Circle of Friends

To celebrate its first 12 months, Daring Cardmakers' challenge this week is to create a card with the theme "circle of friends," and to include, yes, a circle or two.

I made a round aperture, edged with glitter, and used acetate and foam pads to create a shaker card. I stamped a butterfly (Hampton Art) and embossed it in silver at the bottom right of the card, and at the top left I layered a Lakeland butterfly. The silver letters are by Making Memories.

Today was like a birthday: I had three pizza boxes and some Amazon goodies. The post backlog has taken a while to clear and it's like buses - suddenly it all comes at the same time. I had my first delivery from the US scrap kit "Story of My Life," the latest issue of Craft Stamper plus the monthly card kit, and, a real surprise, some Dovecraft chalks and a cutter. I didn't order the last one, and it's not a subscription gift, so I can only assume it's a prize from one of the magazine monthly draws. I enter quite a few of those. I wish they would include a note to say "congratulations" and who it's from.

The Story of My Life kit didn't wow me as much as I expected. It's very good value of course, and I didn't get stung for customs duty. It contains quite a lot of paper from 7Gipsies, one piece of K&Co, All My Memories and a Japanese company (chrysanthemums) I'd never heard of. Some good cardstock too. Some of the embellishments are a little unusual. There's a lovely bird, a little black envelope, some black lace and some Mexican themed stuff (it's around the theme of the Mexican carnival).

I'll save the Craft Stamper to read in Amsterdam at the weekend. My partner is running the marathon, and it's usually quite a lazy weekend with lots of "down" time, so I will have plenty of time to read!