DATES, DATES, DATES!

It's July! July is a summer month full of sunny days, fun in the sun, and kick back on the porch and sip lemonade days. There will be plenty to scrap and craft about this month. I thought I would provide a brief list of some holidays and observances you might find interesting or useful during July.

July 1- Canada Day!
July 4- Independence Day!
July 14- Bastille Day!
July 19- Ugly Truck Day!
July 23- Parent's Day!
July 24- Cousin's Day!
July 26- Aunt and Uncle Day!
July 30- Father-In-Law Day!
July 31- Chinese Valentine's Day!

On the local front, please also note that July is Baked Bean Month, Blueberries Month, and National Recreation and Parks Month, and of course, National Hot Dog Month.

Some are more prominent than others. Some are abstract. But they are, nonetheless, holidays...and holidays are especially fun themes to use in our crafts.

This week, be sure to read Crafty Kimber's cartridge exploration of the Varsity Letter, B is for Boy, Sugar and Spice, and Live Simply cartridges. Enjoy a clever tip for using Cricut Color Inks and glean savvy wisdom from our customer support Floor Sweeps as they share technical advice about Cricut products. As always, I wish you well in your crafting adventures.


Happy Crafting!

FEATURED PROJECTS

MESSAGE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

This week's highlighted threads are:

• 4th of July Treat Bags
• United We Stand--4th of July Banner
• Patriotic Bunting
• U.S.A. blocks
• Banner Created for the 4th of July
• Fireworks

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Terry Sim
About: My husband gave me my Cricut Expression for Christmas. I have used it at church, at home, and in my travel business at expos! Who knew?

Terry's Project: USA Table Runner

YOUR NOTABLE TIP

Today's clever tip comes to us from messageboard member winterblue73. Thanks for sharing your tip!

"While trying to get the right size tag for a project I came up with one way to save myself a headache and a lot of paper. I thought of using the Cricut Color Inks to give me all the outlines for different sizes and tag types. Using the Plantin SchoolBook cart, I started at 1/4 inch and worked my way up as big as I could. I used all the different tag types and also sketched them in Italic. This will be so handy!"

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION

Every week I know that I need to sit down and write about which cartridges I explored, but this week went by so fast I feel like it was just yesterday that I was writing last week's exploration. Oh well! This week I got to play with some more of the cartridges exclusive to Walmart. I can hardly believe that I am so lucky to get to play with this new cartridge Lites and see what I can discover. This week I played with the Varsity Letter, B is for Boy, Sugar and Spice, and Live Simply cartridges

These cartridges have a new plastic case and trifold design. Each of these cartridges also come with reward points that you can collect and redeem on the rewards website. The handbook is a trifold with each of the images and the complete layer feature shown, so you know exactly how to assemble the artwork. For examples, click here.

Varsity Letter is a font cartridge; I'll describe this style as blocky. You can cut the letters out as singles, or layer them to make them bigger so they will pop on whatever you design. You can also cut numbers and some symbols as well as the upper case letters. Ameri-brit-gal from the message board created a special card using this cartridge (see pic or click here).

Sugar and Spice is full of baby girl images and will be perfect for baby shower invitations, baby cards, or any other baby-related gatherings or announcements. Some examples of the images that come on this cartridge are: teddy bear, flower, mushroom, diaper pins, bottle, jacks, kits, lamp stuff animal, rattle, crown, and baby carriage. A few examples of the phrases are: "Love", "Key to my Heart", and "Baby girl". CindyLouScrappinWho from the message board created a card too cute for words using the Sugar and Spice cartridge (see pic or click here).

B is for Boy is a cartridge for baby boys. It's perfect for boy parties, cards, invitations, and scrapbook pages. Some examples of the images on this cartridge are: train, little boy, dino, trucks, sailboat, dog, airplane, tricycle, whale, pirate, snake, and fish in a bowl. Examples of phrases are: "Little Squirt", "Baby Boy", and "Boys Will be Boys".

Live Simply is the last cartridge that I explored this week. I love the color and design of this cartridge. I think this title of the cartridge is my new motto in life. My favorite images on this cartridge are: the butterflies, skunk, snail, flower, dragonfly, mushroom, turtle, and cricket. There are five different frame styles, and a few phrases ("All Together, Explore"). AndiKay from the message board created this cute monkey card (see pic or click here). This is the cutest thing ever!

Well, it's time to wrap up this exploration. Check back next week as I continue exploring the Cricut Lite cartridges and see what I discover on the next cartridges. Don't forget to upload your projects to the message board so that all of us Cricut fans can see what you have created with the Cricut cartridges. Happy crafting!

Crafty Kimber

WEEKLY SURVEY

Don't forget to take this week's survey!

Click here.

HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

Here are the top questions in Customer Support this week.

From Becky:

Q. Why is it important that I register my purchases?

A. Registering your products helps Customer Support to help you faster should a problem arise. If your product is registered, we can look that product up in your account and see that, yes, you do have the product, and yes, you did take the time to register it.


Have a great week!

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

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
~ Thomas Paine