Cricut Cake Martha Stewart Crafts Edition

The news of the day in Cricut Land was an announcement about a new edition of the Cricut Cake machine.  The Cricut Cake Martha Stewart Crafts Edition will be debuting on HSN on July 19th.  Here is a LINK to the full press release.  The image at the top of this post is from the Elegant Cake Art cartridge handbook.

(I just checked and it is already up on HSN - here is a LINK)

In addition to the machine, there will be three new Martha Stewart Crafts Cake cartridges. (You can click on the image to enlarge it).

Here is the sample sheet for Martha Stewart Crafts Elegant Cake Art from the Cricut.com Cartridge Library.

You can download the full handbook HERE.

 

This is the sample sheet for the Martha Stewart Crafts All Occasions Cake Art cartridge.

You can download the full handbook HERE.

 

The third cartridge is the Martha Stewart Crafts Seasonal Cake Art cartridge - here is the sample sheet.

You can download the full handbook HERE.

Joy at  Obsessed With Scrapbooking  and Melanie at Courtney Lane Designs will each be giving away a set of the new Martha Stewart cartridges.  The cartridges will work in any Cricut machine so even if you aren't a "cake person" you will probably want to have these for other projects! (I know I do - I just can't get enough Martha!).  If you already use Martha Stewart punches you will recognize many of the designs - now you will be able to cut them in any size you want!

The Handbook for the Toy Story cartridge has also been added to the cartridge library and you can download it HERE.

The Cartridge Library on the Cricut.com site is a great resource.  If you are not familiar with it, click HERE to go to the listing of all of the Cricut cartridges with PDFs of the sample sheets and cartridge handbooks.  This is the best way to decide which cartridges you want to add to your wish list (if it is like my list it is growing faster than ever!).

I'll be back with a few more posts tomorrow.  It is Hello Thursday (3rd Thursday) and there will be some more new cartridges announced.  It is also Sweet Treat Thursday on the Cuttlebug Challenge Blogspot and you will see the Back to School Projects the Cricut Design Team created this week.


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Time to break the piggy bank!

I was eagerly waiting for the Design Studio to be updated to add A Child's Year so I could weld the font - I really like the style of the letters. A Child's Year was added today, along with a group of cartridges that are brand new and very exciting. Here is a LINK to the Cricut Message Board announcement about the update where you will find a link to the download page. If you are not sure about how to download and install the new cartridge information, you can see the great step by step explanation that Jen just posted on our "Let me Show You How To Do That" teaching blog - here is a LINK to the post (Thanks Jen!).

The six new "surprise" cartridges are Everyday Paper Dolls, From My Kitchen, Picturesque, Serenade, Sweethearts and Winter Woodland - and they all look terrific!

All of the cartridges except Serenade are full cartridges. Serenade is a solutions cartridge with charming birds, flowers, trees and even birdcages!

I thought that Sweethearts was a solutions cartridge at first glance because the virtual keypad only shows two feature keys



I noticed the the keys were not in the usual position for Solutions cartridges so I checked the features menu and found out that it is a full cartridge with shadow, blackout, layers, tags, cards and envelopes. There is a glitch in the way the keypad appears in the program, but if you click where the feature key should be the images show up.



Here are a few tags,



and some of the layers - won't it be fun to decorate that cake!



Here are a few envelopes,



and some cards.

The cartridge is is full of romantic and cute images suitable for weddings, anniversaries, Valentine's Day, and so on. There are some nice flourishes and lots of welded phrases. There is even a bicycle built for two!

I previewed all of the images in regular and shift and took screen shots to share with you - I'll try to do this for some more of the cartridges too. Take a look and enjoy!



























I imagine most people who read my blog have Design Studio since I spend so much of my time creating with it, sharing my designs, and trying to help other people learn some of the quirks of the program that I have discovered through trial and error.

However, if you don't have Design Studio yet, you owe it to yourself to at least download the trial version so you can take a look at all of the exciting new cartridges. Remember, with the trial version you can design with everything but can only cut with your machine's "native" cartridges (George for the Personal, Don Juan for the Create and Plantin Schoolbook and Accent Essentials for the Expression).

Once you have done some experimenting with the trial version and see how many interesting and exciting possibilities are open to you when you use the software you will discover that you do "need" to add Design Studio to your crafting tools!

The font in the screen shot at the top of this post is from Winter Woodland and the butterfly is from Picturesque. I know I need to start calculating which of these new cartridges will go to the top of my wish list - I will want to get them all - it's just a question of which ones will come first! I have no idea if these are going to be available soon or if the release was a "teaser" and it will be a while until they are available to purchase. But it will be fun to work with the images and I can even have a lot of things designed so I will be ready to go when the cartridges do become available.

A Child's Year - One of the Best Yet!

I feel like my birthday came early (it isn't until next week). This morning I received a copy of the new "A Child's Year" cartridge to preview for you and I can tell already that this is going to be one of my all time favorites. This is a full cartridge and it is absolutely packed with great images, cards, tags, wonderful icons and even a full upper and lower case font - WOW!!!



The creative features include Monogram - capital letters in scalloped ovals or balloons,



Icon - so many great images and lots of nice realistic ones for those who don't care for some of the "cute" images on other cartridges,



a Card feature with folding cards and flat note cards,



Tags with some interesting layering options,



a full font which is very classic and useful - on first glance it reminds me of a cross between Alphalicious and Doodletype



and finally, a shadow feature for all of the intricate, Scherenschnitte style images on the main keypad.

I am so eager to start cutting - this cartridge is not in Design Studio yet but will be added soon (I believe they are working on adding the keywords). I resisted the temptation to go play right away so I could take photos to share with you - next I will be off to try some cuts which I will try to post later today.

This type of cartridge has so much to offer even if you don't use Design Studio - let me show you what it includes....(remember you can click on any photo to see it in a large size)



Birthday images with yet another cupcake option - the child in the high chair is adorable!



Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day - the shamrock and hearts are wonderful!



Two sets of Easter images - I love the little chick and the bunny in the tag.



Children with umbrellas - I remember someone was recently asking for a "Morton Salt" image - this would work very well. Next there are three pages of garden images - the border in the shift of the Icon looks great and I really like the girl pushing a wheelbarrow.



More garden images, a great watering can and potted plant and wonderfully detailed realistic leaves.



Outdoor - fishing images with a very nice fish on the Tag option and then some special "Mom" images. The roses and doves with a heart are beautiful.



"Dad" images with baseball, bat and cap and yummy ice cream - cones and a sundae!



Three pages of beach images - cute beach balls and beach umbrella vignette.



The third page of beach images and 4th of July (this was the image that is on the Products page on Cricut.com) The little go-cart looks fantastic - so much detail...



More 4th of July - watermelon and crossed flags and some very nice reading images and book icons.



Some school images, including a cap and diploma and a lovely realistic apple with detailed leaves.



Music images - take a look at that violin and the grand piano - I know I will be using these! The shaped card on that page looks very nice as well. The "craft" images include some nice scissors, the heart in hand motif (common in quilting) and a sweet girl at an easel.



Two sets of Halloween images - great pumpkins and costumed children.



Thanksgiving "Pilgrims" with a detailed turkey and some wonderful winter images - the snowman is very charming and the snowflakes icons are lovely and different.



Two sets of Christmas images - the holly icon is very stylish for a card and the steaming cup of tea and the teacup card can be used throughout the year.



Pages of images with animals including a duck and a very detailed beetle (almost scary!) along with some lovely bird images.



More birds and some cats! (I know many people have been wishing for more cat images).



The dogs are not forgotten and there is a cute folding tag of a bone



Some sets of girls playing old fashioned games and a very cute hand card.



A few cooking images and a rolling pin, wooden spoon and mixing bowl - also some more teacup and teapot images including a nice aperture card and tag.



Baby doll and airplane images - some "captain's" wings and a suitcase - also some nice word art.



Two sets of toy images - the tricycle and little wagon are very detailed - also a great card with a scalloped front.



"Dress up" images - a lucky horseshoe and stick pony and a cute princess dress and crown.



Just look at those teddy bears - they are great! and the bubble bath images are also sweet...



Time for bed - a lovely card and tag, another cat and the "tooth fairy" with a tooth and tooth brush - the little girls with fairy wings are precious.

The designer of this cartridge is Sharyn Sowell and I have to say I think she is amazingly talented and has given us some wonderful new images. I like the fact that many of them are very realistic so they can be used for all sorts of things and are not limited to "Kids" projects and pages. This was a cartridge that I have been interested in ever since I heard about it from the reports from CHA last winter and it not only lives up to but far exceeds my expectations.

(Thanks to Cathy from the Cricut Message Board I am adding a LINK to Sharyn Sowell's website - truly incredible work!)

I am going to go do some trial cuts and will post them as soon as I can - I am sorry to be such an "enabler" but I think that once you look at these images this cartridge will end up on a lot of "wish lists" because it is so classy and versatile.

I'd like to say thanks again to Provo Craft for the honor of being asked to review this cartridge.