PIECE OF CAKE

I have to admit, I haven't always been a cake person. However, through the years, my feelings of reserved admiration for this delectable delight have blossomed into strong adoration. Yes--I am a fan!

Life is full of occasions and cakes are usually right there in the middle of them. It is true that cakes usually accompany many of life's milestones so it is only natual to hope that a cake should not only taste delicious, but look fabulous as well. With Cricut Cake, you can make every occasion extra special and add that extra professional look of class to all of your cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and confections with ease and satisfaction. Click here to get the details about our sensational new "red machine", check out accessories and see Cricut Cake in action.

Also, be sure to read Crafty Kimber's cartridge exploration of the Pagoda and Sentimentals cartridges. You'll also get tips on a wonderful cream cheese butter cream frosting recipe you've just got to try. Delicious! Be sure check out the featured projects and glean savvy wisdom and see what questions popped up in customer service this week. As always, I wish you well in your creative adventures.

Happy Crafting!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

UPDATE TO OUR ANGEL POLICY

We hear you! Follow this link to read about the updated policy.

FEATURED PROJECTS

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• My 1st Cricut Cake!!
• Holiday Cakes Spring Scrapbook Layout
• Card made with the *new* Elegant Cakes cartridge
• Layout made with Birthday Cake cartridge
• Flower fondant Cake
• Second project...cupcake

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Thienly Azim
About: I am a mother of three beautiful kids (7, 3 and 1). Life is hectic, and there really isn't that much time to myself. However, any free moment that I have, I like to explore my creativity, expecially using my Cricut!

Thienly's Project: Princess Layout

YOUR NOTABLE TIP

Carrie's Cream Cheese Butter Cream. Thanks for sharing Carrie!

Carrie Biggers, professional cake chef, has generously shared with us her Cream Cheese Butter Cream frosting recipe. Yum!


Carrie's Cream Cheese Butter Cream
1 lb. cream cheese
8 ounces butter
1 lb high ratio shortening
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp flavoring (cream bouquet, vanilla, or almond)
4 lbs powdered sugar (more or less)

Whip shortening until light and fluffy, add cream cheese and butter, whip. Add salt and flavorings. Slowly add powdered sugar to desired spreading consistency.

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

The spring cleaning bug has hit and I decided that my craft room needed to be reorganized. Once I was finished organizing all my crafty supplies I realized that my three additions are sparkly paper, thank you cards, and boxes or containers to organize things. I took before and after pictures to scrapbook my whole event. For today's exploration I will continue exploring Pagoda and Sentimentals.

Pagoda is one of my favorite cartridges. The creative features are: Kanji, Kanji Tag, Kanji Word, Tag, Card, and Shadow. The first time I saw "kanji" I wanted to know what this word meant; it means Chinese characters that are used in a Japanese writing system. To figure out what each kanji means, you will want to use the creative function "Kanji Word". When you press the shift button, you can cut the kanji or Japanese word. When the shift button is not pressed then you can cut out a square with the word in English. To find the correct kanji word you are looking for, look in the hand book in the "Kanji Word" feature square. Yes, the image is tiny, so I would suggest a magnifying glass to make sure you cut the word you want. Once you know which word you are going to cut out, then you can cut the symbol out by itself or on a tag feature. Some images that are included in this cartridge are: panda bear, dragon, birds, crane, koi fish, dragonfly, and branches with flowers, bamboo, flowers, temple, fans, birdcages, and a pagoda tree. I love the design of the images on this cartridge--the flowers are gorgeous. These images would make perfect Mother's Day cards (see pic or click here). Doxieluv01 from the message board created a beautiful hummingbird card using a few different images (bridge, branches with flowers, hummingbirds) plus the new Cuttlebug Asian folder. You can also buy the matching Cuttlebug folders here!

Sentimentals is fast becoming another of my favorite cartridges. The creative features for this cartridge are: Layer, Phrase, Tag, Card, Envelope, and Shadow. The owl, butterflies, and old fashioned keys are a few of my favorite images. Some other images that I really like on this cartridge are the stamp examples; you have four different styles and images. You can cut out a card then press the creative feature Envelope and cut an envelope out that will fit the card you just cut. Want to create your own personal postcard? Well now you can. This cartridge has the shape and phrase so you can make your own postcard. These postcard ideas could also be used as journal tags for your scrapbook pages, wedding cards, shower invites, or special notes. Pinklady50 from the message board created an adorable postcard (see pic or click here). She used the owl image and added a "thinking of you" phrase.

Check back next week as I start exploring some of the new cartridges that are currently out. May all of your creative ideas be expressed on paper!

Crafty Kimber

HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

Here are the top questions in Customer Support this week.

From Becky:

Q. When reading the message board, how do I subscribe to that specific post?

A. Along the top of the post, you will see the word "Subscribe". Just click on that and you will receive an email each time a member replies to that post. To un-subscribe, simply click on "Remove Subscription".

Q. I am interested in a cartridge, but it's marked as exclusive. Will it ever be available?

A. Many exclusive cartridges do become available eventually. Be sure to let us know if there is a cartridge you want that is currently exclusive. Customer Support keeps a tally of all the requests, by phone and by email, asking about exclusive cartridges, and we pass those numbers along.


Have a great week!

From your Customer Support Sweeps:
Mark, Brightly, Brittany, and Becky, "The Floor Sweeps"

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I am not strict vegan, because I'm a hedonist pig. If I see a big chocolate cake that is made with eggs, I'll have it."
~ Grace Slick