21ST FEBRUARY - NIKI'S BIRTHDAY

This card was for her 19th birthday. I wanted to create something fun & colourful. Once it was completed I thought it was a little bit over the top but she really did love it!

21ST FEBRUARY - JOSH'S BIRTHDAY

I used a dinosaur off a piece of wrapping paper to create a card for josh's 11th birthday adding a piece of thread to hold the balloon an show texture.

GRAY'S BIRTHDAY BUNS!

Gray loves lemon cakes so I made him lemon cupcakes with coloured vanilla butter cream with a sweetshop twist - gummy bears, smarties & popping candy! They were so colourful & looked exciting!

20TH FEBRUARY - GRAHAM'S BIRTHDAY

For Gray's birthday last year I got him the cath kidston cowboy mug. This year I thought I'd stitch it for a card design. I layered it up with red & white spotty fabric :) it was hard work but I think it was definitely worth it.

14TH FEBRUARY - VALENTINES DAY

I made Graham some buns with fondant icing on top & then I dyed the icing to create pink heart shapes for the top of the cakes. They were delicious & really cute!

I ordered this personalised card from CARDTOWN online because I saw on television a code to get a card for free :) I was really impressed with the quality & finish of the card.

13TH FEBRUARY - LISA MARY'S 24TH BIRTHDAY

For Lisa's birthday card I wanted to create something pretty & colourful. The pastel shades I have chose are not the colours I would usually go for but I think they look really good. The lace & buttons add a feminine touch :)

1ST FEBRUARY

Over the christmas period my Grandma picked up these cookie cutters for just £1 from morrisons. I had totally forgot about them & yesterday when i was bored I remembered that I hadn't used them yet. So I made some biscuit dough & cut out some little winnie the pooh characters. My favourite was the butterfly, I then decorated them with glittery writing icing! They were delicious & FUN!

19TH JANUARY - RICHARD'S BIRTHDAY

My brother was 27 last month & I hadn't got a clue what to put on his card. I wanted to keep it young & fun as he wasn't too happy about being that old! I decided to go with a colourful stegasaurus with lovely balloons tided to his tail. I used crayons & watercolour pencils.

I felt like something was missing from the left hand side of this card, & I decided to use a stencil. When we were kids me & Richard used to love doing stencil writing, so why not do it now in an attempt to embrace the childlike card :) !

CROCHET

For christmas I got a Cath Kidston kit on how to crochet & I thought I would share some of my first attempts. It was very tricky to start with but with the help of Graham's Granny Pat I have cracked it. Single Crochet

Bigger Single Crochet

My first attempt of a Granny Square

I love the effect of the granny square, I am just practicing with left over wool that I have from when I did my knitting. I'll keep up to date with my progress on here!

GRAHAM

I always find it so hard to do birthday cards for boys never mind other occasions such as christmas. So for Graham I thought I would do a personalised snow globe as it's a little bit different. I used brown paper & very few colours to make it simple & effective. My favourite part is the candy cane effect on the name.

RICHARD & JESS

I wanted to do a stocking for each of them with their initials on as this year as hopefully they will be in their house for next christmas! I love the use of traditional christmas colours & the glittery gold!

GRAHAM'S PARENTS

I used the same design as I had previously done for my parents as I really like the festive robin, I just wrote Merry Christmas & edged it with gold thread.

MUM & DAD

I hand stitched a robin from a photograph for my mum & dad this year as it is very christmassy & traditional & a little bit different to something i would usually do for them.

SCARLETT DAISY SHAY'S FIRST CHRISTMAS.

I wanted to do something special for Scarlett's first christmas, this christmas tree is simple but with added sparkly gold thread & little beads. Her parents absolutely loved it & will keep it to put out every christmas.

DECEMBER 2011 - STITCH

I wanted to come up with something hand stitched yet simple enough to make quickly for a lot of family members & this is what i decided on.I used pink's for Graham's sister & used purple & silver for my uncle & fiance as they are quite trendy.

I used traditional red, gold & green for the older people in my family.

DECEMBER 2011 - CHRISTMAS CARDS

I have definitely been slacking with my blog updates over the festive period! & to make this worse i forgot to take pictures of all my cards. I sent my friend a picture of them all out on the floor & although the quality is not the best you get the idea... [coming soon!]

4TH DECEMBER - MUM & DADS ANNIVERSARY

I went to Paperchase to look for inspiration for an anniversary card when I saw this card. I couldn't resist it, I absolutely love the Rob Ryan inspired design with paper cut outs & not to mention the fabulous amount of gold glitter!