My first 3x3 card

I think this has been the hardest most time consuming card yet. It seems to take me a long time to make the first card. Trial and error is a lot of my process. I try something, don't like it, try something else-until I'm satisfied. I am not sure I can say I'm really satisfied with the way the front of this card turned out, but the card is so small that I didn't have a lot of room to work with. I needed to use my cricut to decorate this card. I don't have a lot of cartridges, so I am limited when it comes to a theme like "Valentines Day. I choose to do the love you label from the Fancy Label cartridge. I made it 2.75 inches. The inticate swirls don't cut very well on smaller settings so I decided to use Tim Holtz Grunge paper (for the first time) because of its thickness and strength and because I wanted it to be like chipboard. I cut the back of the label, only to discover that I didn't have the pressure high enough. I had to finish cutting it by hand. I adjusted the pressure to high for the rest. It cut very well, so then I tried a thick paper to cover it with. I tried medium pressure, but had to switch back to high. I got all the label glued together then realized the hearts were supposed to be a different color. I embossed them white then used crystal lacquer for dimension. I covered it with clear glitter from PK Glitz because I love the sparkle that glitter gives. I loved how the hearts looked, so I did the same thing with the "love you". I wanted something different for the fold, so I chose to have my card open in the middle. I covered the front with pink gemstone coordinations paper. I then used decorative paper that I had on hand for the inside of the fronts and a textured piece of cardstock that matched. I used the Winter Wonderland cartridge to cut out the label on the inside. I cut and rounded a piece of white cardstock for the sentiment. I inked it with Fired Brick distress ink. The stamp was from a group of words from Stampendous and was also stamped with Fire Brick. The two small hearts were punched with the Creative Memories small heart punch using white cardstock (which I inked) and the textured cardstock. The front was too plain, so I took a swirly doodle stamp and stamped it using Worn Lipstick distress ink.

When all was finished I had about 4 1/2 hours of work put into it. I learned some things that will help me save time in the future (I hope). This challenge was really a challenge-but enjoyable all the same. I am entering it in the following challenge:

http://fantabulouscricut.blogspot.com/2012/01/challenge-me-monday-96.html

http://cardztv.blogspot.com/2012/02/cardz-tv-dt-challenge-5-tickled-pink.html

http://cardztv.blogspot.com/2012/02/cricut-cardz-challenge-101.html#comment-form