I love stories...especially story tales. Fact or fiction...there is nothing like a good yarn. The weather is getting warmer and more people are heading to the hills to spend some time in the great outdoors and do some camping. Some of my favorite stories are those told around the campfire by a good story teller with the gift of gab. If you go camping, don't forget to capture some good photos so you can do some story telling of your own... "scrapbook style." I think you'll find that the Cricut Camp Out?Solutions Cartridge will provide a great complimenting source of shapes you could use in combination with a myriad of other Cricut cartridges for your storytelling adventure after you return home from the wild.

Here are some basic guidelines on how to draw with your Cricut machine:
1. Load marker into the black arms (right where you would usually place the green blade assembly).

2. Load paper. It is important that paper is lined up with the top right corner of the mat, and be sure you start your drawing there if you intend to cut the image out later.

3. Choose and draw the image(s) with the markers by pressing CUT. (Just as an added reference: type out the entire phrase all at once instead of individual letters.)

4. Once your Cricut is done drawing the image, switch out the marker for the blade assembly (without unloading your paper or turning off the machine).

5. Now press the Load Paper button. This will take you back to the beginning of the paper where you first started drawing.

6. Press the Repeat Last button. It will enter in the same characters that you have just drawn.

7. Press the CUT button. It will cut out the image directly over the color outline.

After this process you will have an awesome cut with a colorful outline! Hopefully this will clear up most of the confusion with the markers, but if you ever have any other questions on how to use them please contact us. You can reach us by emailing us at support@cricut.com?or you can give us a call toll free at 1-877-727-4288. Here are some basic guidelines on how to draw with your Cricut machine. -AdminBecky


CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION - Home Accents

WOW! Where has the week gone? It's time to write another one of my explorations; it seems like I just sat down yesterday to write about my explorations in the Cricut Cartridge world. Last week I talked about the new Solutions cartridges that have been added to the Cricut family. This week I played with all the new cartridges and discovered all the new projects and ideas that you can do with these new Solution Cartridges. The cartridge that I played with the most is "Home Accents." This cartridge comes with shadow and blackout as the creative features. The images include flowers, swirls, three different types of butterflies, a bird, leaves, fruit, swirly frames, word box frame, and eight different types of words. The words that come with this cartridge are: home, family, inspire, faith, grow, live, laugh, love, welcome, dream, and imagine. You can see that you get a lot with this cartridge. Some of the flower images could look like snowflakes, and the frames would work great for scrapbooking a photo. When you use the Design Studio you could weld all sorts of swirls and lines together to create even more accents for projects or scrapbook pages.

My roommate and I both have the same phone so I decided to personalize mine so she won't take it by mistake. I pulled out the "Home Accents" and found a cute butterfly with swirls that I decided to use. Next, I found my vinyl and proceeded to cut my image. After my first try I realized that I had the wrong size and I needed to make my image a little smaller. I found that the 2 inch size works the best for my phone (see pic). I took my phone to work and all the girls loved it and wanted the same picture for their phones. The next day I brought to the office a variety of vinyl butterfly cutouts and everyone personalized their own phone. Then it hit me: this would be a great way to spend time with your teenager. You could personalize their binders for school, their bedroom lampshades, or even add some vinyl to their bathrooms, like on the mirrors (see pic).

Another idea that I thought you could do with this cartridge was to make a gift for mom for Mother's Day. I found an air freshener that is oil and took off the label on the front of the bottle. Next I cut some swirls out and made a design to go around the bottle. If you do this really carefully you can put the bottle back in the box and then wrap it up for Mother's Day. When she opens it you can tell her you made a personal design for the bottle and she will be so excited (see pic). I used the DesignStudio software to make my swirly border cut file, but you could easily cut out each swirly border on its own and lay them together so they look like they are welded on the image.

The words can be cut out with swirls under the letters or by themselves. Now you can add that special accent to your scrapbook page really easily. The words can also be places in any of the frames or clouds. There are even some corner images for an easy way to accent your photo on a scrapbook page. You have a few shapes-square, ovals, and a circle-that would make great backgrounds or could be used as a frame. Play with these images in DesignStudio and increase the images that come with this cartridge. This cartridge is a wonderful addition to the Cricut family and I am sure as I continue to play with this cartridge that I will think of more areas to put Cricut images in my house.

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Check back next week as I pick another Solutions cartridge and explore all the fun things you can do with your Cricut.

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Crafty Kimber

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A: Paper Save mode will "pack in" any selected cuts to optimize the space needed. This may result in an inaccurate "negative" image left in the paper, but if you don't need to use the negative cut, this mode works great. ei. The tail on a lower case "y" usually encroaches into the paper below the rest of the letters selected, indicating accurate read-ability. With Paper Save mode, the Cricut will automatically raise the "y" up into the same channel from which the rest of the letters will cut out.