A PATERNAL QUIRK

I have a tendency to break into song at random times during the day.  These musical moments are usually triggered by a phrase or a single word uttered by someone else in the room.  An instant vocal ensemble erupts if other family members are present in the room.  Some people look at us as though we?re a little off or they are unsure of our mental stability.  But fear not.  Sanity is intact!  This behavior is perfectly normal and actually quite common?in many environments.  It is common in environments especially on the paternal side of my family tree.  Thanks Dad.

I?m sure many of you out there are spontaneous singers as well. You may find that you possess this positive trait as well -- a behavior which has been passed down from one generation to the next. You can thank your family. They are the people largely responsible for making you the fine, outstanding, weird person you are today. Crafting with Cricut is also becoming a behavior that will be passed on to future generations.  I have found that a little Cricut craft project and a little song are happy partners that will be together for a long time to come.  

*Header project made by Lori Huhn using the cartridge: Father's Day

ANNOUNCEMENTS

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• Husband's Father's Day Card
• Father's Day Pop Up Card
• Father's Day Card
• YeeHaw Layout
• Stomping Grounds
• Daditude

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Melissa Bartlett
About: Hello!  My name is Melissa Bartlett.  I love scrapbooking and making cards.  I just love using my Cricut Expression® on all my projects.  There are so many possibilities with it. 



Melissa's Project: Father's Day Card

Cartridges Used:
- A Child's Year
- Don Juan
- Old West
- Lyrical Letters
- EveryDay Paper Dolls

Instructions: My project is a father's day card I made for my son to give his daddy. 

1. I used the 12" x 24" paper and cut it down to 22-1/2" x 8".
2. I then scored it at 4.5", 9", 13.5", and 18" so I could fold it.
3. The card reads: "Daddy you play many roles, train conductor, fisherman, rocket scientist, My favorite is when you are just daddy". 
4. I used A Child's Year, Don Juan, Old West, and Lyrical Letters for the words which I welded in Cricut DesignStudio® software. 
5. I used Everyday Paper Dolls for the the train conductor, fisherman, and rocket scientist.

YOUR NOTABLE TIP

Q. I am having a problem with my Cricut Expression. I am trying to cut one of the word arts on the Home Accents cart. It keeps coming up "Characters won't fit! Change size or press CUT again to cut as many as will fit."... I tried to change the size but the LCD display still comes up with this warning and won't cut! HELP!  What do I do to get it to cut.  I have 12" x 12" paper on the mat.

A.The size you enter is the height, not the length! That may be causing your distress. Do you have a Gypsy, or Cricut DesignStudio? I use my Gypsy all the time to preview the size of my cuts. I can also do fancy stuff, like set the width to, say, 4", so the word or phrase is 4" long, then see how tall it is. Round that to the nearest setting on your machine, and you'll get the length close and the height will be whatever. You can also see whether or not it will fit on the mat!!

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

Cricut Exploration
Crafting is always the best part of the week, I look forward to time I can play with my Cricut and create some fun card or project.  This week I explored the cartridge Everyday Pop-Up Cards and created my Father’s Day card. (One little plug for the Father’s Day cartridge that I reviewed in a previous exploration, this is a fabulous cartridge and will be perfect to use on your scrapbook pages. Get it while you can at your local scrapbook stores or online.) I also made some other cards for future birthday events. (One other little note: I will continue to give tips about some of the buttons that come with the Cricut Expression 2 machine, see the bottom of this article for details.)
In exploring Everyday Pop-Up Cards I discovered that I could make cards that stood up 3D. I got really excited about some of the images that I could make using this cartridge, for example I love the Eiffel Tower, and you can now cut this image with the Cricut in 3D.  Other images and cards you can cut with this cartridge are: a chandelier, a flower in a pot (this could be cut for a mother’s day card scrapbook page),  an elephant, a sewing machine (this would be great for 4-H sewing photo projects), a wagon, a present, a bird, an owl, flowers, a butterfly, a bumble bee, a tree, a coffee cup, an umbrella, a bandage, a hot air balloon, an airplane, a banner, a beer mug, a graduation cap, a horse shoe, a dog, a turtle, a tea pot, a dress, doves, a wedding cake, shoes, wedding rings, a stroller, a onesie, a sheep jumping a fence, a cup cake, a house, a crown, a birthday cake, a robot, a heart locket, a violin, and penguins.

The creative features for this cartridge are: layer1, layer2, phrase, phrase layer, pop-up, and card.  Wow, with this cartridge I can cut any of the basic card shapes I want, as well as the ability to cut an image and the additional layers.  It is so easy to mix and match the card shapes with the different images and phrases; I made this “Smile” card to use as a birthday card.  I love anything that is girly—I found the shoes to be adorable; this image would be great for a birthday party, or even a play tea party.  Any of the animals would be great for a boy’s party or scrapbook page.  I thought the hot air balloon would be perfect for my father’s day card.  This cartridge fits into tons of different uses or categories that I think you all will love like me.  Everyone around me knows that I love bling and crowns, so when I saw the crown on this cartridge I had to cut it out, and yes, I cut the Pop-Up image (see photo). This crown would be perfect for center pieces for a little girl’s party, bridal shower, or just to wear around the house.  You can also cut this image on a 12" x 24" mat using the fit to page feature on your Cricut Expression® that would create a huge crown that a child could wear around the house (how much fun would that be, to spend time with your daughter and your Cricut cutting out crowns and other fun images!)

A few examples of the phrases that come on this cartridge are:  “Merci”, “Surprise!”, “Pulling for You”, “Just Because”, “Just a Note”, “Wishing You Comfort”, “Sorry”, “Get Well Soon”, “Feel Better”, “Bon Voyage”, “Well Done”, “Cheers!”, “Berry Special Friend”, “Sole Mates” “Smile”, “Hearts Congrats”, and “For the Happy Couple”.  One other thing to point out when trying to find the image you want to cut—look in the handbook right under the image and you will see a small picture of the overlay with a button in red. This helps you to easily find the image you want on your keypad.

Cricut Expression 2 Tips
In playing with my Cricut machines, today I used my new Expression 2. The more I play with this machine the more excited I get as I figure out what all the buttons are for.  I will give you some tips on the four buttons shown below.  The button on the left is used to add Additional Art quantity—simply press the button and then adjust the number you want to cut.  You would use this when you want more than one of a certain image. The button on the right is used to add Project Quantity—simply press the button and adjust the number accordingly.  You would use this button when you want the whole project you are working on to cut a certain number of times; for example, I wanted to cut the phrase “royalty” 5 times. Once I was ready to cut I went into the setting button and changed this button to 5, then I watched as the machine cut my phrase five times. I love having the light on the blade housing, because it makes it easier for me to watch the machine cut out my images.

The button on the left is the Fit to Page option, and the button on the right is the Auto Fill button.  In case you don’t understand what these buttons can do for your project, let me explain.  The Auto Fill button will take the image you want to cut and fill the entire 12" x 12" page with your image.  The Fit to Page button takes your image and makes it bigger so that it fills the entire 12" x 12" page.

That wraps up this weeks exploration. I hope you have enjoyed this little sneak peek of the Everyday Pop-Up Cards cartridge, make sure to pick yours up, you will see that it is a must-have for your cartridge library.   See you next week!

Crafty Kimber

HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. " 
~Author Unknown