Three years ago, I transplanted three old favorite rosebushes from a former residence to my current residence. Spring came and two of the bushes bloomed and had a beautiful season. However, the last bush did not show any signs of life. I didn't have the heart to rip it out of the ground again, so I continued to water and fertilize it whenever I tended to the other bushes hoped that it would recover from its trauma or shock and bloom again sometime in the future. Last Spring was cold and winter-like. No life was to be seen in any of the bushes...until mid June. All three of my rosebushes woke up, sprung out, and bloomed like they had never bloomed before! What a wonderful surprise and what beautiful blossoms. This year, they all have giant fragrant blossoms larger than the year before.

People can be a bit like my rosebushes as well. Crafters have talents and specialties of their own but for one reason or another have let their talents go dormant for a season. But, once they start "blooming", they really flourish. Reach out and help your friends rediscover their clever crafter within. Cricut products are ideal for helping to get those creative juices flowing again. They'll have a room full of roses of their own in no time at all!


Happy Cricuting :-)

A. 1. Click on "Post Reply". In order to attach an image in your post you must use the complete reply form. You cannot post an image from the "Fast Reply" area.

2. Under the File section, click where it says "Click here to upload".

3. Browse to your file. Remember your file must be in a .jpg, .txt, or a .gif format and must be under 200 kb in size.

4. Click OK and wait for it to accept the upload and click OK again to return to your post.

5. Under the File section you may also want to checkmark the "Embed picture in post" option. This will allow your image to show in your post. Otherwise people will have to click a link that is provided in your post to see the image.

6. You will not see the image in your preview window. You will not see it until you have made your post final. Add your text if you haven't already done so and click OK to post your image and text.

This week has been a little crazy, I had a yard sale on one of the days, and to get ready for it I had to make some signs. Because time was short, I used paint to make the signs, and you wouldn't believe it: my dogs decided they wanted to paint, too! They got paint all over their mouth area and down the front of their legs. Now the story gets funnier, because they are white dogs, so they turned into blue and white dogs. Needless to say, they got baths immediately and all the blue paint came out, so they are once again white dogs. If I would have just used my Cricut, none of the paint mess would have happened. But then, I wouldn't have a funny story to tell either--hummmm.

This month I have been exploring the Stand and Salute Cricut cartridge. As a quick review this cartridge covers a lot of the military and patriotic images and phrases. The creative features are: Note card, Dog Tag, Frame, Border, Shadow, and Blackout. These buttons can be found on the top left side of the overlay, incase this is your first time reading an exploration. I have already discussed the Note Card, what comes on the cartridge, and Dog Tag.

In this article, I played with the Frame feature and discovered that this could be a really fun extra to your scrapbook page, a book report, or any other project. The other great idea that this feature can do is help you create your own journal tag for your page. For example, my father was in one of the wars, and a few years ago he wrote his memories and put together a scrapbook for all of us kids. I loved reading these, and will treasure these memories because someday he will pass away. Now I am going to go back to that scrapbook that he put together, and make some of these frame images, for example: the flag image or star in a circle or the saying "My Hero". I will add these tags to the side of the pages and put in my own little notes of memories when my father first started telling stories of his experiences at war, as well as, put a picture of my dad behind the "My Hero" frame.

Another idea: you could use the frame feature to accent a picture. The shooting star would look great with a pic me and my dogs getting ready for the parade on the 4th of July. (Yes, I take my dogs everywhere, and I also dress them up in clothes.) The Purple Heart frame image would make a great die cut for the front of a card; this could be used as an invitation, or thank you card, maybe even congratulations. The boot frame would work great as an accent with any hunting, hiking, or camping photos. The suitcase frame would make a wonderful wedding card or bridal shower announcement. The compass frame could work with any Boy Scouts pictures. The trucks, airplanes, and military images in the frame feature would make great outlines for little boy's party invitations.

The "camo" image doesn't work with any of these six creative features, except for the shadow feature. This means you can cut a 12 X 12 sheet of green "camo" and the same in brown then mix up the shapes and decorate or create a really cool border for your scrapbook page. Now cut the same two colors of the same images only use the shadow feature so that you can layer the different colors on top of each other so they will stand out on your project.

This cartridge still has so much to offer. To get your project on the web, go to our website at www.cricut.com and become a message board member so you can get your project noticed. You never know if your project will inspires someone else to start Cricuting for the first time!

Crafty Kimber

A. 1. Rotate your mat and insert it in the other direction. You'll notice that a full 6x12" piece of paper is centered squarely in the center of the mat. So even though the printed text indicates one direction, we designed it to be rotated as well.

2. We recommend that you use and rotate a number of mats at the same time. This seems to extend the overall life of each mat.

3. Be sure to store them with the plastic film over them. Without that, your mat can collect dust or debris and not last as long. It is also a bad idea to store mats with a sheet of paper on them.

4. Don't cut too deep. Make sure the blade height is set just enough to get through your stock. If it cuts deeper into the mat it just wears it our faster.

5. Don't use a full sheet of paper is you are cutting something small. Every time you put a piece of paper on the mat and lift it up, it will leave fibers behind and take adhesive with it. Limiting the number of sheets pressed into different areas of the mat will greatly expand the life of your mat. (It may also be a good idea to sometimes place these smaller pieces of paper in areas of the mat that get less use--such as the middle or the corners opposite the blade.)

6. You can usually squeeze out a good handful of additional cuts by pressing the paper or cardstock down extra firmly when the mat is placed on a soft surface like carpet.

7. Take care not to expose your mat to extreme heat, particularly leaving it out in the sun. Under these conditions the adhesive may melt and, in some conditions, the mats may curl.