Birthday cards

A few more cards to share. The first started as a piece of gelli-printed cardstock. 

I glued on some pieces of serviettes, some found words, and then machine stitched that to the card base. 

The next was for a friend who loves red. I like to use serviettes and thought a flower would be nice so this one fit the bill 

The yellow stencil design in the background was chosen for a bit of sunshine on a very wet day, and because that stencil was still out from my last project...Sometimes decisions simply arise from what's easily to hand :-)
Favourite additions of sari ribbon, machine stitching and a butterfly stamp and this one was complete

Don't feel despair if you make a stitching mistake.....I decided I needed another line of stitching on the sari ribbon, but on the second go forgot to open the card! Redeemed by unpicking, restitching, and then disguising the holes inside the card with some other decorative stitch so that will be a feature when she opens the card and reads the message. If you click on the photo you'll see the holes still there from the mistaken stitching, but I don't think she'll notice.

While my machine and supplies were out, I decided to add to my stash of cards. Now that my new machine is up in pride of place on the big table in the middle of my studio to use every day, I do my journal work on the narrower table in the window. 

My old machine rests underneath on the floor, and is portable enough to just pop up when I need to add stitching. I love that I don't need to worry about whether I am stitching through paper, or if the glue is quite dry....it never lets me down.

When I use serviettes in my art, I pull off the bottom 2 layers. When I made the red card above,  I noticed that the middle layer had quite a definite, though softer, print from the top layer, so thought I might be able to use that too :

I liked it so much that I used both layers of a flower on a 3rd card :

and here they are now :

Just need to finish that left one. Once I know what the occasion will be, I will add some nice found words.