Golden Birthday Crown and Badge

The last time I visited my sister, we had a "top secret" project to work on.  Her grandson (my great-nephew) was about to have his Golden Birthday (6 on the 6th) and we wanted to create a golden crown to make the day more special for him.

I brought along a big jar of gems in assorted sizes and we spent some time sorting them and deciding which colors would look best on the gold crown.   My sister has the Cricut Create (I "enabled" her into buying it a couple of years ago) and I brought along my Gypsy to give us plenty of cartridge options.

I created the crown by welding a border shape from the Elegant Cakes cartridge to a rectangle.  For the base layer, we chose DCWV metallic cardstock and then added the top layer cut from Core'dinations Core Couture glittered cardstock. 

I cut some additional strips of the metallic gold cardstock with a paper trimmer to make the sides and back of the crown.  We added a strip of glitter cardstock about 1/4 inch tall and placed  some extra ovals over the side joins to strengthen the connection.  To further stabilize the band, I added some strips of plain cardstock with lots of adhesive so the band would bend smoothly.

In addition to the crown, we made a birthday badge.  The shape is from the Fontopia cartridge and we cut another glitter strip to run along the top of the badge.  Ben's younger brother will turn 8 on the 8th in a few years so we decided to go ahead and make two badges in the hopes that the crown would survive to be worn again(!).  The "6" is from the Fontopia cartridge and the "8" is from Plantin Schoolbook.

The badge and the crown were a hit - here is a photo of the birthday boy.  He even had the day off from school since it was a teacher inservice day in their district.   I hope he'll remember his "special" birthday when he is older.  I still remember my Golden Birthday when I turned 10 on the 10th.  My mother decided to give me a gift every hour and she even set a clock to ring each hour to remind us.  (The presents were things like a bottle of nail polish, a card of barrettes - just little things but it was the thrill of having a gift every hour that made it special and memborable).

There are some predesigned crowns on some of the cartridges but I wanted to show you that it is pretty simple to come up with your own design by using a border shape and making a few welds.  I used Scor-Tape to hold everything together and to adhere the gems to the crown.  I haven't heard yet if the crown survived the entire day without losing any gems!


We are expecting another big storm and it is getting very cold here.  Dad was discharged from the hospital and is back in the rehab section for some more physical therapy.  Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers for him.  Does anyone want to make a birthday card for his 88th birthday on November 17th?  If you do, please let me know so I can send you his address - thanks!


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Lots of New Cartridges this month - time to update your Design Studio!

Yesterday was "Hello Thursday" and a number of new cartridges were announced.  As there are more and more cartridges to choose from it is important to look at them carefully to decide which you want to add to your collection.  I think it is getting to the point where most of us (despite our "collector" tendencies) can't have them all!

Fortunately, Provo Craft is doing a great job of announcing the cartridges, providing full digital handbooks and software updates and giving selected bloggers early copies to make actual samples with the new designs.  You can see some wonderful ideas in the projects created by the Everyday Cricut owners showcased on their personal blogs - Joy at Obsessed with Scrapbooking and Melanie at Courtney Lane Designs.  Joy and Melanie have twelve cartridges to give away between them so you will definitely want to visit and enter for a chance to win.  The Pink Stamper and Creative Critter Tammy are also previewing cartridges with giveaways - you will be busy blog hopping to see everything!  I do not know if there are any other previewers this month - I will add links if I find out about any more.

The new cartridges that were announced are:

Three full cartridges: Create a Critter, Nursery Rhymes and Robotz.

Three Summer seasonal mini (limited edition) cartridges:  Independence Day, Summer in Paris and Summer Vacation

Four Cricut Cake cartridges:  Cake Basics (which will be packaged with the Cake machine), Birthday Cakes, Elegant Cakes and Holiday Cakes.

There will also be two more cartridges going into retirement - Stamped and Tags, Bags, Boxes & More.  If you don't have these cartridges and are interested in them you should try to buy them as soon as possible.  One of the very first cartridges that I "had to have" was Tags, Bags, Boxes and More and I do find it very useful.

You can find the sample sheets and the downloadable handbooks for all of the cartridges on the Cricut.com site on the Cartridge Library page of the Information tab - here is a LINK.

The other exciting announcement was that there will be Cuttlebug folders specifically designed to coordinate with certain Cricut cartridges - the example shown in the email was a set of four for the Robotz cartridge.

I haven't had a chance to look through all of these new cartridges in detail - you can add them to your Design Studio program by downloading the latest font pack update.  Then you will be able to start designing with your favorites and be ready to cut when the cartridges are available to purchase!

If you have the current version of the software (1.0.31101.0), you will only need to download and install the updated Font Pack.  You can check your version by using the "help" menu and choosing "About" to pull up the information box.

To update your Design Studio program to include these cartridges, go to this LINK (you will need to be signed in to the Cricut.com site) and download the Font Pack.  Be sure to SAVE the download and then run it to install the new cartridges.  Your Design Studio software should be closed when you do this.  When you open the program, the new cartridges will be included in the "All by Category" list.

Here is the sample sheet for Create a Critter from the Cricut.com site

 You can download the full digital handbook at this LINK.

Here is the sample sheet for Nursery Rhymes from the Circut.com site:

You can download the full digital handbook at this LINK.

Here is the sample sheet for Robotz from the Cricut.com site:

You can download the full digital handbook at this LINK.

The next three cartridges are the Summer seasonal mini cartridges - these are limited edition cartridges with fewer images.  They are Independence Day, Summer in Paris and Summer Vacation.  These cartridges do not have handbooks.

Here is the sample sheet for Independence Day from the Cricut.com site:

You can download the product card at this LINK.

Here is the sample sheet for Summer in Paris from the Cricut.com site:

You can download the product card at this LINK.

Here is the sample sheet for Summer Vacation from the Cricut.com site:

You can download the product card at this LINK.

The last four cartridges are for the Cricut Cake machine which will be available soon.  However, you can use the cartridges and cut the images with any of the Cricut machines and I think these all look like they will be great choices for paper crafting.

Here is the sample sheet for Cake Basics from the Cricut.com site:

You can download the full handbook at this LINK.

Here is the sample sheet for Birthday Cakes from the Cricut.com site:

You can download the full handbook at this LINK.

Here is the sample sheet for Elegant Cakes from the Cricut.com site:

You can download the full handbook at this LINK.

Here is the sample sheet for Holiday Cakes from the Cricut.com site:

You can download the full handbook at this LINK.

I will try to post my reviews of these cartridges soon - it will take a while to look through them all!   Right now I am most interested in the Cake cartridges - and I don't decorate cakes!

It will be fun to explore all of the new possibilities.  Have a great weekend!