Sandcastles in the sand

Now that it's summer, my schedule on weekdays changes.  Some days, I'll be in and out of work all day, only taking breaks to run home and let Sophie outside to do her business.  Others, I'll be totally off work.  This poses a slight challenge in my quest to not be constantly stuffing my face with boredom snacks.  However, last week I tried my hand at a paper crafts challenge, and I found out I really liked it.  I like having some guidelines for creations, and I've been following more and more blogs that host challenges.  I've also found that I really like seeing which challenges I can combine to come up with a project.  So, I will probably be spending a lot of time this summer posting about challenges, because it's fun creatively and it keeps me busy upstairs, away from the fridge.  :)

Anyway, here is the first of three cards I made on my day off today for challenges.  It was the most challenging for me, for some reason, and I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with it, but that's ok.

I used the Pack Your Bags cartridge to cut out this sandcastle (3 inches).  When I was done, it looked too- clean, maybe?  Not nearly dirty enough for a sandcastle.  I don't have any distress tools or inks, so I improvised.  I rubbed zig pen all over it, and then rubbed my fingers on it, and then took my adhesive eraser to parts of it.  That is what gives it the kind of wet-ish look on the sand.

I have had this blue tissue papery 12x12 sheet of paper ever since I began buying scrapbook supplies at the Dollar Tree.  I always thought it looked like water, and I wanted my sandcastle to look like it was on the edge of the water.  The other patterened papers are from my stash.  I believe they're from Provo Craft.  The little crab is a leftover from a Jolee's pack that I bought for a themed scrapbook page before I had my Cricut.

I'm going to enter this in the following challenges:

Bitten by the Bug 2- Water Challenge

Paper Playtime- Vacation Challenge

Tuesday Alchemy- Sand, Surf & Sea