This week I have some really exciting news. My dog had puppies! I am a grandma again--yahoo! Ella had five girls and one boy, and they are all so cute. Because I have so much fun watching the puppies, I find myself crafting in the same room so that I can watch them scoot across their bed and cuddle up with each other. This week I have been exploring the Cricut Cartridge Sports Mania. There is so much that you can do with this cartridge--I am so excited that I now have a sports cartridge to add to my collection. To review, the six creative features that come with this cartridge are: Layer, Frame, Border, Background, Shadow, and Blackout. If you don't know how the layers work you can find the English definition on page 7 of your handbook. The visuals will go through exactly how all the different layers go together to make our image stand out and pop.

To review the Shadow and Blackout features, these two creative features give you two different ways to make your images stand out in your scrapbook or crafts. The Shadow feature will cut the images slightly bigger then its original size. This feature makes a thin layer around the main image so your item will stand out better. Your image will also have certain areas that could be filled in filled in sold, for example on the image "geared Up" there is a hockey mask that comes with the saying, when you cut this same image out using the Shadow feature its one big outline around the image. So when you first look at the Shadowed image you can’t read the words, now when you glue this behind the original saying then you can see the words and the image. This is one of my favorite features on the Cricut cartridges because the feature knows exactly how much extra or bigger the image needs to be so that when I glue the shadow to my original image my titles will standout.

The Blackout feature is similar to the Shadow but slightly different as well. Yes, this feature creates an additional layer and the image is cut exactly the same size as the original, but it's also solid on the inside. This means that if your original item has any areas that are open and you glue a Blackout design behind it, those cut out areas will be filled in. This is another way to make your images or sayings stand out. For example, the volleyball in this cartridge has many open lines to give the ball some definition and also show you that it's a volleyball. Now, glue a blackout image behind it in black and you can see the lines even better. Most of the images have a blackout items that you can cut out. If for some reason you are trying to get an image to cut out and the Cricut tells you that it's not available then pull out your handbook and look through it, there is a really good possibility that there are other images that won’t work with that feature either. This is just a good way to know what the Cricut will cut out so you don't get frustrated when your original creative design runs into problems.

That's all for this week, check out next week as I wrap up the last two creative features in this cartridge. Happy crafting everyone!

Crafty Kimber

A: 1) On the message board home there is a list of green links on the top of the page.
2) Select the link that says "Inbox".
3) When you have opened the link look on the left side at the table labeled "PM Folders" Here you will see a list of folders labeled "Inbox", "Sent", etc.
4) Click on the "Inbox" folder.
5) To the right of the folder you will see a list of messages. Click on the message you wish to view and it will open for your viewing.
6) If you do not have any messages it will simply say "There is no message in your folder".