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.