Actions and consequences...the world is full of them. Many, if not all, who have enjoyed the marvelous splendors of winter, have discovered how slippery yet invisible ice on the pavement can be. For a moment after making such a stunning discovery, gazing up at the sky and seeing stars is a natural consequence.

I found myself looking at the stars recently. As I laid on the frozen pavement, voices of admonition from the past ran through my head, "Remember to walk like a duck!", "Careful! It's icy!", "Look before you leap!", and my personal favorite, "Reach for the stars!" Lesson learned? Every action has a consequence. Another lesson learned? I can choose my actions!

There are more pleasant ways of practicing this unavoidable law of the universe in a warmer and friendlier environment. My Cricut machines and I have been creating some pretty crafty "consequences" of our own. I think you'll find the action and consequence of pushing buttons on a Cricut to be pleasing and safe. As long as your choosing your consequences, choose wisely. There are so many of them. "Reach for the stars!"


Happy Cricuting :-)

A: That's a great question. You will find ipods on the Locker Talk and My World cartridges.

Well, it seems that the month of February is coming to a close. Where does the time go? Just the other day I was looking forward to Valentine's Day, and now St. Patrick's Day is upon us. This week in exploring the Cricut cartridge world, I choose to see what was in the Calligraphy Collection cartridge. I have always loved this style of script, so I was really excited to have it as a Cricut cartridge. This cartridge was designed by Barbara Close and she did an amazing job. You get five different fonts with this cartridge and each style has flowing lines that will look great for any titles on wedding or anniversary scrapbook pages.

The six creative features that come with this cartridge are Calligraphy, Gratitude, Celebrate, Matrimony, Inspiration, Shadow, and Inspiration Blackout. The Shadow fits the Calligraphy, and the Inspiration Blackout fits the Inspiration feature. You get both the upper and lower case alphabet, as well as numbers and some symbols.

Images that come under the Calligraphy feature are: a blank card and envelope. Some Phrases and words that come with this cartridge are: "the", "and", "to", "from", "thinking of you", "thanks", "Thank You", "graduation", "happy birthday", "merry Christmas", "you're the best", "Happy Mother's day", and "Happy Father's Day". One of the exciting things I've discovered with this cartridge is that with each creative feature also comes additional phrases and words to add to your choice. Holy Cow! There is a great selection of phrases. A few other images that come with the cartridge are an oval and square, which will be perfect for framing photos or even accenting an area on your scrapbook page for your journaling.

After exploring all the fonts, the Matrimony font is vastly becoming my favorite. I have this blank wall that I want to add some vinyl to it; this font will be perfect for displaying the phrase that I want to use (see pic). The images that come with this feature are: a place card with the name card that goes with it, an oval and diamond, "xoxo", and a fancy swirl. You also get a heart with some swirls attached and a flower, The phrases are: "Bride", "groom", "Best Wishes", "Congratulations", "with gratitude", "Thank you", "Love Me", "happy anniversary", "I love you", "eat drink and be marry", "Celebrate Love", and "save the date".

Tune in next week as I continue exploring the creative features on this wonderful cartridge. Happy Crafting!

Crafter Kimber

A: You will need to dial the size down to 5" to accomplish this. Because of the minimum margins required by the Cricut machine, it cannot cut a 5.5" proportionate shadow (it ends up being more than 5.5", and thus too big).

The grey blade is the cutter: it cuts your paper.