CRAFTING WITH THE KIDS (a.k.a. The Wise Choice)

Being prepared to avoid long months of indoor winter monotony is a point of interest for many adults raising children. Children are naturally creative and full of energy. They can only play outside for so long before becoming icicles. Our task, as responsible adults, is to encourage the development of their talents and skills while maintaining sanity and not burning down the house. There are many productive, wholesome, and fun indoor activities in which we can participate with kids in an effort to delete the doldrums of dullness. Children are busy people with the ability to tirelessly participate in one adventure after the other - sometimes leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. We pray for the safe and desirable indoor options which the whole family can enjoy.

Cricut^® products are an answer to those prayers. With proper supervision, instruction, and some paper, your munchkins can create wonderful craft projects, layouts, and cards with ease and excitement. Children love pushing buttons and this time they’re not yours. Playing with paper and glue has never been so fun! Call it family bonding. It’s good for everyone! Granted, there may be a bit of cleanup involved afterwards, but not as much clean-up as five gallons of water, a bag of flour, one quart of ketchup, and an entire bottle of dish soap on the kitchen floor. Winter can be long. Choose your battles wisely - choose Cricut!

Be sure to check out Crafty Kimber's excellent cartridge exploration of the Stencil and Floral Emporium cartridges in today’s Chirp. You’ll also find a quick tip about USB cords and their use with your Cricut Expression® or Cricut Expression 2 machine and the Cricut Craft Room^™ 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!

TIPS TREASURE CHEST

Today’s tip comes from message board bug guide scrapalette. Thanks for another tip.

Q: So I just got a Cricut Expression^® machine for Christmas and I decided to go online and do some exploring! Well, now I'm completely confused! I saw the Cricut Craft Room, which is so cool! But my question is...do you have to have a cord that connects the Cricut to your computer in order to use that? And where can I find that cord? I've looked on the shopping tab and can't find a cord like that! Also, do I have to physically buy the cartridge and insert it into my Cricut to use the Cricut Craft Room? If someone could shed some light on this, I would be very grateful!

A: The cable you need to connect your Cricut to your computer is a standard USB cord, just like the one you use to connect a printer to your computer. I actually use one cable and plug it into whichever (Cricut or printer) machine I'm using at the time. You can get a USB cable almost everywhere. . .WM, Best Buy, Target, etc.

And, while you can design and view all the images on all the Cricut cartridges through Cricut Craft Room, you do need to have the cartridge to be able to cut those designs. When you click the CUT button, your computer will prompt you to insert a specific cart used in the design and once it recognizes the cart, it will prompt you to insert the other carts (if there are any) used in the design and then it will send the design to your Cricut machine to cut.

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Shauna Raduske

About Me: Born in Texas, joined the military and love doing any kind of arts and crafts project in my spare time.

Instructions:

1. Use brown cardstock and cut in Shadow Blackout from George and Basic Shapes cartridge.
2. Cut 3 each of sizes 1” through 3” in increasing 1/2” increments.
3. Fold petals to crease each layer and find the center point.
4. Poke a tiny hole in the center of each piece to run brown pipe cleaner through it starting with the largest petal first.
5. Between each petal, add a small bead or spacer to separate each layer.
6. At the top, fold the pipe cleaner over to secure the whole thing.
7. Use various sizes to make different sized pine cones for your assortment.

Cartridge Used: George and Basic Shapes

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week’s highlighted threads are:

• Superman 3D box
• Thanks a Bunch!
• Whale Card and Gift Bag
• Snow Friends and a Winter Wonderland
• Snow Angel

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

Even though it’s January here in Utah, there is no snow on the ground and I keep thinking it’s fall instead of winter. The big question is what to do with the kids on the weekends when everyone is stuck indoors. The cartridges that I explored this week are Stencil and Floral Emporium, which is a cartridge for your Cricut Imagine® machine.

Floral Emporium is an adorable Cricut Imagine pattern cartridge. There are fourteen colors included in this collection that range from pink, blue, red, green, white, and bright pink. Also included in this cartridge are twenty elegant designs that surround roses, flowers, vines with flowers, and Leaves. Here is a sample of the prints that come with this cartridge.

I also played with the Stencil cartridge. This cartridge is designed to use with any airbrushing system. Have you ever wanted to try airbrushing but didn’t know where to start? I got ahold of an airbrushing kit and tried it with this cartridge. It was really fun; I felt like I was an artist. It was the most amazing feeling creating with stencils and the airbrush system. I also took a stab at using the stencils with acrylic paints. I made this easy Valentine’s Day craft using a simple scrap of wood my stencil, and some ribbon. Painting and using your Cricut to create craft projects are great ideas for indoor projects. You can use vinyl or stencil material when cutting out any of these images. I like to use vinyl when I am working with harder surfaces like wood and I like to use a stencil when I am working with material. I also need to point out that this cartridge is part of the Cricut Project collection. Some of the images that you can cut are cupcake, “little Princess” (this would be so cute on onesies), two Damask designs, an argyle pattern, flowers, tree, butterfly, castle, crown, car, train, Flu-De-Lee, rocket, “Blast Off”, wings, dice, skull & cross bones, wood pattern, soccer ball, football, tattoo design, peace and the word “Love”. For other project ideas check out the Stencil Look Book.

That wraps up this week’s exploration, don’t forget to check out what is new in Cricut Craft Room Exclusives. I love the 3D Hats and this would be a fun indoor project with kids, and the Pinwheels would also be a fun project for kids, and creating Funny Faces. Check back next week as I continue exploring new cartridges. Happy Crafting!

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 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!
Customer Support

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.”
- Aldous Huxley