Start with a B-day card. End with a Cricut question... read on...

It's been a busy last couple of days. We're getting ready to put some sliding glass doors in my kitchen so my house is in a state of confusion. My dining table is now in my temporary crop room and everything else is moved into one corner of the kitchen. When I sat down to relax and watch House tonight, I felt like trying to make something, even if simple again. Well, I've got a birthday coming up this week so I thought I'd make a quick birthday card. Here's what I ended up with....

Embossing and stamping are both still very new to me so I thought I'd try something with that. I started with a stock white 4" x 5.5" card for the base. The paper for the front and strip in the middle is "Reminisce" from Creative Memories. I used the Happy Birthday embossing plate from Cuttlebug for the front and a nail file to age or add character to the card and the stamps were from Michaels.

I started out with a totally different plan but was having trouble with the cut out I chose. I tried so many different settings on my Cricut and no matter what I did, it kept tearing the paper. Too much pressure, not enough. Blade high, blade low. Speed low, speed high. Lots of combinations and wasted paper. The blade is fairly new and I tried a brand new cutting mat. It was regular patterned paper. Any suggestions??  Any ideas would be appreciated.

It's getting late and I've got a long day ahead of me. Goodnight all and have a great day tomorrow!