SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

In my younger years and for a brief period, I played the drums. People laugh aloud to learn of that little interesting fact about my past. (I hear you laughing.) I laugh at times as well, and roll my eyes. Interests and hobbies can come and go, however, some stay and become a part of our lives. They become a part of who we are.

Crafty Cricut users come from many different walks of life and are as diverse as any group of people could be. Cricut products and cartridges compliment your individual creative styles and interests. You could say there is something for everyone.

So whether you march to the beat of your own drum, sing with the choir, or something in between, Cricut is right there with you and your style. Within the plethora of cartridges, you are bound to find something wonderful that speaks to you and helps you to craft that perfect project, pie, or cake in a fraction of the time it would have taken otherwise.

In this week's Chirp, be sure to read Crafty Kimber's cartridge exploration of the Rock Princess, Country Life, and Mini Monograms cartridges. Enjoy a clever tip for re-purposing an old garden trellis in a crafty way and glean savvy wisdom from our customer support Floor Sweeps as they share technical advice about Cricut products.

I still have a pair of old drum sticks on the back shelf. Perhaps I could dust them off and use them...in one of my crafting projects. The content of the new Cricut Rock Princess cartridge comes to mind. Hmmm, the wheels in my head are turning. As always, I wish you well in your crafting adventures!

**Header project made by Gina Jarvie using the Rock Princess cartridge.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

New Cartridges from Provo Craft and Creative Memories

Find a Consultant and get yours today!

Provo Craft® and Creative Memories^TM have partnered together to offer two new and exclusive cartridges only available through a Creative Memories consultant.

Cheerful Seasons and Reminisce Accents cartridges each have coordinating new Power® Pallette Paper Systems that compliment the shapes and fonts on the cartridges. Each cartridge is exclusively available through a Creative Memories consultant for $55. To view sample images from each cartridge visit Cricut.com or Creativememories.com.

Enjoy these two new cartridges!

IN THE CIRCLE

The Cricut Circle has been growing over the past month. The registration is open until August 13 and will then be closed until September. The Cricut Circle is a group of passionate Cricut enthusiast who are coming together. We currently have members in all 50 states and 8 of the 10 Canadian provinces. There will be some special buying opportunities for Cricut Circle members surrounding the launch of the Cricut Imagine that will be announced shortly. More exciting things are coming soon to the Cricut Circle!

FEATURED PROJECTS

SPECIAL GUEST EXPLORATION

Hello Everyone! This is Tammy Skinner from Creative Critters and I am happy to feature a project from the Gypsy Wanderings and Gypsy Font cartridges! Those of you who know me know that I am 'Gypsy Crazy'! I love it!

Everyone who has a Gypsy knows that the cursive font on Gypsy Font is the best cursive to weld hands down (it just overlaps so well!), but have you played with the Monogram font that is also available on Gypsy Font? That is what I used for my Fall banner. The 'F' is the non-Shift (2") and the rest was cut using the Monogram Shift. Both have shadows under the Monogram Shadow button. Here are the cuts and their sizes:

Layer 1: Gypsy Wanderings, Creative Feature/Decor Tag (1st row, 8th column), cut at 6"
Layer 2: Gypsy Wanderings, Creative Feature/Decor Tag (3rd row, 7th column), cut at 3.5"
Layer 3: Gypsy Font, Creative Feature/Monogram Shadow, cut at 2"
Layer 4: Gypsy Font, Creative Feature/ Monogram, cut at 2"
Dangles: Gypsy Wanderings, Leaf (5th row, 7th column), cut at 1.5"

The only welding done for this project was the slots for the ribbon on Layer 1. The slots are from Gypsy Wanderings, Creative Feature/Decor Tag (2nd row, 3rd column), cut at 1". If you haven't explored the Décor Tag feature on Gypsy Wanderings, do it the next time you have your Gypsy in hand. I love all the tags available there; they are great for 11.5" x 11.5" backgrounds or frames for stamped images. Basic shapes are there too, so designing your own images are possible just by welding shapes together.

Banners are the trendy thing this year and this Gypsy Wanderings gives you many shapes to build your banners with! Want a basic pennant...? It's there! So enjoy and feel free to stop by Creative Critters where I will be happy to share this cut file and instructions with you!

Craftily Yours,
Tammy

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Stop by Tammy's blog: www.cricutcritters.com! And be sure to check out Gypsy handheld design studio!

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• Name Frame
• swing card banner
• FAIRY FAVOR BOX
• Clock card
• awareness wall hanging

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Michelle Criswell
About: I am a wife, mother of two little girls and love crafting and scrapbooking! I enjoy learning new techniques and helping people learn new things with their Cricut! I recently bought a Gypsy and absolutely love the search feature. It is so awesome!

Michelle's Project: Rooster Candle

YOUR NOTABLE TIP

Today's tip comes from message board member PapercraftVixxen. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

"Center Point is a great feature. I love it and use it a lot. If you have, say a picture of your child, and you want it in the middle of a shape or letter, use the Center Point function.

First, practice before you use the real thing. Make a copy of the picture you want to use, then place it on the cutting mat. It doesn't actually matter where you place it since you will be using your arrow keys, but if it makes you feel better, you can put it in the center of your mat.

Next, load your mat, press the center point button and then use your arrow keys to move the blade housing to the center of your picture. So, if it's a nose that's the center, that is where you will move the blade housing.

Select the appropriate size. This may take some playing around with (have a couple copies of your picture--just plain paper works to save you the photo paper costs). Press cut. Cricut knows this is the center and will not start the cut there; it will move to the appropriately sized proportions outside the center."

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

This week has been a most exciting week for me. Not only did I get to explore some of the new Cricut cartridges, but I got a hold of the complimentary Cuttlebug Embossing folders and explored them as well. Provo Craft has introduced a line of embossing folders that coordinate with Cricut cartridges, called Cricut Companions. In today's exploration I discovered what Rock Princess, Country Life cartridges contain. I also want to remind everyone that Mini Monograms is retiring, so you'd better pick up a copy if you want it for your Cricut Collection.

Mini Monograms was one of the cartridges that came out when the Cricut machine was first introduced to the crafters. It is part of the font family, and each of the letters can be cut out in a square with a choice of either having a stitched or dot outline. This cartridge has five different font styles, and also come with six foundation keys. This cartridge includes upper and lower case letters, as well as numbers.

After exploring Rock Princess this week, I have added it to my favorite list. Yes, I know I probably shouldn't have a favorites list, but then a cartridge like this comes along and I can't help myself! It's perfect for a teenager's party invitations, cards, and scrapbook layouts. Images included on this cartridge are: rocker girl with guitar, rocker girl playing the drums, rocker girl with a microphone (this cut out is my favorite, because I love to sing karaoke), there is a motorcycle rocker girl, rocker girl dancing, crowns, heart with flame, teddy bear with cross bones, rose, cat, heart with wings, diamond with cross bones, guitar with wings, stars, butterfly, skull with a bow, and cupcake. The creative features are: Layer 1, Layer 2, Phrase, Heart Font, Skull Font, and Shadow. Yes, you get two types of fonts, two features worth of layers, and a whole feature flush with phrases! Some examples of phrases are: "Little Angel", "Tuff Stuff", "Little Devil", "Rock Chick", "Rock On", and "Punk Princess". I still can't believe all the fun I've had just cutting out images with this cartridge. Do you think I'm too old to have some vinyl rocker cutouts on my wall? The four coordinating Cuttlebug folders are two A2 sized and two 5x7 sized and can be viewed here. egg_lady from the message board created this cute card with the Rock Princess cartridge, or you can also check out this link and read more of her thread (see pic or click here).

Country Life is the other cartridge that I explored this week. This cartridge is all about the country. Since I grew up in the country, these images reminded me of home. This cartridge will be perfect to scrapbook some of my old photos. Images on this cartridge include: Betty Lou milk girl, Mary Jane, Farm Mama with a pitchfork, country girl on a tractor (like!), farmer in overalls, milk maid milking a cow, country girl with a guitar, horses, pigs, chickens, lambs, hen, cow, mouse, fruit, vegetables, corn, wheat, apple tree, clothes on a clothes line (cut these out in vinyl and place in your laundry room wall), water pitcher with flowers, old fashioned wash tub, and quilt patch with needle and thread (this would be perfect for a quilting party). The creative features are: Layer 1, Layer 2, Banner, Font, Phrase, and Shadow. The font is only uppercase letters, but you can also cut out each of the letters in a banner style. I did discover the hog button with the Banner creative feature pressed will cut out cowboy boots! When the Shift button is used, you will cut out a solid boot instead of one with a design down the side. Using this same creative feature with the Mary Jane button you can cut out two different styles of dresses. The coordinating Cuttlebug folders can be viewed here. ameri-brit-gal from the message board has done it again! Check out this adorable card that was made using the Country Life cartridge (see pic or click here). It's the perfect card for your best friend.

Well that wraps up this exploration, though I think I could go on and on about these two cartridges! Happy crafting to all my fellow Cricut lovers!

Crafty Kimber

WEEKLY SURVEY

Don't forget to take this week's survey!

Click here.

HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

Here are the hot topics in Customer Support this week:


Q. What's with the message board? There are posts and forums missing.

A. We are moving posts and rearranging the Cricut Message Boards. Our hopes are to consolidate forums and make finding information much easier.

We are aware of "favorite" forums and know that they are important to you, but some forums will not be returning. Please know that Provo Craft's goal for the Message Boards is to create an atmosphere of creativity and fun. There are topics that just don't need to be posted on a crafting site.

If you have any problems, please PM the Admin or one of our Bug Guides. They are here to help you.

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Remember that the Circle is exclusive.

Information given on the Circle message boards stays on those boards. Information is not to be given out to non-Circle members, nor is not to be posted on blogs, etc. Any post giving Circle info on the Cricut boards will be removed and the poster may lose their privileges.

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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

"When your hobbies get in the way of your work--that's okay; but when your hobbies get in the way of themselves, well...."
~ Steve Martin