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.