Cricut Boxes and a Birthday Card

I think I mentioned that I recently got a Cricut Mini. Using the 'Mini Books' cartridge I experimented making the small box in two sizes.  They're about 3/4" in depth. The top one was my first effort but is quite flimsy. The bottoms one is embossed and inked and then lined with a layer of card stock to give it more stability. They have velcro closures.

Here's a birthday card I recently made. I love the large Tim Holtz 'Best Friends' stamp. It's a bit hit-or-miss trying to ink it in 3 colors, so I ended up having the most success using ColorBox Cat's Eye ink pads. The pointed ends help ink hard to reach areas of the stamp.

I haven't had the best luck getting a solid, dark image of the boy and his dog no matter what type or brand of ink pad I use, but I think the toned down result works here. I stamped the central image on a manilla sheet that has mustard and gray paint blotches and streaks printed on it. Although it looks quite white in the photo, it's actually more cream and looks quite vintage. I used a piece of a weathered clock die cut, a New York Central train ticket that I stamped with Ladybug ink on gold card stock, several background papers, and a Tim Holtz muse token to embellish the card front.