I’m a lucky girl – this week I got to kick my heels up at two different birthday celebrations. Two cards and two presents were needed, so I had fun rustling up these gifts.

Butterfly cards, heart strings gift wrapping, Shamballa bracelets, Crochet Water Lily and Crochet Shells and Lace Jar Cover

(You can find the pattern for my water lily here and for my shells and lace crochet jar cover here)

Butterfly cards

I love this butterfly print paper so much! It’s a sheet of wrapping paper which I cut up to make cards.  As it is so pretty I didn’t add much – just a happy birthday sentiment and some ribbon and cut out butterflies.

Because I love it when everything co-ordinates, I used the same paper to wrap the gifts as well.  For a ribbon, I used some of my crochet heart strings (find the pattern here).  One of these ended up being worn as a headband at one of the parties (once the gifts had been opened and the champagne was flowing…)!  I’ll remember that next time I need a gift for a little girl – all you’d need is a short length of elastic to join the two ends…

Crochet heart strings gift wrapping and handmade Shamballa bracelet

The shamballa bracelets are made using the same technique as I posted about a little while ago.  They are really very simple to do and you can use any beads you like.  It’s really amazing to me how different each bracelet looks by just varying the beads or thread colour.  These are Dalmatian jasper beads, which I love because it is a natural stone – and so unusual!  I’m going to be making a few more of these as Christmas gifts.

Dalmatian Jasper Beaded Shamballa Bracelet

Speaking of which, I seem to have works-in-progress all over the show at the moment.  Between packing up items for this year’s advent calendar (for my niece) and crocheting other Christmas presents, it’s all getting a little crazy.  But I’m excited to have nearly finished next week’s post – it’s crochet, and it’s Christmas themed!

How are you doing with all of your Christmas preparations?