SILLINESS AND SOUVENIRS

Whether it's a trip to another country or simply a weekend getaway to a favorite destination, travel is fun. We return with souvenirs, photos, and memories to cherish and share. Many times these can spark pleasant "mental reruns" of vacations of yester-year, or even last week. Call me silly, but I like to keep certain sentimental items like receipts, ticket stubs, concert programs, venue advertisements, bus schedules, rocks, and candy wrappers (a.k.a. junk) from the various parts of the globe I have visited to use in my scrap booking along with my photos. I have even saved an old peach pit from a picnic and stroll in the Bavarian countryside. I'm not alone in this silliness...you probably do it too!

Sometimes the smallest things evoke vivid recollections. I want to share these with my family and friends in an organized, but entertaining, format. My Cricut pals and accompanying Cricut products are the perfect companions for helping me achieve this objective. The possibilities are limitless.

I wish time was limitless, too! I'm not caught up on quite a few ventures of the past. I still have a messy bag of Russian memorabilia, and a ten-year-old box of pictures and shells from a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula which I have yet to organize into a layout presentation. I'm lucky I've got my "Bugs" to help me brush off the dust and make those memories live again.

This week, be sure to read Crafty Kimber's exploration of the Splish Splash, Block Party, Celebrate with Flourish, and Bloom Cricut Lite Cartridges. Enjoy a clever tip for applying adhesive to vellum and glean savvy wisdom from our customer support Floor Sweeps. As always, I wish you well in your adventures.

Happy Crafting!

:-)Lonna Joy Smoot - Editor, Cricut CHIRP!

FEATURED PROJECTS

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Cathy Martin
About: I have been crafting in one form or another most of my life. I have a BS in Packaging and an MBA. I've been working as a Packaging Engineer for almost 15 years. I currently manage the Structural Packaging Department for a toy company in California. Working there is what sparked my love for paper crafts. My passion is making things that are 3-dimensional or interactive.

Cathy's Project: Travel Town Playset

Cartridges Used:
- Makin' the Grade
- My Community
- Walk in My Garden

Instructions: I have created a playset that folds up into a carrying case. The carrying case was made from chipboard and is 12"w x 2"d x 10"h when closed. This was hand cut and scored.

The top flaps of the case are held in place with glue tabs and make up the playground area of the playset. The bottom flaps are able to fold up for storing, but fold down when opened. This creates the road that wraps around the playset.

I used the Walk in My Garden cartridge for most of the elements on the outside of the case. The flowers were all cut at 3.5". The handle was made by piecing together the shovel and rake, cut at 5".

The lettering was done with the Makin' the Grade cartridge. The inside of the playset was done with the My Community cartridge, with the exception of the pond, duck, park bench, and the boxes behind each building, which were all done by hand.

The buildings were cut at 3.5". Each box is 1.5" deep and is the width and height of the specific building. This allowed them to be 3-dimensional. The people are all cut at 2", with the exception of the kids which are 1.5". The vehicles are 1.5", with the exception of the police car which is 1".

I created an easel for the back of the people and vehicles, so they can easily stand and be moved around.

The railroad tracks cut through the town and are sized at 1.75". The fence wraps around the playground and is sized at 2".

YOUR NOTABLE TIP

Today's tip comes from message board member CourtneyFerguson. Thanks for sharing your awesome tip!

Q. "Can someone tell me how to glue down vellum without the glue showing through?"

A. "By vellum, are you talking about the frosty-looking paper, or are you talking about transparency plastic? I only ask because I've seen the latter labeled 'vellum' in other places. I've had amazing success with just running vellum through my sticker maker. It adds glue evenly so I can't see it. There's also a special vellum spray adhesive that you can buy. The problem I have with that is that it's quite pricy and the nozzle clogs quickly and becomes unusable. Most of the bottle I have has gone to waste. Hope this helps!"

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

This week has been crazy, so I didn't have much time to play with my Cricut. Don't worry, I did find time to play with the last four Cricut Lite cartridges! They are: Splish Splash, Block Party, Celebrate with Flourish, and Bloom.

These cartridges have a new plastic case and trifold design. Each of them also come with reward points that you can collect and redeem on the rewards website. The handbook is a trifold with each of the images and the complete layer feature shown, so you know exactly how to assemble the artwork. For examples, click here.

Splish Splash is a cute cartridge full of water-type images: life preserver, rain drop, umbrella, sink, tub, fire hydrant, fish, swan, starfish, seahorse, duck, anchor, soap bottle, seaweed, octopus, and turtle. You also get a variety of phrases: "Splash", "Soap", "Clean", "Rub-a-Dub", "Hers", "His", "Wash", and "Relax". Other images that come on this cartridge include filigree designs, flourishes, circles, and a rectangle. The creative feature is Tags. This means that you can cut all of these images, phrases, and extras out in a tag shape. Just a reminder: with the new trifold insert, the first image can be cut out directly, the second image (the one in gray) you need to press the Shift key to cut. Layer the two images together to get the full effect! Ladybugstamper cut out the octopus in vinyl and put it on her son's wall (see pic or click here).

Block Party is centered around the idea of a barbeque. The creative feature that comes with this cartridge is the Layer feature. This means that for every base image, you will have some extra pieces that coordinate. This cartridge comes with both images and phrases: pie, salt and pepper shakers, grill, picnic table, hot pad, apron, fireworks, dog, cat, hamburger, hotdog, watermelon, onion, steak, salad, "Come 'n' get it", "Block Party", and "BBQ". Now you have the perfect tool to decorate those fun BBQ pictures! CreativeCritter-Tammy created this adorable BBQ invitation (see pic or click here).

Celebrate with Flourish has a bunch of holiday themes: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Happy Birthday, Spring Showers, Happy New Year, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick Day, Easter, Mother's Day, and Father's Day. The creative feature on this one is the Layer feature, so the images are more detailed. Images that come with this cartridge include: wine bottle with goblets, cupid, hearts, bunnies, golf clubs, presents, elephant, strawberry, flowers, pumpkins, witches, turkey, Christmas tree, wreath, ice skates, fall leaves, scarecrow, and sun. Titles that are included are: "Happy Halloween", "Merry Christmas", "Season Greetings", "Trick or Treat", "Happy Valentine's Day", "#1 Dad", "Happy New Year", "Happy Mother's Day", "Happy Easter", and "Luck of the Irish". In other words, this wonderful cartridge has something for all occasions! LeslieLawter created an adorable birthday card using the golf bags (see pic or click here).

Bloom is the last cartridge of the Cricut Lite collection. This cartridge is very girly and has tons of flower designs, borders, and frames. The creative feature is Layers/Shadow, so you can cut out the extra layers to make your images pop, and the shadow that will act as a base. Images that you receive are: hummingbird, butterfly, four frames, tree, flowers, and flowers on tree branches. All of the phrases come with a frame that is either round or rectangular. MyPinkStamper made this adorable card (see pic or click here).

Well, that wraps up this exploration. Don't miss next week, as I go back to hit on some of the cartridges that have come out during my feature of the Cricut Lites. Have a fabulous crafting week!

Crafty Kimber

WEEKLY SURVEY

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Click here.

HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

Here are the hot topics in Customer Support this week:

As we get ready for school to start up again, we'd like to see what our teacher message board members are doing to get their classrooms ready for the first day of school! Click on this link to go to the forum.

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A tip from a member for working with the Yudu Machine

From Becky: I picked up this tip for applying the emulsion, and cannot remember where I got it, or whose tip it is! It cuts down on the mess and works perfectly! No more holes and ruined emulsion. If anyone has seen this before, please post the source. This person deserves all the credit!

"For those that seem to be as challenged as I am with the simple task of putting emulsion on the screen, try this: Place your emulsion dull side up on a flat surface. Then place a dry screen on top of the emulsion (top side of screen down of course). Take a spray bottle and lightly mist the screen. Watch the emulsion suck to the screen, then do a light pass with a squeegee. Perfect results every time!"

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Need some help? Provo Craft Customer Support is here for you! Never hesitate to call in; we have people ready to help you! We are currently open Monday through Friday 7am to 6pm Mountain Time. If these hours do not work with your schedule, please send an email to support@provocraft.com.

Have a great week!

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

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen."
~ Benjamin Disraeli

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Copyright 2010 Provo Craft, Inc. All rights reserved. CRICUT®, CRICUT EXPRESSION®, CRICUT DESIGNSTUDIO®, CRICUT CAKE^TM, GYPSY^TM, CRICUT CIRCLE^TM, CUTTLEBUG®, CUTTLEKIDS^TM, YUDU®, YOURSTORY®, and KNIFTY KNITTER® are registered trademarks of Provo Craft & Novelty, Inc. South Jordan, UT 84095.