Layering It on in the Rose Garden

Don't you just love it when two of your favorite challenges mesh perfectly?  I wanted to play the Rose Blossom Garden challenge to create a Halloween themed project with bonus points for using the "C" key on the Artbooking cartridge when what do you think the Heart 2 Heart challenge this Monday turned out to be?  No, not Halloween.  Layers!  They want to see "Lots of Layers" which is exactly what you get with this cartridge.  I could kill two birds with one stone!  Well the joke was on me because I ended up making two cards.

This is the first version which is 6.5 x 5 inches.  I wanted a big card to give me plenty of room to layer.  Now, because I wasn't making a scrapbook page, I made sure to set my Cricut to "real dial size" before I started.  I cut the frame (photo mat 2 at 4.5 inches) and decided it was to small, so I cut another one at 5 inches and, satisfied that it was the right size, gave it some texture by stamping it in second generation Red Barn with the woodgrain stamp from the "Universal Backgrounds" set.  You can see it better close up:





Next I cut two cats (shift icon at 2.75 inches).  As many times as I have used the cat stamp, I have never tried to stamp it on a cutout, so I wanted a back up in case I "missed."  Next I cut the bird (icon at 1 inch), decided I needed something bigger and cut another at 1.25 inches.  The paper is "Mischief" which is retired but was available a while ago in the "While Supplies Last" section.  I stamped the panel behind the window with the tree and sentiment from the "Eek and Shriek" stamp set.  To finish the front, I popped up the cat and bird, added a few sparkles, and gave the cat a Halloween collar courtesy of my Sunset alcohol marker.  I dressed up the inside with a zip strip, some scraps, the extra bird and my favorite Halloween sentiment from the retired "Wicked" stamp set:

 

 

It turns out the cat stamp was easy to line up on the cutout, so I ended up with an extra cat and frame.  Plus I had a leftover "Trick or Treat" from my pumpkin card, so I figured I might as well make a second, smaller card with a more kid friendly sentiment:

 

With six layers, it also qualifies for the Heart 2 Heart Lots of Layers challenge.  Thank you for stopping by!  Now please check out some more wonderful projects at the Rose Blossom Garden and Heart 2 Heart challenge blogs.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials use, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Mischief (retired), Bamboo, Red Barn and Colonial White cardstock, Sunset alcohol marker
Ink:  Black, Desert Sand, Cocoa, Red Barn
Stamps:  Eek and Shriek, Wicked (retired)
Embellishments:  Black, Clear and Brown Sparkles
Other:  Artbooking Cricut cartridge