Birthday And Christmas Together!

Hello! A friend and I did an ornament exchange earlier this month. But before I handed her the ornament I'd made for her, I gave her a birthday card and gift. (at the time of the ornament exchange, my friend's birthday had been almost one month ago, but we hadn't been able to get together to celebrate that occasion. 

First, the card:

And a close-up:

Materials used:

• white card stock
• woman image from 1940's magazine
• vintage button "hat" glued to hair
• "say...wasn't it your birthday last month?" - lettering stamped in black ink on vintage file folder tab pieces and pieces of art paper scrap; a variety of alphabet fonts was used.

To me, it certainly looked like the woman was saying the phrase I affixed to the card!

Now on to the ornament:

And a close-up for this project as well:

This is a small cross-stitch picture of a girl in a folksy-looking outfit. The cross-stitch chart came from the vintage counted cross-stitch booklet I'd written about here.

I'd shown this booklet to my friend awhile back and while viewing the stitched example in it, she commented that the girl's outfit looked Dutch. I agreed and since my friend is of Dutch heritage, I thought I'd stitch up the girl and turn it into a Christmas ornament. 

After I'd stitched up the image, I bought a small unfinished wood frame at Hobby Lobby. I rubbed a walnut stain on the frame and then brushed on gold glitter glue accents.

I glued light blue felt to the back of the cross-stitched piece for a nice back appearance. I also glued on strips of the felt to the front edges of the piece. By doing so, the blue felt showed through the frame in the front. A nice touch, I thought. Added a gold cord hanger on top and the ornament was ready for my friend's tree. 

My friend said she liked her birthday card and Christmas ornament, and I liked making them for her!