Happy New Year!!!

2011 was an amazing year in the Crafting world.  We saw more challenges offered on Blogs, a drop in prices on Cricut cartridges, new nestabilities, more grunge (thanks, Tim), more white space, more store aisles for scrapbooking, new stamp releases...my goodness, the list goes on and on.

And now here's to the new year--may it hold creative discoveries and crafting passion for us all.  To start you on your way toward a more expansive style of crafting, Your Scrapbook Place Blog is offering its first 2012 Monthly Challenge.  We have plenty of projects to inspire you to use an age-old technique in new ways.   

We want you to TEAR INTO crafting this year, and feature torn and ripped paper on a card, layout or altered art.  No scissors, or very little cutting allowed.  Your project should showcase how tearing, ripping, pulling, yanking and otherwise parting paper without the aid of scissors or a cutter or any kind of cutting device or tool changes the look of a project.

Here, we offer a few cards for inspiration, as well as a layout and a piece of altered art.  The candle shown here is made by stamping onto a torn piece of tissue or mulberry paper, then heat setting it with a piece of wax paper and a heat gun.

Check out Pammie's Halloween card.  The torn paper totally makes the card--it's a perfect example of how tearing can give something a special look.

So here are the challenge guidelines: 
Craft your heart out, following the challenge of the month.  All we ask is that you try something different for a change, stretch your abilities, step out of your comfort zone.
Challenges run from the first to the end of each month.  At the end of the month, a random participant will be chosen to display a Crafter's Crown badge for their blog. 
Link your project below so we can see what you came up with.