My November Christmas card workshop at Dotty's teahouse

Hello blogging friends I know I rarely post something that is not a design team make these days, but today is an exception as I have some very exciting news; I am going to be hosting a Christmas card Creative Workshop at Dotty's Teahouse in Carshalton, where I sell my cards.

 It will be held upstairs at Dotty’s on Thursday 24th November from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. We are planning a fun festive event in a small group setting.

You will learn how to make distress ink backgrounds using a mixture of sprays and ink pads. You can choose to create with traditional Christmas colours or go more contemporary, the choice will be yours.

The stamp set we will be using for the images is the beautiful Christmas Robin set by Visible Image stamps. I will also demonstrate stamping techniques and heat embossing and will share lots of card making design tips and techniques.

These tips and techniques will enable you to make your own unique handmade Christmas robin card. If there is time you can make a second (or take it home to finish). Everyone will also receive a little Christmas bag with some festive die cuts, papers etc to take home too.

Here is a little taster.

The workshop is suitable for beginners or those with crafting/card making experience. It is for ages 16 years and over.

All equipment will be provided plus a card making take home bag.

The cost, which will include a mince pie and hot drink, is £25

And just in case you are new to my blog;

+++A little bit about me+++

I have 30+ years of crafting and card making experience. For the last 6 1/2 years I have been on the design team for 2 UK companies (Visible Image and Country View crafts) and 1 in the USA. I demonstrate distress inks, stamping and paper crafts at craft shows, including the annual Alexander Palace Craft show in London. My work has been shown on TV and is regularly published in craft magazines. I am proud to have been Dotty’s in- house card maker and sold my cards there since the day she opened. Check me out on Instagram; @jane.tyrrell

If you would like to attend the workshop please book via the Dotty’s Teahouse website here. Or you can phone to book on 0203 754 4613. You will find Dotty's at 108 High street, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 3AE. Carshalton railway station is a short walk away. Buses from Croydon, Sutton and Morden tube station all stop in the High Street.

Places are limited so please book asap if you would like to come.

Please feel free to share this info with to anyone who is near the Sutton, Surrey area and might be interested. 

I am so looking forward to the evening. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me by email via the link in my side bar. 

(PS and if you don't like mince pies I am sure that Dotty's will find you something else!) Ho Ho Ho!

Thanks so much, 

Bye for now,

Jane x

The reopening of Dotty's Teahouse

I am super excited to be finally able to tell you that after nearly 5 long Lockdown months Dotty's Teahouse reopened on Monday. Many of my long term blog readers will remember when Dotty's first opened 5 years ago. I had taken a walk down our High Street in Carshalton, Surrey, the week I retired as an NHS physiotherapist. I noticed a little sign that a new vintage tea rooms was opening and they were looking for some unique products to sell. I contacted Rebecca, the owner, to tell her about my cards. We met, she loved my hand made cards and the rest is history! From day one I have sold my one of a kind handmade cards exclusively in her wonderful Tearooms and been warmly embraced as part of the Dotty family. I  have so enjoyed witnessing her success over the years including seeing her open up her delightful Tea Garden 2 years ago in Coulsdon. 

Covid 19 hit Dotty's hard and like most businesses she had to close during both Lockdowns. However Rebecca is one of the most resourceful women I have met and she started up a Dotty Delivery service. Dotty delights are delivered in a real London taxi to local areas and this service has been a huge hit. My daughter treated my Hb and I to a delivered afternoon tea last year and it was superb.

During Lockdown Dotty's Teahouse has undergone a total interior transformation. I had a sneak peek of the newly refurbished inside a few weeks back and shared some photos on Instagram. I sneaked in early this morning just as she was opening up and took lots of photos, too many to share on IG, so I decided to show them here in Jane's Journal. It will also be lovely to have a record to look back on.

 Dotty's has undergone a complete refurbishment and my oh my, how elegant she looks. There is new heating, lighting, seating, counter......the list goes on and on. In late June she will also open a delightful new upstairs seating area too. All these things are best explained with photos so here we go.....

This was my delightful view when I turned up first thing this morning. The door was open, the covers were off the windows and the outdoor seats were in place. 

I love the board outside, how true this is. 

The girls were busy at the brand new counter setting out the Dotty delights for the day.

The new chairs and tables are gorgeous. Very chic. Lots of tables had been reserved.

My shelves were stacked and ready with my latest cards for sale. 

This little cutie I have named Tracy Teacup sneaked onto my shelves today. She has an inky backgroumd and I have stamped her dress out a second time and paper pieced it. The sentiments I have stamped are perfect to team her with. As you can imagine tea themed cards are very popular at Dotty's and I constantly add new ones. 

Here is a close up of some of my cards for sale. I have new baby, new home, birthday, motivational cards and every occasion in between available. Each is one of a kind. 

I will also have a new range of "family" sentiment cards on my shelves soon. Here is a sneak peek of one of them.

On the counter today at Dotty's were a delicious cheese cake 

as well as a delicious variety Dotty delights created by the talented new Executive Pastry Chef Sarah, who has also joined the Dotty team. Sarah comes with an incredible range of experience; 

She spent her career to date working in the most elite establishments in London from the best 5 star hotels to patisserie shops and Michelin star restaurants

She is regarded as one of the most talented pastry chefs in her field and was featured in Elite Traveller Magazine in 2018 as one of the top 14 female chefs in the UK. She has achieved lot in her career including producing her first pastry book called "Patisserie Perfection" in 2015

The counter was being filled up as I arrived...yum!

And if cupcakes are your preference feast your eyes on these beauties.

Takeaway is also available and look at the gorgeous boxes you get to take them home in.

Dotty's also now has an alcohol license so if you fancy a glass of wine or something bubbly with your meal there is plenty to choose from. 

There is even a "snug" a little hidden away from it all room to enjoy a more private Dotty experience.

 Such gorgeous vintage inspired decor. 

And finally from the end of June you will be able to climb these stairs and sit in the brand new upstairs dining area. Yes Dotty's is going up in the world, literally.

So while the upstairs is being finished you can sit at this pretty table. I think this is one of my favourites and no wonder it was reserved!

Or how about here?

And of course Carshalton is the home of the photogenic ponds....here they are on a sunny day at the other end of Carshalton High Street.

You will find Dotty's Teahouse in the High Street Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 3AE. She is open 7 days a week Monday to Saturday 9am-5pm and Sundays 11-4pm. Booking a table, rather that turning up, is highly recommended as she does get very busy, especially at the weekends. 

Before I close here are a couple more of my cards which are on my shelves now, all one of a kind and handmade with love and ink in my garden studio. 

Thanks so much if you got all the way to the end of this very photo heavy post. I am sure you will agree, the transformation of Dotty's is wonderful. If you never saw my first Dotty post 5 years ago this is the link here. How far she has bloomed and grown since then.

Remember "A brew will see us through!" (I think cake and a card is pretty helpful too! 😄)

I post many more of my makes and weekly Dotty visits over on Instagram. Do check me out over there. My account is @jane.tyrrell or just click on this link.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Tag making and displaying

As Dotty's tea house is still closed for now and I am not selling my cards I have enjoyed making some new tags over the last few months. Lots of people keep asking the reason for my making tags. So I thought I would write a post and share some photos. My answer is that they are perfect for techniques. Also I do not keep any of the cards I make. They are either made as samples for design team posts, made for family and friends, designs for publication or sold at Dotty's. I would not know what to do with lots of cards or have the space to store them. 

Here is one of my set of tags from Lockdown.

Also if ever I am stuck for an idea I look through them and it often fires off a spark of inspiration. I store them on book rings.

 When closed together they are really small to store.

I write on the back the details of how I made it and the products used. 

Recently I bought a felt letter board for my studio to display my Speckled egg distress ink pin badge. 

I took a photo of it with one of my tags I made using all my new speckled egg products and planned to take the tag down and just keep the badges on there as I collect them. 

However I rather liked the idea of being able to display a few of my tags in my studio.

 I liked the board so much that I bought a second one, this time a rectangular one.

I can keep the square one for my badges and new distress colours as they are released. I can now use the rectangular one to display a few tags and can change them at a whim, including any words,  as they come with lots of letters, emojis and phrases. 

So my challenge project today is another of my tags. You may have seen this around in social media land but I have not blogged it.

with some close ups

I used all distress products including the new glazes, such fun!

I would like to enter my tag into the following challenges;

Allsorts 1/3 flowers all over

Creative inspirations 1/3 in the garden

Remember that I have this 10th bloggerversary free giveaway, open to all 

running on my blog now until 8th August. One winner will win everything shown in the photo including my handmade silver heart charm and artisan glass bag charm. All the details of how you can enter are in this post.

Thanks for stopping by,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A alternative 75th VE day celebration, Mindful Moments 7

Hello again I am back with my 7th Mindful Moments post.

If you did not see my first post and wonder what these are do check it out here. Thank you to everyone who has been reading them. I can see from my stats that these are getting at least twice the usual traffic of my other posts, which has really inspired me to keep trying to get them written weekly if I can. I really hope you are finding them a moment to make you smile and stay mindful during these very turbulent times.

This is a long post so grab a large cuppa or even a mug!
Today is the 75th anniversary of VE day and time for us to remember victory in Europe in 1945. I love seeing the old BBC footage of everyone celebrating back then. My dear parents and their parents were a part of that historical day. I think it is also helpful to keep in mind that we will be able to look back at this pandemic one day as another piece of history.  There will not be 1 single day we can celebrate this but a time will come when we can acknowledge that this invisible enemy has been beaten.

I have been thrilled to see how many people have thought of alternative ways of celebrating today and I decided to get into the swing too. People in our road are going to sit in their front gardens for afternoon tea later so I got cake baking and printed out some posters of my Union Jack cards I recently made and put them into my downstairs windows.
How apt are my STAMPlorations stamps I used here!

Today also made me think of one person who would have really celebrated the 75th anniversary of VE day big time. That person is Rebecca, the owner of Dotty's Teahouse in Carshalton and Tea Garden in Coulsdon in Surrey. Her vintage cafes celebrate all things 1940s and I know the bunting would be out there today if she could.
I made and sent her this card to let her know how much I miss her and the Dotty family but that one day we will be back sharing a cup of tea with friends.

Who would have known in 1945 that 75 years later we would be fighting a different and very invisible enemy ie Covid 19. So many businesses have shut that it is hard to stay positive for the future but we must be. I thought that today I would also share a "virtual" celebration for Dotty's Teahouse's 4th birthday which is next week. If you are not aware this is a family run tea house which opened in Carshalton High Street, Surrey in May 2016. I replied to an advert in the March to sell my handmade cards there and met Rebecca the owner. She loved what I made and I loved what Dotty's was to become. Well, the rest is history and during these 4 years I have sold over 1,000 cards from my shelves there.

Throughout this lock down obviously both Dotty's Teahouse and her brand new Tea Garden, which opened last September, have been shut.  I really do miss Rebecca and her lovely team. I usually walk down to the Teahouse with my latest cards to put up for sale on my shelves on a Monday and Friday.

 She is managing some home deliveries though and

this is the great sign on the door at the moment.

Rebecca,  loves all things vintage and would have had a huge VE celebration today if she was open. Instead she is delivering a VE Celebration tea...what a fab idea. 

 I thought I would have a little reminisce of the last 4 years and how things have grown at Dotty's.

She opened with a grand opening in May 2016 with the Mayor cutting the ribbon.

We celebrated her 1st and 2nd birthdays in style with 40s music and dress. 

We had fun hosting a little Christmas market 2 years ago and last year I enjoyed hosting my first Meet the Maker event in the shop. 

Here I am with Rebecca.

 We celebrated last Christmas with a staff party at the new Tea Garden in Coulsdon

This is one of her displays from her new tea garden, always such fun!

Her afternoon teas are legendary and delicious. I so hope her doors are able to open very soon. 

So inspired by all this  I decided to get baking myself. I decided that in 1945 I am sure the cake of choice would have been fairy cakes if rations allowed (and perhaps dried egg too) and found that I had just enough ingredients to bake some. The cake cases are from years ago and I thought looked very retro!

I also spotted something else vintage right in front of me as I made my cakes, my scales.

These were once used at the labs where my Dad worked many moons ago in Bermondsey, South London. The firm he worked for closed down in the 1980s and was demolished and he brought them home and gave them to me. I use them for all my weighing and they are in pounds and ounces, just as I like it.  I looked up the firm, Hunt and Co. They were founded in 1861and have long ceased trading but these scales would certainly have been around in 1945. So many things would have been weighed in these, a real piece of history.

While I was looking at the scales I had a little light bulb thought that it would be really fun to serve my fairy cakes on one of my Nan's plates which were handed down to me. I mostly use at Christmas or for family celebrations. My Nan was born in 1904 and probably was bought this as part of a dinner service as a wedding present when she married in 1928.

I love the pretty pattern on it.
Here  are my cakes, just out of the oven.

I wanted to make a retro glace icing topping with hundreds and thousands on.  Luckily I had just enough icing sugar left and found these hundreds and thousands in my cupboard.

So here are my cakes all ready for my Hb and I to enjoy at our afternoon tea in our front garden at 4pm.

If my Nan was still alive she would have been so thrilled to see this and the wonderful memories evoked as I made my fairy cakes

There is surely only one quote I could share today as we remember all those who gave their lives for our freedom, it has to be these immortal words

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” » Winston Churchill

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you have taken the time to leave me, they are so appreciated.

Please keep safe, keep mindful, keep washing those hands.

For those of you in the UK enjoy all the VE day celebrations. Us Brits have a habit of making do and keeping up our spirits whatever is going on around us. We may well be hearing of some gentle easing of Lockdown on Sunday..fingers crossed we may be over the worst.  I hope so.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

With love, Jane x