Sheep-ish

I have a problem with craft punches. And my problem is that I love them. I go to Michael's, and they call to me and my 40-percent-off coupons.

But I'm not a scrapbooker.  I've made half-hearted attempts, but it's not me.  Too much planning, too much detail, too much paper to fiddle with and store.

So what to do with all those craft punches that keep coming home with me?

I have to get creative.  My latest effort is this sheep collage for spring:

I made it with pretty craft paper, my Martha Stewart sheep punch, and some foam craft dots.

The "how" is pretty simple.  I punched out white sheep (and one black one, just to mix things up), and arranged them in a pattern on my green paper.

I used these foam dots to give the collage a bit more dimension:

By sticking a foam dot behind each sheep, I got them to float off the background a bit.  Below you can see the difference; the sheep in the column on the right aren't mounted on their foam dots yet.

Here's the finished product:

Because I wanted to use a frame with glass, I needed a thick and/or layered mat to allow room for the floating sheep. Obviously, a traditional frame and mat would just smush those pretty animals right up under the glass.

The one I used is from Michael's, and it's perfect. The sheep have plenty of room to breathe even with the glass on top.

I'm hanging it over my kitchen sink for a nice reminder of spring as I'm doing the dishes.  And a bonus is that I can remove the sheep and substitute something else when the season changes.  Lobsters for summer?  Pumpkins for fall?  Trust me, I have a whole box of punches to choose from.

Baaaaaa!

Linking to:

Spring Craft Link Party at Centsational Girl 
Wild Wednesday at Chatty Chics 
Party Time at Northern Cottage 
Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now 
It's a Cinch at It All Started With Paint