Well the end of the school year is fast approaching and if there's one person I must thank it's Gavin and James' piano teacher Octave.

Yes I know it's a cool name for a piano teacher but not so strange when you consider he was from a musical family.

He has coaxed and urged my two less than motivated boys on for many years now but this year in particular was difficult, and while they may not have achieved the level they were capable of, it was not from lack of trying on Octave's part.

Actually when you consider the amount of effort they put in they did brilliantly - due largely to the huge effort Octave invested in them in the final weeks before their exams.

The background was created using alcohol inks - cool peri, salmon, sandal and gold. I then overstamped various music and text images masking off each one as I stamped to create a collage. I also stamped the figure from the Boys Toys stamp from Crafty Individuals on the same alcohol ink background and cut out it out and mounted it on 3d foam. The piano charm is from Karen Foster (same set as the clarinet). The charm was a little new shiny looking so I coloured it with a little gold and pitch black alcohol inks.

Another card, this time for my husband's nephew Tom. He is a brilliant musician so I wanted a musical theme. He was also at one time (not sure if he still is) a stamp collector, so I thought this collage stamp from Crafty Individuals was perfect for him - with both postal and musical elements. Both stamps were actually freebies. I have added some other postal images (mostly CI but with one Non-Sequitur image) on 3d foam for a bit of variety.

The collage image and other elements were stamped using black archival ink on a background created using gold, salmon, willow and sandal alcohol inks. The photo doesn't do it justice - it has the most wonderful shine and depth because of the gold alcohol ink.

The clarinet charm was from Karen Foster.