Platinum Jubilations

I know that these days I rarely share a "personal" blog post. I am honestly so busy ( in a very good way) that I no longer have the time to write lots of blog extra posts to my design team ones. If you are a blogger you will be well aware just how long a post takes to write, edit photos etc. However I started writing my blog nearly 12 years ago as Jane's Journal to be a record of important things and occasions in my life.  The recent Platinum Jubilee celebrations spurred me on to take the time to sit down and document a few of my special memories from the recent 4 day holiday. I also thought it very apt, as one of the last non card design team posts I wrote was my series of Mindful Moments posts which I wrote during the first Covid lockdown in 2020. If you missed them, this was the first one here  and number 10 I shared  here. Now that life seems to be getting back to some kind of normality I thought it was also a good time to share this very positive post.

I have shared photos of my 2 grandbabies Daisy and Jack in the past but some of you may not know that I have a new grandson, Wilfred, born on 28th January this year. He is my son's boy and his arrival has been a delight. Daisy and Jack also love their new cousin. He is their only boy cousin too (they have 5 girl cousins on the other side of their family!) 

We all got together at my son's and here are all my babies together. 

My 2 dear grandsons together;

Wilfred found it all quite exhausting 🤣💙😘

Daisy is now 8 and Jack 5,  they are growing up so fast. They stayed with us on the Thursday and Friday as their Mummy and Daddy went to a party on the Thursday night. Of course crafting featured. They both love to craft. They made flags for my porch . Jack's was his "own" country!!

Daisy made a book which we stitched together 

and Jack a dinosaur.

On the Saturday my Hb and I enjoyed an afternoon tea at home from Dotty's. I bought some union flag plates and serviettes and we even had a glass of bubby!

 And yes I am still selling my cards there....it's 6 years now since I started and I am delighted by how popular they are. Here is a recent picture of my shelves. If you are ever in the Carshalton area Dotty's Teahouse in the High Street is a lovely spot to take tea!

I have shared lots of my Jubilee makes over on Instagram here; @jane.tyrrell  so I won't bore you with them here but I did want to share one make, unusually made just for me, to remember such a special family time we enjoyed. All the stamps are from a set called Afternoon tea by Visible Image. I stamped and fussy cut all the images and layered up the bottle with gold card. The cake slice has Stickles icing (of course!) I inked the background using distress inks and their Union Jack stencil. I used blue glitter gel pen for the buttercream and plus white pen for some extra detailing. 

Here it is on my window sill;

I haven't entered any card challenges for yonks so I thought I would enter my Jubilee card into these lovely challenges;

Pixie's Snippets playground #429

Allsorts any stamped image

Colour Crazy Anything goes

Creative artiste anything goes

Happy little stamper stencil challenge anything goes

Love to craft anything goes

Simon says stamp Monday Bright and cheerful

Simon says stamp Wednesday Bright and cheerful

What a joyful positive Jubilee celebration it was and I have so many wonderful family memories from it too. On Sunday we went over to see my dear Mum and Dad and have a cuppa while we watched the Jubilee pageant on television.  It was the perfect end to the long weekend. 

I hope all my blogging friends are keeping well? I know that a lot have given up blogging and moved over to Instagram.  However one of my oldest blogging friends who no longer blogs still leaves me a comment on every post I write. That is quite incredible and V...... I appreciate it so much. Others of you have left sweet comments every now and then so I know you are still out there. Thank you for all your support.

Sending my love to you all. Take care, keep well and remember...Do what you love and brings you pleasure; life is far too short not to....

Bye for now,

Jane x 

(and of course my sweet Billy who is nearly 14 and sends the loudest purr to you all) xxx

Remember to hop on over to Instagram and say hi if you would like to see all my recent posts. You can find me here; @jane.tyrrell 

One final heads up; you may well find Billy is back here soon writing his annual Christmas in July post 😘🎅🐈 I think he is sharpening his pencil as we speak 🥰

The day before Christmas, 2020

Christmas 2020

It was the day before Christmas and all through Jane's house

Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.

But Billy was sleeping on his green chair

Oblivious to all and to all unaware

That Christmas this year is so very strange

And in fact 2020 has been re arranged.

A different Christmas, no family table

No crackers to pull or jokes to enable.

But wait what's that noise, can he hear tinkling bells

and perhaps in the distance a few ho ho yells?

Oh Daisy oh Jack please do not fear,

Santa will of course still come this year.

We will wait until spring or whenever it's fine

We'll bring our presents, crackers and wine

And celebrate then with all our good cheer,

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good year. 

I don't really know how else I could write my Christmas eve blog! If I didn't laugh I think I would cry.

We know that these restrictions are very necessary but having not seen our kids for 2 months Christmas day was going to be so very special. A little beacon of light in all this darkness. But needs must, we will get through this and look forward safer times next year.

 Please stay safe all my lovely blogging friends. Celebrate the day in which ever way you can. I shall raise my glass to you from our very quiet Christmas table.

Here is a fun virtual Christmas card to you all from Billy. He hasn't quite got the idea about stockings hanging on mantlepieces not trees but this year I will forgive him anything!

Merry Christmas!

I will see you on the other side!

Hugs,

 Jane (and Billy) x

I would also like to join in with these lovely challenges;

Pixie's Snippets playground #393

Simon says stamp Monday celebrate

Simon says stamp Wednesday sparkle and shine

ABC Christmas Y and Z my favourite things in this card are of course...cats!

Winter Wonderland end of year challenge

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas #521 

Allsorts sparkle and shine

Crimbo Crackers anything goes

Tuscany memories

Hi blogging friends. Today I would like to share the memory album I made following our wonderful holiday to Italy in August. We were so lucky to get away and it was a perfect holiday, miles from anywhere and just enjoying good food, sunshine and good company. Sadly our trip annual to Rhodes would have been tomorrow, but that has been cancelled, so I am even more grateful that we got away to Italy. 

We stayed on a wine estate in Tuscany so social distancing was no problem at all. We were miles from anywhere. 

I spent a pleasant hour crafting each day with my obviously limited holiday supplies in the shade with Daisy. We also sat by the pool or in the gorgeous gardens catching up with our family. We had one day out, to the zoo, which was wonderful as it was so quiet. Here are a few photos to share or the villa, pool and gardens.

I wrote an index card each day, took an Instax photo and made a little ATC sized project using inspiration from what I saw each day. I have shared these ATCs on Instagram and if you would like to see them in my feed  you can do so here

When I got home I made a background for each ATC and put everything together. 

I also had Daisy to stay recently and we made some fun shaving foam backgrounds so I used those for my front and back covers. 

Daisy also had made ATCs with me so we put her album together when she stayed. Mine has taken a lot longer to finish as I had some design team commitments in between.

I took a few photos before I bound the album together as they were easier to photograph that way. I used all Tim Holtz products for my album as it was also a reminder of the most amazing crafting summer I had watching his awesome Facebook Lives. I also used the same toadstool on the cover that was on the tag he sent me when I won my demo prize. If you missed that post you can see it here

Here are ATCs mounted on their pages.

I documented the flight and the pool..

...finding dragonflies in the garden and all the busy bees.

 The gardens were so beautiful so my Lady Rose set was most appropriate

and we saw some spectacular bugs too!

and here is the album all finished. I made a ribbon tie.

 There is an index card (obviously not shown) on the reverse of the page each day where I wrote my memories. The little Instax photos are such fun to add.

And one final shot of the cover. It was a wonderful adventure, so many memories all now documented forever. These albums are always such a labour of love to make but so good to look back at. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the last few weeks of the summer. Thanks for the kind comments you take the time to leave me, I really do appreciate them.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Zoom crafting with Daisy

Over the last 4 months I have  Zoom crafted at least once a week with my sweet 6 year old granddaughter Daisy. Thank goodness for modern technology. I miss her so much, it's not the same as being with her but it is a good 2nd best. We have made sooo many things that I thought I would share a few here in Jane's Journal.

She has a doll called Sydney which is similar to the American doll sold in the USA, a sort of "grown up doll" and she loves to make things for her. During one of our early zoom session Daisy asked if we could make some "food" for Sydney. Now I am a crafter who never throws things away and a few years ago I bought some fimo type clay for my jewellery class. I got a really good deal at the time on a mixed colours pack so even though I only used 1 packet I kept all the other colours. I realized I could use these to show Daisy using them my end and if I bought her some air dry clay we could work together.

I ordered her some via Amazon which were delivered to her house. I used my ancient packs, they were a little tough to roll out but worked fine.

We have had such fun.  My colours are limited by the ones I had so when I had used some up I had to resort to magical blue cookies and even a pink banana!

Here are some photos I took quickly before I sent my versions to her.

You can see I had to make green cookies, with purple choc chips!!

Green and purple spaghetti bolognase, purple sausages and even blue bread for the sandwiches.

The pizza colours though weren't too bad

I made rubber ducks so that Sydney had similar ones to Daisy and Jack's in their bath.

and then Daisy decided they needed a pond....

so I had to quickly make that.

We have also upcycled tomato tins, made cards and today we will me making some more artist trading cards and coins (ATCs). We have also been doing a Nanna and Daisy lockdown ATC swap. Our themes have ranged from garden, to butterflies and the seaside.

Here are a few that she sent me.

and I thought I would share the latest few I have made for her.
By the way I have been sharing a lots of my crafting makes over on Instagram, I could not possibly write a blog post for every one as there are literally dozens. If you would like to see them you can find me as jane.tyrrell on IG or via this link. I also have the address in my blog side bar.

What I have noticed is what a competent stamper Daisy has become. I can't be with her to stamp so she has been doing this completely unaided, as my crafting genes skipped a generation and her darling Mummy's eyes roll in their sockets when Daisy mentions the word "crafting!"

Below is a Thank you card for her teacher she made, she use her Visible Image Alice stamp which she then coloured. The only help her Mummy gave her was to spell the word "teacher" 

As my daughter is a doctor and both her and her husband Key workers so Daisy has been attending school throughout lock down. They are so grateful to them. I am sure her teacher will be thrilled with this. School finishes this week for everyone.

I am also really hoping that in the next few weeks I will be seeing my grandbabies again...there is a plan we are working on!

My own card challenge share today is one of my makes during lock down.This has been shared on social media but not entered into any challenges or seen on my blog.
Daisy lives at the seaside and we usually go over to the beach to collect shells whenever the weather is good. So that was my inspiration.
I made an alcohol ink background on silver sparkle card

 I altered some die cut acetate shells with alcohol inks.

and made this,
 It's very hard to photograph as the sparkle is so reflective. I love the words, they are from my small talk Tim Holtz stickers book and felt just right for my project.

I will be giving it to my sweet Daisy when I next see her.

I would like my seashells canvas into the following challenges;

Time out 1/3 peaceful
As you like it 1/3 summer or autumn definitely  summer for me as I can go to the beach and be warm!
A bit more time to craft 2/3 anything goes

Crafters' castle 2/3 anything goes

Crafty friends 2/3 anything goes

A gem of a challenge 2/3 anything goes

Try it on Tuesday 1/3 summertime

Crafty sentiments 1/3 anything goes

Through the dark room door 1/2 anything goes

 I want to look back at this post in years to come and try to remember the good things which happened during the Lock down to me. Zoom crafting with Daisy will be one of them.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope that life continues to treat you all as well as it can during this dreadful pandemic.

Stay safe,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

PS Jane's Journal is 10 (gulp) on Sunday and I have a giveaway open to EVERYONE worldwide. You don't have to jump through any hoops to enter, just stop by and leave a comment. All the details of what you can win will be in Sunday's post but here is a sneak peek.

See you on Sunday, Jx