TIPS TREASURE CHEST
Today’s tip comes from message board bug guide, scrapalette.
Q: I have just joined the Cricut® family! I received my Cricut Expression® machine yesterday. I was so excited to try it out. I set everything up and printed a few letters just to see how the machine worked. I printed on cardstock and noticed that the cut didn't make it all the way through the paper. I then remembered that the blade number setting was only on 4, so I changed it to 6 and tried again. The same thing happened. I bought all of the tools necessary and am wondering what is best to get the letters cut through or am I doing something completely wrong?
I then tried regular pattern scrapbook paper and accidentally left it on 6. When I went to scrape the letters off of the mat I found it to be very difficult and the paper was completely stuck to the mat. My letters were ripping and the paper would not come off the mat. Any tips on what tools to use with what and how to cut through card stock would be greatly appreciated.
A: If you have the older style mat for the Cricut Expression machine (white with the green border), try conditioning it before use. Take a piece of cardstock or other paper and stick on then peel it off a few times. Or use a clean lint free cloth and do the same.
When you get the newer style mats for the Cricut Expression machine and Imagine® machine (they have a dark outline around the edge), you will need to activate the adhesive by running the mat under warm water and letting it air dry or burnish the mat with the plastic cover on.
Now, make sure your blade housing unit is installed properly. If it is too high, not enough of the blade with extend and cut your cardstock.
If the blade housing unit is installed properly, try doing a multi-cut (the Cricut will cut the same image in the same place the number of times you set it to) and see if it cuts through your cardstock. If it does, it might just be the brand of paper. If it doesn't, something else is going on and you can call Provo Craft and customer service will help you troubleshoot.
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CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION
The last few weeks it seems everyone I know has been getting sick. I guess it is that season now where there are lots of germs floating around. I have quite a few neighbors that are having health issue as well; thank goodness I’ve got some “Get Well Soon” cards stashed away for when I need them. That’s one of the reasons I love my Cricut so much is for creating cards for whatever occasion that is happening in my life. This week I explored Hey Diddle Diddle, Cricut Font & Basic Shapes, and Fast Food.
The “Fast food” cartridge is part of the Cricut Lite collection. The Creative Feature that comes with this cartridge is called “Layer” and you get fifty images that surround the idea of “Fast Food”. Some examples of the images that you can cut and layer are French fries, hamburgers, hot dogs, tacos, chips, onion rings, pizza, juice box, pop, milkshake, ice cream Sunday, a pretzel, baked potato, utensils, eight different kids eating, and seven phrases: “I'm hungry”, “Comfort food”, “I heart fries”, and “junk food junky” to name a few. Have you ever wondered what to do with those photos of the kids playing at fast food playgrounds or the crazy pictures of your teenagers being silly while they are eating at a fast food place? Now you have the perfect images to compliment any crazy photo for your scrapbook or create a small paper bag book. Another idea for using these images would be to use them on the front of pizza party invitations. Each of the images comes with layers to help make the perfect die cut.
“Hey Diddle Diddle” is part of the Imagine collection. If you know someone who is having a baby then you will want this cartridge. It is all designed for those special baby moments. The icons included with this cartridge are “you took your first step” label, “you said mama” label, frame, stars, heart, and a flower. The bonus images included are cards that say “look who's turning” with numbers 1-5 so you can cut out the correct number and there is even a place to put a picture. 
This card comes in both pink and blue for either a girl or boy. The other images included in the bonus area are birth announcement cards all ready for you to print them out and fill in the baby information and there is even a place to put a photo of the new little one. This announcement also comes in a style for a girl or a boy. Other images that you can cut with this cartridge include baby animals (lion, alligator, elephant, butterfly, bee, duck, turtle, bear, hippo), baby blocks, sun, a cow jumping over the moon, humpty dumpty, flowers, baby mobile, cat and the fiddle, bottle, shoes, rattle, bath tub, birthday cake, alphabet (see photo), sheep jumping the fence, “Baby Shower”, “it's a Girl”, “It's a boy”, and “happy birthday”. You can scrapbook with any of the images, create shower invitations, create a banner, or make a baby's room decoration. I thought the alphabet, A-C, would look adorable on canvas placed on the wall. I plan to paint the edges as well before I give this project away. Don't forget that you also get 20 patterns and twelve solid colors that complement the colors of this cartridge.
The last cartridge that I played with this week was “Cricut Front and Basic Shapes” which is a wonderful cartridge full of the alphabet. You can cut three different fonts as well as geometric/funky shapes; a few examples include puzzle pieces, star, triangle, moon, stamp, sunshine, square, circle, arrows, diamond, flower, and lightning bolt. Also included with this cartridge are some phrases: “love”, “Get Well”, ”family”, “Good Luck”, “xoxo”, “buddies”, “way to go”, “super”, and “loveable”. If you have ever wanted a basic shapes cartridge and don't have one then you will want to pick this up. The font styles are basic, stretch, and outline. This cartridge makes a wonderful addition to the Cricut Font collection. You can now purchase it through www.Cricut.com and use it with Cricut Craft Room™. To start using Cricut Craft Room, click here.
A few Cricut Craft Room Exclusives that I discovered this week are Banners, Bicycling (so cute, the style is old fashioned bikes), and Chemistry Icons. The images that come with “Chemistry Icons” are perfect for school poster and scrapbook pages that remember those science fair project photos. The “Bicycling” art is perfect for scrapbooking those biking moments with the family or to use in a home d?cor project. Check out the new Cricut Craft Room Exclusives.
That wraps up this exploration, see you all next week. Happy Crafting!
Crafty Kimber
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