EASTER FUN

Easter is just around the corner, and that means that Easter preparations and decorations should be well under way. Create beautiful prizes, decorations, centerpieces, gifts, and crafts for Easter picnics, Easter brunches, and Easter Sunday dinners! The bright and cheerful colors of spring are important components needed to add brilliance and beauty to your holiday celebration and Easter fun. What are you waiting for?  Put your best pair of Easter bunny ears on and get crafting!

Be sure to check out Crafty Kimber's excellent cartridge exploration of Quilling and the Giant Flowers cartridge in today?s Chirp.  You?ll also find helpful crafting tips and glean great crafting ideas from the 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 is shared by message board Bug Guide, Narelle!

Q:In a previous Cricut^? Chirp, there was a project file with a .ccr ending. I cannot open it. Can anyone offer a suggestion about how to use this this?

A:First, you'll need to save the zip file to your computer and extract it. Then start the Cricut Craft Room? design tool and click the Import button. (If you already have the Cricut Craft Room? design tool running, select Open and then Import.) Locate the file on your computer and open it.

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Jennifer Lowrance

About Me: I am semi-retired now, which leaves more time for crafting! I love making cards, scrapbook pages, and wordbooks. I've only had my Cricut Expression^? machine for a bit over a year, and I already don't know how I lived without it! I'm finding more and more things I can make with paper.

Instructions:

• Using the My Community^? cartridge, cut four 4" fences. Cut off one post from each piece. Fold back each tab and use Terrifically Tacky Tape^? to secure them together.
• Cut out one 6" x 6" block of patterned paper for the bottom. Score =BD" all around and cut out the corners. Use Terrifically Tacky Tape^? to hold it in place
• Using the Easter cartridge, cut two 3" x 12" lengths of grass. Score and fold along the bottom of the box. Cut 2" rabbits and flowers as well.
• Using the Lacy Labelscartridge, cut one 3" frames.
• Using the Martha Stewart Crafts? Elegant Cake Art cartridge to cut one 1 =BE" butterfly.
• Using the Holiday Cakes cartridge, cut one 1 =BE" Happy Easter.
• The cat is from the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge and the ribbons are from the Christmas cartridge.

Cartridge Used: Christmas, Easter, Everyday Paper Dolls, Holiday Cakes, My Community^?, Lacy Labels, Martha Stewart Crafts? Elegant Cake Art

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• Happy Easter
• Beautiful Birthday Birdie in Pastel Colors
• Easter Flowers
• Do One Thing Everday that Makes you Happy
• Pink Flocked Bunny
• Easter Basket

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

Easter is just around the corner, and I still have so much to do to get ready for it?I haven?t even decorated my house! I love decorating for the different holidays and have some adorable Easter decorations. One of my favorite stress relievers is creating decorations to add to my collections with my Cricut^? machine. This week I needed a baby gift to and decided to create a paper flower mobile using the wonderful Giant Flowers projects cartridge.

At first, I was a little nervous to make these 3D flowers. It took me a little bit to figure out how many of each petal I needed per flower. I am here to tell you the tips and tricks of this cartridge so you won?t have to spend that precious crafting time figuring things out. The Giant Flowers cartridge comes with nine wonderful flowers and five different leaves to complement the range of flowers. You can cut a daisy, lotus, rose, poppy, peony, Ashley, pansy, zinnia, and hibiscus. On the overlay, the biggest petal is on the top row and the smallest petal/center is on the bottom row. The handbook is broken out so the first few pages lists the different flowers as well as a formula of what petals you need to make that flower. These pages also include a miniature overlay to show you where those pieces are. The yellow oval beneath the flower indicates the recommended cutting size. The orange circle is the flower?s approximate size when it is assembled. You can find the assembly instructions, including how many of each piece you will need, beginning on page 21 in the handbook.

To create my project, I first cut out all the flower pieces and glued them together according to the handbook instructions. (Note: You can use any type of glue, but you want something that dries quickly. I used a hot glue gun, but you could also use Glossy Accents since it dries so quickly). The instructions are laid out so that you work from the center of the flower to the outer edges. I wanted flowers that were fuller rather than flatter, so I cut out the Lotus (blue), rose (light yellow), hibiscus (pink), Ashley (green), and peony (pink). (Tip: Spray a fine mist of water onto each petal before folding and assembling flowers.) Hot glue the flowers to an oval picture frame. Attach ribbons to frame so it will hang upside down over a crib. Be sure to wait until all of your flowers are assembled before you glue them to the frame. I had to pull up one of the flowers so I could move it over and ended up gluing more leaves between the flowers to cover up the mess. Overall, I was very happy with my project, and I can?t wait to give it away. These flowers would be the perfect table centerpieces for any Easter gatherings?just use some wire to make stems and place the flowers in vases to decorate the room. If you need springy d?cor, glue the flowers on painted canvases, add ribbons for hanging, and place the projects around the house. You could even glue the flowers to a 5" x 7" card to create a fun card you could hand deliver to the neighbors.

Quilling is another fun Easter project. If you?re unfamiliar with quilling, you cut thin strips of paper and use a quilling pen to roll the paper up. You can then modify the coil to create different shapes, such as an eye. Try creating some beautiful Easter cards using quilling techniques. Provo Craft^? has made quilling even easier by developing some flower quilling dies. You can find a variety of quilling dies on Cricut.com.

In order to use these dies, you will need a Cricut Cuttlebug? machine and the 6" x 13" plates. Make sure that the gray side of the die is facing up and place your cardstock over the die. Then place the A and C plates underneath the die and the B plate over the cardstock. Roll the stack through the Cricut Cuttlebug? machine and then separate the pieces. Use the quilling pen to carefully roll the flower strips around each other, smallest to the largest. Secure the last strip with glue before folding the flower petals out. These quilling flowers are easy to make, and you can use different colors to make that special Easter card. See the website for all the different flowers you can create.

Check back next week as I continue getting ready for Easter and exploring the wonderful world of Cricut^? 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 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. 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

?Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life.?
?S.D. Gordon