We are already one month into 2012 and it is February! A new month means a new Stamp Of The Month. This month’s stamp has some wonderfully loving sentiments. Many of them coordinate with our Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge!
Like the projects
pictured below? Supply lists and directions are on the Close To My Heart website
via this link.
Here’s a picture of all of the images on this set.
You can get this
stamp set during February for $5 with additional purchases of $50.
Today, I’m continuing my Tuesday Cricut Organization series with some navigational hints for the Art Philosophy cartridge. First of all, a big thanks to my fellow blogger and Close To My Heart consultant, Lalia, who gave me a great key to unlock navigation on the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge. (Here blog is www.craftylalia.blogspot.com if you want to check it out).
If you have read my earlier posts, you know that I have done away with the spiral handbooks that come with the cartridges. Instead, I’ve printed them on letter-sized paper and put them in a binder. (Here’s a link to the post discussing how to do this).
However, the Art Philophy handbook is not available as a pdf. Instead, Close To My Heart issued a Shape Index. It is available on www.CTMH.com under Ideas & Inspiration/Cricut or by clicking here.
The first page of this document contains the base shapes available on the cartridge. These are the images that are printed on the keyboard overlay. The images in grey are available using the shift key.
Each of the remaining six pages show the shapes available using the special feature keys on the left side of the Cricut keyboard: Layer, Decorative Layer, Tag, Card, Font and Font Layer. Each of these pages is also arranged in the order the keys appear on the keyboard overlay.
Now, let’s go back to page one (shown below). There is a pattern to how the shapes are arranged on the keyboard overlay. Take a good look at the black shapes in each column. Do you notice anything? Lalia has added heading to columns in the image below to help you see the pattern.
Column 1: circles & scallop circles
Column 2: ovals
Column 3:
squares
Column 4 rectangles
Column 5: rectangular labels
Column 6
oval (rounded) labels
Column 7 is a bit of miscellaneous
Column 8:
tabs
Column 9: banners
Column 10: tags
Now that I’ve seen this, I have to wonder how I missed it. But sometimes the obvious has to be pointed out. Next time I’m hunting for a certain shape, I’ll know to focus on the columns. I hope this navigational guide helps you too.
If you have not yet purchased your cartridge, you can pick it up on my shopping website (LINK).
Happy Creating,
Rebecca
I got a new toy from Ebay this week: the Cricut Create Mini.
Tonight, Emily and I got it out of the box and gave it a test drive. Our first creation is this snowflake cake.
Not a masterpiece, but we had fun making it. We learned a lot that will help us next time. Here’s a few pictures and notes about what we did.
The first thing we did was bake and ice a cake. We used the Wilton buttercream icing recipe and added blue gel coloring. For the snowflakes and border, we used Wilton gum paste. To prepare the gum paste, Emily kneaded it a few minutes to heat and soften it.
Next, we rolled it out to about 1/8″. We had a little trouble at first with it sticking to the counter, so we used a pastry brush and put a thin coat of shortening on the counter.
The Cricut Cake mats do not have adhesive. In order to make the gum paste stick to the mat, we brushed it with shortening.
Next we put the gum paste on the mat and trimmed the edges, then loaded the mat into the Cricut. If you are familiar with Cricut functions, you will have no problem operating the Cricut Cake. It works basically the same.
All my Cricut cartridges also work in the Cricut Cake. Tonight, we cut out a few snowflakes from the new Art Philosophy cartridge. Generally, you will want to cut fairly simple designs on the Cricut Cake.
On our first attempt, the gum paste slid a little on the mat as it was being cut. In this picture you can see how the start and ending points did not line up.
To fix the sliding on round two, we rolled over the gum paste with the rolling pin after placing it on the mat. This helped adhere it and we didn’t have any more issues with sliding. We also cut out a scalloped border (also from the Art Philosophy cartridge) to put around the base of the cake.
To decorate the cake, we simply placed the cut out images on the cake.
We decided it needed a little more decoration and used the remaining icing to add a shell border and piping on the flakes.
I think we may have over-decorated just a tad. But once the icing is in the bag, it is so hard to stop.
This is the third and final post in my series showing you how I organized my Cricut cutting area. Over the holidays, I worked out a new system for storing the cartridges, overlays, handbooks and mats. Check out my prior Tuesday morning posts on how to organize your handbooks and cartridges.
My final note is about what to do about those mats. I used to have a spot on the floor under the table designated to the mats. However, I found that they often didn’t make it to their designated spot. Inevitable, something would get set on top of the sticky surface.
In addition, other things (the dog, for example) sometimes were in that spot. Not a good for something as sticky as Cricut mats. Dog hair on the mats is not conducive to nice clean cuts. (See below for tips for cleaning and maintaining your mats)
My solution is simple, but revolutionary. Hang them on the wall! I used Command hooks by 3M. So if I decide to rearrange my office/craft room, I’ll leave no holes behind.
Tips for cleaning and maintaining your Cricut mats:
1) You know that plastic sheet that comes on top of the mat? Keep it and use it. Every time you finish using your mat, put the sheet back on to protect it from stray particles that are attracted to the stick surface. Since I hung mine on the wall, I simply hang the plastic sheets between the mats rather than actually sticking them.
2) If you don’t have the Cricut spatula, get one. This is an inexpensive tool that is very helpful. You may already use it for scrapping delicate images off the mat to prevent damage. It also can be used to scrap off those tiny pieces of paper (basically paper dust) that are left after you remove your image.
3) If your mat has lost much of it’s stick, it is likely due to having too many minute particles stuck to it. You can prolong the life of your mat by cleaning it with Spritz cleaner. Just spray and wipe off with a paper towel.
Happy Chirping!
This is Part 2 in my series showing you how I organized my Cricut cutting area. Over the holidays, I worked out a new system for storing the cartridges, overlays, handbooks and mats. Click here to read last weeks post on how to organize the handbooks in a three ring binder.
Today, we’ll look at my cartridge containers.
The containers are from Snapware and I found them at Target. They come with a lid and three trays that can be stacked and snapped together. For this stack, I combined two sets that came with three trays each. I’m only using 5 of the trays and one lid (I used the remaining tray and lid elsewhere.)
Each of the top three trays hold 12 cartridges and overlays. I’m using the bottom two trays to hold Cricut accessories.
Let’s look inside one of the tray…
As I was trying to decide what to use to make the cartridge dividers, I happened to see the pack of Citrus Leaf Cardstock I recently purchased at a bargain price off the discounted list.
It is the PERFECT color for the Cricut and the perfect weight for making dividers for the cartridges.
I put number labels on the cartridges to match the numbers in the binder and numbered the boxes to match the index of my binder. I also put a list of the cartridges in the lid (attached with glue dots).
Would you like to make a tray for your cartridges?
Supplies:
Small (approximately 6″ x 9″) Snapware box
Heavy cardstock, for 3 trays you’ll need 5 12″x12″ sheets
Adhesive, I used Tombow
UPDATE 12/25/2012 – Since originally writing these instructions, I have learned for 3D projects to use a combination of Tombow andLiquid Glass. The Tombow gives it an immediate hold and the Liquid Glass will make it last. I would suggest using Tombow as described below, but before pressing together add a few drops of Liquid Glass.
For each tray, cut four strips of cardstock 3″ x 12″ and one piece 5″ x 9″. Score the first strip lengthwise 1/2″ from each side. Turn and score to make 10 sections with the following lengths in order: 1.5″, 0.75″, 1.5″, 1.5″, 0.75″, 1.5″, 1.5″, .75″, 1.5″, .75″. Fold on the series of score lines to create peaks and 0.75″ wide valleys as shown in this picture.
Next, cut each of the series of score lines from the edge to the long score lines to create tabs along the sides of the strip.
Then cut off each of the 0.75″ tabs.
Adhere the backs of the 1.5″ sections together and fold in the tabs to create a set of three attached boxes with a flap on one side.
Figuring out what flap to put adhesive on first was a trick. I ended up doing the sides first, then adhering the faces of the boxes together.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. I needed a way to have a firm surface to apply tape to the outside of the assembled boxes and I did discover a new use for the 14″ ruler:
Repeat with the other three strips. Use the remaining 0.75″ flap to attach the first set of boxes to the second.
Repeat two times. You now have a set of twelve attached boxes. Trim the remaining flap.
Score the 5″ x 9″ piece of cardstock 1.5″ (or a little less) from each of the 9″ sides. Fold both edges up to create a tray to set the boxes in.
Apply adhesive liberally to all three sections of the 5″ x 9″ piece. Press the box to the center section. Fold up edges and press to sides of the boxes.
Repeat for each tray.
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. Stop back by next week for my final post on organizing Cricut items. Happy Chirping!
Today, I’d like to present to you the cards we’ll be making at the next Cards by the Dozen workshop on January 22.
The theme for the day is “Thinking of You”. In planning this workshop, I was thinking of tough circumstances that people go through in life. Have you ever had a friend or family member in the midst of a trying situation and not known what to say? Often the situation is out of our control and the best we can do is let our loved one know we are thinking of them.
This first card is made with the Hope stamp set that CTMH offered in response to the Japan earthquake with proceeds going to the American Red Cross. I made this simple card that I made when I first received the set and thought it would be a nice card to let someone know you are thinking of them.
The second card is uses the on of my favorite discontinued papers – Olivia. I love the barn red, oranges and greens of this paper pack. We will be using sand paper and ink to get the distressed look of this card.
For the final card, I used the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to create a shaped circle card. The stamping is from the Pair-a-Phrase stamp set and the B&T paper is Sonoma.
Here’s the inside of the card:
Need a girls day out? You are welcome to come join us! This is the place to be!
Each person who attends will be making four of each of the three cards above, for a total of 12 cards. Envelopes and all supplies needed to make the cards is included. Just bring yourself!
Date: Sunday, January 22
Time: 2:30 – 5:00 pm
Cost: $12
Place: My house (email for address)
So what did you do over the holidays? One thing that I did was to organize my craft room. Well, technically, not the whole room, just the Cricut cutting area.
Here’s a picture of my finished work area:
Over the next couple weeks, I’ll share my tips and tricks for organizing Cricut cartridges, overlays, handbooks and mats. I had to do something because those bulky cartridge boxes were taking over my space. Can you relate?
Not only do the retail boxes take up a lot of room they are cumbersome to use. Everything has to be returned to an exact position for them to close properly.
My biggest pet peeve is how the spiral handbooks which just don’t function properly, so that is what I’m going to focus on today. One tip I heard was to tear out the foreign language pages to reduce the number of pages. While that helps, the top of the pages still get stuck in the spiral binding making it difficult to turn pages and easy to tear them.
My solution is to switch from the spiral handbooks to this three ring binder. 🙂
Needs some decoration doesn’t it? That can be my first project using my new organization system.
Similar to most books, I started with an index with a number for each cartridge. I grouped them somewhat by topic. (You will learn more about the box numbers at the top in my next organization post.)
Next I printed the handbooks from the Cricut website. To print your own copies, follow this link to the cartridge listing. Click on the name of your cartridge. From the cartridge’s page, click on the “digital handbook” link. This opens a document with each handbook on a separate page. Adjust your printer settings to landscape and multipage. I printed six to a page (two across, three down).
Next, I put them in page protectors and added tabs with the same numbers as the index.
UPDATE (12/25/2012) –Link to site with pdfs of most cartridge handbooks without the pesky watermark!
Done! I find the binder great when I am searching for a certain image. For example, if you have multiple cartridges with a Christmas tree, you can easily flip between them to decide which one you want.
Speaking of searching for an image, a handy website is www.MyCutSearch.com. Simply type in the name of an image you’d like to make.
It will give you a list of all of the cartridges that have that image, including a link to the handbook so you can take a look.
Wow, there are 44 cartridges with a Christmas Tree! Love this cool tool.
Happy Chirping!
It’s December! The start of a new month means a new Stamp Of The Month. Be ready to start your Valentines Day cards with the endearing messages in this stamp set. It is also great for anniversery, thank you and thinking of you cards.
Several of the images in this stamp set coordinate with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. Simple cut and stamp to get beautiful artwork.
Like the projects pictured above? Supply lists and directions are on the Close To My Heart website via this link.
You can get this stamp set during December for $5 with additional purchases of $50.
Are you curious what you can do with the new Art Philosophy cricut cartridge? Each day in October Close To My Heart founder Jeanette Lynton is featuring a different shape from the cartridge on her blog.
Today is day 10 and there are already many cool ideas ranging from layouts, cards, gift bags, tags, and much more. Click on this link to see for yourself. Which project is your favorite? Mine is the gift box on Day 6. Emily made a similar one last night out of Wonderland paper. So easy, but super cute!
Don’t forget that in addition to this awesome cartridge, you will get three stamp sets and three sheets of chipboard shapes that coordinate with the shapes on the cartridge.
Here’s a picture of the final project we made at convention.
This accordian mini-album is actually three of the new 6″ square kraft cards. As you can see in the picture below, each of these cards has a scalloped flap in the front. To attach the cards together, the flaps for two of the cards are glued to the back of the next card in the book.
Once you have the cards attached, you need to refold to make an accordian. Now it is time to decorate!
By the way, the stamp set was our gift at the convention banquet. Unfortunately (for you), it is not available for sell. Given how much I love all things Disney, I have lots of plans for this set.
Throughout this album we attached Decor Journaling Spots. These packets come in a package of 12 (two each of 6 colors). I have plenty left over for another project.
Many of the shapes used in this album were cut using the new Cricut cartridge including the quote box below. See how perfectly the frame on the stamp fits on the paper? Ingeneous!
We also used the new Alphabets Cork to put 2011 on the front and to add the words DREAM, WISH and ASPIRE on internal pages. To make these letters pop off the kraft paper, we first sponged them with Cocoa ink.
I hope you have enjoyed my tour of convention projects. If you have any questions about the supply list or techniques used, just drop me an email.
