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.