Using Cricut Craft Room to create great Christmas gifts.

Well... with less than three weeks before Christmas have you finished your Christmas shopping? Me too... NOT! I've never really been one of those people that could get everything done early. I keep telling myself that I will "next year". But I still haven't managed to get that accomplished.

Well... I've been playing with my Cricut and made me a few signs for Christmas gifts... and of course a few for myself as well. So I wanted to share with you what I did.

Here is what I started with. I am also a woodworker so I have a woodshop out in my garage. I had a 1x4 piece of poplar that a friend had lying around and asked if I could use it. So of course... I was glad to take it off his hands. I simply cut them down on my miter saw to be about 7" long each. I then painted them. The panels you see underneath are from a load of scrap that I picked up. These were panels from old kitchen cabinet doors that someone was throwing away. I simply sanded them down and re-stained them. The bottom one I painted black as well, like the smaller boards.

This also was an old cabinet door that I resized, sanded and then stained. I love the way it turned out. 

Next I came in from the shop and started designing. I knew that I wanted to use vinyl on these signs. What better way to design these signs than to use Cricut Craft Room. 

Using CricutCraft Room to design the signs made it super easy. Here is a link to one of my CCR YouTube video on how to use fonts. Of course... it's an older video. So it looks like I need to make a new one to update things so that you can see how to use it with all the changes that have been made since then. But the basics of the video are still the same. Just the layout of the tool bar is different. 

#8 - Cricut Craft Room Series #5 - Fonts

Here are the signs that I've made so far. And again... all the lettering was done using my Cricut and some self-adhesive vinyl. I used my Expression 2 but could have easily used any of the others as well, including the Imagine. Interesting thing that I found out during these projects.... the Cricut brand vinyl was much easier to use than the off brand that I bought at Hobby Lobby. The white "Pray" sign and the pink "Hope" sign were done using the Cricut brand. The red and the black were the off brand. I do have to admit that I didn't have any problems with the black "Family" sign. But when I did the large sign... it was a disaster. In fact.... all my letters fell off and I have to start all over again. 

This was another fun sign to make. You probably can't tell from the picture but the vinyl lettering on this one is brown and it was the Cricut brand. Worked great.

On all of the signs above I did use the Cricut transfer paper as well. Made lining things up WAY EASIER!

When I created these designs CCR made it super simple. I simple added text to the screen and manipulated the font sizes till I had something I liked. You may notice that on both the "He's no just my dad..." and the "Good morning... " signs that there are actually two different fonts used on each sign. On the "Good Morning..." sign I used Close to My Heart Art Philosophy and Gypsy Font. I mention this because I was recently asked this question on my YouTube channel. Here is a screenshot of the file I created. 

I added a square on my page matching the size of my wood sign. I then added another layer to the project and added my text. I simply moved things around until it fit nicely on my sign. I welded the cursive font letters together to cut out as one piece. This actually was quite easy and went by pretty fast. So yes... you can have multiple fonts or multiple images cut on the same project. Although I didn't on these projects, you would also be able to weld fonts or images together from two different cartridges as well. 

Applying the letters to the sign... not quite as easy. LOL. I do think that the red vinyl of the off brand may have been a defective roll since the black had no problems. But Hobby Lobby said that I could bring the product back for a refund or exchange for something else. I will see how well the rest of the black vinyl works before I make my final decision. But for now... I'll stick with the Cricut brand. 

I have a few more signs that I want to make. So I'm looking forward to creating a step by step video. I realize that this post is not much as far as a tutorial. So if you are newer to CCR and would like to know how to create your own signs follow my blog and also subscribe to my YouTube channel. And as always... if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment. 

Hope you are have a wonderful weekend!

Cricut Classroom Exlusives - Classroom - October & November Cut Free for a Week

Ok... I know... I know! I didn't publish a video for a year and then I finally get one up and 2 days later it's obsolete. BUMMER!

So if you read my last post and watched my video on how to get to the Free Cut of the Week and then tried it today... You'd find that Cricut redesigned their entire website. So now the video is pretty much useless. When I went to log on today to find out what the new free cuts were I was a little panicked. Remember what I said on the video... "I'm glad they didn't discontinue the free cuts"...? I thought I had jinxed it and was so bummed. I frantically tried to find where it could be. I searched that site head to toe... no luck!!!

Well... good news. It is still available. And I'm super excited about this weeks cuts. Cricut Craftroom Exclusives: Classroom - October & November. Love this cartridge.

At first I thought it was just going to be those four cuts... and I was excited about them alone. Then I clicked on the details page and saw all the rest. Woohoo! This is a great sampling to cut from this week. Can't wait. My daughter and I are in the process of coming up with a project to share with you so you can take advantage of these great cuts.

So... I mentioned that the link to see what the new free cuts are is gone. I figured out how to get to it two ways. One... I just followed the link from my previous post and it updated to this weeks cuts. So you can click on any of the previous links to the free cuts and that will get you there. Two... I called Cricut Support. The nice lady I spoke to obviously has had this question more than once today. The link is not yet available on the Cricut site. However, on the main page, under the banner you can sign up for emails and you will get a weekly email that will have a link and share with you the free cuts. Eventually they will have a link on the site. 

So... Happy cutting! I would love for you to share some of your ideas for this great cartridge. I'm hoping that by Friday we will have a video posted with some projects using these cuts. I can't wait!!!! :)

FREE to cut! Love!

Ok... so this is one of those things that Cricut has been doing for a while and I was afraid it had come and gone. Love that they are still doing this.

So if you aren't familiar... Cricut has content that you can cut FREE for a week. Each week they change. I'm super bummed that I didn't get anything cut from last weeks. It was . I didn't realize it till after it was gone.

So here is this weeks FREE cuts.

These are both great but the Happy Hauntings is great for the upcoming holiday. Don't miss out like I did last week. Get that Cricut out and get to cutting. You've got two more days.

So... Definitely will be cutting some of these out... but I also can't wait to see what is net weeks free cuts :)

So... do you know how this works? Log on to your Cricut CraftRoom. The two above carts will show up in bold as available to cut.

Here's a quick video on how to get to the cartridges to take advantage of this great opportunity that Cricut gives us.

I'm so excited. I know.... I know... the sound is crappy. The video quality isn't that great. And I stumbled over my words a few times. But hey... I'm BACK! And I am super excited about bringing you more videos. And I promise... It won't be another year. Even if I have to use my cruddy laptop, my creaky tripod and have horrible sound. I WILL bring you more videos. And it's all about the content... right? LOL. It's about what you learn. So if you learn something or enjoy my videos... that's all that matters.
See ya soon! :)

YIKES!!!

Ok... so my last post said that it wouldn't be 4-5 months before my next post. I guess I was right. It's been 10 instead.... :(

I'm so sad about this. Soooooo.... it's time to get back on the ball. Today I had some fun. I have been playing around with Cricut CraftRoom and my Gypsy. It's so awesome that you can now link your Gypsy cartridges to your CraftRoom as well. Over the last couple of weeks I've been trying hard to get all my machines updated. Started with my Gypsy.... didn't get much farther. LOL. I have had many "technical difficulties" over the ten months I've been MIA. My iMac has died. My editing software has failed and my laptop decided to die as well. So I've had to use my old one that's pretty janky. I had all kinds of issues trying to update.

Today I got farther along on updating my Gypsy than I ever did before. Still not all the way updated though. BUT...... YEAH.... I did get my Gypsy cartridges linked to CraftRoom. I made a video of that today. So now I just need to get working on solving the issue with my editing software. Can't wait to share that video with you all.

Lets see if we can shoot for getting that video done within a week.... wish me luck!

Hello 2013!!!

Hello my fellow crafters! It's been way too long. I'm happy to see that I have many faithful followers that did no leave me in my absence. A lot has been going on in my life. There have been so many changes. As I get back on my blog, YouTube and back into the crafting world... there's a lot that's changed with Cricut as well. I'm excited to see some of the new things that are happening with Cricut.... and I can't wait to dive right back in.

For starters... I wanted to update you on a few things in my personal life. I won't get too personal... but I will share with you that My Cricut Closet (the actual room) is moving.... YEAH!!! I am trading rooms with my daughter and I will have a much larger space to work from. I still will be limited on space... I just won't be in the closet anymore. LOL! I'd like to share that journey with you guys and will keep you posted of the progress. I found this sweet and adorable picture of what my room looked like when I started this blog two years ago. Here it is....

 James was sooooo cute. He looks so little. But this was what my little closet looked like when I started.
Just for the heck of it... Here's what James looks like now.... And yes... that's me as well. Just focus on him...he's the adorable one :)

 And here are a couple of pics from that first set up. It was crazy. And I remember feeling so lucky to have this space. To me... it was awesome.


And... If you look in the top photo... you'll see my old Cricut. This past fall I retired that Expression by passing it on to my good friend Sherry. Of course... I still have my Expression 2 and my Imagine. Can't part with those, they are my babies.



Well... that's enough for today. I'll be back soon... and this time it won't be 4-5 months. I look forward to sharing some videos and projects with you. First order of business..... the Expression 2 Series will coming SOON!

Happy Crafting :)