# Eletour

I love it when two sites set the same, or very similar, challenge. Two birds with one stone. The mid-month challenge at Scrap Our Stash is a sketch with the additional requirement of creating your own background. Meanwhile Challenge #176 at Scrap Whispers is 'Let's Get Messy'.

I thought that the sketch would work with some photos of the Elephant Parade, a national tour to raise awareness of the plight of the Asian elephant. The elephants, 31 statues painted by artists and celebrities, are currently on display at my local shopping centre. However I had trouble choosing just three photos and my finished page looks quite unlike the sketch.

I chose grey cardstock as my background (reminiscent of elephants in the wild) and made circles with a lid and some modelling paste (as seen in a tutorial by Stephanie Bryan at shimelle.com recently); the circles came from the sketch and I intended to keep them in the centre of the page, but once I started I covered my background in them. I then used a hexagon mask with mist in the centre of the page, but it didn't work very well and is now mostly covered up. I finished my background by stamping doilies in some of the circles to add some colour to the grey and white page. Having failed to pick just three photos, I chose six and made a patchwork of papers to go behind them, running my title between the two rows, and tucking various punched shapes in around the edges.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill?
Paper - Crate Paper The Pier 6x6 Pad, Crate Paper DIY Shop, Scraps
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Doilies - Dovecraft
Wood Veneer Pieces - Studio Calico
Gems - Dovecraft
Washi Tape - Efco
Modelling Paste - Farrel & Gold
Ink - Ink It Up!
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer

Tools
Studio Calico Doily Stamp
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Fiskars Bracket Border Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Daisy Punch
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch