Important card left till the last minute

This is typical - make cards for everyone else and for no reason at all ... but until this evening I hadn't made an anniversary card for John for tomorrow. I was tempted to use one of the ones that I have in my box, but I felt I should make the effort to make one specificially for him.

I'm quite pleased with the result. I used Daisy Bucket Newbury Court brownstone square paper and stamped with swirls (I think they are by Papermania). The forever friends bears were cut out from a piece of paper from their 'with love' range. I added a couple of Prima 'say it in studs' and quite a few of their pearls of various sizes and complimentary colours. I coloured the white background sentiment with a copic - but why is it that the colour on here looks different than it does irl?

I'd already planned to make a card with brown tones and then in the post today I received a card and a surprise package from Pauline (one of our Salt team) of felt and button embellishments, so I've used one of them straight away on the card and here are the rest:


So, here's the card:

I'm linking for these challenges:

Incy wincy 43: 'button up!!!'
ECP 13: 'buttons'
Practical scrappers: 'felt, fabric or tulle' - the felt of the button embellishment
Loonie stampers 93: 'felt'
Shabby tea room 11: 'polka dots'
Meljen's designs 8: 'seeing spots'
One stitch at a time 14: 'furry friends'
Pile it on 20: 'out of the box' - the bear's paw going over the edge - I would never normally do this, but got the idea from:
The crafty pad 72: 'over the edge'
Quirky crafts 28: 'chocolate and cream'
Stamptacular 60: 'pearls and swirls' - this really inspired me to use the stamped swirls and Prima pearls
Totally Gorjuss 31: 'bling it on!'
Crafty creations 68: 'celebration' - our anniversary
C.R.A.F.T. 51: 'celebrate' - our anniversary
Creative cottage 11: 'one for the boys!!!' - male card
Copic creations 28: 'monochrome' - and I used a copic to change the background of the sentiment from white
Pixie dust studio 23: 'add a pearl'
Lots to do week 20: 'flourishes and/or swirls'
Sketchy colors 25: 'earth colours' - this inspiration photo was given: