EASTER EGGS AND COW PIES

Many moons ago, my family participated in annual Easter picnics and egg hunts with close family and friends. As I recall, the event was held in a different location every year. We never left home without a camera so the fun we had was always well documented by candid snapshots and preserved for generations to come.

One picnic in particular stands out to me for reasons which I shall share with you: it was held in a beautiful green cow pasture. I guess the adults in charge wanted the annual picnic to take place in a more pastoral setting.

After eating our Dutch-oven meals, the children were encouraged to "take a nature walk" while the adults hid the Easter eggs and prizes. Apparently someone doing the hiding thought it would be a good idea to place some of the eggs under the "calling cards" left behind by previous tenants of the pasture! I'll bet you can put the rest of the story together yourself.

I would love to scrapbook the pictures from that Easter with the aid of my wonderful Cricut pals and products. There are some great cartridges I have been waiting to employ for such a project and it seems there is no shortage of creative ideas to use in such a crafty adventure. I believe the title should display something about Easter eggs and cow pies.

This week, read about another crafty use for wallpaper seam rollers and check out Crafty Kimber's exploration of the new Martha Stewart Crafts^TM Birthday Cake Art cartridge. As always, I wish you well in your crafting adventures.

**Header project made by Lori Hhn using the Everyday Pop-Up Cards cartridge.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

FEATURED PROJECTS

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• Easter Flower Topiary
• Easter Layout
• R is for Rabbit
• Easter Bucket for my Son
• Easter Banner and Tree Decorations
• Easter Wonder

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Kate Dykstra
About: I am happily married and we have been blessed with three wonderful children. I am a former teacher with a heart for special needs children. I am currently self-employed, reviewing medical briefs and academic records for a private practice in neuropsychology. I am working part-time toward my Masters in Education and Digital Technology. When I do find free time, I love to use small bits of paper to create cards of all sorts.

Kate's Project: Easter Egg Box

YOUR NOTABLE TIP

Today's tip comes from message board member LindaGull. Thanks for sharing the clever tip!

"I thought I would pass along a little tip: I use a wooden wallpaper roller after I weed my vinyl project. I lay my transfer paper over my project and roll the wall paper roller over it; it comes right up. Then I transfer it to my project, and roll it again. I think it works great. The roller is the kind you seal wallpaper seams with."

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

This week I was lucky to explore the Martha Stewart Crafts^TM Birthday Cake Art cartridge. This cartridge is designed to use with the Cricut Cake machine to cut gum paste, cookie dough, or frosting sheets. If you need a recipe for gum paste or cookie dough, check out the message board. There are tons of tips and recipes to be found there. I discovered this the other day while seeing what all you Cricut fans had to say about this cartridge. Use the search feature and you will easily find the recipe for your needs.

This week, I decided that I wanted to use this cartridge with paper instead of gum paste--just to explore how versatile the images can be. The creative features on this cartridge are: Cupcake, Chic Uppercase, Chic Lowercase, Gotham, Medallion/Banner, and Phrase. Some examples of the images that included are: rockets, elephants, a tiara, a jersey, a lion, a flower, presents, a frame, a wand, a UFO, a train, a caboose, a whale, a softball, a soccer, a camel, a branch, and twenty different banners. The Cupcake feature comes with most of these same images plus some extras: heart, moon, bow, dog, bird, and bunny. As for the banner styles, you have diamond, flower, star, train, elephant, leaf, grass, and crown shapes.

The Medallion/Banner is really another font style; you can cut numbers and uppercase letters in a banner shape or medallion style. I chose to make a project with these medallion shapes, I cut the "1" image out, then cut the basic scalloped solid border. I cut 2 of the border and then folded them back and forth to create this 3-D look. I have noticed this type of style is quite popular and thought this could work with a card or if a mom wanted to praise a child's school work (see pic). I cut 2 solid baseball circles and hot glued my badge together. It was so easy and I couldn't believe how cute it turned out.

The Chic Upper and Lower case are letters for you to cut out titles or create a monogram for your cookies or cake. Don't forget you can also create beautiful monogram cards. The Chic fonts have round edges and the style is curvy. These features also provide you with the same borders as the base layer, only they are a smaller size. Gotham is also a font style, and these letters are more in the block style. This feature also provides the same standard borders in a different size than the other features.

The Phrase feature provides you with a bunch of fun phrases to cut out in gum paste or cardstock. A few examples are: "Happy Birthday," "Hip Hip Hooray!," "Surprise!" "Happy Birthday Mom," "Happy Birthday Dad," "Celebrate," "Feliz Cumpleanos," "Joyeux Anniversaire," "Baby's First Birthday," "Buon Compleanno!" and "Sweet Sixteen." All of these phrases also have a Shadow feature.

This wraps up my exploration. If you have wanted this cartridge, check out www.cricut.com and make sure to pick up your copy. This cartridge is a wonderful addition to the Cricut cartridge family, and don't forget you can use it with any Cricut machine. Happy Crafting!

Crafty Kimber

HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

Here's the word from Customer Support this week:

- Just a reminder:
CRICUT Message Board RulesQuick Summary
(Not an exclusive or exhaustive list)

1. Be nice to and respectful of Message Board Administrators and your fellow Message Board Members
2. Have fun
3. No unauthorized or offensive content
4. No content that interferes with the ability of others to enjoy the Message Board
5. No advertising or solicitation
6. No unauthorized third party content
7. No unauthorized posting or use of personal information
8. No invalid signatures or avatars

For a more detailed explaination of the Message Board Rules please click here.


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 Cricut 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

"A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road."
~ Henry Ward Beecher