With the big day approaching so soon, I can't help but think about what I want most for Christmas. Togetherness. I love getting together with my family and friends during this season. One of my favorite activities is sitting around the table with my loved ones, after eating Christmas dinner. We laugh, tell stories, and simply shoot the breeze and enjoy each others company. This is also a prime picture day indeed. Relax, relish the holidays, and don't forget to live in the moment with wrapping paper and tinsel strewn all over the place. These are times to remember. Sooo take the time to remember them. Enjoy them and preserve them in style. Your Cricut bug and you will have plenty of holiday memories with which to scrapbook all year until the next holiday season rolls around.

Sending you warmest holiday wishes for a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, prosperous, and creative New Year!

Lonna Joy and the rest of the Cricut Team!

A: here is my 2cents on cutting felt. There is a very thin felt with pre-adhesive backing at Michaels, it is the only one I would use. Felt is very dirty, it leaves little particles everywhere, so make sure you use an old mat, after you cut make sure you take your housing out and remove the blade and make sure that no felt debris is left in the housing. Have fun. - CelticWoman

I finally got hold of the new Sesame Street Cartridges and I ran home and opened them as quick as I could. I was so excited to see what was in these cartridges; after I did a quick sneak peak I called my sisters to tell them all about these new cartridges. In this exploration I will explore the Sesame Street Friends. As soon as I flipped through the handbook I fell in love once again with Sesame Street, the images took me back to my youth. The creative features that come with this cartridge are: Body/White, Layer 1/Layer 2, Layer 3/Extra, Icon, Shadow, and Blackout. Each of the images has additional layers that you will need to cut to make the image stand out. If you are not sure how to layer the images make sure that you read page 6 in the handbook so that your image will look correctly. Some tips on using the Disney cartridge is to use black cardstock for the original layer then cut the extra layers out and glue them in the correct place like a puzzle.

Some of the characters that are in this cartridge are: Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Telly Monster, Baby bear, Cookie Monster (this is my favorite character), Big Bird, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Rosita, Prairie Dawn, Grover, Super Grover, Count Von Count, and Zoe. The images that also come in this cartridge are: cookie jar, cookie, doll, rubber ducky, frog king, Bernice, bear, Dorothy the fish, teddy bear, and Slimey the worm. This cartridge will be great for use in scrapbook pages and cards. I can see each of the images being used on party invitations and any type of card. The Sesame Street sign would be so cute on the front of a little boy's bedroom. There is a picture of Elmo holding a book that would be great for book marker to help encourage a young boy or girl to read a book during this holiday season. There is an image of Abby Cadabby with her hands wide open; this image would be great for a congratulations card or a "someone special" card.

Another idea that you could use these images with is to cut them out of Vinyl and place them on the walls. I can see "Big Bird" on a child's wall--I think that would be so cute. You could also decorate a lamp shade using the vinyl and a few of these images. Oh! This would be so cute.

Check out next week as I continue exploring the Sesame Street Cartridges. Happy Cricuting!

Crafty Kimber

A: This is really easier than you might think. Take your sheet of paper and place it in the BOTTOM LEFT corner of your mat. Next, load your mat into the machine so that the stretch of blank sticky mat is toward the machine, and the paper is toward you. Use the arrow keys around the CUT button to guide your blade over to the TOP RIGHT corner of your paper. Then, press SET PAPER SIZE (it's a fixed button on the right side of your keypad, right above UNLOAD PAPER). This measures the amount of square inches (or centimeters if you have your machine set metrically) between the blade, and the bottom left corner of the paper. It will read back this measurement to you on the LCD screen, and thereafter the machine will make all its calculations based on these dimensions. When you unload the paper, however, the slate is wiped clean and the machine will no longer remember the size you had set.