Thank You!
We have so very much for which to be thankful for this holiday season! I was just thinking about all those simple joys and little blessings we enjoy in life that all add up to mean so very much. I felt it would naturally be appropriate if all of you fellow Cricuteers out there received a big THANK YOU from all of us here at the Cricut CHIRP!. Thank you to all of you who have contributed and shared so much over the past two years.
Your emails, suggestions, ideas, spotlight entries, and letters of encouragement have all been tremendously appreciated and we'd like to say "Thank you!" again and again. You are wonderful...KEEP THEM COMING! It is a pleasure to be associated with such talented and creative Cricuteers. We are happy you are a part of our Cricut family. We would not be the same without you.
Happy Cricuting,
Lonna Joy Smoot- Editor, Cricut CHIRP!
PROJECT CORNER AND SPOTLIGHT
More Winners |
Name: |
| Wendy Roy |
| About: |
| I've been scrapbooking and stamping for about 5 years now and am still amazed at all the new products and ideas that are out there. Right now I'm into using a lot of die cuts and embossing on my cards and projects and have really gotten into rubber stamping. I think my style is eclectic and always evolving depending on my creative mood! |
Wendy's Project: Advent Calendar |
| Pictures: |
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Cartridges Used: |
Christmas Cheer, Doodlecharms, George and Basic Shapes |
| Instructions: |
| When I was little, my Grandpa Tony would bring me an advent calendar every single year. I always looked forward to what would be behind the little doors. Some years, they were calendars with all different molded chocolate shapes and some years there were little plastic charms behind each door. I think what I miss most is the memory of him and how he remembered how much I enjoyed them and brought me one every year without me ever having to ask. I decided to make my own advent calendar this year. There are no chocolates or toys inside these little pockets, but it's a way for me to keep my memories alive during the Christmas season. I used a 12"x12" piece of canvas that I painted in red acrylic Making Memories paint and then coated with a layer of glossy Mod Podge. Next, I made the little pockets 2"x2" and created 1/4" tabs to be folded under on three sides to make an envelope (I used my Scor-Pal for this). Then I punched a half circle in the top of each envelope. I used Bazzill cardstock that I matched to the KI Memories holiday paper. I used a combination of Quickutz dies and shapes cut from my Cricut Doodlecharms and Christmas Cheer cartridges for each of the days. I used dimensional foam tape to make the images really pop out and used Icicle and Stardust Stickles to add some glitz to the die cuts. I used Quickutz Tangerine type on the "to" and Quickutz Jolly on the "Christmas". I used dimensional foam pieces to make the "Christmas" pop and also added some Stardust Stickles. For the "Countdown" title, I cut out Quickutz Katie type and then used the rhomboid shape on the Cricut George and Basic Shapes cartridge. I inked around all the edges and then put a coat of glossy Mod Podge. I had some very thin craft wire that I cut into 3" pieces and twisted around a pen to created the swirls and added some beads from my craft supply. I adhered one end of the wire to the back of the letters and then adhered the other end to the back of the canvas. I just used some heavy duty tape since you can't see the backside anyway. Then I used May Arts ribbon that I punched through the canvas with my Crop-o-dile and placed another bead and knotted the end of the ribbon to make the advent calendar ready for hanging. |
CRICUT BOARD
This week's highlighted threads are:
TIPS TREASURE CHEST - More on Center Point
Today's tip comes from message board member
GayleWheaton Q: My niece has the EXPRESSION and over the weekend we were trying to figure out how you center a title when putting a piece of 12x12 paper in the machine. A: The trick is to know where the center of your paper IS before you put it into the machine.... Most people will very lightly put a pencil mark at that point (if it's a photo you can cut a scrap paper that size, mark it and lay it over the pic and use the mark on the covering page).
Now load your paper and use the direction arrows to move your blade over the center (remembering that the blade is in the middle of the blade assembly). Push "Centerpoint".
Once there, now decide on what you want to cut. A shape will be cut around the pint where you left the blade before you pressed "cut".
For a title: Decide on the height of your font, and when you mark your center (of the width of the paper) mark your center line at the middle of the height of your font AS WELL AS THE DISTANCE FROM THE TOP OF THE PAPER. For example : I want my font height to be 2" and about 1" down from the top of the paper - so mark a light pencil line at the center of the width of the paper, and then add the distance from the top of the paper to half of the font height. In the example, 1" + 1" = 2" , (1" from top + 1" half of font height) so now make a horizontal line across the vertical line at 2" from the top edge of the paper.
Bring the blade over the point where the 2 lines cross, print out your title (it has to fit on one cut, tho!)and push "CUT". The machine will go back towards the front edge of your paper and cut out the words, and then the blade will return to the centerpoint you had at the beginning. (It will also do this if you unload the paper in between lines and push "Load Last". The beauty of this is that you will have each line centered where the previous one was -- you just have to move balde down the distance you want between the lines and 1/2 of the font height!!)
CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION - Christmas
I can happily say that I am now ready for Christmas--bring it on! I got some help putting up all my Christmas lights. Once I got up all my lights I realized that I needed more electrical cords, so off to the store I went for the things I needed to finish setting up Christmas. My tree is up and all decorated, and I must say for myself that it looks pretty good. I also have a Christmas porcelain village, which took forever to set up, but after 6 hours and a ton of hard work, the end result was just the way I wanted it. Did anyone go shopping on Black Friday? I did! WOW what craziness. I only stayed in the store for fifteen minutes, I couldn't handle all the people everywhere. But my friend went and purchased the new
Christmas Solutions cartridge. Once I heard it was out, I went and purchased mine. This cartridge is perfect for the season right now. I think I have a new love out of the Christmas cartridges.
This cartridge is one of the Solutions cartridges and has only two creative features. The features that come with this cartridge are Shadow and Blackout. The phrases that you will find on this cartridge are: "Merry Christmas", "Santa Claus", "St. Nick", and "Noel". Images that come on this cartridge are Santa, wreath, sled, reindeer, Santa head, Santa sled with moon background, bell, star, bear, ice skates, angels, nut cracker, rocker house, doll, present, train, candles, door, window, tree branches, trees, ornaments flowers, snowflakes, light post, houses with snow on them.
You have a few images that will work as frames, and the old fashioned sign would make a great journal tag. Any of these images would look great on a card or invitation. You could cut the reindeer and sled out of vinyl and put in your window. This would be a great activity to do with kids and then let them place the images on the window to help get the house ready for Christmas. The snowflakes with the use of
DesignStudio would make a nice banner to hang over a window or you can cut them all out individually and hook them together with ribbon. Cut them out of cardstock add the shadow or blackout (this makes the snowflakes stiffer), punch a hole add some ribbon and now you have Christmas tree decorations. The tree branches would make a nice side bar for a scrapbook page and the swirl with shelf would fit perfectly under a picture to help draw attention to a special moment.
Other Cricuteers who have used this cartridge and created some wonderful designs:
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Scrapfor4 developed a Christmas Countdown calendar using this cartridge. I just love this idea.
http://www.cricut.com/messageboard/tm.aspx?m=3218083- I love this Angel card that
angelicarodriguez created, check it out on the right.
http://www.cricut.com/messageboard/tm.aspx?m=3236131 There are quite a few different ideas on the website, for more information check out the website at
www.cricut.com under community, message board, solutions cartridges, Christmas. If you have any additional ideas that you want to add to the message board, open up an account on the webpage and upload your images for everyone to checkout.
Check out next week as I continue to explore the Cricut cartridge family and see what I discover next. Happy holidays and if you haven't made a jump start on your Christmas cards, now is the time to get started.
Crafty Kimber
TECH SUPPORT NOOK - Reset Process
If your machine freezes, experiences power problems, cutting issues, or anything out of the realm of normal Cricut behavior, this reset procedure is a good place to start the troubleshooting process. Nine times out of ten, this will resolve the issue:
- First, turn your machine on with no cartridge loaded. Then you are going to roll all your gray dials (the two on the left and the one on the right) down to their lowest setting.
- Then you will want to grasp the green/gold cylinder blade assembly and use it to pull the entire gray carriage car unit (the one with the Cricut bug on it) along its track to the other side of the machine. Back in the cave where the gray carriage car usually sits there is a red button. Press that button and hold it down for about three seconds. Let go and then move the gray carriage car back into place.
- This next step will sound a bit odd, but many times it can fix your little "bug". You're going to roll all your dials all the way up and all the way down three times--three times for each dial.
- Then you are going to hit the "Cut" button and turn the machine off. Let the machine sit for a few minutes (15-20), load a cartridge, turn it on, and try a practice cut.
If this does not solve your problem, give us a call toll free at 1-877-727-4288 7am to 6pm MST Mon-Fri (make sure you are by your machine) and someone here will walk you through some troubleshooting tips and determine if a replacement machine is needed.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
| "Turn your face to the sun, and the shadows fall behind you." ~ Maori Proverb |