SPRINGTIME EXCUSES

Spring brings with it much rain and wet weather. It also brings the traditional reenactment of a series of annual events which few individuals look forward to and most try to avoid. The traditional occasion of which I speak is not the pinching fest which occurs on St. Patty's Day. Nay! St. Patty's Day is great.

By now, I'm sure you might be getting an impression as to which seasonal affair I am hinting. Yes, the vernal equinox ushers in the time honored event of "spring cleaning"! Cleaning and dejunking your home and yard are wonderful wholesome activities for the entire family. However, crafting and scrapbooking are wonderful and wholesome springtime activities as well. This is a fact! Remember, to save some time to nurture your family's artistic and crafty side this spring! Let our cute Cricut bugs and products assist you in creating original masterpieces out of the big box of scraps and miscellaneous crafting supplies left lying around in your craft room. No need to feel like a slacker just because you're not beating rugs and washing windows. Scrapping is considered to be a form of "cleaning up" and "organizing" as well. So, my friends, let Cricut assist you in making this year's "spring cleaning" the most enjoyable yet!

Happy Cleaning!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Bug Guides: A Helping Hand

We are excited to announce the new Bug Guides here in our Cricut Community!

Most of you already know and love the community for the great interaction we have with each other. You share ideas, show off projects, point each other to great deals, and general help each other when there is a question.

We've been watching and have noticed some folks are always ready to answer questions for community members new and long-standing. These people are helpful Bug Guides we've noticed repeatedly jumping in to lend a hand wherever possible. You may notice them on the boards wearing a special Bug Guide badge now. They will be looking for questions, providing answers, and generally providing a helping hand.

We're excited for this new role and know we will all benefit from the continued help of our Bug Guides. We hope to see the number of Bug Guides grow over the course of time.

Thanks for your continued participation in this great Cricut Community!

Don't miss the opportunity to see the Cricut and new cartridges and consumables in action! Here are are the dates and locations for the next month:

Kirkland, WA ~ 3/12-3/21
Sandy, UT ~ 3/12-3/21
Silverdale, WA ~ 3/26-4/4
Lehi, UT ~ 3/26-4/4

FEATURED PROJECTS

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• Happy St. Patty's Day!!
• Leprechaun Matchbox
• Pink New Home
• Pagoda Card
• Think Spring Card

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Kathy Files
About: Hi Everyone! This is Kathy. I love paper crafting. Creating home decor projects with my Cricut is my most favorite thing to do.

Kathy's Project: St. Patty's Day Wreath

YOUR NOTABLE TIP

Today's tip comes from message board member ~ScrapQueen~. Thanks for sharing your tip!

Q. "I am wondering about chip board. When you cover it, do you use it as a template and use a knife? Do you trace around it? I am oh so new and have never used chip board before so I am quite curious."

A. "Chip board can be used many ways. I cut my shape out with my Cricut, and then cut paper in the same shape to fit over top of it and glue it down. I then sand it a bit and ink it with a color that matches the paper I have chosen to use. It is very simple to do, don't be afraid to try it. You can also just ink or distress it."

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

I've recently decided to take up photography, and of course I plan to take pictures of my dogs. I've barrowed a camera from a friend and I'm in love with it. I have taken some really cute photos of my dogs playing with a paper towel. Now, you could say that I'm almost as much in love with photography as my Cricut. In today's exploration I will explore the HELLO KITTY® Font and the Street Sign Solutions font that is being retired.

Hello Kitty Font is a font cartridge with four different styles. The main letters are a block style but with a little bit of a curl, so they are slightly different then your standard font style. The creative features that come with this cartridge are: Round, Round Shadow, Silhouette, Flower, Shadow, and Shadow Blackout. The Silhouette font is the main font with a silhouette outline. The Flower feature has all the letters in the center of a flower (this would be great for titles that you want to draw some attention). You get upper and lower case letters, numbers plus some symbols. There are a few phrases included, for example: "Cutie Pie", "Best Friends", and "Hugs & Kisses". The images included are: Flower, Hello Kitty head, Hello Kitty doing the splits, Hello kitty in a dress, ballerina Hello Kitty, angel Hello Kitty, and Hello Kitty with wings. So, even though this is a font cartridge, you do get a few images that would be great for invitations, cards, placemats, or scrapbook pages. Dawn731 from the message board created a wonderful scrapbook layout using the flower font from this cartridge (see pic or click here).

Street Sign is the other cartridge I am exploring in this time. This cartridge is being retired soon so if it's on your wish list, better grab it fast. This cartridge is part of the Solutions family, and an upper- and lowercase font cartridge. The lines are bold and boxy; you also get numbers and some symbols, plus some shapes of street signs. For example: the stop sign shape, railroad sign, and a U-turn arrow. These shapes make great picture background layering, plus the arrows are great to point out a photo on a scrapbook page. The only creative features included are Shadow and Shadow Blackout. Momcat created this adorable card using the letters from this cartridge. You can now get a visual of the style that comes with this cartridge (see pic or click here).

Well that's all for this exploration, check back next week to see what I explore next. I want to give a big thank you to some wonderful Cricut friends that I sent the weekend with crafting. It was a pleasure to meet and crate with you all. Let the juices of creativity start flowing.

Crafty Kimber

HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

Here are the top questions in Customer Support this week.

From Mark:

To those that have the Cricut Create Machine and purchase the Makin' the Grade cartridge, you may get a error that comes up on your LCD screen. We have a happy and helpful solution. We have software called Cricut DesignStudio that can update your Cricut Create machine firmware and make that error with Makin' the Grade go away and never happen again. Here are the steps to do this:

(You will need to load this software onto a computer that has Windows XP or Vista as an operating system.)
1. Go to cricut.com and login to your account if you do not have account you will need to make one.
- select the "Products" tab - select "Download Update" (in gray) - select the green "Download" button - Run that installer. It will install Cricut DesignStudio.

2. Now there should be a DesignStudio icon on your desktop.
- double-click on that icon and the program will load
- select the option to run in trial mode
- go to "Help" on the toolbar, and then down to "Update Firmware"
- on the Update Firmware page, it will tell you what you need to do. Follow the instructions to the letter. You will need an a/b USB cord (most printers have that cord so you can just take that for this update, and then hook it back up to your printer).

After this update:
- Get your cartridge and start playing!

From Becky:

Q. Project Corner and Spotlight Winners

What a great way to build your cartridge library for free! Create something using your Cricut, then send into the chirp@cricut.com. You will need include a picture of your project, a description telling how us you created it, and a list of the cartridges used. Also make sure you send a picture of youself and a short bio about you.

You never know what could happen. You and your project could be in the Chirp! You could be famous! One of my favorite things sending out those free cartridges to the winners.

Have a great week!

From your Customer Support Sweeps:
Mark, Brightly, Michelle, Brittany, and Becky, "The Floor Sweeps"

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer."
~ Geoffrey B. Charlesworth