Cricut Expression 2 - Beyond The Basics (Part 1)

I've been looking forward to today for a while (It's Wednesday evening right now).  A couple of weeks ago I had planned a "Cricut Day" with some friends. We all planned to bring our Cricuts and I was going to share some tips and tricks with them. So yesterday I went through and refreshed my memory on all the functions of the Expression 2. My friend Sherry got an E2 for Christmas. She's such a sweet lady. I knew it was going to be a good time. 

Yesterday was funny. I'm going through all the functions and I start getting excited remembering how much it can do even without Craft Room. I was like a little kid. So today... we got together and started cutting. I introduced them to Cricut Craft Room and shared with them the Free cuts of the week. They loved it! They aren't really big on computers so it may be a while before they use CCR... but they loved everything about it. 

We had a limited amount of time and I did end up spending way too much time with customer support. One of the girls had an Expression that was frozen up so I ended up calling and they walked me through getting it going. While I hated being on the phone... I am glad that they have a great support that was able to get her machine up and running again. But because of all that... I didn't really end up having enough time to get pictures of the things we cut. I got one. LOL

My good friend Sherry brought some vinyl and wanted to decorate her E2. We designed this in Craft Room. We used Gypsy Font for the lettering and we used Cindy Lou and for the flower. We welded these together to make it all cut out as one image. After this we cut two more flowers from Cindy Lou and put them on the grey sides. We also cut some cute images from Create A Critter and the Free Images of the week. Those hearts are super cute. 

We cut some more vinyl on the Expression using Birthday Bash and Pet Shop. I didn't get a pic of this on the vehicle but this is what we cut. 

It's pretty simple. She cut the fonts out in this really great metallic creamy color and the pugs out of black and put them on her back car window. It turned out super cute. A bit big... but still super cute. 

Here's something really cool. I have the Cricut monthly subscription. And while I already owned Create A Critter... EVERYTHING else we cut out today was either from the subscription or from the Free weekly cut. That's just amazing to me. I love it. Absolutely LOVE that!!!

Well... I started telling you most of this story not only to share the few projects we made. But also to let you know I created a quick video last night as well. We covered the Basics in my first three CE2 videos. So now it's time to go Beyond the Basics. Below you will find Part 1. We cover page 1 of the "tools" button. I'll be adding more videos covering the next pages over the next few days. So make sure you subscribe to my channel and follow along. 

Happy Crafting!

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!

Pink Cricut Expression 2 & More

Where have I been? I was so excited today to see that there are PINK endcaps for the Cricut Expression 2. I just got my pink endcaps put on my Imagine. I SOOOO want the endcaps for my E2! And guess what else.... they are on sale! They also have purple... which is awesome. But pink is my color. 

 I love these! How about you? Click here to order yours while they are on sale!

Have you seen these? 

I love these guys. I don't have any yet. The big plush guy is on sale right now for $7.99. Click on the pictures to order yours today. 

Ok... so yes... there's more. I just wanted to share with you that Tags, Bags, Boxes & More Digital is also on sale for only $19.99. That's a great deal as well. Click here!

Ok... So... I just wanted to share these with you today. Now I'm off to try and get my two videos up and running. I'm excited about my Cricut Expression 2 series. Hope you enjoy it!

Emptiness :(

There is an emptiness in My Cricut Closet. I'm very sad.
Can you guess what these two pictures are?

 (I'm using my Cricut mats to hide my ugly wall)

The first picture is where my Imagine sits and the second picture is where my E2 sits... ok... DID sit. :(
My Imagine start acting funky so I called Provo Craft. I have to send it off for them to work on. If they can't fix it they are going to replace it. They definitely have excellent customer service.  I generally use my Imagine more than anything. So... I got my E2 and started to use it... it wouldn't come on. This was about 2 weeks after my Imagine pooped out. So I call Provo Craft again and they say it's not fixable. They have to replace it. Sad thing.... my E2 is the Anniversary Edition that came with the extra cartridges. They don't have any more of those so I am getting a replacement of just a regular E2. Supposedly they are going to try and get me the extra carts. Maybe digitally on Cricut Craft Room. Not sure how that's going to work.

Of course... I was supposed to send them off a while back. I kept putting it off. Not sure why. I guess I was working so much that I just didn't get it done. So now they are both leaving. :( What am I going to do without them? I have no ideo how long it's going to take to get them back.

But guess what!?!?!?!? I still have my other Expression. I'll just have to pull it out of the closet.

My DH bought this for me several years ago. All I had at the time was the ORIGINAL Cricut. YES!!! I've been in love with Cricut since they came out. I was at CHA when they first introduced it. Wish I still had my pic with Cricut. I sadly sold the original one after moving to my current house. BUT... I sold it to a lady that would never have been able to afford one on her own so it went to a very good home. I remember being SO SO SO excited about it. It was awesome. And that was just the 6x12 mat.

I wonder how long the updates are going to take? LOL! It hasn't been updated for maybe 2 years. Thank goodness for Cricut Craft Room and Gypsy! LOL!

I don't know if this is good news or bad... but while I'm waiting for my Imagine to come back... there is a HUGE empty spot on my desk. I guess that gives me LOTS of room for my stamping. Like I said... that could be good or bad. I'm a very messy crafter.

Well... I hope you don't forget to check out the giveaway video and enter to win. I think I have like only 10 of my followers that are entered. I have some YouTube subscribers entered as well. Good luck!!!

Happy Crafting!
Angie :)