Am feeling rather fraught today for a variety of reasons. My other blog explains tonight's culinary disaster, my post- Christmas bank statement arrived today (ggaaargh), the dogs have been tracking mud EVERYWHERE in the house, and I realised I was nearly missing a deadline for an ATC swap. Sometimes you just have one of those days. It's generally a glum time of the year anyway - loads of people I know have been struck down by the various flu bugs that are circulating and Andrew has had a cold, which he does seem to be getting over. The weather is cold, wet, windy and squelchy. Anyway, enough moans. Even a nanosecond of reflection is enough to remember that I am immeasurably privileged compared to many - I have a roof over our head, we live in peaceful times, we have enough to eat, warmth, access to healthcare and transport and a whole raft of freedoms. So, on with the show.

Tonight is all about that ATC swap. This is another Do Crafts one, and is one of the regular colour swaps that I enter frequently. This month, the organiser's choice is "Tartan". I've done two cards. The base card is taken from a Blossoms and Butterflies stack, and is glittered - one is a bright fuschia pink and the other is a cheerful fresh green. I cut these out to regulation size. Then I had some fun with shrink plastic. We went to a Scottish wedding a couple of years ago, and I made a thank you card with a thistle stamp. I dug that out, feeling that a Scottish vibe seemed appropriate. So a number of thistles were stamped and I used some of the Sakura Gelly Roll pens to colour the green stem and the pinky lilac for the flower head. Then came the fun bit - switching on the heat gun. The plastic wriggles and curls as it shrinks, and you find yourself convinced it will stick to itself and be ruined but after a moment it magically straightens out, and you have a perfect miniature thistle. I mounted three of these onto a piece of fuschia card with trimmed curvy edges and this was put onto the main card base. Finally the whole was trimmed with some shriekingly loud tartan ribbon. On the green one, I added a square of blue and green tartan check card and layered onto it a picture of a pot of blue flowers and a little blue bird. Alongside I added a blue butterfly, then finally I added highlights to the butterfly wings, leaves and petals with a silver Gelly Roll pen. Labels written on the back, photos taken (one with flash and one without) and then into the envelope for first class posting tomorrow morning - hopefully making the deadline by the skin of my teeth.

So - this time it's all about Sarah. My oldest friend Liz and I were brought up together - she literally lived across the street from us, and my parents were friendly with her parents before we were all even born. Anyway, Liz's eldest daughter is called Sarah and earlier this week she turned eighteen. I'll skip lightly over how old that makes me feel, and the fact that her birth seems like yesterday. Anyway, she has grown up into a bright, beautiful young woman with lots of exciting possibilities ahead of her. For her birthday, I have made her a scrapbook of photos of her going back to her birth. Liz lent me a couple of old albums so the pictures are a combo of ones I've taken over the years along with some of hers. I also uploaded a set to the Photobox website and have ordered (and received) a nice photo collage for her of lots of lovely pics. It needs to be framed, but it's just great. The scrapbook I chose is one I bought over a year ago, as when I saw it, I knew instantly it would be perfect for Sarah. The whole kit is a range called Once upon a time from Die Cuts with a View. It features gorgeous papers with dragons, unicorns, castles and lovely Gothic castles. These are all things that Sarah is mad keen on - especially dragons. When I bought the kit, it came with assorted matching ribbons, epoxy stickers, chipboard shapes and card shapes. Some of these got used in the birthday card. I'm very pleased with how the whole album has turned out and I'm hoping to see her over the weekend - it'll be fascinating to see how she feels about it.

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!

I tried to upload these pictures last night but Blogger was being temperamental. Not only could I not upload pictures but it was refusing to display them on my blog and several I visit. So, without further ado, here they are.

Lots to update on. I've decided I'll need to do another post tomorrow during daylight as I need to take some photos that won't come out very well in the darkness. Scrapbooking first, and I'll begin with a big Hoorah! for a company called Photobox. It's nice to be able to praise them wholeheartedly. I used them before Christmas for a number of photo related gifts such as calendars, mugs etc. and was incredibly impressed by their excellent quality goods, speed of service and prices. Anyway over the holiday break, I noticed they were doing photo credits for the year ahead, so stocked up. After all the visits and celebrations finished, Monday was the official "Back to School" sort of day when DH went back to work, and decorations came down, very sadly. I uploaded my festive piccies to the website and ordered a batch. Tuesday an email to say they were on their way and this morning they were delivered by Carwyn our trusty postman. Beautifully wrapped in a neat plastic folder, in a funky silver envelope. Good photo quality, and perfect for my plans.

Firstly, I made a minibook for my in-laws, who visited us over the New year for a few days. This was the last one from the bottomless Brenda Pinnick kit, and it's lovely with a shimmery ribbon at the top and pages in cool tones of lilac, blue and grey. Some pics attached of the book with the pages made up. I've popped it in a Jiffybag and it will hit the post tomorrow. The visit was particularly special as it was my mother-in-law's 65th birthday just before Christmas so we were also belatedly celebrating that with a special meal out at a lovely place called the Felin Fach Griffin. In Welsh, Felin Fach means "Little Mill". Imagine all the things you want in a country pub. Roaring fire. Aga, with tea towels airing in stacks over the front, and bread warming in the top oven. Home made soda bread. Dried flowers. Real ales. Squashy comfy sofas. Big wooden tables. Glowing candles. No jukebox or slot machine (hurrah!). Spotless loos. Friendly bar staff. Lots of nooks and crannies. Yes, all that in one place. Bliss.

The rest of the prints I ordered are going to be used in another of the BP kit bits - a 12 x 12" scrapbook, with a much fuller series of pics about Christmas and the New Year together, probably about 50 pics in total. That will take a bit longer to do, but I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into it.

Firstly, may I wish all readers a very happy and peaceful Christmas season. I haven't posted since the 12th as I realised it would not be good if people who read the blog saw their own Christmas card proudly displayed before it even arrived!! The little stocking ornament I made for my nephews' Christmas tree was much appreciated. When we visited them on the 14th of December, the tree was installed and we were able to hang it on the branches where it looked very happy. I was also very pleased with the way the little seed beads caught the light and twinkled. Attached are two cards I made. The cross-stitched one is for Andrew's sister and family, and features that Christmas perennial, the over-large knitted jumper. I loved stitching it, and the finished card looked great. I substituted red seed beads for the holly berries on the jumper to give a bit more texture and they looked fine. The tree card was for my in-laws and I like these cool colours as a change sometimes from the more traditional bright reds and greens.
For some reason (probably sheer untidiness) I couldn't find the envelope that went with the card, so I used some scrapbook paper to make one. Fortunately I was able to find one with blue and silver snowflakes that worked really well.

Now I'm busy stitching thank you cards for gifts received. I've also resumed my ATCs - these sadly took a back seat in December due to time taken by Christmas preparations in their many forms. Just why for instance does present wrapping take so long? Maybe I'm doing it wrong, and we certainly don't have a huge number of gifts to buy, but it seemed to take hours! Anyway, I attach a picture of the last ATC of the year, which is a DoCrafts swap to raise funds for the charity "Help for Heroes". This worthy charity raises funds for wounded service personnel. Sometimes, in the controversy over the actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's easy to forget our brave men and women who are serving in such difficult conditions. I also think it's important they understand that the majority of the British public support our troops, even if we don't always agree with the politicians who send them into battle. Anyway, these little ATCs should be themed on either the Army, Navy or Air Force. I picked the RAF as my brother served in it for a number of years and focused on the ensign and badge with the full heraldic description. I love the words used such as sinister for looking to the left - it sounds so wonderfully gothic. Each ATC is then sent to the lady organising the swap, with a coin attached to the back. These will then be removed before posting out the swapped cards and donated to HFH. What a great idea and how nice to have fun with a hobby and help a charity at the same time.

Another swap I'll be doing shortly is on the theme of birds, and the lady organising that one has requested used postal stamps to accompany any cards. The reason is that the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) is having a stamp collection to raise funds for its conservation work, hence the decision to have a birds theme for the ATC concerned. So I now have a little freezer bag on the bedroom windowsill which is steadily filling with stamps torn off envelopes.

Andrew's parents are visiting us shortly for the New Year festivities, so after that I'll be scrapbooking the Christmas festivities. I also have another very special scrapbook task. My oldest friend Liz (we grew up together) has three beautiful children. The eldest, Sarah will be 18 in January. The last time she visited me (she often comes to stay) she mentioned that she did not have many pics of her childhood. So I'm making her a scrapbook of just that, from when she was a tiny baby to a gorgeous grown up Goth girl. I called in on Liz on Sunday and she entrusted me with Sarah's baby album and another album of photos of her and her sister as tinies. This alongside all my pics will form the contents. I've just invested in a bunch of photo credits on an online photoprinting store so will be uploading and printing via that, as printing lots of photos at home is very expensive.

Finally, I was thrilled with the success of my Christmas card offer. The furthest went all the way to America, and amazingly got there in time, even though I was rather late in posting it. Emboldened by this, I'd now like to extend the offer to birthday cards through the year. If you would like a handmade birthday card from me this year, just send me an email and I'll oblige. The more notice the better!!

To begin at the beginning.... A little while ago, I bought a combined cross-stitch magazine and goodie pack called Cross stitch for Christmas. As well as nice range of small patterns it had a big pile of free threads, aida, ornaments for the tree, needle and ribbon as well as some blank cards. It looked good so I treated myself. I've now stitched two patterns from the magazine - one to go on a Christmas card, a Margaret Sherry design, who is a very well known designer and another one, shaped like a stocking to go as a Christmas tree ornament. This is destined to be a gift for Andrew's sister and family when we see them over the weekend. The cautionary part of this tale is NEVER BUY CHEAP THREADS (FLOSS). I used the threads in the goodie pack and they were not one of the big three brands (DMC, Anchor or Madeira). They were horribly thin, not very shiny and plump and kept snagging and knotting. Generally, I cross-stitch in two strands, but these were so thin, I stitched in three. For the stocking, I used one of my own lilac threads, a DMC one, and the relief was amazing. Fine, smooth cotton that glided through the aida, and lay plumply glistening on the design. I will probably throw the others out, very reluctantly as I hate throwing stuff away, but life is simply too short to tolerate such poor quality stitching stuff.

A picture of the stocking is attached - as you can see, I added seed beads to it - a pretty holographic clear one that I bought a packet of, along with some red and some gold. The red are used on a card I made for Penny, a greyhound friend. Here I x-stitched a simple red star, and added red seed beads. Mounted in a red card, I then added some Christmas borders and peel-offs to give a cheerful and simple card. Penny runs a company that does medieval re-enactments, and we often see Joe her business partner when we visit her on the farm or at shows. I made him a card, pictured, which tried to pick up on the medieval theme. I used a tall red pearlescent card, with a strip of patterned red Anna Griffin paper in the centre. Then I mounted a gold card with rounded corners and added an epoxy sticker of a knight on horseback and a stag. Below, I added a red label bearing the words "Noble prince" applied using rub-ons. I'm waiting to hear of any feedback.

I also attach a pic of the birthday card I made for my mother-in-law's birthday, which is today - happy birthday Rita! Again, a fairly simple x-stitched card, with a small Joan Elliott design (I absolutely love her stuff). She is very fond of beads and French knots. I still have not conquered my fear of the French knot and avoid them wherever possible, although I am a recent and enthusiastic convert to the use of beads. This pretty little floral design was best left fairly unadorned so I simply added a birthday greeting and a butterfly. Sometimes with cards, the best thing is to leave well alone and know when to stop adding stuff.