Cricut Craftroom Exclusive Cartridges & the New Cricut Circle

There are over 100 digital cartridges that are exclusive to the Cricut Craftroom.  The cartridges can be purchased at Cricut.com  and are listed in a separate category HERE.  I have not been paying careful attention to the cartridges as they are released for a couple of reasons.  I have found the Craftroom program to be difficult to work with and I thought that the prices for these small sets of images was disproportionately high.

When Provo Craft announced that the Cricut Circle was changing to a new program, one of the benefits they gave to existing Circle members (as of July 31, 2012) was free access to all of the craftroom exclusive cartridges for the month of August.  So of course, I decided to take a closer look. 

When digital rights are given to a cartridge in the Craftroom, the rights are also added to the Gypsy when you run the Cricut Sync.  I spent quite a bit of time on Monday, looking through all of the cartridges that are now available on my Gypsy.  I also discovered that there are digital handbooks available for nearly all of the Craftroom Exclusive cartridges.  Many of the cartridges contain more than the three or four shapes you see when the item is listed. The link to the digital cartridge is in the item description on the Cricut site.  These handbooks are PDFs so you can load them onto a tablet or smartphone to look at them
 in your spare time.

Here is an example of one of the cartridge PDFs for the "Movie Night" digital cartridge that sells for $9.99 (the digital cartridges have occasionally been on sale at 20% off so watch for the sale if that seems high to you).

I haven't made up my mind about rejoining the Circle.  The price is drastically reduced but so are the benefits.  I don't really want any of the cartridges that are offered -  I would have preferred a system that would allow you to select any cartridge for your membership cartridge benefit.

Circle membership was offered beginning August 1, 2012 at a new lower price of $79.99 or 3000 Cricut Reward points. The revised benefits do not include a Circle blog, Circle magazine, Circle meetups, contests, early notice about new cartridges (formerly called Wow Wednesday) or other items there were promised for the original Circle but never completed.  The discount and free shipping for orders might be worthwhile but I rarely spend $50 at a time on Cricut.com and cartridges are fairly regularly on sale in the large craft stores for $29.99 (this week at Joann's).

The new membership can be purchased in the shopping section of Cricut.com HERE and includes:

• One cartridge exclusive for one year to Cricut Circle members, or you can choose a different cartridge.
• 10% off of all purchases made on Cricut.com
• Free shipping on orders over $50 made on Cricut.com
• Exclusive promotions on Cricut.com
• Double reward points for purchases on Cricut.com

There is also a separate area of the Cricut messageboard that is open to Circle members only but no definite timeframe was given for keeping that section of the messageboard open.

The Circle cartridges are no longer exclusive to members - after a year they will be available to purchase like any other cartridge.  You have the choice of the Exclusive cartridge "Something to Remember" or five other cartridges, Fontopia, A Quilted Christmas, Dr. Checkup, A Frightful Affair or French Manor (the original exclusive Circle cartridge).

If you were a "Premier Charter of Charter member of the Circle and you rejoin, you can email support to get a $10 credit on your Cricut/com account.  You can also use reward points to pay for a membership but the 3,000 point requirement doesn't seem to make sense since you can purchase a cartridge in rewards for 1,000 points.  If I rejoin, I'll probably pay cash in the hopes that I could do better with my stash of points (having heard repeated promises that the Rewards site is being revamped as well).

So, to get back to the exclusive digital image sets - I actually found quite a few that I like and I am looking forward to using them this month.  If you haven't looked at them lately it might be worth spending the time to scroll through the list.  If you are a former Circle member, it is definitely worth taking advantage of the free use of the images this month.  Maybe if you are a good planner you can precut lots of things you anticipate needing in the coming year!

The big project that I just finished last week involved redoing a group of old magnetic albums that were badly discolored.  There were so many pages that I decided to just do a title page for each book rather than try to decorate every page (it would have taken many days to do that!).

I discovered the French flag and country shape in the France digital cartridge and it worked perfectly for the cover.  I used my Cameo for the title.  I welded the font "French Script" and created a blackout shadow for the welded word with just a few clicks.  The castle for the England books, is from Once Upon a Princess and the title was cut with the Cameo, welded in "Stonehenge" font and shadowed.

I'd love to hear your opinions in the comments:

Have you tried any digital Craftroom Exclusive cartridges?  What do you think of them?  Do you think the prices are fair for the content provided?

Are you thinking about or have you joined the new Circut Circle?  What makes it worthwhile to you to join?  Did  you choose the "exclusive for one year" cartridge or one of the others?

I'll have to make up my mind soon - there are lots of other ways I could spend $80...

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A Circle of Cricut Friends (and even more new cartridges)

On Thursday I hosted a small group of Cricut enthusiasts for a get together here in Concord.  Two Cricut Circle members from Minnesota posted on the message board a few weeks ago asking if there were any Circle members in the Boston area because they would be in the area for an extended visit with family.

Some people from New Hampshire responded and, since I live midway between NH and the area the Minnesota folks were visiting, I offered to have the group meet here for coffee and then go on for more adventures in shopping and sightseeing(!).  We lost a few people to illness or work schedules so we were a small but lively band, just ask the people at the LSS (local scrap shop) that we went to!

Nancy, Renee, Kelly, Tina (back row)  Sheryl, Diane, Mary (front row)

I put my little Cricut plushie in the wreath on the door to signal that they were at the right house.  We are having work done and I "bribed" one of the carpenters with some of the fabulous gateau that Renee brought and he took photos of our group on the front steps.

We had coffee and treats (thanks again to Renee for baking and Nancy for bringing the fruit!) and then we headed out in the rain to visit a nearby shop called "Ink About It."  We found some great bargains - the store had a yard sale a week or so ago and they had some rubber stamps on clearance for $1 - how can anyone resist that?  I was able to find a few things (at regular prices) that I have been wanting to try - particularly the honeycomb paper for making fun pop-ups inside your cards (from Inky Antics) and a large La Blanche stamp (I saw these at CHA and wrote about them HERE).

We were worn out from shopping so the next stop was a local sandwich shop and ice cream stand.  I didn't bring my camera and forgot my phone so I don't have a photo of the "kiddie" cones we ate.  The girl working at the stand described it as a "softball sized scoop" - it was delicious! (I'll add a photo if one of my new friends sends it to me).

Tina and Mary with their Imagine printed pages

We did a quick "drive by" tour of some historic sites in Concord (it was getting late and it was pouring rain) and then came back to my house for some crafty time.  We made flowers using the Cuttlebug quilling sets (no one but me had used these before) and then Sheryl and I showed Mary and Tina the Imagine.  I think we may have convinced them that they "need" this machine.  We printed a few full page images - one from Nursery Tails and one from Snow Angel.  Tina also made a pirate from Buccaneer.

I think the pirate looks great on this winter page!

I had a wonderful time and I think everyone else also enjoyed the day.  To me, this is the sort of thing the Circle should be about.  The first year is almost over and while there were some start up issues (and there are still some things that need to be improved or added) I think the Circle is getting closer to what I thought it would be.  The cartridges this first year were not all to my taste but there are many other aspects to be considered as part of the membership.

I hope that in the coming year more can be done to facilitate small groups getting together informally.  It is always nice to spend time with people who enjoy doing the same things that you like to do.  There could be a lot of opportunities for local groups to meet and share without having a formal, organized event with a lot of extra costs involved.  It is also a nice way to teach each other to use all of our machines and tools. 

I am looking forward to getting together with the "local" people again - thanks to Mary and Tina who came all the way from Minnesota to motivate us to get together! 

More cartridges -

Eight more Cricut cartridges were announced on Thursday.  Here is a LINK to the announcement page.  There were no look books listed yet but they may be coming.

Four are "Events" cartridges with a "soup to nuts" set of items for throwing a theme party (invitations, decorations, favors, etc.)

Girl's Makeup Party

Princess Party
Robot Party
Space Party

and four are "Project" cartridges and cut everything you need to make certain types of projects. 

Sweet Tooth Boxes

Word Collage
Fancy Frames
Flower Shoppe

These carts have limited and specialized content but will be quite useful for some people.  The one I am most interested in is the Flower Shoppe.  It contains a number of flowers that you form by twirling a spiral - similar to the files I designed after seeing the DCWV roses at CHA in January (you can see those HERE).  I was curious to see what the pricing would be for these cartridges since they do not contain very much content and saw that they are listed on the Cricut.com site for $29.99.  Terri at Stamps Alive is offering them for $20.95 and she is great to deal with.
 
You can see images of these cartridges and projects made using them on the Official Cricut Blog HERE.

There are more projects on the "Hello Thursday" blogs - here are some links for you

 Joy's blog

Melanie's blog

Robyn's blog

Tammy's blog 

Mixology Crafts


I have lots to do today to get ready for my Peachy Keen Guest Designer week - it starts Monday!  You won't want to miss the great set that Peachy Keen gave me to give away to one lucky person.


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Flowers from the Bouquet - Step by Step

Thanks to all of you who have sent me messages about trying out the Cricut Circle.  I wish I had unlimited flowers and 3 month codes to give out but unfortunately I can't give one to everyone who would like one.  What I can do is show you how I made a flower similar to the flowers that were in the bouquet I received.  So, at least, you will be able to create a bouquet for yourself or to share. 

This is a very photo heavy post because I wanted to make it easy for anyone to do this.  Mother's Day is only a couple of days away and I didn't want anyone to be frustrated if they wanted to make some flowers.  They are fun to make and go together quickly so I hope you can try to make some.

The basic concept is simple and you can create all sorts of variations.  The flowers can be made with many different cartridges  - they will just have a slightly different look depending on the choices you make. 

You need a flower with a fair number of petals to get a fluffy look - I chose a 12 petal flower from the Paisley cartridge.  

There are many cartridges with suitable flower shapes.  If you don't have one that you like you can even create a simple flower using George or Plantin Schoolbook and the free version of the Design Studio software.  You need to weld six ovals together, rotating each oval 30 degrees as shown in the screen shot above.

Once you have selected your flower shape, cut five at 4 inches, and one each at 3 inches, two inches and one inch.  You need double sided cardstock that is medium to light weight - text weight paper will probably be too thin to hold a nice shape.  The paper I chose is from a Martha Stewart stack.

I set up the cuts with the Gypsy to maximize the use of space.  I couldn't resist sticking in a few extra one inch flowers to fill in some empty spots - they will be handy for another project.

There are many possibilities for a leaf to add to the stem of the flower.  I chose this one from Life is a Beach - it probably is botanically inaccurate but I like the shape!  There were two leaves on this image key so I used hide contour to delete the one I didn't need.

Here are all of the pieces of my flower ready to assemble. 

First take four of the large flowers and fold them in half.

Then fold them in half again to form a quarter flower.

These four folded sections are the main part of the flower.  I arranged them in a circle so each fold was next to an open edge of the next section.

Next you need to adhere these sections to the fifth flower shape, which forms the base of the final flower. Turn the petals so they are offset from the petals in the base, this makes the flower look fuller.  I placed the opposite side of the cardstock facing up when I adhered the folded petals.

You can put the adhesive on the flower center and then settle each folded flower into position on the base.

Here is the main flower grouping.  I noticed on the flowers I received that the tops of the folded sections had been pushed a bit to the side and adhered to the lower sections with a glue dot.  I preferred to leave them loose and a little bit "fluffier."  The flowers in the bouquet I received were ten petal flowers - when these are folded you get a little more dramatic shape because one of the petals is creased in the folding (10 does not divide evenly by 4).

The next step is to add the leaf and the stem.

Adhere the stem to the back of the flower so it will show below the petals.

Then turn it over and use a sharp tool to poke a hole through the center of the flower.

You need to have a hole sized for the stem wire to fit through comfortably.  I did not have a thick floral wire on hand so I used some gold wire.  The flower will be sturdier with a heavier wire and you might want to wrap it with green floral tape to look more like a stem.

Thread the wire through the hole from the back to the front and try to have it tuck under the leaf.

On the front, twist the wire in a loop to secure it.

Adhere the three inch flower to the back to cover the wire so the flower has a finished back (important for a bouquet).

Stack the one inch flower on the two inch flower and poke a hole in the center.

Insert a decorative brad and flatten the prongs on the back of the two inch flower.  I originally thought you could put the brad through the entire flower but the prongs might not be long enough to hold properly.

I used a gem brad from Creative Charms because I like the bit of sparkle.  You could use a button or another fastener that suits the look you want for your flower.

Place a large glue dot on the center of the flower, making sure to cover the looped wire.  One was enough for this flower - if your wire is heavy you might even use two glue dots.  These are super sticky so place and commit!

Then just pop your small flower center on top of the glue dot and you have a pretty flower.  The paper you choose will make a big difference in the look of the flower.  For variety, you could use some solid and some print cardstock and you could also use more patterns as long as they coordinate nicely - just play around with the variations.

You can fluff the flower a bit with your fingers to spread the layers apart - if the paper is medium weight it should hold the shape.  As I mentioned earlier, you can also turn the groups of petals a bit to offset them and hold the petals into position with small glue dots.

You could add glitter or ink the flower edges - just have fun trying lot of variations!

I am contacting people privately about the Cricut Circle invitations - I won't be posting a list here.  I hope to finish by the end of the weekend.  Once again, I wish I could offer everyone the chance to try the Circle and I thank you for understanding that it isn't possible to do that.

I had a few adventures in rummage sale shopping and I look forward to some "show and tell" with my finds.  This is a great time of year for church sales and there is always a lot of craft potential if you just look carefully.

Remember, inspiration is everywhere (I hope some of you are working on the take out box challenge HERE....)

link to discussion Day #3 - Time to Craft

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A Wonderful Surprise to Share!

I received a package on yesterday - a totally unexpected Mother's Day gift from Provo Craft! I had been waiting for the Buccaneer cartridge that was one of the Cricut Cruise gifts to arrive but when I saw the large rectangular box, I wondered why they would put a cartridge in such a big box.

I opened the box and found this beautiful bouquet made by the Provo Craft Design Team.   The flowers were nestled in pink tissue paper and bubble wrap and they were a bright and beautiful sight on a rainy day!

Each of the flowers had a tag with a Mother's Day message and a code for a 3 month subscription to the Cricut Circle.  There was a card  with a note which encouraged me to give 11 of the flowers to members of my community to invite them to become a part of the Cricut community.

I gave away the first flower Wednesday night (and I just realized I forgot to sign the tag!).  My neighbor was very happy to have a chance to try the Circle.  I have "enabled" her into many Cricut purchases so it was fun to have something nice to give her that I know she will enjoy.

The Cricut Circle is a community of crafters who enjoy creating with the Cricut and other tools offered by Provo Craft.  There are many benefits to membership including a message board, blog and a magazine that are available to members only.  There are challenges and giveaways run through the Circle blog.  Circle member also receive discounts and double reward points on purchases at Cricut.com.  There are special events held around the country and some other perks, for example, Circle members who purchased the Cricut Imagine at launch received a free "Lori's Garden" Imagine cartridge.  The normal quarterly cost is $79.99 and this includes an exclusive cartridge that is sent to the members.  I purchased a yearly membership when the Circle started last year. 

I believe the intent of this gift was for me to share these flowers with local people and I have a list of people in mind.  However, since I don't know 11 people in my immediate area who own Cricuts, my plan is to share some of these flowers with my virtual friends as well.  I don't want to make this into a competition or to "recruit" followers by offering the memberships up as a prize.  I do need to know whether you are interested in trying the Circle since I wouldn't want to give this chance to someone who won't use it.  If you are a current member of the Circle, you are not eligible for this subscription.  

So leave a comment and tell me where you live and why you'd like to try the Circle.  I will choose some people and will contact you privately so be sure to give me an email address or some other way to get in touch.  If you don't want to leave personal information in a comment, just send me an email at capadiadesigns@gmail.com. 

What a lovely thing for Provo Craft to do - it certainly made my day!  I will really enjoy surprising some people with this gift.  If you look around the crafting blogs and message boards you will find that there are several other people who received flowers and may be giving some away.  I've seen at least three others...

By the way - I did figure out how the flowers were made and I will share directions as soon as possible if you'd like to try to make these. 

Directions on linking your project for the  "Take Out Box " inspiration challenge

Several people asked about using the linky tool to add a project and participate in the challenge I posted yesterday.  I took some screen shots to show you how it works.

First, scroll to the bottom of the blog post HERE and click on the blue froggie link box.

These boxes will pop up.  If you have a blog where you have posted the project, you can just fill in the blanks and click "next step."  If you know the URL of the photo you want to post you can add that instead of a blog address.  If you just need to fill in something to get to the next screen you can use my blog address in this blank and then go to the tab on the next page that allows you to upload a photo from your computer.

This will take you to the blog post you linked and ask you to select the image to upload.

If you don't have a blog but have posted the image online - in a photo site, on a message board, or somewhere else you can provide the direct URL to upload.   You can find out the URL by right clicking and selecting "copy image location" from the list - then paste it in the blank.

If you don't have the image of your project anywhere online, you can click the third tab and upload the image directly from your computer.

A few people have already posted their projects - congrats on being so speedy!  I'd better get to working out mine too...

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

link to discussion Day #3 - Time to Craft
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