NOVEMBER

I really enjoy the month of November. During the first part of the month, I look forward to Thanksgiving. I'll admit I have a whole lot to be thankful for, and I count my blessings every day of the month so that I don't have to cram all of my "thanks" into one day. This also helps me keep my mind on positive things, and is a big booster to my outlook on life.

Stormy weather and cold temperatures can be a bummer for many of us, but there is a silver lining to this cloud. We can spend more time inside, playing with our Cricut machines, creating books, layouts, cakes, cards, personal crafts, and oh so much more. Think of something you could create to spread some Thanksgiving warmth and friendliness to those around you!

This week, be sure to read about an incredible Cricut machine that survived a school fire! Enjoy clever crafty tips for cutting felt, and check out Crafty Kimber's in depth cartridge exploration of the new Birthday Bash cartridge. As always, I wish you well in your crafting adventures.

**Header project made by Betsy Veldman using the Wild Card cartridge.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The perfect companion for every occasion just got a bit smaller! The Cricut Cake Mini delivers the same quality and the same great results as the Cricut Cake while taking up less of your precious counter space so that you have more room to build your beautiful cakes and pastries.

Get precise, professional-looking results every time you create something special for an event, holiday, or just for fun. Cake decorating has never been easier or more fun. The Cricut Cake Mini works with all the Cricut and Cricut Cake cartridges.

The creative possibilities are endless! Get yours now, exclusively at Jo-Ann's!

FEATURED PROJECTS

NOW THAT'S NEWS!

Provo Craft Cricut Create Survives School Fire

And Today Still Helps 7th Graders Make and Preserve Memories

South Jordan, UT - October 25, 2010 - April 10, 2010, was an otherwise normal day at Fredericktown R-1 Middle School, Home of the Blackcats and 421 6th-8th graders, until fire swept down hallways destroying almost every classroom and public area. Fredericktown R-1 Middle School is located in Southeast Missouri in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in a town of approximately 4,000.

Just a few weeks before the fire Amanda Wengler, a home economics and reading teacher to some 130 twelve-year-old boys and girls, purchased a new Cricut Create from a friend. Wanting a Cricut for a long time she finally took advantage when her friend decided to upgrade to a Cricut Expression.

"I was so happy I did," she shares in an email, "I teach Middle School home economics and an after school program and part of my curriculum includes memory making and keeping. I took my Cricut to school and the kids, both boys and girls, loved using it for projects and would bring things in throughout the week that they wanted to work on."

Twelve-year old Hunter Kay, one of Mrs. Wengler's students says, "The Cricut Create is great for all our dye cut needs. It ‘wows’ me every time I use it!"

"Our Cricut Create is the most amazing scrapbooking tool ever!" says an excited twelve-year old Krystal Cox, "It has helped me with my scrapbook during our after-school program, Learning Zone. It's so fast at making words, numbers, and all the other cool stuff it does."

On the day of the fire, Mrs. Wenglers's classroom experienced severe damage. "Everything was a total loss," she explains. "Nearly everything in my classroom was destroyed, including the scrapbooks of my own children and all of my scrapbooking supplies."

After the shock of the fire, Mrs. Wengler's thoughts turned to her brand new Cricut. She was heartbroken. When she finally had the chance to rummage through the mess and reclaim anything salvageable, she found her Cricut Create. "It was in the original box, sitting on a countertop in my classroom. It wasn’t too badly burned so I grabbed it, hoping for a miracle."

At home Mrs. Wengler lovingly cleaned the singed machine and let it dry out for a few days (it had been soaked by firemen extinguishing the fire). When Mrs. Wengler finally had the nerve to plug in the Cricut and power it on she was thrilled to find that it still worked!

"By some miracle it was saved," says Mrs. Wengler. "It's a little discolored and smells a little smoky but otherwise it works just fine." The fire reached up to 2,000 degrees, melted the glass windows and left nothing but a pile of rubble where Mrs. Wengler’s classroom once stood.

"We'll never tout our machines as fireproof," says a smiling Jim Thornton, CEO of Provo Craft. "We are just thrilled this ends happily, with no injured students and a heroic Cricut survival story. Hearing Mrs. Wengler's account made us grateful for their safety and proud of what we do to help support the education system."

"I love my Cricut Create machine," concludes Mrs. Wengler, "And I’m thrilled I still have it."

Upon hearing Mrs. Wengler's story Provo Craft sent her classroom a new Cricut Expression and several cartridges to replenish their lost library.

For additional information on Provo Craft, please visit www.provocraft.com, www.cricut.com, or follow us on Twitter.

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• Cute Winter Card
• Winter Snow
• Glass Block for Baby Girl
• Thanksgiving Turkey
• No, Don't Make a Picture
• First Year Calendar

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Rebecca Ferguson
About: I am a stay at home mom who just wants to be creative. After seeing Bug Junkie's "Twas the Night Before Christmas" shape album, I decided to try the idea with an entire story: "The Gingerbread Man".

Rebecca's Project: Gingerbread Man Shape Album

YOUR NOTABLE TIP

This weeks tip was brought to you by message board member Marianne Webster!

"I spent a whole weekend cutting out felt for a project for my sister. The best way is to put a heating and bonding product on the back. Put the felt on the mat, felt side down. You will need a deep cut blade and Multi-Cut. The one thing about felt is that it leaves a lot of fuzzies on the mat, but I just cleaned it off with a baby wipe and some hard rubbing. It was fine for use afterward. If you are not going to apply the felt to something else after you cut it, you will need to use something other than the heating and bonding product. Get an iron-on interfacing or stablizer. I cut out about 200 stars, hexagons, etc. and it worked great."

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

This week Chloe (my dog) had a birthday and I decided to throw her a birthday party. Yes, I'm one of those people. The best part is that the dogs run around the house or the back yard having a great time, and I get to visit with all the adults and socialize. For this exploration I decided to write on the party and how I used my Cricut and Cricut Cake machine to make it a hit. I used the Birthday Bash cartridge, and while I was flipping through the all the goodies in the handbook, I realized that you could use this cartridge for baby showers and bridal showers, too.

Speaking of the handbook, the layout has changed. That took a little getting used to, but soon I figured it all out, and I like the changes very much. The Creative Features for this cartridge are: Layer 1, Layer 2, Phrase, Card/Tag, Font, and Font Shadow. In the Card/Tag feature, I found an adorable crown card that fits my little diva. Then I looked through the Phrases feature. On the Ice Cream Sundae button, with the feature Phrases pressed, I found "You're Invited" connected with a balloon. When you press the Shift button down, you can cut these words out separately. So, that's what I did. I then glued the words to the front of my card (see pic). With my cards planned, all I had to do is make a list of all the dogs in the neighborhood--so that I knew how many to make. I invited about 10 dogs to the party, and Chloe thought she was king of the back yard.

The dogs would entertain themselves, but I thought it would be nice to have some cookies for the adults to munch on while visiting. I thought that I would make sugar cookies cut into fun shapes with the Cricut Cake, but like I always do, I waited until the last minute to make them. I knew that I couldn't use store bought dough (it crumbles when you try to cut it), I had to use homemade cookie dough. Digging through my cupboard, I found one of those cookie doughs like a cake mix--all ready to go, you just have to add your eggs and your liquid. Since I was short on time, I used this mix. Well, that experiment went bad and my dough wouldn't freeze right. So, I started over and used the cookie dough to make regular round cookies, which I could then decorate with a gum paste later. That experiment did turn out. Go ahead and laugh at me--I did! The reason I'm telling you all about my mistake is so you can all learn from it and not make a mess of your kitchen in the process. No shortcuts if you want to cut cookie dough with your Cake: homemade from scratch. (They'll taste better that way anyway.) Check out my photos, my little experiment turned out really cute considering all the stress I went through. I've learned my lesson; next time I will use homemade cookie dough right from the beginning.

I knew I wanted to have some little goodie bags to give to all the people that came to my party, (really they are dog treats for the dogs to enjoy at their home). I found a cute heart that said "For You", which I thought was perfect as a hangtag for my treat bags. I dug through my craft room looking for some clear bags, but I guess I have run out. So, I grabbed some sandwich bags, added my goodies, tied a bow with the tag then trimmed off the top if it was too big (see pic above). Once I had my goodie bags done and the invitations completed, I wanted some sort of a banner. I looked through the handbook again, and I realized that this cartridge comes with an alphabet! I decided to make my own banner; I found a present image that was a gift tag and cut a bunch of them out for each letter in "Happy Birthday". Then I cut out the letters of the phrase and glued them all to the presents. I dragged a ribbon through the hangtag hole and then hung them up on the wall. The best part about my banner is that I didn't do a name so I can pull this out for any birthday party and reuse it.

Well this wraps up my exploration this week. I hope you enjoyed reading about my dog party. I sure enjoyed putting it together, and with the Cricut and Cricut Cake throwing a party together is so easy. I love my Cricut about as much as I love my dogs! Don't tell my dogs I said that.

Crafty Kimber

WEEKLY SURVEY

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

Click here.

HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

Q. I'm having some trouble with the Cricut Color Inks. Are there step by step instructions I can use?

A. Of course! Just follow this link.

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Q. Solutions cartridges vs. Seasonal cartridges--what's the difference?

A. Solutions cartridges have two features. Recently some of them have been retired. The Seasonal cartridges have only a few features and when they are gone from the stores they are gone. Be sure you get those if you really want them! Prices for both of these types of cartridges are generally much less than the full cartridges.
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Need some help? Provo Craft Customer Support is here for you! Never hesitate to call in (1-888-922-4725 or 1-888-92ccircle for Circle questions); 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

"November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring."

~ Elizabeth Coatsworth