NOT-Valentine's Day Gift

I'm not one of those huge Valentine's Day haters, who harp on about the materialistic society in which we live, the detrimental effects on the mental wellbeing of those under pressure. But let's face it, Valentine's Day seems pretty much designed to make single people feel lonely, coupled people feel stressed and card/chocolate/flower sellers feel rich. Oh wait, maybe I am one of those people.

I have a very good friend - co-incidentally the person I told I'd started this blog, because I knew she'd take a look and then forget about it - whose birthday lies on Valentine's Day, and hates it. 'Coupled' people want to spend this day with each other, because on Valentine's Day, secksual relashunships, even if they only began approximately 19 days ago, take priority over long-term just-friends.

From reading this blog, you may be aware that I love making little crafty things which don't require too much expertise, cost or complicated equipment. My favourite things to make are cards, because they definitely fulfill all of those criteria, plus they also seem to make any gift more thoughtful and (hopefully) delightful for the giftee. Even so, being a perfectionist means that even this relatively simple task takes me hours and hours and makes a lot of mess - I cannot even imagine the chaos which would ensue if I did art on a regular basis. Therefore, although over the years I have made many, many cards, more often than not I realise that I have run out of time and will have to make do with a little note or a card from my shop-bought emergency stash.

However I knew that I wanted to make the gift for this friend as special as possible and so a week in advance, I set about starting the packaging. I had so much fun with it that I spent the whole morning on it and was finished by midday. Of course, the downside of this was that I was so excited that I wanted to present my friend with the present immediately, and spent the whole weekend wishing that the ensuing week would pass on fast-forward.

Luckily, the week's gone past so fast that I haven't had a moment for impatience. Now, I thought I might share the card I did make, although the gift itself might have to wait for Saturday incase my friend indeed does continue to follow the blog. Here's a hint if you are, I always like to link and/or match my card and wrapping with the present inside in some way...

Materials used: A5 purple card, strip of pink ribbon from GLOBETRIM London, wallpaper sample from Cole & Son, gold sequin star, 3 plastic gems, image from website www.1920s-fashions.co.uk

A sneak peak into one of my many overflowing bags of 'making stuff'.