OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES

I really enjoy scrapping about clever comments made by the little people in my family. They catch you off guard and provide an opportunity to laugh out loud and enjoy particular moments in life. They are also quite skilled in telling a whopper or two right out of the blue. The line between reality and make-believe is often blurry for them.

Bedtime is not always a favorite time for my little three-year-old nephew. He is quite the conversationalist and would rather stay up with the adults and visit. When asked how old he is, Joe (the 3-year-old) will hold up four fingers and exclaim "Twelve!"

My little sister recently finished an internship in North Carolina and dropped by our neck of the woods to visit for a week or so. Joe found his aunt's visit to be most exciting and monopolized her attention for a good portion of time. Since he had taken such a shining to her, she was selected to be the adult to assist him with getting ready for his bedtime. After a few minutes we heard a burst of laughter coming from their direction. My sister later recounted the following conversation.

Aunt: "Time to put on your PJ's."
Joe: "My can't...James (older brother) stole'em."
Aunt: "How about brushing your teeth?"
Joe: "My can't...James stole'em."
Aunt: "Your teeth! Are you sure?"
Joe: "Yeah...him be mean!"

You can be sure this darling little story will be preserved in a scrapbook page or two, compliments of my Cricut pals and their scrapping expertise.

This week, be sure to read Crafty Kimber's cartridge exploration of the Martha Stewart Crafts^TM All Occasions Cake Art, Elegant Cake Art, and Seasonal Cake Art cartridges. Enjoy a clever beginner's tip for cutting shadows and glean savvy wisdom from our customer support Floor Sweeps as they share technical advice about Cricut products. As always, I wish you well in your crafting adventures.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Win the Trip of a Lifetime!

For a limited time Rock Princess, Country Life, Happy Hauntings, and Winter Frolic contain scratch cards to a win the trip you've always wanted! 100 second prize winners will get a Cricut Imagine^TM machine! Click here for full details!

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FEATURED PROJECTS

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• SAY JEEZE MAMA
• Welcome Home Cake
• My Eyes Adore Her
• Walker & Walking Forward Layouts
• WHOOO R U?

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Jen Young
About: I am a stay at home mother of two, married for sixteen years this September. I love to create with anything paper. I absolutely love the Cricut and try to incorporate it in every project that I create. When the Cricut DesignStudio came out, I just had to have it, and the wheels went turning in my head. I can't stop thinking up ideas and ways to use the Cricut to my advantage, and enjoy sharing that info with others.

Jen's Project: Mini Milk Cartons and Crate

YOUR NOTABLE TIP

Today's tip comes from message board member GirlFromOz. Thanks for all your help on the boards!

Q. "I'm seeing so many beautiful projects, and am wondering if anyone can tell me how they get the image background to be just a little bigger than the pieces that are cut out. My background is coming out a good 8-10 mm bigger than the image. It leaves a very big black margin around the entire thing. Ideas?"

A. "The shadow should only be approx 2 - 3 mm at most. Are you leaving the size dial at the same size for your base image and the shadow? Also, make sure you have the Real Dial Size button off."

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

I enjoy watching my Cricut cut out images, be it paper or gum paste. In this exploration I explored the Martha Stewart Crafts^TM All Occasions Cake Art, Elegant Cake Art, and Seasonal Cake Art. For something different than the expected, I decided to decorate brownies.

The All Occasions Cake Art cartridge comes with the Cricut Cake^TM Electronic Cutter Martha Stewart Crafts^TM Edition and is a fun basic shapes cartridge. The creative features on this cartridge are: Cake, Phrase, Smart Cookie, Mirror Droplet Lowercase, Mirror Droplet Uppercase, and Banneret. Some of the images that come in this cartridge include: present, balloons, doilies, butterfly, hearts, flowers, branches, and borders (candy, star, flower, and banner). This cartridge also comes with some phrases: "Celebrate", "Thank You", "You're the Best", "Happy Birthday", "Surprise", "Best Wishes", and "Good Luck". I used the wreath to decorate one of my brownies (see picture). You also get four different styles of fonts as well with this cartridge.

Seasonal Cake Art is another great cartridge in the Martha Stewart Crafts^TM line. Just like the name suggests, this cartridge comes with all sorts of images that cover all the different seasons. The creative features on this cartridge are: Cake, Phrase, Home Team, Time for Tea Lowercase, Time for Tea Uppercase, and Postage. Some examples of images in this cartridge are: leaves, wreath, flower, Easter bunnies, hearts, graduation cap, snowflakes, wine bottle, stars, snowman, party hat, and borders (banner, bats, leaf, swirls, grass, bows, fence, pumpkin, and ice). A few examples of phrases are: "Best Mom", "Congrats", "Happy New Year", "Peace", "Happy Holiday", "Give Thanks", "Boo", "Be Mine", and "Noël". This cartridge also comes with four different fonts and numbers. I used the bow border and the star shape to decorate some of my brownies (see picture).

Elegant Cake Art gives you the shapes and borders for a more graceful-looking cake. You can cut dollies, butterflies (you have to be careful with these), rose with border, oval flowers, hearts, star flower, accents, filigree, and tulip. The creative features are similar to the other cartridges: Cake, Phrase, Dinner at Eight Lowercase, Dinner at Eight Uppercase, Champagne Toast, and Flourish Frame. There are four different fonts; I love the Flourish Frame font because the letters are placed in a two different designs: one that is round with scalped edges, and another that is square with a fancy design around the edges. Some phrase examples are: "Thanks!", "Happy Anniversary", "Best Wishes", "Congratulations", "Miss You", "Bride to Be", "Just Married", "Celebrate", and "Thank You". I used the Flower square design to decorate my brownie (see picture).

Well it's time to wrap things up and I have thoroughly enjoyed this little experiment in cutting gum paste. A tip I learned from some experts regarding the gum paste: before you roll it out, knead it and if it's really tough, put it in the microware for 10 seconds. This will soften up the gum paste so that it's easier to knead. Check back next week as I continue to explore the wonderful cartridges in the Cricut family!

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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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

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
~ Henry David Thoreau