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.

Christmas Card Giveaway - yes, it's here. All you need to do is send me an email to silvernutmeg@btinternet.com with your address and I'll send you a handmade Christmas card or ATC. If you're particularly persuasive, I'll even send you both! I've put the same invitation on my other blog, and am hoping for a good response.

A little pre-Christmas project. Andrew's parents have a very good friend, who they went to school with. Over the years we've kept in touch with her too, and I was going to do a letter and some photos with her Christmas card. But really, once you've got two or three photos, you're halfway to a minibook, and in my bottomless Brenda Pinnick kit, there were some very pretty little minibooks just crying out to be used. So, off I went today. I selected a variety of nice photos to pick up some of the news and activities since we last saw her in May. The minibook is very pretty with six pocket pages. You can do the traditional embellishments on the front and back of the pages, but of course you also have pretty little pocket inserts that you lift out by a piece of ribbon - ideal for a photo. I added text that I did in a Word text box, just to give some little notes and context to the pictures. The book itself is very pretty and didn't need a huge amount of embellishing, but I added a few nice little flowers and so on. Photos attached of the book, which I hope she'll like. Tomorrow, I'll be making a card, then wrapping and sending.

Well, some photos to post tonight. A few ATC swaps on the go. I've done a Snowman swap - we're now getting into that time of year when a lot are themed towards Christmas and related subjects. For this, I stamped a snowman image straight onto the cards, then coloured in using a combo of Twinkling H2Os (there's a surprise!) and some Gelly Pens, which also have a lovely twinkle and a good coverage of pigment. Actually, although they are very simple, sometimes that works; I'm pleased with the final effect. Also made a little Christmas RAK for the lady organising the swap. I usually do this - it's a good way to say thank you, and I usually find that by the time I've done the cards for the given subject, I'm on a bit of a roll, so am happy to do one more.

The other cards are for a regular colour themed swap held each month. This month the theme was "My favourite colour". This stumped me a bit, as I love colour and have different favourites depending on the time of year, what it's for (I wouldn't wear bright orange but a bowl of clementines look glossy and wonderful) and so on. Anyway, after a lot of thought, I decided on purple. For one card, I covered it in glossy deep purple paper and trimmed the corners. Then applied some lovely embellishments featuring a vase of purple pansies and a butterfly. Quite simple but with strong colours, so it worked. The other card was one I had brayered with an inkpad called "Evening Enchantment" or something similar. The colours are shimmery lilac, green and blue. Over this, I used a layer of pearl embossing powder to emphasise the shimmery, dreamy quality. Corners rounded again, and then applied some more flowers and butterflies.

I've recently updated my ATC to-do list - it's pinned to my notice board and lets me keep track of swaps. On it I list the swap theme, the organiser, the deadline, number of cards needed or limited to, whether I have the address of the organiser and a tick when I do, and a section for any other notes or special instructions e.g. no peel off stickers is a common one. In this way, I can keep track of the swaps I do, as sometimes people have long closing dates and you can be doing cards a couple of months in advance, or more often quite close to the deadline. When I have the organiser's address, I usually write it on the envelope and stamp it, thus ensuring I have an incentive to make the deadline. By listing them like that it also ensures I keep an eye on the total number of swaps so I don't swamp myself when there's a lot going on or conversely I don't run dry. Receiving cards in the post is always a treat. Often they are also in pretty hand-made envelopes - it almost seems a pity to open them. When I've finished stroking them and admiring them and wondering "How did she do that?", I place them in a special folder. This has clear plastic pages with nine pockets on each page, ideal for storing the cards neatly and allowing me to view them easily. Then it's onto the computer and a thank you to the swapper - this is important - firstly out of gratitude and secondly as sadly cards are often stolen or go missing. The thinking on the forum is that it is assumed there is cash inside - many ladies actually write little messages on the envelopes saying things like "Artwork enclosed - no monetary value". After all that, it's time to have a cuppa and dream of the next swap.....

Well, as promised, today I finished the minibook for our nephews. It's been a while, as we've been busy moving and getting settled (see my other blog for full info on this). Actually returning to crafting has been very therapeutic and I've really enjoyed doing it. Quick recap, this is to thank our nephews for Booty's birthday present of a squeaky rabbit toy which both she and Andy love playing with.

The little minibook is from the Brenda Pinnick Christmas kit I have, but there is no obvious Christmas printing, and the colours are not screamingly festive. When the boys play at shop, their premises are called "The Sunshine Dudes" - our oldest nephew thought up the title, and I think it's lovely.

Pictures show the book (I love the ribbon tie on it) and a few of the pages inside. It was a lot of fun to put together, and I hope the boys like it.