Happy New Year... and Shaped Cards at Forever Friends :)

Hello Bloggers!! :)

Well, I think it’s time to finally wish you all a very Happy New Year and, come to that, Happy Christmas, too!! :) I really thought I’d be able to get back on my blog in time to do both those things but the madness that is the month before Xmas in my family, with my sis’, mine and my mum’s birthdays plus Xmas, meant my body had other ideas and I just haven’t managed it... permanent exhaustion aside, though, I did have a lovely time and thank you for all the birthday wishes on my last post!! :) I hope you all had a lovely time, too, and found yourselves with lots of new crafty goodies to enjoy!?! I didn’t get much crafty stash for Xmas but I got some money to spend on it instead- people have preferred to do this since they started to see my obsession with crafting and it suits me just fine as I get to shop in the sales and get exactly what I want!! :) I also got given a Kindle (Yay!!! :D) and, as I was planning on trying to save my birthday and Christmas pressie money- not mentally spend most of it on craft stash before I even had it like last year!!lol- to buy one, I decided to use the extra money and treat myself to a Grand Calibur :) I’ve been looking wistfully at them for a while but kept telling myself I didn’t need one- and where would I find to put it anyway?!lol- but have given in as I just keep finding myself having great ideas for cards/projects and then realising they would be impossibly tricky- or just plain impossible- in my lovely little ‘Bug... so come on Mr. Postie, I want to play!!lol   *** ETA: It's arrived!! :D lol ***

Anyway, it’s time for our first challenge of the year at Forever Friends & Co. And this time we want to see ‘Shaped Cards’... any shape you like so long as it’s not square!! :) We’re sponsored this time by the fabulous Ribbon Girl!! :)

I made this card on Boxing Day for a good friend who’s birthday is on the 27^th Dec.- one year I *will* be prepared and have her card ready before Xmas rather than struggling to find the energy straight after but not this time, so I combined this and the challenge... I’ve been wanting to try a circular easel card for quite a while and never got around to it- ‘til now...

I thought it might seem a bit small as I still only have regular Nesties and my little ‘Bug at the mo’, but I think, as an Easel card with the extra surface area that gives, it’s actually quite sweet and the small area means you can have fun with embellishing!! :) I cut the base from a card blank and another circle from a second blank for the top, then cut more circles from two gorgeous new First Edition pads, which I got before Christmas but hadn’t used yet, to layer on top :)

The image is one of my fav FF stamps and is coloured with my usual PMs- I almost always stamp more than one of the FF bears (and all other stamps, just in case I go wrong with colouring...which happens a lot!!lol) but I always colour the spare bears and just leave the extra bits- in this case the flowers- uncoloured... then I have a nearly ready image that I can finish colouring quickly to match whatever I need if I’m in a rush or not well enough to colour from scratch :) I used a tag from one of the paper packs and added some seam binding, lovely butterflies and my staple pearls :)

For the stopper I used a border from one of the paper packs, then embellished with a swirl and a flower I have had sitting in a pot on my desk for months, which just matched perfectly... I made the flower myself from a cut file I designed for my Cricut last year and had a few spares as I really enjoy sitting making them up but have now run out so best get making some more!! :) I have used them on a few special cards already- just haven’t got around to blogging those quite yet!! :S

The List:

• Two white card blanks to make the base
• Nesties- Circles Large and Petite Scalloped Circles Large
• First Edition Paper Pads- Spring Feast and Birdsong
• Forever Friends wooden stamp from DoCrafts, stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa and coloured with ProMarkers: Bear- Ivory, Vanilla and Oatmeal with Sunkissed Pink for ears and cheeks; Flowers- Pale Pink and Cocktail Pink, Buttercup, Green Whispers Marker fineliner for stems
• Handmade flower- made with Hi-5 Pearl paper and my own digi cut file
• Marianne D Swirl die
• MS Large Monarch Butterfly punch
• Sentiment is an old Anita’s one
• Cream Seam Binding from The Ribbon Girl
• Stickles- Diamond, I think!?!
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen
• Pale Green and Pale Pink Flat-backed Pearls

So, a pretty simple card in the end but the lovely papers make all the difference!! :)

I’d like to enter this in the following challenges: Bunny Zoe’s Crafts – Fancy Folds/Shaped Cards :) ; TheSecret Crafter – Anything Goes :) ; Papertake Weekly – Anything Goes plus optional ‘something new’ (my papers) :) ; Paper Sundaes – Out with the Old, In with the New (Old- stamp, New- Papers) :)

Thanks for stopping by today and for all the lovely comments on my last cards- please do pop over to the FF blog to what the rest of the fab team have created to inspire you and don’t forget that you don’t even have to use and FF image to enter- though we’d really love it if you did!! :) – but you must have an animal on your creations!! :)

See you again soon, I hope- I have plenty to share if energy allows, my lack of blog posts before Christmas was mostly down to the amount of actual crafting I was trying to get done, after all!!lol