SOMETHING TO BOO ABOUT

The first snowfall of the season fell in my neck of the woods yesterday. I enjoyed standing at the window watching fluffy snowflakes gently fall to the ground outside as I sipped a hot lemony drink. It was nice to observe this from the warmth and comfort of my front room. Autumn temperatures are still dynamic enough that the white blanket which is spread so beautifully over the ground will have disappeared by tomorrow afternoon.

I'm pretty sure that this year's crop of trick-or-treaters will be wearing their costumes over the top of snow suits and coats as well as mittens and hats to boot. I shall dress as a "green tomato" for the evening in honor of my poor frozen garden and hand out candy bars to munchkins, ghost, and goblins that knock at my door. I already feel inspired to create a "Green Halloween Tomato” page for my scrapbook.

Be sure to check out Crafty Kimber's cartridge exploration of the Space Party and Chic & Scary 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 tip comes from message board member Doxieluv01:

Q: “I've read instructions and watched videos on how to change the blade but I see nothing referring to the blade being angled. Does it matter how the blade is turned when I let the magnet pull it up into the housing?”

A: “No, It doesn’t matter where the blade angle is because the blade rotates as it cuts.”

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Susan Edwards

About Me: I am Susan Edwards, wife, mother, artist, and scrap booker. I have been married to a wonderful man for 30 years and we have three grown college age children. I have always found creating art to be fulfilling and relaxing, and for me scrapbooking is an archival form of art. I am an avid collector of Cricut machines, cartridges, and tools. I also enjoy baking and decorating my baked goods with the Cricut Cake^®. I am a huge fan of Cricut DesignStudio^® and the endless possibilities for creating designs to cut with my Cricut machines.

Instructions:

1. Cut the long handled, unadorned purse on Forever Young on the 24 x 12 inch mat at 11.5 inches tall. Score the folds but do not assemble.
2. Cut Dracula and Bride of Frankenstein from the Happy Hauntings cartridge at 4 inches and 3.5 inches tall. Assemble the figures. Hand cut cocktails for their hands.
3. Cut a tag from Art Philosophy at 3 inches and in a different paper at 2.75 inches. Layer the two cuts together.
4. Cut the letters/numbers for the tag phrase from Happy Hauntings at 1 inch tall. Layer the cuts and glue them to the tag.
5. Cut a circle and an oval welded together to fit inside the front of the purse. Trim as necessary and glue to the front of the purse. Glue the monster figures to the front of the purse.
6. Cut two spider webs from Happy Hauntings, hand trim and place on the tag, handle and front of the purse.
7. Add buttons and ribbon before assembling and gluing your 3D purse together.

Cartridges Used: Forever Young, Happy Hauntings, Art Philosophy, and George & Basic Shapes.

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• Spooky Mansion
• Halloween Trick-or-Treat Bags
• Trick or Treat
• No Spook Here!
• Happy Halloween 12x12 Double Layout

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

This week I decided it was time to decorate the house for Halloween. Every year I try to make at least one of my decorations to add to my collection. I also decided to use a wood project that I’d never finished. My theory is that if I can’t finish a project in a day or two then it gets stuck in my craft room waiting for the day that I will finish it. I also got ahold of the Chic & Scary cartridge designed by Teresa Collins and explored the cartridge Space Party.

“Chic & Scary” is a new Halloween cartridge full of 50 images that range from pumpkins to bats and also have some phrases thrown into the mix. I had a ball cutting images out with this cartridge and my Cricut. I found my wood shaped pumpkins, painted and sanded the edges. Then I used some wood stain and stained over the paint, this made my pumpkins look more rustic. Next I cut the spider and scary cat out of vinyl and placed them on my wood pumpkins (see photo). One thing to note: if you want the vinyl to stay permanent then you need to place the vinyl on the wood before you add the wood stain over it. I placed the vinyl after my wood stain, so in November I can still use the pumpkins just pull off the vinyl. Other images and phrases you can create with on this cartridge are scary tree, pumpkin, bat, crow, owl, bird with crown, spider web, spider, witch hat, broom, cats, castle, candelabra, masks, skulls, banners, 3D box, cupcake holders (bats, pumpkins, skulls), 4 borders (spiders, bats, skulls, spider webs), and 2 masks. Phrases include: “trick or Treat”, “spooky”, “pumpkins”, “scary”, “beware”, and “October 31st”. My pumpkins project needed a sign so I cut out “Beware” in vinyl, than glued the cardstock to a wood block. There is even a “Halloween” border that you can cut out of cardstock. You could use the masks as banners for any kind of party, attach the masks together with ribbon or twine.

“Space Party” is another cartridge that’s part of the Event collection. This cartridge gives you everything to create a party. You can cut out invitations, place cards, water bottle wrappers, cupcake wrappers, envelopes, masks, and even a few 3D spaceships. The alien mask would also make a great banner; you could cut out each letter for “Happy Halloween” and use the mask as the background for each letter. Another note: the triangle icon that you see in so many of the images is universal to all of the images that have this triangle. What I mean is that you can swap them around between the different space images. I cut out the drinker bottle wrapper and discovered a problem. It took me a little bit and I had to call a few friends and ask for help to get the wrapper to cut out correctly for my water bottle. Here are my tips. On a Cricut Expression 2 machine, you will use the Fit to Length button that is in your settings area. Set the length that you want your wrapper to be (I used 10.5). Go back to the main screen where you can see the design on the mat, press on the image so you can edit it. Next press the size button and take note of the size on that screen (5.60), this is the height of the image. Use this size to set the triangle icon that is designed to fit the center of the wrapper. For a Cricut Expression machine use the Fit to Length button and look at your LCD screen because your Cricut machine will display the eight of the image. Write this down and use that size when cutting out the icon for the center of the wrapper. This adorable cartridge is perfect for a boy’s party. You can even use some of the images to decorate around the house for Halloween. Cut the images out of vinyl and now you can decorate your son’s wall if he loves space.

Check back next week to see what I explore and create.
- 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

“I don't know that there are real ghosts and goblins, but there are always more trick-or-treaters than neighborhood kids.”
- Robert Brault