Soar!!!!!

I am soooo super proud of my cousin who, last year, decided to follow her dream of becoming a pastry chef and recently quit her career in the corporate world and is now working as an intern in a bakery in California.   I'm proud of her because I know that few people actually take that kind of leap and it's awesome.   So, this card is for her, to applaud her recent move to CA.

I decided to try a Matchbox style card on this one and the bottom I actually made to look like a little drawer, using paper from DCWV Citrus stack and a brad from Basic Gray.

The birdcage is one from the Serenade cartridge, cut in black with one of the birds inside.   I 'hung' the cage using real wire jewelry chain in black (I used this previously on a VD card).   The 'Soar' cut and frame were cut at 2" from the Lacy Labels cartridge.

I cut some extra birds as I was experimenting and the ribbon was from a Target dollar bin set.  I was sooo happy with the way this turned out and I liked the little drawer look at the bottom.   I want to try it again with ribbon to tie it closed. 

An Iron Gate

Today's card is for the Cricut Cardz Challenge for this week.   The challenge is to make a card or layout using the colors White, Black and Red only.    The first cartridge I thought about was Ornamental Iron cartridge.    I started by using the shadow for gate10 at 6" and welding them together using Design Studio.   I then cut the shadow function again but, at 5 3/4".   I cut the window function of gate10 then using this high gloss black paper.  It's simialr to using Glossy Accents on the entire sheet.  It cut very nicely and looks like real rod iron. 

The bird on the front is the third bird cut from the Serenade cartridge, at 1 3/4".   I inked the white wing slightly so that it looked red but, not as dark at the top layer and I added red stickles to the flourish in the body of the bird and a black gem for the eye.  The sentiment is a Studio G stamp that I got this weekend at Joann's $1 bin, stamped onto white and then mounted on the high gloss black and then the red. 

On the inside, I cut another shadow layer and then used a few of the interior cuts from the front and embellished the inside.   My husband LOVES this card.