The excitement of the holiday season is in the air! More and more preparations are being made for grand celebrations as Thanksgiving and the holidays draw near. Many of my family and friends will come together this week to partake of a grand feast. A similar scene will be occurring in many, many homes this Thursday. Munching and mingling aside, I always take time to think about just how very much I have for which to be thankful. I'll be surrounded by most of my blessings on that day and will be sure to capture some snapshots of the people I love most doing some of the things they love best - enjoying good company, eating good food, and creating happy memories.

But the fun does not end on Thursday! Many of you are quite familiar with another exciting day which comes right on the heels of Thanksgiving. I, of course, am referring to Black Friday with all of its fabulous sales and opportunities to snatch up some great gifts! This Friday, Cricuteers will also want to keep their eyes open for valuable deals and exciting specials at www.cricut.com/shopping! With updated, competitive pricing and bonus Cricut Rewards points on every purchase you don't want to miss out.

And if you know somebody that is gift-giving challenged you can give them a hint on what Cricut® items you'd like by using our new Wish List Card Creator. Have fun and be sure you get what you want this year!


Happy Thanksgiving :-)

This past week I have been rapidly getting Christmas presents and cards ready to give away since Christmas is just around the corner. I just hope I have enough time to get all my projects finished. I am sure you crafters can relate with me: you start one project, then get an idea and start another one. Pretty soon you have four or five projects all happening at the same time. So, I am working on Thanksgiving Dinner settings and Christmas presents all at the same time. This has been a wonderful week creating to my heart's desire. In this exploration I wanted to touch on a few of the new cartridges that you will be able to purchase on the day after Thanksgiving.

Serenade belongs to the Solutions^TM cartridge family. This cartridge only comes with two creative features; the layer and shadow buttons. Some of the images that you receive are: flowers, leaves, trees with leaves, fruit, butterflies, flowerpots, birds, birdhouses, and swirls. I pressed the shift button with the swirl button to get a shorter swirl that I used to etch into my dinner glasses. I plan to use these glasses for my Thanksgiving dinner. I had heard of the idea that you could use vinyl and the Cricut to create a stencil, add some etching cream and then you will get a personal design on the glass (see pic). This was my first experience at trying this idea. It is so simple! But, as usual, it took me a little bit to get the correct image because I am so picky. I really like the flowers, tree, and birdhouses that are also on this cartridge.

Another of my favorite cartridges is Pagoda. When I first saw the images that come in this cartridge I fell in love with the art. Each image is beautiful and will make a wonderful addition to the Cricut cartridge family. The theme for this cartridge is Asian and some of the images are: flowers, trees, dragonflies, koi fish, birds, panda bear, lamps, dragon, shrine, temple, bird cages, fans, umbrella, teapot, and Kimonos. The creative features that you receive are: Kanji (letters), Kanji Tag, Kanji word, Tag, Card, and Shadow. I love the letters and the Kanji words that compliment this cartridge. The creators of the cartridge have provided the English word for each of the Kanji word squares. Now you can cut both images, so when you are scrapbooking or working on your projects then you can know what each word means. On the card feature you can choose from square or round shapes, and have any of the images that come with the cartridge cut out on those shapes.

Old West is another new cartridge in the Cricut family. This is a wonderful font cartridge that comes with a full upper and lower case alphabet as well as numbers. The letters are great for a poster or school presentation. There are four different font styles (Flourish, Board, Rope, & Original) and two shadow styles that compliment the Original and Flourish features. The other creative feature that brings you phrases and images is Icon. With this feature you get images that are a western theme. Some examples are: guitar, cowboy, horse, lantern, wood fence, gun, barrel, dog, fire with logs, poker cards, bull, horse shoe, cowboy boot, cowboy hat, rope, star, cactus, wagon wheel, wheel barrel, stage coach, and wagon. Some phrases that come with this cartridge "Outlaw", "Cowgirl Up", "Country Girl", "You're", and "Invited", "Adios", "Howdy", and "Pardner". Add it to your collection!

I am sure that the day after Thanksgiving will be the biggest shopping day for everyone. I think I will be among all the shoppers working on my Christmas shopping list and finding items to add to my scrapbook supplies. I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Crafting!

Crafty Kimber