Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day! That’s what people are saying, so I’ll say it too. I hope you and yours enjoy the very happiest of Valentine’s Days! Happy days inspire creativity and that’s what we crafters are all about.

The Scottish evangelist, writer, and lecturer, Henry Drummond, once said, “To love abundantly is to live abundantly and to love forever is to live forever.” Here’s wishing you an abundant and very long life full of love. Just imagine all the scrapbooks you’ll be able to finish!

Be sure to check out Crafty Kimber's excellent cartridge exploration of the Type Candy cartridge in today’s Chirp. You’ll also find a quick tip for adjusting shape measurements using a design program such as the Cricut Craft Room™, Cricut DesignStudio^®, or Gypsy^® 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

Adjusting Measurements

Q: I am making a bow for my sister’s bridal shower. I am using the sweetheart cartridge and the bow design. I need the overall length to be 11" however the bow can only be 1 3/4" wide by 3" long. What I need to do is lock part of the image, is this possible?

A: The only way to adjust only one measurement (height or width) is to use one of the design programs (Cricut Craft Room, Cricut Design Studio or a Gypsy). Since Cricut Craft Room is free (go to cricut.com and click on CraftRoom), you could easily alter your image. You might need to play around with it some as just stretching the measurement you want to be 11 inches will also distort the image somewhat.

The top bow is stretched but I left the bottom bow the original size and just welded a rectangle to each side.

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Kathleen Sawyer

About Me: Howdy. My name is Kathleen Sawyer. I am a born again Christian as well as a born again Texan. I wasn't born here in this great state, but I got here as soon as I could! YEEHA! I am former military and my wonderful husband of 22 years is retired military. We have two fantastic boys; one in middle school and one in high school. That means I am in a constant state of prayer. I have been a crafter all my life, but really got into scrapbooking when I was pregnant with my first. I am an occasional crafting blogger and I love to read and do research. Crafting and scrapbooking have evolved a lot in the last 15 years. And, in my humble opinion, my Cricut has been the biggest asset to my creative passion.

Instructions:

This is an altered craft, just right for Valentine’s cards. The Recipe:

1. Get a box - any box will do: this one was a "suit case" type box meant to hold a set of children's books.
2. Choose a pallete of four coordinating colors. I used red, yellow, black and cream
3. Find a base paper you like. I made my own using my Cricut Imagine: I first used a small diamond shape, colored it black, then flood-filled my mat. Choose print only and voil=E0! Checkered paper.
4. I used Provo Craft's Christmas Cheer 6x12 stack for my red plaid center paper.
5. Next I used Happy Hauntings for the following words/phrases: Love Notes, Smile, Notes, Romance, Little Things, and This & That, as well as some swirls/flourish.
6. Gather coordinating bling - trinkets, ribbons, and flowers, brads, Cricut cuts, - things you like.
7. Arrange - this is the fun part - decide where you want everything (play around a bit). Then glue it all in place.
8. The last stage is decoupage. I got a little nervous here; everything got bumpy but, no fear, it all dried nice and flat.

Cartridges Used: Happy Hauntings

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week’s highlighted threads are:

• Valentine Word Art Altered Canvas
• Simple Valentine
• Valentine Layout
• Bluebird Bringing Love
• "Made Just for You" Cupcake Card
• Valentine Card

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

Some of the things that I love to do are house projects, yard work, play with my dogs, and create with my Cricut. This week the weather has been colder; this created the perfect excuse to play with my Cricut. This week I explored the cartridge Type Candy, I fell in love with all the different fonts that are included. I immediately started thinking of projects that I could create, monograms are so popular and I see them everywhere. I chose to make a few easy projects using this cartridge. I used all the different letters in the alphabet and created an ABC drawing book (see photo and attached Craft Room cut file) using vinyl. To open the cut file, just unzip the file after you download it and click the Import button, it's the button located to the left of the New button in Cricut Craft Room after you login, double click the unzipped file in the window that comes up and then double click on “Type Candy” in your project list to open the cut file. Some tips on Vinyl ? make sure to use transfer tape when using vinyl. When peeling the transfer tape off, if the vinyl is pulling up a white back then your vinyl might be old and you should try the project again using newer vinyl. The vinyl should pull up easily using the transfer tape.

“Type Candy” is a full cartridge that comes with six creative features, which are Sugar Script Shadow, Better with Chocolate, Better with Chocolate Shadow, Taffy Script, Taffy Script Shadow, and Bonus Letters. Let me explain the “Bonus Letters” because I didn”t understand what these were till I looked at the images. For example, you get letters “nd”, “ly”, “th”, “ck”, “ss”, “st”, “tt”, “ff”, “rd”, “ee”, “ie”, and some extra letters that are fancier. Sugar Script is the basic style that gives you letters that are wider with rounded edges. This collections comes with both upper and lower case letters and numbers as well as some symbols, “@”, “#”, “$”, “%”, “^”, “&”, “*”, “(“, and “)”. A few words that are included in this style are “To”, “and”, “of”, “from”, “the”, and “No”. Don’t forget that this same style also comes with shadows and each shadow letter can be used on their own for any project. I use the “H” from the Sugar Script Shadow to create my moss letter project (see photo). This project was so easy. I got the idea online and have been saving it for the right font style, and when I saw this cartridge I knew I could finally create my project. All you need is chipboard or stiff cardstock, hot glue, and moss. Use the Cricut to cut out the letter from chipboard or stiff cardstock, cut a few layers and lay a generous amount of hot glue in between each letter as you glue them together. Then hot glue the moss in place covering the whole letter, then go back and glue moss on the sides so that your entire letter is covered up. So easy!

Better with Chocolate is a style that has straight edges and is slightly blocky, but some letters have some curl such as the letters “M”, “y”, and “f”. This style also comes with upper and lowercase letters, plus numbers and some symbols. I found another project online using yarn and have noticed quite a few projects created using monograms. I decided to give this project a try and use the “H” from this style wrapped a yard around the whole letter, then left space for the yellow strips that I added second. I used yarn that I had in my craftroom and found this project was really easy to make. Taffy Script is the other font included in this cartridge and it has a very feminine cursive look to it. This font also comes with upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. I fell in love with each of the fonts in this cartridge; any of the styles would be great for posters, school stuff, monogram pillows, cards, titles on scrapbook pages, and you could create your own scrabble designs for any home d?cor projects.

This wraps up my exploration for this week make sure to check back next week as I continue creating projects using my Cricut. 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

“Where there is great love, there are always wishes.”
- Willa Cather