It's the Jukebox

Do you ever get frustrated with having to switch from one cartridge to another, and then realize you didn't finish with the first cartridge after all? If you already use the Design Studio software, the Jukebox is the perfect complement. The Jukebox will hold up to six cartridges, and has space to store the books and overlays underneath. You can also hook up to three Jukeboxes together, to use up to eighteen cartridges with ease.

First you connect the Jukebox by plugging the cord into the place where you place the cartridge in your Cricut or Cricut Expressions machine. Then you load up the Jukebox with up to six cartridges each. Hook the Cricut machine to your computer and bring up the Design Studio. You can access shapes from multiple cartridges at once this way to design combined shapes or words.

If you don't have the Design Studio software, you can still use the Jukebox attached directly to your Cricut machine, but you'll have to use one cartridge at a time. Still, the Jukebox provides plenty of space for you to store those cartridges that you use often so they're right at your fingertips.

Thanksgiving dolls

I'm always finding new ways to use my Paper Dolls Dress up Cricut cartridge. For Thanksgiving I cut out a bunch of people and clothes and let my grandkids create their own little Pilgrim people. I started with a selection of hair, clothes, and bodies.

Using glue sticks and some imagination, they started piecing the dolls together.Happy girls and their creations!
This activity kept the girls busy for quite a while, cutting down on boredom and arguments.
It's important to remember when you cut out the clothes for your paper dolls that If you cut five inch dolls, you need to keep the setting at five inches on the clothes. This allows the machine to make the clothes fit the dolls.

I used the Cricut Design Studio to plan my pilgrims and clothes. Each color of paper was set up in design studio to conserve paper and to prevent me from loading and reloading the same colors onto the mat as I realized I had forgotten pieces.

Going places

Do you like to travel? With the Going Places Cricut Cartridge, you can dress up any vacation scrapbook page. Road signs, camp fires and trailers, water, boats, cars, trains, taxis and more are available on this cartridge.

Going Places even has handy sayings to go along with your pictures and shapes. Road Trip, Happy Trails, and many other great phrases are also available. There is even the ability to cut cards and envelopes to go with these shapes.

As with all Cricut cartridges, there are lots of additional options available using the shadow, blackout, and other features on your Cricut or Cricut Expressions machines. Don't forget extra mats, cutting blades, markers and other necessities while planning your holiday shopping.

Tag it or bag it

Cricut has a great cartridge called Tags, Bags, Boxes & More. This is a great cartridge with tons of options, not in in different sizes, but different shapes and other options. Many of the tags shown below can be cut in mirror images so you can fold them with a personal note inside, or you can cut a window in the tag and back it with another paper. Show below are even more tags, and a whole lot of bags and boxes. These are just a few examples of the many choices this cartridge provides. Simply cut the shapes, fold, and adhere for one-of-a-kind gift bags, party favors, labels, and scrapbook accents. Need a pretty package for a gift? Cut something just the right size out of whatever paper you want to match the theme.


There are lots of other designs available on this cartridge as well. You can check them all out here. To see the other great Cricut products we have available, check out our Web site.

Make a vinyl Christmas scene

Christmas decorations are popping up everywhere and with Cricut's Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge, you can decorate your windows and walls for the holiday.

The Paper Dolls cartridge has dozens of great outfits and ideas, from a Hula girl outfit, a princess with castle and dragon, Halloween costumes, a full Nativity, to Santa, his reindeer, sleigh and elves and so much more. This year I decided to put a Santa scene on my family room wall.

First I drew out an idea of how I wanted to set it out just on a sheet of paper. You don't have to have any real artistic ability to do this--all you're trying to do is get a feel for how you want it to look.

Next I decided on the scale I wanted to use for the people, reindeer, sleigh, and trees. To do this, I cut all of the major outlines out in plain white paper. I didn't bother cutting out clothes, because I just wanted to make sure the pieces were the right scale for the scene. I taped these pieces on the wall where I was going to stick the vinyl, that way I knew I had the right spacing between pieces, and that it was centered right on the wall. After the picture below was taken, I taped them to the wall to get a better look. Setting the pieces out like this showed me that the sleigh was a little too big in proportion to the reindeer, so I cut the sleigh out a little smaller for the final version.

Next I started cutting the pieces out. The important thing to remember with the Paper Dolls cartridge is that if you cut out a ten inch person, you keep the ten inch setting for the clothing. The cartridge automatically fits the clothing to a character that size. For Mr.s Clause, I cut a person that was nine inches tall, and her clothes at nine inches as well.

If you have the Design Studio, you can plan ahead and cut all pieces from one color of vinyl at once. This can simplify the process if you think ahead.

Finally, I applied the pieces to the wall. I was pretty happy with the way it worked out.

Partaking the Joys of the Season

Earlier this week I talked about the Christmas Cheer Cricut cartridge. Since that earlier collection of Christmas designs came out, ProvoCraft has produced a new cartridge, called the Joys of the Season. This includes many new card and tag options with different pictures, a complete collection of images for the Twelve Days of Christmas, and even Chanukah images!

The book that comes with this cartridge shows you how each image can be stretched, bolded, cut out of tags, and even has directions for a wreath project.

Whether you are planning to dress up your scrapbook, your Christmas cards, Christmas party, or decorate a wall or window (using the great vinyl colors this machine can cut for you), there something for nearly any situation.

For a full set of images from the book, click here for a look at a PDF file. To purchase this or many other Cricut products, visit our Web site.

Spreading Christmas Cheer

The holiday season is nearly upon us, and scrapbookers are on the lookout for fun ideas to dress up their pages this season. Whether you are buying for yourself, or for someone else who has a Cricut machine and Christmas fetish, there are great solutions out there for you.

Christmas Cheer is from the first group of cartridges to hit the market. It includes pictures of Santa, his sleigh, reindeer, trees, decorations, Christmas candy and much more. Among other option, this cartridge allows you to cut the shapes out of rounded-cornered squares, circles, tags, and place cards. You can even create mini boxes for Christmas goodies.

Remember these designs can be cut any size up to 12"x24"on the Cricut Expressions, enabling you to size the decorations to your project. You can even cut these out of vinyl to adhere to walls and windows!

To see images of everything this cartridge can do, visit the ProvoCraft Web site.

To purchase this or any of the other many Cricut products we have in stock, visit our Web site.

A scrapbooker's dream

If you haven't stumbled across the infomercials on ProvoCraft's Cricut machine, and you're a scrapbooker, you're missing out. Schools, businesses, and other groups have found this a great way to dress up bulletin boards and create professional-looking signs as well. This great machine makes die cuts, only the user can change the size, and with the right tools, even the shape of the items they are cutting out.

The Cricut and Cricut Expressions machines are computerized machines that take electronic cartridges which contain a selection of shapes and/or words. You attach the cartridge at the port and then select the item and size you want to make it. You can cut letters or pictures in any size up to 12x14 inches! ProvoCraft even makes a selection of markers that are made to replace the cutting blade so you can draw on the paper instead.

Cartridges come in everything from complete font sets, Disney characters, holiday themes, paper dolls, and so much more. We also carry a full line of supplies for the Cricut on our Web site. There is also a great computer program available that allows you to stretch letters, bind pictures together so they print as one piece, and much more. See the video below to learn how the Cricut Design Studio works.