August seems to have been one of those months with a non-stop succession of visitors! All very welcome, but there has been a slow down in craft progress. However, I've managed to complete a number of things, so here's an update. Firstly, you remember the baby sampler I wanted to take to the show? Well, the weather meant the show was cancelled, about five days before the big day, as the ground was so wet it would have turned into a quagmire. Naturally, I was very disappointed, especially as the framer has done a really wonderful job (I went with the framer rather than simply putting it into a bought frame, at Andrew's suggestion ). From the same little book as the sampler design, I stitched a card to welcome the new baby. As you can see from the attached pic, I added a few green seed beads to the border, and mounted it into a little aperture card, with some adorable "girly" ribbon attached. Since I started the card, the baby arrived, and is a healthy little girl called Amelie. The sampler and card are being dispatched tomorrow after Andrew has carefully packed them.

Secondly, my dear great-aunt (92) has been in hospital with a foot problem, so I attach a get well card I made for her. A narrow pink base card,with pink and green papers layered above. Then some of the new die cuts added and a little bit of glitter added via some Stickles (glitter glue). Very simple but very pretty.

Thirdly, I have started out on Christmas cards for the greyhound shop. First batch, made and bagged up are pictured. There are about 20 here. I usually aim to make a couple of hundred.

Fourthly, I attach a pretty anniversary design (which would also work for a wedding) by Joan Elliott, that I stitched for Andrew's parents. Not surprisingly, I added some clear seed beads to the design, and it looks lovely mounted up in its card.

Finally, my auntie has been staying with us this past week, so we had a nice bit of "crafty" shopping. Went again to the new Hobbycraft and a visit to Inkspot, our local favourite craft store.

Firstly, I've finished the baby sampler. Photo attached. I am very pleased with it, and will be going down to Ikea to buy a simple frame for it later this week (we're fortunate to have an Ikea in Cardiff and I enjoy shopping there for homewares). It will also need to be pressed very gently before framing too. Then it will be ready for the show and then onward dispatch as soon as the baby arrives - which should be within the next ten days -although first babies seem notorious for not arriving on schedule. The sampler was a pleasurable stitch - small enough to make progress easy and an excellent compromise on blocks of colour. Enough variety to make it interesting but not so much that progress is painfully slow and makes you feel like you are stitching an outbreak of measles.

I also attach two cards I made this evening. Since we moved back to Cardiff, I've wanted to invite my friend Penny up for lunch and to meet the hounds - she lives down in Carmarthenshire with her two lurchers on a farm. Due to Penny's work commitments (medieval re-enactment with horses and weapons) she works a lot during the summer and it's always difficult to find time in her schedule to meet up. However, by great good fortune, I've been able to find a Saturday in about a fortnight when she's free and is coming up for lunch, along with another greyhound friend, Paula who lives round the corner from us. Paula and Penny know each other and get on well, so it should be a really lovely day. I thought it would be nice to confirm the invitation by post and so made these two cards. The beautiful die-cuts are from K & Co, I bought them yesterday down at Hobbycraft when I went there to top up on clear cellophane card bags. My annual Christmas card making will begin in earnest very soon, both for the greyhound shop and for selling on the greyhound stall.

A few things to update on. July of course is when I disappear from the planet to immerse myself in Tour World - all other things become secondary to that. This year's Tour finishes this Saturday so I will begin to re-emerge from my hibernation then. I'll start with some cross-stitch. One of Andrew's colleagues is expecting her first baby very shortly (approximately three weeks) so I decided to stitch a small sampler for her and her husband and the new arrival (sex unknown). This is a very pretty Joan Elliott design from a small supplement that came with the World of Cross Stitch some time ago - I like Joan Elliott's designs very much. As you can see I am stitching it on a pretty pale blue aida which has been dyed in a way to appear like clouds with little swirls of lighter and darker colours - very attractive. The design is predominantly in soft pastels and won't become distinctive until I add the backstitch at the end. There will also be beads to add which should add a very nice finishing touch. The sampler is small enough for me to feel as though I am making good progress and I am enjoying stitching it. Keeping my fingers crossed, I should have it finished, pressed, framed and a matching card stitched and made up by the time the baby arrives. I will probably pop down to Ikea for a simple frame, likely plain white wood.

Also pictured are some ATCs that I made recently for a Docrafts colour swap in pale blue. Following the wonderful day in May over at Barry, I have fallen in love with the technique of blending inks using cotton wool and in this case I started with two plain white cards. Both were coloured using pale blue ink and then a little bit of darker blue added round the edges to give an attractive shaded effect. On one, I stamped and glittered some birds, the word "Love" and some swirly motifs. On the other, I used some butterfly stickers, glitter glue, ribbon and a rose bud bow to finish the decoration. These were posted a couple of days ago, and I now have a list of other swaps waiting for me to get stuck into.

It's taken me a while to post this item, as the recipient's birthday was the week before last, but for a variety of reasons, I didn't give her the gift until the weekend. As usual I was originally stuck with the problem of what to buy for the woman who has everything and is celebrating a landmark birthday? I dithered about a quilt (and this is a reserve option for future birthdays and Christmas). However, I remembered that I often end up taking photos when we are out (as this is often with our respective loved ones and dogs). So, the idea of a personalised little scrapbook was born.

The little minibook was a set from K& Co that I bought way back just after Christmas - for just such an occasion. It's very attractive, in vintage colours of olive, dusty khaki and purple with a green buckled ribbon round it. The hardest part was selecting the photos to go in - I found I had lots of nice ones and it was difficult to narrow down the choice. Anyway, I eventually got my shortlist and then it was just a case of making up the pages with little labels and mounts - a lot of fun, and doing it brought back happy memories attached to each picture.

When it was finished, I photographed it, and then gift-wrapped it using some lovely paper from Ikea, some pretty purple ribbons, and a tag from K & Co that just seemed to work really well. Fortunately, when she opened it on Saturday, she really loved it, and I am very happy about that - it means a lot when a handmade gift is appreciated. Some photos attached.

A nice assortment of projects in this post.

First up, another colour swap on the Do crafts ATC forum. The theme was amber/tangerine/orange. For the first card, I covered it in a pretty orange floral print paper that was a part of my goody bag from the recent ATC day in Barry. Then I added a strip of yellow self adhesive ribbons covered in orange flowers, and then added some orange toned die cut flower shapes. Finally, I finished off with a couple of orange butterfly gems that I carefully glued on. For the other two, I took two ATC base cards, that I coloured using shaving foam at the Barry ATC event, in shades of yellow, orange and red. Thed edges were coloured with a red ink pad, then I stamped both with an Anna Griffin paisley stamp in red ink. Finally I added some pretty K & Co adhesive butterfly and bird stickers - in gorgeous rich colours. And off they went! Will be receiving my swapped cards early next week.

Secondly, a 30th birthday card for my friend Rebecca in Cardiff. I took two pieces of card from a DCWV box, one scalloped and turquoise, the other plain yellow and layered them up. On the card, I added a piece of Laura Ashley printed paper, with lots of bright turquoise and yellow in the mix. I then put a yellow ribbon across the card, and used my pokey tool to punch a hole, allowing me to add a yellow flower with blue brad. Finally, I used a bright blue ink to stamp Happy Birthday on a piece of yellow card and added that with 3d foam pads to the front of the card. It was Rebecca's birthday yesterday and she loved the card. We are going out with her to celebrate on Saturday night - about 25 friends all going for pizza.

Finally, a cross-stitched design for Father's Day, for my FIL. This is a Joan Elliott design, and is great. It came with a CD of designs that was a giveaway about two years ago with a copy of Cross Stitcher magazine, and is a reliable source of attractive designs for all sorts of occasions. I liked this cockerel - something so cheerful about the colours. It was a pleasure to stitch, the design coming together very nicely and with only a few fractional stitches. It was mounted in the card tonight and will be hitting the post first thing tomorrow morning.

In 1984, George Orwell referred to a characteristic called Doublethink - where a person could hold two contradictory ideas but not object. I feel rather like this about Christmas. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely adore the festive season. My already tenuous hold on taste is abandoned gleefully and I enjoy going wild with decorations, gifts, crafts, cooking, entertaining and general merrymaking. However, and this is the sticker, I loathe going into shops in August and finding the shelves filling up with Christmas puddings and cards. To me Christmas should be celebrated and anticipated at the end of the year - shopping and posting should be in darkness and cold, not sunshine. Now here's the doublethink - as a crafter, you simply cannot start too early. All that merrymaking means that it is without doubt the busiest time of the year yet it is also the time when you need to create things like cards and gifts. So to sum up, I am happy to start early for my own crafting but throw a major hissy fit if I so much as sniff something festive in a shop before the end of October.

In this Orwellian spirit, I illustrate the point with two little cross-stitched designs, just completed that will be mounted into cards. They are both by Margaret Sherry who designs frequently for magazines. For the little robin, I used a blending filament along with the dark thread for the backstitch - this gives it a nice twinkle. For the hedgehog, I used a rayon thread for the star - this gives a luxurious finish. On both, I used Thread Heaven for the first time. I have often seen it advertised in magazines as an aid to using metallics, rayons and so on. Having bought some, I tried it out on these small projects and I was completely blown away. It makes using these threads a breeze - normally the air would be blue as they got knotted, tangled, wouldn't thread and so on. Instead, I glided smoothly through - if you haven't tried it, I can recommend it.

I am hoping to build up a small stash of these little Christmas designs for mounting into cards throughout the year, thus avoiding too much late panic by the end of November! Well, that's the plan, anyway. I'll keep this updated as more are added.

Some more ATCs to show. These are for a DoCrafts swap on the theme "Simply Vintage". I made three cards and for all of them, I started with a blank white card. I used my new inkpads to colour them in - one in yellow, one in a soft pink and another in a pale blue. Each card blank was then spritzed with glimmer spray, in amber, pink and teal successively, and heat gunned to dry.

For the yellow one, I edged the card with a soft orange ink to add a little intensity, then added some shimmery orange flower stickers and a sticker in one corner featuring music and the same orange flowers. Finally I added a little printed square featuring an old piece of music manuscript.

For the pink one (which was my favourite when it was finished), I layered on some printed pink card then added a printed tag, affixed with a crystal brad. A couple of embossed K & Co corner stickers were added,then I put in a rectangular printed card which was fixed behind the tag and lay diagonally across the card. I trimmed the corners to fit the card and added a tiny pink pearl to the centre of a flourish. Finally, I added a row of three white roses above the card. It looks great.

For the blue one, I worked in a portrait rather than landscape format. First I went over the edges with a darker blue ink to define them. Then I added an embossed K & Co sticker to the front of the card and put in a crystal brad at the top of the shape. Finally, I added a printed blue square looking like a vintage French postcard and then added a small ribbon rose in blue. Luckily I was able to catch Friday evening's post with these.

Some more ATCs and a birthday card for our nephew. The ATCs are for a stitching theme on Do Crafts Forum. I cross-stitched two small pieces - one of a blue bunch of flowers with a creamy yellow bow, and the other of a poppy with seed beads added to represent the stamens. For the blue card, I took a textured card blank and gently rubbed two ink pads over it, Adirondack Juniper and Cool Peri, then spritzed it with a Sky Glitz so giving it a subtle sheen. I added the trimmed and backed stitching, then stamped a row of three flowers along the base in dark blue and coloured them in turquoise. These had a layer of glitter glue added to them for some sparkle. Finally, I went round the edge of the card with a dark blue Sakura pen in a faux stitch and added two ribbon roses to the top of the stitching. I am very pleased with the finished card, as the colour scheme is lovely, very fresh and pretty.

I am much less happy with the other one and am thinking I am not likely to send it to the swap- at least not in its current form. I may have another go at it tomorrow morning.

Finally, I made a birthday card for our nephew who will be eight this week. I used a K & Co card blank in shades of blue and green stripes. To this I added a colourful tag, featuring Chinese lanterns in a row, with some orange ric rac tied at the top. Then I added some K & Co stickers from the same family as the tag and finally an initial J for the birthday boy. This will be posted tomorrow.

A quick update on some recent ATCS. These are for a Distressed swap, on Do Crafts. Two were for the swap, and one was a RAK for the organiser. As her name begins with an N, I started with a plain white card which I coloured using an Adirondack Lemonade ink pad. I then spritzed it with a Glimmer spray. Then added some crumpled Coredinations card in beige, also spritzed, across the middle part of the card. On the right border I stamped a floral border in dark pink and added some mini brads at the bottom of the Coredination in cream, beige and dark grey. The letter N has stripes in pink, beige, grey and similar colours so was added along with a little butterfly sticker.

For the two swap cards, the first was covered with a piece of distressed paper we made at the recent ATC day in Barry. Over this I applied some flowers, attached with brads and then alongside I stamped and embossed the words Lots of Love and a pretty heart.

The second card was also one that started life in Barry - being one of the ones I coloured using shaving foam, in tones of coral, yellow and pink, like a tequila sunrise. Over this I applied some crumpled, torn Coredinations card, then spritzed with a pink glimmer spray. I worked round the edges of the card with a dark red ink pad. After drying the spray with a heat gun, I stamped on pretty dark pink flourishes at random and the word Friendship in black. Finally, I added a vintage metal butterfly embellishment, affixed with mini brads.

In my last post, I wrote about the wonderful day I had in Barry doing ATCs and meeting the other lovely ladies from the Docrafts forum. This week, I've been experimenting with some of the techniques learnt to do a couple of thank you ATCs and I have also made up some cards.

The two ATCs were made using a technique of blending inks which I learned and like very much (thank you Lisa!). Both were "blended", then on one I used a rainbow ink pad to make a chrysanthemum stamp and a thank you message. On the other I stamped the word "Friendship" with some floral brackets in the corners, which were then coloured using Sakura pens. Both cards were also spritzed with glimmer sprays, which gives a gorgeous subtle shine to the surface and complements the swirly colours. I am very pleased with these.

For the cards, I returned to a wonderful kit from K & Co that I bought from QVC some years ago. It appears to be bottomless. I picked out three greetings cards and used a variety of complementary diecuts and stickers from the kit to layer up. Finally I added a ribbon on one and some Stickles glitter glue to emphasise some of the rose petals and flower centres. One is going to be a thank you card for the organiser last week, one is a thank you card for the lady who sold plants at the most recent greyhound show and one is to a good friend of mine, just because.

Well, yesterday was a very exciting day. I regularly swap ATCs on the Docrafts website - the forums there are very good, being busy and friendly. I am not one of the most active members, as I have lots of other things in my life going on, both craft and greyhounds, but I regularly visit and enjoy it. Anyway, one of the things that happens is members meet from time to time in different parts of the country. On Saturday it was the turn of Wales! One of the members kindly offered to host/organise it, and it was held in Barry. Barry has now become famous because of the TV show "Gavin and Stacey", but before that it was mostly notable as a port for the import of bananas and the notorious Barry Island - in the 1970s the home of a holiday park and funfair. Most people my age in South Wales will have been taken to Barry Island during their childhood to enjoy the rides, eat candy floss and toffee apples and win a goldfish in a shooting contest. Nowadays the holiday park is shut down and the funfair is on the verge of closing. The beach and coast are still beautiful though.

Kate, the organiser had been very hard working and a full day of demonstrations and activitites had been laid on for us. We all also brought with us a list of items such as goody bags to swap, raffle prizes, name badges that were swapped at the end, and ATCs on the theme of Barry, as well as general cards to swap with others. The raffle was brilliant and through that and various other activities we raised nearly £90 for Ty Hafarn, the local childrens hospice, which was great considering we were only 8 adults and one child. More importantly, it was really good to put faces to names, after swapping cards with people for quite some time. The whole day was lovely, really inspiring, and simply flew by in a whirl of craftiness. I've learned a lot and apparently it was such a success there will be another one in October. Hurrah! Generally, my crafting is a solitary activity so it was lovely to meet fellow enthusiasts, learn new things and enjoy meeting a lovely bunch of people. Some pictures attached. At the end, I was shattered but very happy.

To start with, here are two birthday cards for next week. Andrew's sister has a birthday, and hers is the initial C. This was a pretty alphabet in the latest World of Cross-stitch, and surprisingly quick to stitch up. You can see I've added some tiny blue seed and pink seed beads. After mounting in the card, I added some pretty ribbon and a Happy Birthday greeting.

Using the same alphabet, I stitched another card for my greyhound friend Penny, whose birthday is the day before. Again, I simply added a ribbon and a greeting. You can see on this one I used slightly different beads, with some seed beads and a pretty flower shaped one.

Penny's business recently won a big contract with the new racecourse that is opening next month in South Wales so I decided to stitch her a little project that came with a magazine last month. The little frame has a ribbon and also a magnet so she can either hang it or stick it. I used one of the selection of designs and again added some seed beads for extra colour and texture. I attach a pic of the frame and then one of it wrapped. I used a 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper, and added a K & Co tag. To this, I tied on some organza ribbon in a bow, added some adhesive pearls and finished with a little glitter glue. A pink gel pen was used to write the message. It will be a nice surprise for her and is something a little bit more permanent than a card.

There's been a bit of a hiatus on this blog and I apologise. A couple of reasons. Firstly, I've been concentrating on making cards for the greyhound charity. The charity had a stall at a charity fair a couple of weekends ago and I wanted to ensure there was a good selection and plenty of stock. I am very pleased to say the cards sold well - most encouraging and of course every penny raised will go to helping the hounds. I took what was not sold, added some more and then boxed them up. Andrew posted these today to the GRW shop down in Newcastle Emlyn - apparently they sell well there too.

Also, annoyingly, life has a way of interrupting crafting, and several things have been keeping me busy of late, not least a new foster greyhound (Murgatroyd). Anyway, on with the crafting action and today it's quilting. I posted ages ago about a quilt top I had made using a charm pack from Moda - the Waters Edge range. I got as far as basting it, then the last lap remained undone for some time (mainly because I am in mid Wales and my sewing machine was still in Cardiff!). However, I've been reunited with my Janome and today it was time to finish it up. Leaving things undone can be a bit dispiriting so I was really pleased to complete this project. I attach a couple of pictures of it draped over the back of the sofa - that is where it is going to live as it is going to be my sofa snuggle quilt.

My next sewing projects are smaller in scale. Firstly, I want to make a patchwork notebook cover,using another set of charms. Secondly, Moda the fabric company have a wonderful website called the Moda Bakestore. On there they have a tempting range of projects and I am going to ahve a go at making some small bags - the project was designed for their Honey Buns range but I can cut the strips myself using some of my Kaffe Fassett fat quarters that have been waiting patiently.

I've also just taken delivery of a bumper crop of photographs. I take lots using my digital camera and often put them on my blog, or Facebook or on our digital photo frame. Printed photos are used for scrapbooking and I had a couple of projects in mind. Firstly, a mini book about the snow we had in February. Secondly, a birthday in June of a friend - I've got a really nice K & Co accordion book that is just crying out for some pics - I think it will make a lovely gift. Thirdly, I'm going to make a little scrapbook of Murgatroyd, for whoever adopts her with some nice pics of her as she develops and learns to enjoy her retirement (something she is doing very well at!). More pics of these as I progress.

Picture attached of the card I stitched for my MIL, for Mother's Day. I made an envelope for the card, using a pink and cream patterned paper with hearts and flowers on it. The little sampler was gift-wrapped too. Recipient seems very pleased, which is good.

We returned from Somerset via Cardiff, to pick up some stuff at the house and read the meters. It also helped to break up the journey. I made a flying visit to Inkspot, the craft shop and brought my sewing machine and quilting "bits" with me back to the house here. I had been suffering from withdrawal symptoms especially as I have a small quilt just about ready to finish plus some really nice fabric waiting to be used. So expect to see a bit more quilting adventures in these pages in future.

So, some cross-stitch for a change. This is a pattern I have made for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day this weekend. She is a keen gardener and loves flowers. This design was taken from a calendar of garden designs that came with the January Cross Stitcher in 2008. I used the calendar (handy desk sized) but kept it knowing I wanted to stitch some of the designs. This was a pleasurable stitch. I liked the simple palette of fresh colours, white, green and blue. After stitching, it was washed and ironed then I placed it in a small blue frame, ready for wrapping.

A few things to update. First, some ATCs. The top one is of an Altered Drinks Label. I used an orange juice label from a bottle and wrapped it round the ATC. Then I made some miniature oranges using a circle punch on orange card, with green gelly pen for the stalk area. These were applied using foam pads, then I glazed them to give a sheen. Finally, added a 3D blue butterfly - no idea if this is correct biologically (do butterflies flit in orange groves, or are they sprayed out of existence?) but the card looks nice.

The second image is of some cards for a Birds swap. This one was also to raise funds for the RSPCA by saving postage stamps - I had a freezer bag of them to go with the cards. It took a surprisingly long time to accumulate a modest bagful, as apart from Christmas and my ATC swaps, we don't tend to get very much personal mail - most of it is business post which is franked. Two cards are for the swap and one is a RAK for the lady organising. The bluebirds card was a plain white one which I inked using an ink pad (denim blue). Using a darker blue inkpad, I stamped random blue flowers over the base card. Then I stamped the blue image of the birds onto a piece of paler blue card and stuck it to the base, using blue floral self adhesive ribbon on the borders. The birds were coloured using an assortment of gel pens, silver on the body, and shades of blue for the wings and tails. Finally, an adhesive heart gem was set between the birds. For the pink birds, I covered a plain ATC in some Papermania pink spotted paper, and edged the card using an ink pad. On a strip of pink card, I used a chalk ink pad in shades of pink to give random swirly effects, before stamping on the birds with a damson coloured shade. This was adhered to the base card, and a piece of cream felt ribbon attached to the bottom border. The birds were coloured using my gel pens, and finally a heart and a butterfly gemstone were added to the card.

The third set shown is for a Hearts and Flowers swap - each card had to have both on it. For the pink one, I used a pink base card, and stamped an assortment of flourishes on to it. Then I added some die cut heart shapes with 3D foam pads and then carefully added lots of little mulberry paper flowers. These were glazed with a Stardust Stickles glitter glue and I added tiny pink gemstones to the centres of the flowers. This looked lovely when it was finished. Similarly for the lilac one, I started with a plain lilac card, and added purple flourishes with an ink pad, this time in portrait format. Two die cut heart shapes were added with foam pads, then I added more mulberry flowers, which this time I glazed with a lilac glitter glue. Finally added some butterfly gems to the card and it was complete. Both of these were very pleasing when finished.

Finally, a birthday card, although I have made two of the design. I have a faithful stamp which I use so often of a pretty bunch of flowers, then after the image is coloured you use a pricking tool on the dots and stitch it. In this case I used a plain white card and a charcoal ink, and a palette of Twinkling H2Os in purple, green, and irridescent oyster shades. The stitching was done ina variegated grey thread, and looked lovely when complete. The image was then trimmed and mounted onto a silver pearlescent card, and a pretty white patterned ribbon tied round the side. Finally I added a silver greeting on the base, and a couple of tiny butterflies to the top of the card. The recipient should have received it today for her birthday. Am now waiting to hear if she likes it!

Just a short little post on some ATCs tonight. I made some ATCs for this month's colour swap - the theme colour is hot pink. Photos attached of the two cards I made. One was a plain card. On top I used the inner box of some Clarins shower gel that Andrew gave me for Christmas in a really vibrant colour. I cut some bits off and edged them with silver ink. Then I added some fabric flowers. On the other side of the card, I applied felt ribbon and halfway down, used an irridescent brad to apply a bright pink heart I stamped onto shrink plastic. Then I added some silver glitter glue to the front of the heart and the centre of the flowers. Finally I used a gel pen to colour in between the curves of the felt ribbon. Lovely! The other ATC was a rectangle of bright pink check card with a glittered surface. Again, I added some of the shower gel box edged in silver and added some fabric flowers. Then I added a shrink plastic heart into the side of the ATC. Again, added glitter glue and some glitter strands to the centres of two of the flowers. A fiesta of pinkness.

Yesterday I went to Inkspot, my favourite craft shop in Cardiff. I bought a neat little template for making envelopes for ATCs. I put this to use with some Laura Ashley patterned paper and made two sweet little envelopes for the cards. After the cards had dried tonight, I put them in and they will be hitting the post tomorrow.

Last post for this evening. On Sunday I attended my first meeting of a local card making group. It was held in Llandrindod Wells in the volunteer bureau, in the afternoon. The club meets monthly. There were around ten of us, ranging in age from (I'm guessing here) about ten to eighty and various points in between. One of the ladies actually works with Andrew (small world) and another who was demonstrating, is a sheep farmer. Her daughter was the ten year old, and a remarkably accomplished and pleasant young lady. She demonstrated exploding boxes and we had great fun. I have seen these before on TV and the internet and it was fun to have a go at making them. Picture attached of my box.

Next month, the person demonstrating is going to be me. I've said I'll be doing something with ATCs as several of the ladies hadn't come across these before but now I have to think of what to do. Any ideas or suggestions gratefully received.

If you're reading this in anything like real time, you'll notice that photos are being added after text rather than with each post. This is because for some reason the photo upload bit of Blogger is being most unco-operative. Two birthday cards attached, one for my favourite auntie and one for a greyhound friend. Greyhound friend was especially challenging. The birthday is a milestone one, and she is a very un-pink sort of person - anything fluffy would have been inappropriate. I ended up in monochrome, and made a smart black card with glitter card attached, a ribbon, white and grey flowers with irridescent brad, and a couple of butterflies. Their colour looked stunning against the dark background - very happy with this.

TALKING ABOUT BIRTHDAY CARDS, IT IS NOW FEBRUARY AND I HAVEN'T HAD A SINGLE RESPONSE TO MY CARD OFFER. HARRUMPH.

Keen readers will recall my description of some cross stitched rose buds for an ATC. My eye was caught by a PIF swap on the forum I belong to, so I decided they would be perfect for it. PIF stands for Pay It Forward, and the idea is that the organiser invites participants. She then posts a list of all the names and everyone receives a card from the person above them and sends to the person below them in the chain. Great fun. In this case the card had to feature the word Love somewhere on it. I used a plain white ATC which I then coloured using a pink ink pad rubbed across it. Then I sprayed it with one of my Glimmer Sprays in pink giving a beautiful glistening effect. The cross stitch was trimmed, backed and mounted on the card, then I affixed two mini tags, one with the word Love the other with the word Cherish. Both were attached using brads, one heart shaped and the other a sparkly irridescent one. I decided to make an envelope to send the ATC - so used a template I have and a piece of plain cream heavyweight paper. Then I stamped the paper with alternating pink and green images with a pretty Laura Ashley stamp of a chrysanthemum flower before making up the envelope. Very happily, the lady I sent it to responded to say that she was delighted with it, and as a former cross stitcher herself was particularly appreciative.

I'll probably do more than one post as I have a few things to write about. Firstly, I managed to find a little square frame for my friend's cross stitch. The frame came with a very boring cream mount inside, which did nothing for the design when I held it against the fabric. I used a couple of ink pads, one pink and one white to give a kind of raspberry ripple effect, which works very well with the pink tones in the script and contrasts well with the blue aida. Put the frame together and now it's ready to be swaddled in bubble wrap for its journey. I also bought my friend a dinky little fridge magnet, and used one of my K & Co preprinted gift boxes. These are great- you just press them out of the book they come in and fold. Then you decorate according to preference.