This Saturday, my kin and I will celebrate Independence Day. The 4th of July is my favorite holiday of the summer! I love this day and all of its festivities, along with all of the delicious juicy watermelons, tasty barbeques, and wonderful fireworks displays. Most of all I love what we're celebrating. For me it is also a time to reflect upon and celebrate the many blessings and liberties I enjoy which have come to me at no small cost.

Every country and culture reveres their heroes and honors their forefathers for the sacrifices they made and the legacies they built. We know of these important people and events from recorded stories, documents, histories, and even pictures that enlighten our views of the past, help us see and understand the present, and then work for a better future. Since there are no time machines, many times we must view the world of the past through the storyteller's eyes.

In a way, we crafters and scrap bookers do the same thing. We are the historians and storytellers of our own lives and the lives of our loved ones. What kind of history are you telling? Who do you think will be turning through the pages of your scrapbooks in years to come? Perhaps you will make a connection and pass on a little bit of yourself and your history to them. While you're doing this, you might as well do it in style. The Cricut is a fun and efficient tool that will help you tell your tale and tell it well!


Happy Cricuting :-)

A. Stand and Salute is one of the four new Cricut cartridges. The Stand and Salute cartridge will be available in abundance at participating stores.

Beginning July 1st and running through August 15th, 2009, you could win a free Craft Cruise with special crafting workshops and events! Look for our four new cartridges in participating stores. By purchasing one, or all four if you like, you could win a free Cruise! Click here to find a store near you.

These are the other Cricut cartridges that will contain the winning Cricut Tickets:

Jubilee
Simply Sweet
Home Decor

Twenty winners will receive a seven day Eastern Caribbean "Craft Cruise" for two plus a $600 airfare credit!

I am sure I'm the last to get a hold of the Stand and Salute cartridge, and I have been wanting it so bad. When I first saw some of the images, I knew that I would have to have this cartridge as part of my Cricut family collection. Ever since my brother was sent over to the war in Iraqi, I have been very patriotic about my country. I feel that this cartridge will become very special to me. As always, the first thing I do is flip through the handbook that comes with the cartridge, because you can see the pictures better there than on the back of the cartridge. The creative features that come with this cartridge are: Note Card, Dog Tag, Frame, Border, Shadow, and Blackout. Some of the images that come on this cartridge are: flags, whole United States, statue of liberty, torch, stars, Liberty Bell, ribbon, anchors, hats (sailor, police, combat helmet, beret), banners, heart medal, ribbon medal, boots, rifle, fireworks, rocket, firecracker, helicopter, tank, cannon, clouds, jet, airplanes, submarine, and jet fighters. Phrases that are included are: "Stars & Stripes", "Let Freedom Ring", "United We Stand", "United States of America", "USA", "freedom", "American Pride", "Honor", "My Hero", "Welcome Home Soldier", "Support Our Troops", "with Liberty and Justice for all", "4th of July", and "Home of the Brave".

My first thought when I finished looking at the handbook was, "Wow! I can create a ton of t-shirts with the new Yudu!" If you don't know what that is, then it is the new silk screen machine. I finally got a hold of one and my sister and I have been making shirts like crazy. I decided that I would use the "Let Freedom Ring" saying, and then add some fireworks. I pulled out my Yudu yesterday and started creating my shirt. I even got the white shirt loaded on the form, so all I had to do was add the ink and then start pulling my shirt. Then I remembered that I didn't have any tape, so my project got put on hold. You can see my screen with my design all ready created (see pic on the right). You're probably wondering why I am talking about silk screening on the Cricut newsletter. Well, the great thing about the Cricut cartridges is that you can use the die-cuts from the Cricut as an option to create your template for your shirt or home decor item. I made shirts for my sister and her kids for the 4th of July (see pic). Her husband drew the circle outline, and then we used the United States image from this cartridge.

My friend Kendra created the cutest scrapbook outline using Stand and Salute, Simply Sweet, and Plantin Schoolbook (see pic). If you want to see how Kendra created this scrapbook layout then go to her blog at www.ScrappinCricut.blogspot.com to get the how-to details on using DesignStudio with this layout.

Tammy created the cutest idea for a water bottle. Her nick name on the message board is TammySkinner1, and she used this cartridge to create what she calls a flavor pouch.

Another Cricut artist that I found on the message board is: Capadia, she created some adorable 4th of July cards. To see her creations follow this link.

The possibilities are endless on what you can create with this cartridge. Check out next week as I start exploring the different creative features and bring you some of my favorite ideas taken from the message board. Happy Cricuting everyone, and Happy safe 4th of July.

Crafty Kimber

A.Freezing is common if it is happening once or twice every so often. There are a few tips and tricks that I can give you to keep your little "bug" from freezing more than that:

First, I would like to make sure that you are not "Hot-Swapping" the cartridges. Hot-Swapping is when you are inserting or taking cartridges out without turning off your Cricut to do so. Many who were doing this found that the machine would no longer freeze when they turned their Cricut off to change the cartridge. Also, if you power your machine on, the doors open and there is not cartridge loaded, you need to turn it off, put in the cartridge, and then turn it back on.

Second, if you give the Cricut a lot of commands at once, or commands in what it thinks is a weird order, it may freeze out of confusion. Most importantly, make sure you are pressing the left Special Feature keys (the gray keys located on the left side of the keypad) before pressing the characters or letters you want to cut. For example, if you were going to cut out word "CAT" with a Shadow, you would want to press Shadow, C, A, T--not C, A, T, Shadow. Also, typing long phrases can cause the machine to freeze up. If you plan to cut a long phrase, try spacing it up between a few separate cuts.

Third, if the machine is on for an extended period of time and overheats, it may freeze. Try to give it a 5 ? 10 minute rest every hour or so.

If you have tried all of these suggestions and your Cricut is still freezing, contact Cricut Customer Service: 1-877-727-4288 or support@cricut.com.