Birthday bits

A month ago I attended a jewellery making workshop with my friend G where we learnt how to make floating bead necklaces. It was led by the people from World of Beads, a local bead shop in Winchester.
It is my friend C's birthday, a significant one, but we're not shouting about it too much (the clue is in the number of flowers on the card). I decided to make C this necklace and a pair of matching earrings using some of the gorgeous and more expensive (but worth it) Murano glass beads that World of Beads stock in their Parchment Street shop. As this is my third version of this necklace the finish is much improved from my first attempt in the workshop. (I forgot to photograph the turquoise one which I made for my sister H's birthday).
If you have never had much luck with the fiddly loops required of earrings and other jewellery making techniques the videos found here are really useful - very clear production so you can see exactly what is being done, or, if you are in the area I would recommend the workshops at World of Beads.

By luck I had a matching little pochette that I made some time ago from "Omiyage" by Kumiko Sudo to put the birthday jewellery in.
I then used some of my watercolour cartridge paper to make a little box and flower:
A matching card was also produced from my card and paper stash:
Happy Birthday C! By now we should be celebrating with you in a nearby tavern.