I have to confess, I am a paper hoarder. Yep, I just love the pretty patterns and when I see it, I imagine all the ways I am going to create with it; but once I get my hands on it, I just can't bear to cut into it. Or if I have more than one sheet of it, I can't bear to cut into the last sheet of it. But I was forever stumbling with coordinating patterns, and ended up using only one pattern per card, and sometimes I felt the colors didn't quite go together. Plus card-stock, and paper are different thicknesses... urgh.

When I joined Close to My Heart, I found to my delight that the company had put together packs with coordinating colors, taking the guesswork out of what went with what. Then they added coordinating additional elements like stickers, gems, ribbon and twine, sequins etc.

But back to my paper hoarding.... I was looking through my stash today, and realized that I have bought several paper packs that CTMH took out of the catalog at the end of last summer. lol And I want to cut into them. But I also really want to play with the new ones and post cards for you all to see. There is not enough time in my days to do all that. So the older stuff is going to have to wait, at least until my next vacation.

I finished up my 15 cards out of the Hopscotch paper pack. I have lots of Hopscotch paper left, I could make at least 15 more cards.

Here are a few of the variations that I came up with as I played with the 15 I did finish:

I did a little paper piecing on the birthday card in the middle back. The little speech bubble on the elephant card is also cut out and pieced over the frame, slightly popped out for just a hint of dimension. It's hard to tell in these photos, I might have to take some close ups and add them later. I did get a little too crazy with the background stamping in one of the foreground cards, that one didn't quite turn out as I'd imagined, but it's a good example of what can go awry. I should have turned over the B&T paper, but I'd already put adhesive on it before I realized it. So I just made the best of it. I'll probably keep that one as an example (of what not to do).

In addition to using the same supplies I listed below, I also used the stamp set Lifting Spirits and the Hostess reward set Cuddly Salutations.