Our Little Sweetheart

I just entered this layout into a challenge over at the Sure Cuts A Lot forum.  You have to create a Valentine project (card, 3D, layout, etc) using SCAL and your cricut - you have to actually MAKE something in SCAL.  The prizes are great too!

Anyway, I haven't been using SCAL to it's fullest so basically I challenged myself to do this challenge using ONLY the shapes the program has.  Was it a challenge?  OMG!!  It sure was.  It has taken me hours and hours to complete this layout!  Believe me, I'm not exaggerating!

The only thing I didn't "make" was the tree, which is a silhouette I found using google images.  I brought it in using the "trace images" function, resized it and cut it out.  That was the easy part.  I then cut out and added all the hearts.  Another easy part.

Here's the hard part (or at least it was when I first started)......The bears, wagon and stems for the heart bouquet were made completely using circles, ovals, rectangles, etc. - shapes only.   I hadn't played much with 'nodes' and believe me I learned a few choice words the first few times (hours) I tried working with them.  I think I've gotten the hang of it though and feel way more comfortable working with them now.  After putting the layout together I realized that I probably should have done the wagon a little differently.  Oh well, it's done now and stuck down! LOL

I hope you like it.  I am so proud of myself  **grinning ear to ear**  for challenging myself and creating a 'keeper' in my mind LOL!