Prickly Pear Blog Hop

Each month, Close To My Heart features a paper pack, and July's focus is Prickly Pear.  (If you're already hopping then you've probably arrived from Gerri's blog.  From here, you'll visit Erica next.)  I wanted to share some different ideas with this collection!  I have two projects that fit the theme and one that you probably wouldn't think would be made with the Prickly Pear Workshop Your Way collection.  (I always get the Workshop Your Way because you get great coordinated products at a great price.)

First up are my projects that you would probably expect from Prickly Pear.

We had a taco bar family fiesta for our daughter's 16th birthday, so this collection was perfect to highlight our photos of her special day.  I used Sea Glass card stock for my base pages.  (We will be making this layout at my class on Sunday.)

In addition to using the Complements and the embellishments from the Prickly Pear Workshop Your Way, I stamped the title with the July stamp of the month, Storybook Alphabet.  After stamping the title with black Momento ink, I used my small waterbrush to color in the designs with Poppy, Lemon, Emerald, and Sapphire ink.

You can see how I used a large Picture My Life journaling box for my journaling and a small one as a mat for my smaller photo.

Since the CTMH/Cricut Flower Market has cacti cut outs, I knew that I had to try them out for our fiesta.  (These are all made with one key on that cartridge.)

This intricate cacti can all be cut with one push of the Cricut button.  (I set it at 6", the largest it would actually cut.)  I used Willow card stock (not part of Prickly Pear) because I thought that it was a pretty authentic color.  I cut a square base to adhere this one to so that it would stand up easily.

This little guy started with three identical bases cut from Emerald card stock (set at 3") and then the corresponding overly cut from the Sea Glass strip in the Prickly Pear collection.

I folded each cactus in half and then glued the three of them together so that it would stand up.

This one measures 9" tall.  It did NOT want to stand up so I folded up the bottom pieces a bit and glued them to a square base.

My final project isn't your typical Prickly Pear layout.  I did use the Emerald, Sea Glass, and Sapphire color combo found in this collection.

The pretty Sapphire border is a pair of zip strips (the decorative piece that you cut off of the 12"x12" paper.)  I used aqua shimmer trim and pieces of the Prickly Pear Complements to embellish my layout.

The bike sticker is actually from the School 7-12 Complements that I added after I had taken a picture of the two pages together. I used a retired alphabet stamp (The Works) for my title info.

I hope that I've been able to give you lots of ideas with this fun paper pack!  You don't have to have live in the Southwest or throw a fiesta to enjoy this paper pack.  I'd love to know what you think of my projects before you go on to Erica's blog.  Thanks for hopping!