Paper Issues: Count Your Lucky Stars!

Hey, Everyone! I am back and counting my lucky stars that Evan had such a successful surgery and recovery is going better.

Today the new issue (theme) is up over at Paper Issues, and it is "Count Your Lucky Stars."
I love this one! So much potential for project ideas such as stars, St. Patrick's Day, being lucky, movie or rock stars, astronomy, numbers, and more.

Lori Whitlock  is the sponsor for this issue and she is donating a $25 gift card to her shop. She has some amazing cutting files available there and at the Silhouette store if you have a die cut machine. And she also allowed the design team members on the issue to pick out a few files.

I am one of the design team members who created a layout specifically for this issue, but I don't have a die cut machine. After I chose the die cuts I thought would work for me, fellow dt member Kathy, kindly cut my files and mailed them to me.

I was so excited when they arrived! And here is what I made...

The two "project life" die cuts to the left and right of my photo are sprayed with gold Studio Calico mist. So they have a light shimmer which doesn't show up in the photo well. But it helps them pop out a bit more from the white.
And that Shamrock border, well that was fun but not easy :) I ended up finally pulling out my regular old glue stick to adhere the papers underneath. The first, third and fifth are just patterned paper. But I used gelatos and water to create a watercolor shamrock on the second. The fourth uses more of the Studio Calico gold mist to create a visual triangle from the two project life cards to the shamrock.
After adhering each piece of paper, I tried to neatly trim around and then attached the whole border loosely to my page.
I also used a few bits and pieces from the

 

March Swag bag. The green star card is behind one of my shamrocks in the border. And the little green felt shamrock is in one of my embellishment clusters as is a smaller chipboard star. I also used the "Lucky" flair by the fabulous Martha Bonneau. She sells great pieces of flair out of her Etsy shop which you can find *Here*. Love her flair! The other piece of flair at the bottom of my page is from 

this set which I bought from her several weeks ago. Thought it was super cute.

So basically this layout is about how I "count my lucky stars" that I was able to go to Ireland with Mike a few years back. It was the trip of a lifetime for us and I am so grateful that we could go!

Now it's your turn! How would you interpret the theme? Do you have any projects that would fit already? Or something you have been thinking about creating but haven't had time yet? If you do, come join us on the Paper Issues blog *Here* to link up your projects and have a chance to win!

I will be sharing a project on the Paper Issues blog next week, and will be looking for familiar faces in the link ups. Hope to see you there!! :)

And Happy St. Patrick's Day from our home to yours!