HAPPY SUMMER!

Happy summer everyone!  It's officially here!  With such great weather and so many things to do outside, you and your family are sure to experience some wonderful summer fun! Naturally, vacations are a traditional part of summer. It's always nice to "make tracks" for a while just to unwind and refresh. To some of us that might mean taking a break from the everyday grind and exploring the world.  To some this may simply be attending an out-of-state family reunion and catching up with cousins you haven't seen for many moons.  Ah, vacation sounds nice!  Remember to take your trusty camera along and capture a few choice photos for your scrapbooks.  You'll be able to relive those memories for years to come.

This week, be sure to check out Crafty Kimber's cartridge exploration of the Baby Boutique Cricut Imagine® cartridge and the Bump in the Night Lite cartridge and check out some fun recycling tips and great crafting ideas from message board members.  As always, I wish you success in your crafting adventures.

:-)Lonna Joy Smoot - Editor, Cricut Chirp!

*Header project made by Sue Helfrich using the cartridge: Everyday Pop Up Cards

ANNOUNCEMENTS

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• Travel Bingo
• Growth Chart
• Altered CD
• Birthday Bouquet
• Over the Hill Party Décor
• Cake Favor Boxes

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Beth White
About: Hi, I am a working mother of one, and have been crafting most of my life. I weave baskets, quilt, etc. But I get the most rewards from working with my Cricut Expression®. It is truly an amazing machine. I have a wonderful husband, daughter and numerous animals. 

Beth's Project: Doll House




Cartridges Used:
- Christmas Village
- French Manor
- Gypsy Wanderings
- Vintage Damask

Instructions: I used numerous Cricut cartridges to create this project: French Manor, Christmas, Gyspy Wanderings—to name a few. I used 2 paper stacks, and paper printed from the Cricut Imagine. 

YOUR NOTABLE TIP

I go to garage sales most weekends. Lots of times I don't buy and sometimes I buy. At one sale I found 3 wooden spice racks (the type you hang on the wall) with no jars. I got all three for a dollar. I went home and hung them on my wall and they now hold my punches and my mounted stamps. They hold edgers neatly as well. At another sale I found a spinning spice rack with jars. I emptied the jars and washed them and they now hold my Martha Stewart glitter and flock. Did you know her larger glitter jars fits perfectly in the holes where the old jars went? At one garage sale I found spice jars and the lady gave them to me. Now I have spice jars to recycle. Maybe I'll put my jewels, brads, etc. in them? Or those tiny cuts you make and throw away?

Oh, and I put cup hooks, to hold my decorative edge scissors, under the spice jar rack.

I bought a computer armoire at an estate sale to make into my crafting cabinet. I may hang more spice racks inside the armoire and maybe even on the doors. If I put a light in it I can close it up and hide my clutter

Last one...those spinning disks you get to hold your canned goods? I bought some (at a garage sale), set one of those kitchen utensil holders (the one with compartments) on it and they hold pens, X-ACTO knives, more scissors, more punches, etc.

Ok I'm off (to garage sales). Does anyone else have recycling ideas?

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

This week I decided to get into the Independence Day spirit—yes, I pulled out my house decorations and decorated everywhere. Funds are tight this month for me, but I want some new themed decorations, which is where my favorite machine (aka Cricut) came into play. I pulled out my Cricut Expression® 2 machine, Cricut Imagine®, Buccaneer, Stand and Salute, and My Childs Year cartridges. I love the background pages on Buccaneer. I printed the stripes, poke-a-dots, and solid colors to use in my creations. I also deiced to try something new, I cut 12 x 12 canvas material out and printed my striped back ground right on the material. I was trying an experiment and it totally worked. I love my Cricut Imagine machine; I can print paper or material—whatever I need to make my project match. Yes, I am one of those creators that likes all my projects to have a similar color hue.

If you haven't picked up the Stand and Salute cartridge yet then this cartridge is perfect for Independence Day, you can use the images on projects, cards, material projects, and scrapbook pages. To review this cartridge, the creative features are: Note Card, Dog Tag, Frame, Border, Shadow, and Blackout. I used the flag image that splits up the layers to make some quick sparklers. The flag strip part reminded me of the sparklers so I cut this image three times and then wrapped them around a small stir stick, and added some glue to keep them in place. I used the star in quite a few spots by cutting it out of Cricut vinyl material. A few examples of the phrases that are included on this cartridge are: "Let Freedom Ring", "United We Stand", "USA", "American Pride", "Honor", "My Hero", "Welcome Home Soldier", "Support Our Troops", and "Armed Forces". I love all the phrases that are included, many of them would be great on t-shirts, quilt blocks, scrapbook pages, or on quick, simple cards. When I first got this cartridge I showed it to my sister and she is amazing at making quilts, I made her some Yudu screens and she created this adorable quilt (see photo).



The projects that I created using Cricut vinyl were some simple wood blocks; I used the Buccaneer striped paper and glued it to the stained wood block. Notice the red stars that I cut out of Cricut vinyl, this project took me one hour to whip up. It was so easy and I had a blast. Next I used the red poke-a-dot paper and made paper ruffles, and I even pulled out the sewing machine to keep my ruffles in place. I love to create home dé´cor projects so I used some extra wood blocks that I had lying around, stained them, then added a white-wash paint to make them look old. I hot glued the ruffle strips into place and wrapped a ribbon around the whole set to make a really cute flag project (see photo). I found some great Independence Day images on A Child's Year (this cartridge is full of tons of different silhouette images.)
There is such a variety of both boy and girl images, that if you don't have this cartridge in your Cricut collection I would suggest you pick one up. The creative features on this cartridge are: Monogram, Icon, Card, Tag, Font, and Shadow. The Monogram feature gives you letters in a scalloped circle as well as the letters centered in a balloon.

If you want to cut the font without an image, use the font feature to cut both upper and lower case letters. Silhouette images included are: clown, fairy, witch, fireman, ice skating, snowman, trimming a Christmas tree, reading a book, fishing, child with mom, baby with mom, watering flowers, gardening, holding an umbrella, playing with animals, and walking a dog.

I spent most of my craft time this week working on my projects I made sure to also explore one of the new cartridges as well, I chose to play with "Baby Bouquet". I fell in love with the twenty patterns (see photo) that are included with this cartridge. Every image on this cartridge has a feminine touch to it and would be great on baby projects, party invitations, announcements and those precious scrapbook pages.
The bonus content that is included is: cup cake wrapper, card, and a pin wheel. Think of making little pin wheels for your baby shower and putting them in cup cakes. This cartridge is making me want to have a baby just so I can have a shower or party to use this cartridge. This cartridge would also be great for a little girls' party or invitation or even big girls (like me). Some examples of images that are included are: crowns, angel wings, bird with a crown, scrolls, chandeliers, baby buggy, lock and key, journal tags, Fleur De Lis badge, square and oval frames. You also have some phrases and a font. The letters in the font come in a beautiful fancy oval frame—you can cut them in the frame or individually.

This wraps up my exploration, check back next week as I continue exploring new cartridges. Keep up the crafting!!

Crafty Kimber

HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer " 
~Albert Camus