Birthdays, Handmade cards and Jewellery

Had a couple of birthdays this week, my daughter's 16th today and a SIL's 50th. We had a party for my SIL last night, took Cassie out for dinner tonight. Bought SIL a carved wooden box that she could use a jewellery box and decided to make a crystal bracelet to go in it. She really loved both and put the bracelet on right away. The party was a quiet family affair, the kids played soccer and ran theirselves ragged.



















On Friday Cassie and I went to Penrith to shop for gifts, called into 2beadornot2bead and found they had a 20% off sale, I bought crystal beads, bendalon wire and Sculpey doll face molds. Had never used the Bendalon wire before, I usually buy the tigertail from Spotlight and found it kinks easily, the Bendalon doesn't kink so easily, I had to pinch it together to do so. Had to use the face molds as soon as I got home and soon had an assortment of faces, was wondering how to use them. Decided to use a large one on a card for my SIL. Mixed metallic gold and brown paint together to make a bronze look, painted lace with the same colour and glued it around the face. I lightly stamped cardstock with a flower stamp and glued the face onto it. The background is purple and it went onto a cream/yellow background. Added metal corners from my stash to finish the look, really liked the result.
For my daughter I used a photo of her at 3 and put it into a metal heart frame, which I hotglued onto cardstock, again purple and print out on a vellum completed the card. Do need to find glue that won't be seen through vellum, it's noticeable in the picture.

Had left my cardmaking and jewellery supplies out so set to cleaning them up after we got back from the party, when I got to the jewellery I felt inspired to make something else. Thought Cassie would like a necklace made from my precious Malachite beads, this was in the wee hours of the morning and I eventually dragged myself to bed at 4.57 am after wrapping her gifts and putting them by the bed. She came in, woke us up at 8.30 , happily opened her gifts, she got a playstation game and a dvd she wanted. Was able to sleep a couple more hours. She was wearing the necklace and I asked her if she wanted a matching bracelet. Made it for her and decided to make another bracelet using tigereye this time, turned out so nice I had to make a matching necklace. These are mainly for me but I'll let her share it too.

We went out for dinner tonight, Cassie wanted ribs so we went to Lonestar. She is very shy and we had to keep mum on the birthday, she didn't want the embarrassment of being sung to by the staff. Should have seen her as we left the party, her cousins realised it was after 12 so loudly wished her a happy birthday, she raced out to the car in a flash. She doesn't really know a lot of her cousins, they are a lot older, she has none her age or close to it. Her brother was luckier, he has one cousin and several second cousins close to his age.