Create Your Heart Out

It’s been awhile, I know. I haven’t been posting lately, but I’m getting back into the groove of things.

I don’t know where you are, but here in Ohio we’ve just been bombarded with snow lately. Literally bombarded. And there is more to come. I love snow, but I’ve had enough. I’ve already had to cancel my Cricut classes due to this madness, so to those of you are have been praying for snow, please STOP!!

Onto what you came here for. Did you see Cricut on the Early Show this morning? What did everyone think?

They left a lot out, but of course it was only a 4 minute spot and they had to get in other products, but it was publicity nonetheless, although a little misleading. They showed the Expressions machine with the price of the Baby. Granted, only the diehard cricuters pobably noticed, but still.

If you missed it, check it out here.

Keep an eye out for details on upcoming classes as well as any news that !may come up.

Remember, if you can think it… you can Cri-cut

For all you out there who have Make the Cut, you need to read this!
So Make the Cut just updated their software 1.3, which means all these new features:

Boolean Operations

These operations allow you to create some pretty nice effects like Lattices. Here is something I created in a couple minutes using basic shapes included in Make The Cut:

Warp
Now you can add some perspective to your projects. I added Perspective and Bilinear warp!

Path Simplification
Have you ever notice a shape has a lot of un-needed nodes? Well, now you can remove them using the Smooth and Simplify tool.

Shape Magic Toolbar
This has been asked for a lot… Floating toolbars along with a Shape Magic toolbar.

There has been many more optimizations, bug fixes, shadow improvements, etc… but those are the main features. Oh and weld was fixed too!

If you don’t yet own Make the Cut, you can get it here. Also for those in the area, I am having a Make the Cut class on Feb 11 at Mojo’s, so if you want to learn, please come and check it out!

Now more than ever, if you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

As a huge fan of Cricut products, I have to wonder what they were thinking with their latest release.

It’s a Cricut machine that looks like an Expressions, but it makes cake? Okay, it doesn’t actually make cake, it is supposed to help you make fabulous decorations super simple. Interesting, but I have my reservations.

Here’s why:

• First, while cake decorating is a craft, it’s not something your typical Cricut owner is into, for a couple reasons. One, like every other hobby, it’s expensive and time consuming if you want to get good at it. Two, cakes are not like cards or scrapbook pages. You usually have to have a reason to make them, because you can’t save them for your special occasion. Now maybe Cricut is trying to get a new group of people to use it’s products, but this seems like the wrong market for that for reasons I’ll go into in a minute.
• Second, it’s expensive. The machine itself is $399, and I’m sure that just like your Cricut machine you’ll have to purchase cartridges and accessories.
• Rumor has it that due to Cricut’s Angel Policy, you aren’t allowed to sell your cakes. WHAT?!? This seems absurd to me.
• You can supposedly cut decorations on your Cricut machine already without spending a fortune a separate machine. This is the one thing I have not tried to do with my Cricut.
• There are only a few types of people who are going to want this. 1. Professional decorators 2. Maybe (and that’s a strong MAYBE) the mom who wants to make all her kids cakes but doesn’t have the time or money to invest in actual decorating skills 3. The crafter with money who buys every gadget that comes out regardless of whether they intend to use it. Now if you can’t sell your cakes, that rules out professionals (not to mention this kind of takes away from the art of cake decorating. My daughter has dabbled in it a bit and says that you have to practice a lot to be any good. I’ve never had an interest, so I don’t know) and I doubt the other two groups are going to make this product fly off the shelves, mostly due to price.

I’ve been talking to my students in my Cricut classes and reading the cricut.com message board and I’ve been hearing a lot of the same thing. There is very little interest in this. Some people have said they are glad this is what Cricut’s next big product is because they don’t have to buy it. Other’s have expressed anger at the fact that there are several products people actually want (certain cartridges, Design Studioupdates) and this seems like a slap in the face. No one I have spoken to in person has said they will even consider this and very few people on the message board think it’s a good idea. The most popular response seems to be “Not interested.” Maybe a food/baking show would have been a better place to unveil this. This is probably not something I will buy (although I won’t promise anything!), but I don’t know if I am the typical Cricut customer. What about all of you? What do you think? Good idea or bust?

If you think it… you can Cri-cut!

So I’ve finally had time to take a moment and tell you all about my Winter Cricut Workshop in Flushing, Ohio.

I have to be honest here, when I first thought of the idea to do something like this, I was super excited, but once I started planning it I became nervous. There were so many questions that could only be answered by doing it, and until it was over my stomach was in butterflies.

As it turns out, there was nothing to worry about. It went fabulously well. So well, that I’m definitely going to be doing it again.

There were five ladies who attended, and although they didn’t all know each other, by the second day it was as if they were old friends.

Each one had their own scrap table all to themselves to scrap all day and night, and then we had a dining area set up so that if they wanted to take a break from scrapping (can you imaging??) they could do so.

The house is located in Flushing, Ohio. For those of you not familiar, Flushing is about 20 miles away from Wheeling WV. It’s a small town, rich in history and one step in the Stratton House Inn will prove it. Stratton House Inn was the home of two generations of Quaker millers — and today their famous Whole-Wheat Self-Rising Pancake Flour is a special treat for all guests of Stratton House Inn. We enjoyed them while were there and in the words of one of the ladies they were the “best pancakes I’ve ever had”. Can’t beat that can ya?

The event started with everyone’s leisurely arrival on Wed night where they were welcomed with my buckeye cake (a chocolate cake topped with peanut butter fudge, followed by chocolate icing, not usually decorated with a Cricut, but it may become a tradition!), and a light meal. Once everyone got settled in, there was no stopping the scrapping. We even got some snow while we were there, and we could just sit in our pajamas and watch!

We did Christmas cards, gift tags, and even learned about SCAL, in addition to the projects everyone chose to learn on their own.

We ate delicious home cooked meals (the highlights were chicken tortilla soup, baked oatmeal, and an ever so tender braised all day pot roast), and just sat around in our pajamas doing what we loved best. It was an awesome time, and I encourage everyone to keep an eye out because we are going to do it again. Keep checking back for more details, or if you are in the area and have a group that’s interested in doing a private crop, contact me and I’ll be glad to set something up!

If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

Okay card makers, here is your chance to shine!

I received an email today and it totally breaks my heart. It has been checked out and is absolutely and unfortunately very true. You can read more about the story here.

Nate Elfrink an 8 year old from West Jeff, was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor approximately 4 or 5 years ago. He has had an up and down journey with this illness. A couple of years ago Nate spent approximately 6 months or more at ST. Jude’s hospital where the doctors successfully removed the tumor. Everyone was excited because once he was released he returned to school and all was well.

About 2 to 3 months ago, he went back for another visit to the doctor to find out that the cancer was back. His parents found out that there was nothing that the doctors could do at this point since the cancer was a very aggressive type. The last few weeks his parents have been trying to make him as comfortable as possible and trying to make the best of his last few days. Over the weekend Nate’s parents called Hospice in to help out with his care.

One request that Nate had made was that he would like to receive a thousand christmas cards before he died. This is where all of you come into play. If you would, please take a couple of minutes this week and send Nate a Christmas card. This would mean so much to the little guy and help in his request. He especially likes really sparkly ones.

This is the card I’m going to send:

I know this is the busiest time of the year for most of us, but this doesn’t require any money, not that much time and it will put smiles on the face of a boy who probably has a hard time finding reasons to smile. Your card doesn’t have to be handmade, but I know that a lot of you make so many cards this time of year that one more won’t matter.

If you would like to send a card, please mail it to:

Nate Elfrink
2415 Taylor Blair Road
West Jefferson, OH  43162

Thanks so much everyone!

Well here we are at my Winter Cricut Workshop in Flushing, Ohio.

It’s just us girls and we’re spending the weekend making our Christmas cards, doing tags and whatever else we can make!

What can be better than spending a few days doing nothing but scrapping?

We’re having a blast! We’ll be doing it again, so if you are interested, let me know, we’ll be glad to have ya!

Also, don’t forget to check my daily deals on the right side. Get yourself some great deals on holiday gifts or just buy yourself something nice!

If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

I know you’re all waiting on my paper doll for today, don’t worry it’s coming!

But first, I’d like to tell you about a product I discovered while out shopping for paper doll materials, and fell in LOVE with. I’m definitely going to be using this in my Cricut classes.

It’s called Scor Tape (from the makers of the super fabulous Scor-Pal , one of my favorite products) and it is AWESOME.

Scor-Tape is a premium double sided adhesive, best on the market, acid free, heat resistant and incredibly sticky tape. It can be used with embossing powders, foils, beads, glitter, ribbon etc. It is the perfect permanent adhesive for card making, boxes, books and Iris Folding. It comes in different sizes and will stick to anything!

If you have not tried it, I urge you to do so right away. You won’t be disappointed. If you have used it, what do you think?

If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

Just wanted to let everyone know there is going to be a crop at Fairhill Manor Christian Church on Sat Nov 7. These girls do it up right, and it should be lots of fun. I’m gonna be there to teach my Cricut Basics and Design Studio classes so if you have the day free, you should come and join us. Classes are $25 each and the Basics starts at 9:15, the DS at 1:15.

For more information, check the events page for more details. You’ll need to contact me to register.

So come out, bring your friends and have a great time!

If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

So after the wait, I got my Gypsy. I ordered from HSN and although I’ve never ordered from them before, I have to say it was a pleasure to deal with them. I ordered over the phone and got right through, I was treated pleasantly and received my Gypsy when I expected.

The problem? I connected my Gypsy to my computer, designed a few things and couldn’t wait to cut them out. Except I couldn’t get my Gypsy connected to my Cricut. After repeatedly trying to fit a square peg in a circular shaped hole, I realize that I didn’t have the correct cord. It was missing. Okay. Mistakes happen. No big deal. Except that after talking to a friend of mine who also ordered a Gypsy, I realized she had the same problem only a the cord that was missing from her Gypsy was the cord to connect to the computer. What are the odds?

After going to the message boards at cricut.com, I found out this happened to a lot of people, in addition to software issues, and a lot of people who are sorry they already loaded cartridges on it. Also, quite a few people posting messages to the admins but getting no responses at least as far as I can tell.

First thing I did was call HSN, figuring they probably couldn’t do anything, and I was right, although I spoke to a very nice girl named Amber who seemed very concerned that I couldn’t use my Gypsy without the necessary cord. I’m also pretty sure Amber didn’t know what a Cricut or a Gypsy was but she was concerned nonetheless, which made me feel a little better. She gave me the number to Provo Craft. This was another story. After waiting on hold for an hour and a half, I got someone who while nice, didn’t really seem to understand what I was saying. She said they would send me the correct cord, so in 5-7 days we’ll see, and I got it pretty quickly so that’s a plus! In fact I made this card using the Gypsy Font and Gypsy Wanderings Cart. I got the idea from a video at capadiadesigns.blogspot.com. To make the window which is holding the Happy Birthday, I used the acetate from the package of my Cricut cartridges.

My overall impression of the Gypsy has been okay. I’m not sure it could have lived up to the hype, although I guess I’ll know more once I am actually able to use it a lot. I’ll give you a quick rundown.

Pros:

• The best thing in my opinion is the fact that you can carry all your carts and design on the go. I am a gadget person, and also someone who likes small things so this is a plus for me.
• The fact that it is lightweight, although honestly I didn’t know whether that was a pro or con, as it kind of feels lightweight in a cheap, not made well kinda way. Maybe this is a con?

Cons:

• The price, and the fact that for that price I can’t use it right away. $300 is a lot to ask someone to spend on a product that still has issues.
• It seems like not a lot of thought was put into this, although a lot of effort was used to push the product for a long time before the launch. There is no user guide, except a downloadable one that from I have heard is giving errors when attempting to download.
• The whole cartridge issue is a big one for me, especially since I had loaded a couple carts on mine when I realized I didn’t have all the parts. I know, I should have checked everything when I opened the box, but it worries me a little that when I talked to Amber at HSN, her solution was to send the whole thing back and get a new one. Would I have not been able to download those same carts on the new one? What if I return it, or it breaks? I just don’t like the fact that to really get use from this thing, I have to deflate the value of my cartridges.
• I’m not sure how user friendly it is. It’s very small, which is great for portability, but when you’re used to using Design Studio on a big computer screen, it’s an adjustment. This will come with time.

Overall, for me it works out great. Since I teach a variety of things, and am always lugging around lots of stuff, any way to reduce stuff is great, and this definitely does that. I’m just not sure if the average user is going to feel the same. I will say that they seem to be doing a lot of updates so it can only get better if that’s the case. As always with first generation electronic equipment, I’m sure the price will go down and the product will get better. I might have waited if I didn’t need it to teach.

I’ll definitely be making more with it and telling everyone about it, so keep checking back.

In the meantime, if you can think it… you can Cricut!

So just when I think I’m all caught up, Provo Craft throws more at me!

I got my Gypsy, I was all excited, but now I find out there are more cartridges coming.

Problem is, unlike some of the carts (Superman, Batman), I just don’t have a use for, this new set is a winter themed which is my favorite. Snowfriends, Tags, and Snowflakes. I want all of these, but to wait to get them means I won’t get to use them this winter season probably, since they won’t be available until late November. I’ve heard Provo Craft is going to be doing this seasonally. Three carts every quarter. This is a neat idea, but who can keep up?

I think for the time being I might just play around with my Gypsy. That should take my mind off the fact that I there is stuff out there that I don’t have, or need. What do you guys think?

If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

If you have been following my blog, you might remember my post about Forget Me Not Scrapbooking Store in Traverse City.

A customer of mine recently told me that it closed, which I’m very sorry to hear. I don’t like to see any local businesses close, but it’s worse for me when it’s a scrapbooking store.

I would just like to wish the owners and all employees good luck in whatever they choose to do, hopefully it is scrapbooking related as I could tell from the store that they really have a passion for it.

I know you can’t always get the best deals at the smaller stores as you sometimes can at Joanns or Michaels, but if you want to keep true scrapbookers in business, go out and support your local store in any way you can!

If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

I went to Michael’s today hoping it to see a Gypsy demonstration. I was disappointed when they told me that they weren’t doing the demonstration until October, but I talked the manager in the store into letting me take a look at one. I got to spend a few minutes holding it and even using it a bit.

It was not what I expected, and while I’m still excited about it, I have mixed feelings now. I only had a few minutes with it, but I’m sure like every other gadget it takes some playing with before you truly get the full functionality out of it.

We’ll see. Anyway, I am glad I got my own sneak preview!

If you can think it, you can Cri_cut!

For Septembers contest, I am giving away a Pink Journey cartridge, in honor of Scrap Pink on September 26. I’m also going to be giving away a prize everyday from September 1 thru September 25.

In honor of Breast Cancer awareness, I’m making a bunch of mini card kits. They’re pink and will have ribbons and bows and they’re the perfect way to honor the women you know who have fought with this disease. I’m giving away one of these card kits to a lucky reader each day for 25 days. There will be a new kit every six days for a total of four different kits, and each kit will have 3 mini cards along with a box to keep them in.

There are two ways to enter:

• Every day at 9am I will publish a post for the daily Card Kit Giveaway. All you need to do is leave a comment on the post and you are entered to win that day’s kit. One person who commented will be chosen randomly every day to receive a kit, and be entered in the contest to win the Pink Journey Cartridge.
• In the daily post there will be a link to my eBay page. Randomly throughout the day I will list 5 more kits for $1 each, including shipping. Purchase a kit and you will are entered. If you don’t see one right away, keep checking back, as there will be 5 listings throughout the day.

Here’s the contest rules:

• The list of the 6 winners will be posted in the following day’s Card Kit Giveaway post.
• You can enter the contest once a day every day, but only one entry per day. So if you purchase a kit on eBay and you win one, you will receive both kits, but you will only be entered into the drawing once for that day.
• Because the card kits are a deal at $1, and I want everyone to have a fair chance, you may only purchase one per day. You can purchase one each day if you’d like.
• The winners of all contests will be notified by email, so regardless of which entry method you choose, you’ll need to have your email registered here at the site to enter. We want to be able to notify everyone that they’ve won.
• On September 26, I will do a random drawing (remember, 6 entries per day for 25 days=only 150 entrants. Not bad odds.) and the winner will receive the Pink Journey cartridge.

Look for the first post on Sept 1.

Good Luck everyone and remember, if you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

If you saw the ad from AC Moore saying they have the new Cricut cartridges for a great price, but don’t have an AC Moore near you, have I got a deal for you.

CreativeXpress.com has the new carts for the same price, plus free shipping. They also have some other carts at great prices too, so before you head out on a road trip you might want to check here first. You might find something you have to have that you didn’t even know you need!

If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!

If you haven’t entered my contest this month, you have missed out! You don’t have to miss out again!

Login to see what you’ve missed out on, and to enter if you haven’t already!


If you can think it… you can Cri-cut!