I really enjoy the month of November. During the first part of the month, I look forward to all of the Thanksgiving celebrating and fun that comes with month's end. I'll admit I have a whole lot to be thankful for. I count my blessings every day of the month so that I don't have to cram all of my "thanks" into one day. This also helps me keep my mind on positive things and is a big booster to my outlook on life.

Stormy weather and cold temperatures can be a bummer for many of us, but there is a silver lining to this cloud. We can spend more time inside, playing with our CRICUT® Machines, creating projects that will spread some Thanksgiving warmth and friendliness to those around us.


Happy Crafting :-)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween. I had a ball handing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters and seeing all the kids in their costumes. I have a confession to make: even though I do a lot of crafting, I have never used a KNIFTY KNITTER® before. I started playing with one this week and recently discovered a new love, so in between all the handing out candy I was working on my afghan. Yesterday, I pulled out my favorite little CRICUT® bug as I felt I needed to give my fingers a break from the afghan. When you are new to this knitting craze it takes a while for your fingers to not hurt after a few a hours of knitting.

Anyway, I decided I needed to continue exploring the From My Kitchen cartridge. Last week I talked about what images are on the cartridge and went through a few creative features. To review, the creative features that come on this cartridge are: Layers, Shadow/Blackout, Words, Ovals, Ovals Shadow, and Tabs. As a reminder for those of you who are new to the Cricut cartridge world, if you want to cut the image or phrase out that is in the right upper corner of the overlay, make sure that you press the Shift key and that the Shift key stays lit. This will let you cut those images. To cut the images that are in the lower left corner make sure that the shift key is off. This process works with each of the six creative features as well.

In the Tabs creative feature you will find tab divider cards (the kind that comes with your recipe box). You also get more sold images that have to do with food. For example: martini drink, lobster, kabobs, piece of pie, drum stick, carrots, cup cake, name place holders, bread, leaf or spice, fish, cup of coffee, apple, pretzel, sold rectangle (that could be used as a placemat), rectangle outline, and a variety of placemats. The Ovals Shadow matches the Ovals feature; this feature takes all the words and phrases that come with the cartridge and places either a circle or oval around the word. When you want another way to use one of the phrases with your project you can use the Shadow feature to cut out a sold circle or oval. You can use this feature for other projects as well; these shapes can be used as a journal tag for your scrapbook page or as a layer for the back or your photo. The placemat images under the Tag feature can be used as frames or as journal tags as well. The tab divider cards would make a great brag book. Cut out all the different cards, then punch holes in the end and the tabs make great page turners. Do you think I should make a few of these books for my dogs and all their funny adventures? Hummm...something to think about!

I just got my sister addicted to the CUTTLEBUG® and she has been wanting some of the older designs, but couldn't find them in the stores. Great news for all you Cuttlebug fans and my sister, you can now purchase any design you want on the www.cricut.com website. Click on Products and look for the tab that is marked "Cuttlebug" to find all the Cuttlebug dies and embossing folders you want. I can't wait to go shopping on the site myself; I think some of these folders will make great stocking stuffers for my family. Let's keep this as our little secret, okay! This is a surprise!

Happy crafting and check back next week as I continue exploring all the new cartridges!

Crafty Kimber