BBTB2 Elephantly Speaking

Morning!  It's gonna be another hot one so I'm typing fast so I can hit the trail or there will be no hike for me this morning.  This week's BBTB2 theme was chosen by my fabulous DT sister and good friend Shelly, who asked for an elephant from any cart on our projects.  Last time we had an elephant challenge I remember having a hard time because there weren't many to choose from, but it looks like a pachyderm explosion over at BBTB2 this morning.  Who knew?

I thought maybe I'd mix it up a bit this week.  My original plan was to attempt an inside pop-up from Everyday Pop-Up Cards, but the project just grew.  First of all, there are no instructions on how to actually assemble the pop-ups on this cart and no real pictures on how the card is supposed to look.  Huh?  I cut a prototype in white and although I had a general idea of what to do, there was still a portion that seemed extraneous.  Fortunately I Googled instructions and found that dear Joy from Obsessed with Scrapbooking had a download for the diagrams HERE.  Thanks, Sweetie!

As usual, I was disappointed with the detail options on this cart.  (None for the pop-ups, as if Provocraft though just the mere thought of something 3-D was enough...ah, NO!)  I did think the ellie was pretty cute though, so I decided to free him from the terrible fate of being squashed inside the card and made a little party favor instead.  He's cut 3 times(at 6 ", I think), twice in gray, and once in dot so I could make him 2 sided and jazz up the little dealie he's standing on.  Hid contours in DS to cut the inside ears and tusks only in other colors.  Oh, I forgot, there were no inside ears.  Had to make those in DS.  Had to do a bit of trimming to get it all together, too, but I think he turned out pretty cute.  Tricked out a hat for him from Celebrations and he was good to go.  Funny thing though, even with the diagram, I still never figured out what to do with that extra piece.

His little cart is the matchbox from the original TTBM. The outside piece was cut at 3 1/4" but I found the inside part was so tight that I cut it at 3 1/8" so it would slide more easily.  I also thought that would give some room so I could attach the wheels with brads so they could actually roll, but was afraid it would catch and tear up the inside so I just glued them on.  So although I hit some snags here and there, I really enjoyed thinking outside the box (or should I say on top of the box?) this week.  Hope you likey.  Now it's time to pop over to BBTB2 and check out the fab projects by my teamies and hope you come play with up this week.  I guarantee you'll have a ton of fun.  (OOOh, cheesy!)  Just remember the rules, okay?

I'm also entering this in the Corrosive They Say It's Your Birthday Challenge.