I did it!

This is a card that I made for myself to celebrate finishing something that I had been trying to do for a long time!  (Why not make a card for yourself now and then?).

I cut the sentiment from the Don Juan cartridge at 3 1/2 inches.  I used green shimmer cardstock.  Don Juan is the cartridge that normally comes with the Cricut Create.  I do not have a Create but I was able to get a copy of the cartridge through the Cricut Rewards program.  Through this program you can collect points on cartridges that you buy and redeem them for a variety if items.  The rewards program started with the cartridges issued in 2008 and points are not given with the cartridges that come packed with a machine.

The font on Don Juan is a unicase font which allows the shift function to include lots of accents and images making this a more versatile cartridge.  The "you did it" word art has a few stars included.  I cut the layers in a metallic blue cardstock.

I wasn't sure if my piece of cardstock for the stars would be big enough to cut them exactly as they appear on the cartridge so I put three sets of stars on the mat and hid two stars in each set.  Then I moved them closer together so I could cut them from the small piece of metallic cardstock.  This is yet another handy way to use "hide selected contour."

For the background layer I used a piece of glitter cardstock from the DCWV Linen Closet stack.  I just got this recently at Jo-Ann's and I like it so much that I will probably go back and get another one!  I wanted to add a gem to the center of each star and this set from Creative Charms had just the right shade of green and three graduated sizes which was perfect for my card.  I inked the edges of the layer with VersaMagic chalk ink in "Ocean Depth."

Here is a close view of one of the stars.  The colors worked out nicely but I did spend a bit of time looking around for a good background.  This is one of the ways I justify keeping a lot of paper on hand - it is hard to know ahead of time exactly what colors and patterns will work together and so you need lots of options!

I saw this little bear when I was out walking this weekend - he made me smile so I thought I'd share him with you.  I have lots to do this week so I will have to keep him in mind if I start to get stressed!