Wow! Over a month has gone by already?

I can't believe that half of the summer is over and that all the stores are stocking up on Back to School merchandise. To be honest, I'm actually looking forward to returning to work in September, even though I know I will miss my kids dearly. I will also miss having the free time to make cards and other Cricut crafts because that will soon be replaced with marking, planning and stressing over my job! I'm hoping it won't be so stressful but it will be interesting to see how I handle things now that I have two kids to look after during off-work hours. I'm afraid my Cricut will be much neglected as it has been this past month but I am excited to try out my new Home Decor cart that arrived a couple of days ago. I am also eagerly awaiting three new carts to be delivered: My Community and Locker Talk will come in handy for back to school, and Beyond Birthdays.

In the meantime, I've been anxious to try my hand at making an ampersand card but wasn't sure how without the Cricut Design Studio. But I tried it out using Tracy's amazing design as my inspiration. Here it is:
I will add more details when I have the time. Right now, my eldest is beckoning me to have some bubble fun!

The paper for the front of the card was recycled from a Birks gift bag and the paper for the back of the card was from a DCWV glitter design pack. The ampersands were layered using the shadow feature and cut at 5 1/2" and the Mr and Mrs were layered with the shadow as well at 1", all from the Plantin Schoolbook cart. The swirls were both from the Home Decor cut at 1", I believe. And the top hat and tiara were cut using the Paper Doll Dressup cart at 2 1/4", I think. (Can you tell I'm not very good at making a point of what sizes I used?) I probably could have used the Real Dial Size but I like to make things more difficult than they have to be.

I added some adhesive jewels and used a white paint pen to accent, and stuck on a Prima flower using a dimensional pop dot. I hope I got everything right...

Oh, and to make the card without the DS, I just made a front and a back, and stuck the back on by folding a small part and sticking that on to the front. I'll add a picture to better illustrate it. It's my brother's first anniversary this weekend so I made this for him and his wife. I hope they like it!