Life is full of hills and valleys, sunny days and rainy days. As caring crafters and human beings, we have opportunities to lift up hands or heads that may be hanging. We can encourage and cheer each other along life’s journey as we educate and buoy one another up with our talents and resources.

Keeping around a warm and creative collection of handmade cards and projects is a great idea for many reasons. There are times when lives are touched by trials. Create a warm and friendly card or gift that says you care and are aware. You never know when a card given out of the blue can help a person escape the blues. Thoughtful little trinkets and cards are often cherished more than the giver knows. I have a drawer and several boxes full of gifts such as these myself. Create some keepsakes of your own this month. Get your family in on the act. With Cricut, it's so easy and the spectrum of ideas is limitless.

Be sure to check out Crafty Kimber's cartridge exploration of the Girl’s Makeup Party and Princess Party Cricut Cartridges in today’s Chirp. Read about helpful Cricut tips and glean great crafting ideas from Cricut message board members in this week’s newsletter.

As always, I wish you success in your crafting adventures!

Lonna Joy Smoot- Editor, Cricut CHIRP!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

TIPS TREASURE CHEST

Today’s great tip is from message board member Terriski:

Q: “I have had my Cricut Expression^® for three years and have always had great cuts for my projects. I have noticed the last month or so, my machine is not making clean, crisp cuts and it's really sort of loud when it's cutting. Has anyone ever had a 'tune-up' on their machine? I really don't have an idea of what's going on with my machine, but it's really frustrating me! I changed my blades just a couple of weeks ago, but found that the new blade was just tearing up the paper. I adjusted settings and speed ....with a little improvement. Provo Craft sent me a new set of blades, I guess it's better .... maybe I had defective blades? Has anyone else had this issue? Anyone have any suggestions? We all know the next couple of months are going to be very busy with our crafts!!”

A: “I don't give my machine a 'tune-up' per say like messing with the gears and rollers etc. I take the compressed air and spray it over the rollers (and in the blade housing) to get out any nibs. I also take an "unglue" type product and put on a paper towel and then wipe down the rollers and the area in front of the blade cutting area. It makes it nice. There is sometimes gunk on the bottom of the mat. I also scrape my mats really good and clean the bottom of them too. Hope this helps.”

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Autumn Spitzke

About Me: I am a stay at home mom of two wonderful daughters. I spend my free time creating projects with my Cricut. My oldest daughter was put in charge of her dance committee at school. In an attempt to raise extra money, they decided to sell corsages. My daughter knowing my passion for creating all things Cricut, came home and asked, "Mom do you think you could create paper corsages?" And voila, you have the paper wrist corsage in the attached picture.

Instructions: NOTE: I used the Cricut® Mother's Day Bouquet Seasonal Cartridge. However, any cartridge that contains a basic flower will work as well.

• Tulle
• Bling
• Craft Feathers
• Iridescent Glitter Craft Glue
• Pearlescent Cardstock
• Hot Glue (Low Temp Gun)
• Stretchy Lace

1. Cut out a flower (from any cartridge that has a flower) in multiple sizes. Begin with 3" and decrease by 1/2" increments.
2. Cut out a 3" leaf and run glitter glue around the edges and create a design on the leaf, as desired. Let it dry for several hours.
3. Gently curl the petals by slowly rolling them over the sides of your finger tips. Roll the bottom flower and the second to the last flower from the top, so that the petals are facing down. All other petals should be facing up.
4. Use a low temp glue gun and attach the flower by putting a dab of glue in the centers. When gluing the flowers down, stagger the petals to give it a layered effect.
5. Glue a bling in the center of the very top layer of the flower.
6. Crisscross two feathers and glue them together. Once they are dried together, glue them to the back of your flower. Leave the bottoms of your feathers sticking out to the sides of your flower.
7. Once the feathers have been glued down, take your tulle and twist it in the middle. Glue down your tulle on the back of the flower, on top of the feathers. Let it dry.
8. Next, glue down the leaf (once the glitter has dried) on the bottom of the flower. It should cover up a portion of the tulle and feathers that you previously glued down. It also should be sticking out to the side of the flower.
9. Cut a 6" piece of stretchy lace and hot glue either end to the back of the flower, on top of the leaf. The lace should make a large loop underneath the corsage. This will allow for the recipient to slip it over her wrist.

1. Bling
2. Multi-Layer Flower
3. Feathers
4. Tulle
5. Leaf
6. Stretchy Lace

Cartridges Used: Cricut® Mother's Day Bouquet Seasonal Cartridge

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• Tuff Girl - Breast Cancer Awareness Card
• A Card With Indie Art
• Crop for the Cure - Good things DO happen
• Breast Cancer Breakfast Card
• Hope - Breast Cancer Awareness Card

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

This week has been a hectic week, working on craft projects for my exploration, squeezing in a wedding, and fixing my bridesmaid dress all in one week- there was a lot to do. On a side note, the wedding was beautiful; I fixed my dress and got half way through my exploration Cricut projects. The cartridges that I played with were part of the Cricut Event family: Girl's Makeup Party and Princess Party.

Girls Makeup Party is a cartridge that is developed and created for girls and all the fun stuff that we get to do, like using lip-gloss and perfume, blow drying our hair with a blow-dryer, using a finger nail polish. Let me share with you some of the images that you can cut on this cartridge: perfume bottle, nail polish, lip gloss, mirror, chandelier, sleeping mask, place card, drink wrapper, diamond, name tag, crown, banner, purse card, compact mirror, cupcake wrapper, and an envelope. You can also cut some fun titles: “Sleep Over”, “Mani Pedi’s”, “Make Over”, “Girls Night’, and “Happy Birthday”. In exploring this cartridge, I realized that I could use quite a few of these images for some scrapbook pages that I am working on. We had a spa/mani pedi bachelorette party, so I have quite a few photos to scrapbook. I plan to use the “Mani Pedi” title, the robe image, and the nail polish. I’ve got all my images cut out now to just glue them all together with the photos. This cartridge would be perfect for a little girl’s party, there is a favor box and a pillow box that would cute to use in the party. Cut the purse cards out for the party invitations. I think I will use this cartridge for my next dog birthday party- lol it’s the cutest cartridge ever.

“Princess Party” is the other cartridge that I explored this week. Again, this cartridge is perfect for girl’s parties, scrapbook moments, and cards. Some of the images that you can cut with this cartridge are castle, princess, crown, frog, scepter, shoe, favor box, crown box, place cards, cupcake wrapper, drink wrappers, cake topper, napkin holder, gift tag, party hat, crown hat, and 3D castle. This 3D castle is so adorable I think I will make a few for my nieces they will love playing Little Pet Shop with the castle, on a side note the handbook gives you instructions on how to put this adorable castle together. The shoe is also 3-D; there is quite a few 3-D images in this cartridge and I can’t wait to have a party where I can use this shoe as a favor box. Maybe I will just have to host a tea party for my sisters and nieces to have an excuse to cut out these shoeboxes. There is also a party hat that could be a princess hat, add some tulle to the top of the hat and then your daughter can pretend to be a princess around the house. This would be a fun kid’s project as well. On a side note, you can also cut some phrases with this cartridge: “Princess”, “Thank You”, “Birthday Girl”, “Royal Highness”, and “Party”. I think I will mix both of these cartridge for my girly dogs birthday party.

That wraps up my exploration for this week- see you next week.
- Crafty Kimber

HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

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!
Customer Support

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.”
- Josephine Hart