Project 2: The first Birthday Card

Fortunately for me, a couple days after my first card was in the mail, someone had a birthday!! I was so energized and ready to learn some new skills.  At this point, I went ahead and purchased a couple of cartridges to expand my capabilities with my Cricut cutter.  For those of you who are not familiar with these, it's essentially the software that tells my machine what it can cut.  After several trips to Michael's, A.C. Moore, and hours on Ebay I now had the Calligraphy Collection and Mother's Day Bouquet cartridges. Yes, that's 3 different shopping outlets, and two cartridges. It was almost overwhelming sorting through each one trying to see which one I would get the most use from. Especially since the cartridges are about $49.99-$59.99 a piece!

So I sat down and sorted through my new stacks of paper.  This task was almost as daunting as picking out cartridges! I had made the decision when selecting paper at the store to just purchase a rainbow palette of card stock paper and a couple packs of patterned 12x12 paper.  So now I had to bring it all together with a purpose. This purpose, a card for a girl at work, that just is not a girlie girl.  So out with my favorite color, pink, and onto a more neutral palette.

I made the decision to go with a rich green and blue theme, and here is the result:

The card with matching envelop

I think I finally got the hang of utilizing brads with paper. Part of my success was definitely the brad setter.  It made it so easy to pierce the paper then secure the brad. If you have ever worked with brads and have acrylic nails, this is a tool made for you! I picked up one of these for a coworker and she agrees completely that brad life is easier with the tool!

I also discovered that I will need to gain a little better understanding of photography and lighting.  I swear the colors are a perfect match, but I just couldn't capture it with the camera. I had purchased a camera for my husband for Christmas, and I think it's about time I spend some quality time with it.

Next stop, Mother's Day cards!!

Outside 'to' label

The inside