Time for another post. January means one thing - THANK YOU CARDS. When I was growing up, the school Christmas holidays was when we would carefully create a pile of Thank You letters to assorted generous relatives. One of the things I would often receive as a present would be a new pen, so invariably that would be used. If I was very lucky, sometimes there would be a Parker pen from my grandparents. I didn't start using a fountain pen till secondary school, and was never taught to write with it the way my parents and older relations were. Now of course, the straightforward letter has morphed into cards and I doubt if today's teenagers would do anything like this, probably preferring to send emails or texts. This year, one thing continued though, I did receive two lovely gel pens in my stocking. Anyway, nostalgia moment over, and back to the cards. I've cross-stitched two which are illustrated above.

The first, for my great-aunt, is a vase of tulips, a happy, simple design, that was straightforwardly mounted into an aperture card, with a Thank You stamped inside. The design is taken from a spring edition of Cross Stitch Card Shop last year. The other little card is a sweet Joan Elliott gift tag design that I mounted in an aperture card. The card was then decorated with some glittery ribbon, and is destined for my aunt. For my uncle, I used a card I had prepared earlier (in best Blue Peter tradition!). This is a cross-stitched iris mounted on some green papers and mesh with a green ribbon at the side, to look fresh and springlike.

I also made two virtually identical other thank you cards, one for a dear friend and the other for Andrew's sister, husband and children. In this case, a simple striped pre-printed card was layered up with some lovely cheerful magenta card. This was taken from a DCWV stack called Blossoms and Butterflies, a gorgeous stack of happy bright colours and zingy flowers, with masses of foil and glitter. Yippee for bling! The corners were rounded then I added self adhesive green spotty ribbon - the colour picked up on one of the narrow stripes and the spots echoed the magenta card pattern. Finally, I used my pokey tool to make a hole just above the ribbon, then added some layered silk flowers,in pink, then white and green, fastened with a green brad in the same shade as the ribbon. Hooray! A happy, cheerful card to brighten the new year.

And on this note, I will just finish by reminding all readers that if you'd like a birthday card this year, handmade by yours truly, just drop me a line. My pokey tool and needle are poised!