Friends Make Life Blossom and getting sentimental at Forever Friends...

Hello!! :)

How on earth is it already October!?!!! I don’t know where this year has gone again- I’m not even sure it’s worth worrying about Christmas cards and gifts, you know- it’ll probably have passed us by and be well into next year by the time I blink again!! :/ Can you tell I’ve not got many Xmas cards made yet?!! Not even thought about gifts, handmade or otherwise, either!! Time to panic, did you say?!! Yeah, just what I was thinking!!lol

Anyway, rant (mostly!) out of my system, I’ll get back to what started that train of thought, which is of course that- as it is the first Thursday of another month- it is time for another new challenge over at Forever Friends& Co. :) This month we’d like to see you ‘Use A Sentiment’ :) You could make the sentiment/quote the main focus of your creation with just a small animal image but, if that’s not your thing then we’ll be happy just so long as there’s a sentiment on there somewhere- how easy is that!?! :) We are sponsored this month by Crafts U Love who are offering a £15 gift voucher to the lucky winner plus, if you’re chosen as the FF Favourite, you get the opportunity to guest design with us, too :)

So, just to make this a bit more of a challenge, I thought I’d try using a more wordy sentiment than my usual run-of-the-mill 'Happy Birthday' types and I went with a lovely one from a new (to me) Aspects of Design stamp sheet- and, of course, one of those adorable bears!! :)

I kept it all pretty clean and simple again- I’m really into CAS again at the mo’ and can’t seem to get anything more fussy to come out the way I want!!lol :S I chose the colour scheme based on the blossom flower idea and then, more specifically, on the pink seam binding I wanted to use :) I also used one of my new On The Edge card blanks (love these!!), which I think work really well to add interest to a simple card :)

I coloured using a mixture of ProMarkers and FlexMarkers... and I did terrible job of it, too!! :S Don’t know what the problem was that night (might have been something to do with the distraction caused by the giant spiders that kept appearing in my room- I have a serious phobia which has only been worsened by not being able to just get up and run away- not a fun few days in my house!! :S ) but, whatever it was, I made a right mess of the bear- I was using the same colours as always, but because this card was so simple and quick to put together, I had the whole thing assembled before it had dried enough for me to realise how bad it was!! So, I tried to fix it in situ by taking out the colour with a paler pen and trying again, and I think the poor thing’s looking a little jaundiced/tangoed and badly blended as a result- just didn’t have the energy to pull the whole thing apart and start again and I think to have added a 3Ded bear over the top might have looked odd on so simple a card :S

A close up of the sentiment, which I inked in two colours with dew drop/cat’s eye ink pads so as to have a pink flower :) Also loving the teeny gems I found while browsing online recently :)

The List:

• Craftwork Cards On The Edge Scalloped 6” Sq. card blank
• Forever Friends image, stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa and coloured with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers (I had such a mess of pens on my desk trying to fix this that I have no idea which ones I actually used- and it’s not like you’d want to recreate it anyway, so I won’t waste time trying to remember!!lol)
• Sentiment from Aspects of Design’s Japanese Plum Blossom stamp sheet, stamped in Memento and Colour Box Pink Pastel chalk ink
• White paper coloured with Muted Pink FlexMarker for mat layer
• Pink Tulip Seam Binding
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen
• Stickles in Crystal
• Pink 2mm gem from a wheel by Anita’s
• Pale Purple Flat-backed Pearls

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes :) ; My Mum's Craft Shop - All Creatures Great and Small :) ; Dream Valley - Monochrome :)

Thanks for stopping by today!! :) I’ll hopefully be back before too long as still have plenty of cards waiting to be shared- in the meantime, please pop over to the Forever Friends blog to see the fab cards by the rest of the DT and hopefully be tempted to join in with us- remember, you don’t have to use an FF bear on your creation (although we’d love it if you did as we all adore them, obviously!!), any animal is fine!! :) Hope you’re all having a lovely week and looking forward to the weekend!! :)