Cricut® Chirp! February 2, 2009

Happy 2-2-9!

Yes, today is the day better known as Groundhog Day. I'm told this day's roots date clear back to the Roman Empire. The concept was about the same, except folks there watched out for a hedgehog. Now, we all hope this furry little critter will not see his shadow and disappear back into a hole in the ground for six more weeks of winter.

Really and truly, we are only halfway through the winter season in this area. Snow in May is not a surprise here. In fact, farmers here have a saying. "Groundhog day...Half your hay." Those clever farmers know that we are not even close to the end of winter, no matter how cloudy February 2nd could be. So, why have all the festivities and celebrations? Because we can. It's a good excuse to have a party! There's always the very slight chance that an early Spring could come. Go Groundhog!

Don't miss out on your favorite events of the winter season. Scrap about them in your own way and with your own little Cricut critter. Cricut may not be a prognosticator of weather, but it sure does a better job cutting paper and other crafting materials than some critters I know of. A hroundhog would only chew up all your paper and go to sleep for six more weeks. And a hedgehog...let's not go there.

Happy Cricuting :-)

Lonna Joy Smoot- Editor, Cricut CHIRP!

PROJECT CORNER AND SPOTLIGHT

More Winners	Name:
	Rita Barakat
	About:
	I have been married to my wonderful hubby for 18 years. I am a SAHM of five beautiful children. Scrapbooking is my passion. I am always thinking about ideas for layouts and stories to journal. I have three cameras stashed in several places so I am never without one! (When you have 5 kids you learn to be prepared!) I got my cricut expression for Christmas and I love it! It is so much fun!
Rita's Project: "Beautiful" Scrapbook Page
Pictures:

Cartridges Used:
Disney's Tinker Bell & Friends, Storybook, Tags, Bags, Boxes, & More
Instructions:
Let's start with cutting; Leaves : I cut out 13 sets of leaves from the Storybook cartridge (using the shadow button on the letter J) in red, mustard, and hunter green. I took a roller stamp and stamped a swirl pattern with brown over all the leaves. I inked the edges of the leaves and curled them around my paper piercer. Flowers: I layered various flowers from different makers, inked the edges red and orange. I added glitter here and there to the "butterflies & fairies" & "beautiful": The butterflies, fairies and the word "Beautiful" were cut with the Tinkerbell and Friends cartridge. The fairies and the word "beautiful" were cut using the filigree button. I cut the world "beautiful" twice. The top layer is a little bit darker yellow was inked on the top and bottom. The bottom is actually just placed a bit to the right. I cut four butterflies to make two. The bottom layer was inked purple and the top orange. I used chalk in various places to create depth and drew scroll patterns with glitter glue (stickles). I only glued the center of the bodies together so I could bend the wings to my liking. I cut off the antennas (if that’s what they are called!) on the top layer and placed rhinestones down the center of their backs. Tag: You could cut one with Tags, Bags, Boxes and More. I inked them and placed one on top of another, slightly to the right. I stamped the lines so I could do my journaling. The floral stem is from the storybook cartridge. I cut it three times with three different colors then cut the little red and yellow flowers off and glued them onto the green base. I tied the little "love" heart on with a thin green twine. Chipboard: The chipboard was precut and unfinished. I inked them orange to match the layout. Pictures: I used 3 pictures at 3 1/2 x5 and one 8x10 was trimmed to fit my chipboard frame. Assembly: Adhere the pictures and chipboard first. I worked from bottom to top layering as I go. Leaves were first, attached only from the center of the stems. Then flowers, butterflies, fairies, journal tag, and pearls (in that order). The pearls come in a bunch wrapped in wire and floral tape. I cut off some of the wire stems and glued them in between leaves. The last thing I did was take a blue gel pen and wrote "my girls" on page 2 and filled in here and there with a little doodling!

CRICUT BOARD

This week's highlighted threads are:

TIPS TREASURE CHEST - Q: Does Cricut have an embossing and stencil kit?

A: Again, the answer to that would have to be in the affirmative. Check out the embossing and stencil kit by clicking here.

CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION - Sports Mania

Attending CHA was a lot of fun last week. I enjoyed walking around all the booths and discovering new products in the scrapbooking category. In the Provo Craft booth, the Yudu was unveiled so everyone was able to make a t-shirt to take home with them. The Yudu is a silk screen making machine where you can now make your own t-shirts or home decor.

In this exploration I will explore the new Sports Mania that you can now purchase at your local craft stores. I finally got a hold of one for my Cricut collection and was really excited to open up this cartridge. Now finally you can have a cartridge that gives a really good collection of images of a variety of different sports. This should make crafting or finishing up those scrapbook pages easy.

The sports that are covered in this cartridge are: soccer, wrestling, hockey, volleyball, running, tennis, basketball, karate, football, baseball, softball, swimming, and golf. The extra images that will complement all of these sports are: clipboard, “Coach”, water bottle, and trophy. Words that are included are: junior, freshman, sophomore, senior, and varsity.

Each sport also comes with some phrases that will complement any scrapbook page or would make great cut out of vinyl for your wall. Some examples of the phrases are: “soccer is life”, “Kick this”, “Score”, “Down for the count”, “Hockey is life”, “Slam”, “I dig VB”, “Spike it”, “A need for speed”, “Tennis Anyone?”, “Game on!”, “Basketball is Life”, “Swoosh”, “hoops”, “home team”, “Football is life”, “touchdown”, “Grid Iron”, “Play ball”, “Batter up”, “All Star”, “Making a Splash”, “Golf is life”, and “Golf Addict”. WOW! Think of all the phrases that you can cut with the Cricut for either wall or a scrapbook page--I love it! These phrases would work great with the new Provo Craft product “Yudu” as well. Just think you could screen print any of these phrases on your favorite t-shirt. Now you can give that special someone something you created with your Cricut and your Yudu.

The creative features that come with this cartridge are: Layer, Frame, Border, Background, Shadow, Blackout. I know that I am stating the obvious but the layer feature gives you additional images that will compliment or fit a particular image. This will make your images stand out or “pop” as the favorite saying goes in the scrapbooking world. The other creative feature that I will explain is the Frame feature, and yes I am stating the obvious again. All of the images and phrases come with either a square or rectangle frame. This is just another way to help your images or phrases stand out in whatever you are creating.

Check out next week as I continue exploring this cartridge. Happy Crafting!

Crafty Kimber

TECH SUPPORT NOOK - Q: How do I contact the author of a post on the message board?

A: 1) When looking at a post, you will see the name of the author in the top left corner in green.
2) Click on the author’s name and you will be taken to their profile.
3) When you get to their profile you will see a table labeled "Member’s Details".
4) In the “Member’s Details” section you will see a line labeled e-mail. Next to this line you will see a green link that says email….then the member’s name. When you click on this link it will open a separate window that will give you a place to write a message to them.
5) When you have completed the message click on the OK button below. This will send the message to the member.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"You can’t aim a duck to death."

~ Beverly Sills