Kids are adorable in so many ways as they progress through the various stages of childhood. One stage I especially love happens around 12 to 18 months of age when a little person discovers their little legs can transport them to so many places within their environment. There is "so much to see, so much to learn, and it doesn't take much for their heads to turn".

A nephew of mine has recently become a toddler and has become quite confident on his own two feet. I can imagine the rush of independence he feels as he moves about his home (aka. kingdom) free to roam. No linen closet, pantry, toilet, or toy shall go unexplored. The only time this tot is not in a state of constant motion is when he sleeps.

It was recently brought to my attention that eating on the run begins early in life. Keeping such a calorie burning machine interested in eating a meal in one sitting is challenging. Today, I visited my sister and volunteered to feed the baby while she helped his older siblings finish their homework. My darling nephew was not interested in the high chair feeding routine so I resorted to following the happy but opinionated little soul around the house while carrying a bowl of potatoes and gravy in one hand and a spoon in the other. From time to time I prompted him to "say ahhhh" as we progressed from one room of his expedition to the next. The spoon made one delicious deposit after another until he'd received a full belly of nutritious food and a face covered with tasty gravy. That was a picture moment indeed.

This event will, no doubt, be preserved with the help of my Cricut pals and products. I too find myself on the run lately and miss sitting down to craft. All I need is a I purse size Cricut product with the capability to fit in my purse, follow me around where ever I please, and be available for my use as I pause a second here or there to take a "nutritious crafting bite". After all, it is my opinion that crafting time should be a part of every daily routine.


Happy Cricuting :-)

"If you are looking for an awareness ribbon...Our Troops, Breast Cancer, etc...look no further than George. Cut out the ampersand, and with a few snips of your scissors, you have a ribbon!" - SusieQx2 from the Cricut message board.

This week I decided I was going to experiment with cooking; I pulled out the cookbook and decided that I would make some peach tarts. I was really worried, because my cooking skills are not very good, but I figured that if I practice then maybe someday, when I grow up, I will be a great cook! My peach tarts turned out great! Now you know that I can't get fresh peaches here in Utah, so I ended up using the peach pie filling as the center of my tarts. They looked so cute, that I had to take a picture--yes I am that crazy.

To get back to exploring the Cricut cartridges for this newsletter, I decided that I would write on the Cricut Stamp Kit that you can use with any Cricut image. Someone told me that this consumable was kind of hard to use. So, I went and got myself the Stamp Kit so that I could figure this product out. I pulled out my Cricut and a new mat; someone told me that you needed a new mat so that the sticky stamp material would stay in place while the Cricut cut out the image.

Pick your desired image, and make sure that you have your Deep Cut blade in place of the original in the Cricut blade housing. Adjust the blade dept to 4.5, speed to 3, pressure to 4 and then load your stamp material onto your mat. Pick the size you want and then press cut. It was really easy and the blade cut the material really easy. Once your image is finished, then very carefully pull image off of the mat (the image is fragile until you get it on the block) and place it on one of the clear blocks that comes with the kit. Now you have created your very own Cricut stamp.

I love this--now I can add some texture to my cards and scrapbook pages. I can even use the stamp image as part of my scrapbook page, just to be different. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

Crafty Kimber

A: Here are a few tips that will help prolong its life that you may find helpful:

1) Rotate your mat and insert it in the other direction. You'll notice that a full piece of paper is centered squarely in the center of the mat. So even though the printed text indicates one direction, we designed it to be rotated as well.

2) We recommend that you use and rotate a number of mats at the same time. This seems to extend the overall life of each mat.

3) Be sure to store them with the plastic film over them. Without them, your mat can collect dust or debris and not last as long. It is also a bad idea to store mats with a sheet of paper on them.

4) Don't cut too deep. Make sure the blade height is set just enough to get through the material you are cutting. If it cuts deeper into the mat, it just wears it our faster.

5) Don't use a full sheet of paper if you are cutting something small. Every time you put a piece of paper on the mat and lift it up, it will leave fibers behind and take adhesive with it. Limiting the number of sheets pressed into different areas of the mat will greatly expand the life of your mat. (It may also be a good idea to sometimes place these smaller pieces of paper in areas of the mat that get less use--such as the middle or the corners opposite the blade.)

6) You can usually squeeze out a good handful of additional cuts by pressing the paper or cardstock down extra firmly when the mat is placed on a soft surface like carpet.

7) Take care not to expose your mat to extreme heat, particularly leaving it out in the sun. Under these conditions the adhesive may melt and, in some conditions, the mats may curl.