Challenge Heaven/Scrapbook Boutique combined challenge

Don't you love it when you find a sketch challenge and a colour challenge that go together perfectly with a page you want to make?  I sure do!

Here's a page I just finished which combines the February sketch challenge from Challenge Heaven, and the colour challenge at Scrapbook Boutique.  I don't think I've missed one of these delicious cupcake challenges since I first discovered them!

  I was inspired by the pink, red and white colour scheme, as well as the scallops around the hearts.  The other obvious product this picture brings to mind is bakers twine!  Since using embroidery floss in place of bakers twine on a card, I've had the idea to twist two colours together.  Funnily enough, before I had a chance to try it out myself, a visitor posted a comment saying she had seem someone do just that! There really is nothing new under the sun, is there?  Never mind, the fact that it's not an original idea doesn't mean it's not a good one, so I tried it out.  What do you think? 

This page will be the title page for one of Maddy's albums, hence the title "M" and no journalling - and the excuse to use fun stuff like bird cages!

The Silhouette bit:
Apparently the code "CRAFT" will get you 25% off at the Silhouette online store until 22/2/12.  Sorry but I was on a different computer when I found that bit of information out, so I can't tell you where I got it from.
Anyway, wondering if there was anything I should get to take advantage of this special made me think about what shapes I had already purchased but not used.  Hence lots of fun Silhouette shapes on this page.

• The birds are from a "bird on a branch" set, (I used the "cut" function to separate the standing bird from his branch).
• I cut the scalloped circle in two different sizes, adding the "M" inside the larger one.
• I resized the birdcages down quite a lot, which meant I was worried about how close together the cut lines would be.  I countered this by using the "offset" feature, set at just 0.02, to give a bit more thickness to the bars.  If you do this, don't forget to delete the original shape and only cut the "offset" line, otherwise you really will have a lot of cute close together!