I used my Chameleons to colour in my Nan, and to add detail to the sand, sea and sky; I also created a palm tree by cutting out the shape of a palm tree, and cutting the frons of the leaves by repeatedly cutting into the leaves, to make them frilly.

I'm pretty sure it will be featured in issue no. 166

 

I also drew out a rough looking sand castle and a somewhat questionable little crab!

 

I posted this card on Quick Cards' Facebook page on a tread where they had asked it's readers to share their summer themed cards and I thought why not?

 

I didn't really think much of it from there, but was surprised when I logged on to a message from them, saying the had picked out my card, along with a select few others, that they wanted to feature in their Readers Feature.

 

Now I know this isn't a big deal to most of you out there, but to me it really is!

 

So imagine both my surprise and Delight when I came home last week to another magazine messaging me, asking if they could use some pictures I had sent into them via messenger, in the readers letter page!

 

So this one came about after I sent A couple of pictures in of cards that I had made using a set of free stamps and embossing folder, that came with Aprils issue of

Papercraft Essentials magazine.

 

I have recently re-discovered my love of stamping and colouring, and after seeing their very cute Safari themed free gift, I decided I NEEDED them.

 

So long story short, I made a few cards using them, and sent in the pictures, to show how I'd used them, and how I had been buzzing with ideas of how to use them.

 

 

 

 

These two will be featured in Papercraft Essentials issue no.147

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Love Lindsi

 

xoxo