THE STARS AND STRIPES AND VINYL

Many useful words begin with the letter V.  Some of my favorite words are victory, vivid, velvet, violet, vegetables, vitamins, versatile and today's personal favorite, vinyl - which is the very thing I wish to write about today. 

Rubber scientist Waldo Semon stumbled onto this very versatile plastic in the 1920's.  He created this new material with fantastic properties during his search for a synthetic glue. 

Vinyl is also known as polyvinyl chloride or PVC, which is a staple of the construction industry.   It also comes in a plethora of shapes, sizes and, colors such as red, white, blue and a rainbow of other colors.  Vinyl has so many uses it is impossible to imagine the modern world without it.  It is the second largest-selling plastic in the world!  The crafting world has discovered vinyl as well! 

I personally love using my Cricut and now my Cricut Expression 2 to cut vinyl and a variety of other materials to produce festive crafts for my 4th of July celebrations!  

So by unanimous vote, this week's newsletter shall be featuring projects using vinyl, chipboard, and a variety of other materials in addition to paper products.

:-)Lonna Joy Smoot - Editor, Cricut Chirp!

*Header project made by Sue Helfrich with vinyl on canvas using the cartridge: Word Collage

ANNOUNCEMENTS

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• Independence Day
• Personalized Water Bottles
• Shelf for Cricut
• Vinyl Photo Display
• Plastic Flower Pots
• Frames
• Crop Tops

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Camille Robinson
About: Hello! I've had a most excellent experience with my new Cricut Expression 2 and have found it cuts chipboard rather nicely and cleanly. These pictures were taken recently at my oldest daughter's graduation from community college where she earned her AA with honors. She's transferring to State in the fall. TFL!

Camille's Project: Elegant Edges Chipboard Frame Set

Cartridges Used:
- Carousel
- Elegant Edges
- Happy Hauntings
- Mother's Day Bouquet

Instructions: Here's a set of chipboard frames. I cut these frames using Elegant Edges, Happy Hauntings (the frame itself), Mother's Day Bouquet, and Carousel. I used chipboard purchased online. It is Cricut-friendly and is listed as:  "12 x 12 Chipboard 1 Side White 110 Sheets .028 for Cricut". I've been using their chipboard for my Cricut for years and have had happy results.

YOUR NOTABLE TIP–PAGODA CARTRIDGE KANJI WORD MEANINGS

Today's tip comes from message board member ShirleyOrtiz.  Thanks for the helpful information.

I was searching on web for the meaning of the Kanji words from the Pagoda cartridge and found many answers as to where to look and how tiny the words were, and how hard it was to determine what the meanings were, etc., but nobody, of the people that had comments on the web, offered a list of Kanji word meanings. Therefore, with the help of the Cricut Design Studio® software, I was able to find the meanings of the words and here they are:

Row #1: autumn, beauty, believe, celebrate, cold, prosperity, star, strength, summer, sun
Row #2: daughter, dream, friend, fun, god, team, thought, truth, warmth, water
Row #3: hand, happiness, harmony, heart, health, wind, winter, wisdom, woman, zen
Row #4: journey, learn, light, love, man, moon, mother, ocean, laugh, spring
Row #5: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten



Hope this is helpful to anyone interested.

Shirley

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

This week my world has been crazy busy; then you throw in crafting with my Cricut machine, and let's say my week became even busier. The one thing that I will not sacrifice in a busy week is my craft time, creating projects with my Cricut machine rejuvenates me and helps me to calm down—I call it my stress relief. This week I continued exploring my New Cricut Expression 2 machine. I love to watch my design come to life as it's cutting, thanks Provo Craft for adding the light to the blade housing. As a reminder, the new Cricut Expression 2 machine comes with four cartridges already saved inside your machine, I chose to explore the Cricut Decals and Just a Note cartridge. On a side note, both of these cartridges have six creative features and provide tons of wonderful images for scrapbooking, card or project making. Can I say I just love my Cricut machine!

With Cricut Decals, the creative features are Family, Pairs 1, Pairs 2, Sports 1, Sports 2, and Cricut Heads. This wonderful cartridge uses stick figures as the basic style, but the options of what you can cut are amazing. Have you ever noticed on the back of a car, people sport the stick figure family vinyl stickers? Now, with this cartridge you can make one for your own car or use it on a picture frame. I decided that I wanted a family design of me and my dogs so I found an image that looked somewhat like me, cut my design out of vinyl and simply put it on a picture frame (see photo). One tip, you get better results if you use transfer tape—and make sure that your vinyl is not too old (by this I mean that it is still sticky). Some other examples of images that come with this cartridge are cat, mom, dad, baby (both boy & girl), boy child, girl child, snow theme (dad, mom, boy, girl, baby, cat, dog), boy driving a car, and girl driving a car. There is also a Marshmallow theme (dad, mom, boy, girl, cat, dog, baby), you also have a beach theme (mom, dad, boy, girl, cat, dog, baby) and the last theme is 4th of July (dad, mom, boy, girl, baby, cat, dog). One other tip, you can cut a blackout of each image using the shift button on each of the features except the "Family" feature. When I was first exploring this cartridge I couldn't figure out the difference between "Pairs 1 & 2" and "Sports 1 & 2", but as I continued to play with this cartridge I realized that the only difference between the two sets is how the Cricut cuts out the image. Notice in the photo the difference between the black and white images pertaining to the two sets of themes. The other fun and exciting designs you can cut out with this cartridge are a range of Cricut heads. When I was looking through the handbook and the Cricut heads I came up with a great idea: I should cut a bunch of these designs and make a border close to the ceiling in my craft room. Can you picture it, all these fun Cricut head designs side by side? I love it, but then I am crazy about my Cricut.

The other cartridge that I explored was Just a Note. My initial thought when I was exploring this cartridge was, "Oh, that would make a cute card!" I started thinking I could use some of these images with vinyl and add some new creations to my wall, then I found the cake image and decided that it would be adorable on a onesie. I had bought some iron on vinyl at my local craft store, I also know that you can purchase it on line. I love this stuff and it makes for a quick easy project when I need a gift and I am in a hurry (see photo). The creative features for this cartridge are: Layer 1, Layer 2, Phrase, Phrase Layer, Card, and Card Layer. Just think, you have one whole section full of phrases that you can also cut as layers. Some examples of images that come with this cartridge are: banner, birthday cake, flower, rabbit, bird, monkey, squirrel, dog, butterfly, mouse, sun, hearts, clouds, boat, gifts, party hat, and a wagon. Examples of phrases included with this cartridge are: "Hang in There", "I'm a Hop or a Skip Away", "Feel Better", "Have Fun", "Play Date", "Let's Play", "You're Invited", "A Gift for You", "Let's Sail Away", "Make Believe", "Thinking of You", etc. Tip: any of these phrases would be cute to cut out of vinyl that could be used on a wood block, cards, or try laying the vinyl cutouts on blown up balloons (I will try this next for a birthday party) or signs. Another idea would be to make some cute signs for a sick friend that's in the hospital, this would totally make anyone's day in the hospital! The layer features also provide you with a way to cut different colors for the phrase or image, this helps your project to "pop." This cartridge is full of fun, wonderfal images that make an excellent addition to the Cricut family collection. Make sure to pick up your next Cricut Expression 2 machine so you can have access to these wonderful new cartridges.

Well, that wraps up this weeks exploration-check back next week and see what I explore next. Happy Crafting.

Crafty Kimber

HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.  You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism." 
~Erma Bombeck