In my neck of the woods, we just received the first snow of the season. I enjoyed standing at the window watching fluffy snowflakes gently fall to the ground outside as I sipped a hot lemony drink. It was nice to observe this from the warmth and comfort of my front room. Autumn temperatures are still dynamic enough that the pretty white blanket which mother nature spread so beautifully over the ground will have disappeared by tomorrow afternoon.

I'm pretty sure that this year's crop of trick-or-treaters will be wearing their costumes over the top of their snow suits and coats as well as mittens and hats to boot. I will dress as a "green tomato" for the evening and hand out candy bars to munchkins who knock at my door. (Due to the weather, most of the tomatoes around here are harvested green and have to ripen indoors.) I already feel inspired to create a "Green Halloween Tomato page" for my scrapbook.

It is always a good idea to occasionally clean out little bits of paper and glitter from your blade and blade housing. Too much collected debris from paper and glitter cutting can inhibit the blade from turning freely and properly. This can result in ripped paper. So, if you cut a lot of paper with glitter and loose particles, remember to clean out the blade housing shaft on a regular basis.

I finally got the new Deep Cut Blade and Housing for myself. I was so excited to own one! A good friend gave it to me and I couldn't wait to play with it. I quickly cut the plastic off to hold the new blade housing in my hands (yes anything Cricut I am a little nuts about). My biggest excitement about this new blade and housing is that now I can cut thicker chipboard. I want to make small books for my family for Christmas presents--I was thinking of a snow-covered house or something else Christmas-y. Now I can with this special new blade--YAHOO!

One of the new features with this blade is the 1/2 measurement on the blade housing. This means that you now have a 1, 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2, 3, etc. this will help in making sure you have your blade at the correct depth instead of just leaving your blade on setting 6 for everything and wearing down your mat more.

Since this is a new product I decided to contact Customer Service before I started cutting anything with this new blade housing. I didn't want to damage my little baby bug. I thought I would pass the information along that Customer Service gave me.



Some other tips that Cricut Customer Service gave to me are:
- Plan to experiment with the material I am using before I actually make my product. This way I can experiment with the settings, adjust my pressure button or move my blade depth if the machine is making some funny noises. It's much easier to use medium pressure and the multi-cut feature to help get the blade through your material.

- Make sure that I only use the correct amount to blade depth according to my material. I take the chipboard and place it up to the bottom of the blade housing, then make adjustments to the blade moving the top of the blade housing along the numbers till the correct blade depth is achieved (note: please don't prick your finger! The blade is very sharp). Another way to make sure that you have the correct blade depth is to do a drag test. You do this by taking your material and guessing where the blade should be, hold the blade housing in your hands and drag the blade across a sample of your material. Then look at the bottom of the material and if you can see a deep line then you have the correct blade size for your material. Doing this will help your Cricut machine cut the material without wearing down your machine.

I found all these tips and ideas really useful and I decided to get myself a little notebook to right down all the tips I discover as I tried different material with this new blade housing. Then when I go to play or cut out the image I want with this blade, I have all the information at my fingers. Yes, I am one of those girls that likes to be prepared. Yes, I learned this in Girl Scouts--hehehe!

Check out next week as I continue to play with the new blade housing and the new cartridges.

Happy Cricuting!!

Crafty Kimber

We have had an incredible influx in the amount of Cricut users new to our Cricutting community. Welcome! Many of you may not have access to Cricut demonstration classes. Never fear. Our online Cricut demonstration videos are an excellent instructional resource for Cricuteers who are just getting started or who would like a refresher course on the basic "how to's" of using the Cricut machine.
Here is one way of accessing our Cricut demonstration videos:

1. Just go to http://www.cricut.com/ and click on the "View Demonstrations" icon located on the upper-right area of the page.

2. This will bring you to the Cricut Videos page. You will see a list of introduction and training videos for our Cricut machines and DesignStudio in the column on the left.

Here is the link: http://www.cricut.com/movies/default.aspx for easier access. Simply select and view any or all of the following instructional video demonstrations.