Very Honoured Indeed

Well I'm back to work tomorrow after having a week off and I am feeling a little sorry for myself, however I thought this might be a good opportunity to distract my mind temporarily.  Whilst I was off, the lady who takes my card class took ill, she is okay now, hopefully on the mend.  I saw the text and thought the class was going to be cancelled, however much to my surprise the message asked if I would mind taking the classes that week?  I love my little card class, its great to get away from all the business talk that I am surrounded by day in, day out or the usual family dramas that undoubtedly occur from time to time.  But apart from my escapism, the main reason I go is to make a card that I haven't had to think about.  Sometimes I get very frustrated with myself when I'm crafting at home, as it can take me hours, which I don't usually have and I'm not always happy with the outcome.
But I was delighted when I was asked to divvy up a few cards, teaching and talking to people is part of my day job, so that part of the class wasn't going to be an issue, it was the actual cards that I had to get on with.  I took the decision to go with a birthday theme and to introduce a few techniques I'd seen in some magazines a few months back.

I knew I wanted to incorporate beads in one of the cards, that could double up as a simple bookmark.  So here is the card that I came up with

Stamping never used to be a technique that I enjoyed, but lately its all I appear to do so I decided that I would move away from the stamping and just use dies and punches to achieve the second card.  I was really pleased with how this next card turned out so I tried it in two different colours.  

 In pinks and reds

In greens

I still cant decide which I prefer, but my husband has decided that the green one will be used for his sisters birthday, so I think perhaps I should make my decision from that.  Hope you like, please tell me what you think!