Liven up crafts with boy embellishments

Looking for a different way to dress up your son's scrap book? We have a fun selection of buttons in sports and other great themes.

Dress it up with Soccer has these ideal buttons and words.

The Baseball selection has balls, bats, mitts, banners and more.

This Train package has seven train engines inan assortment of colors.

And for the boy who loves his dog, there's a choice for him too. This one has an asortment of dog faces and bones.

If you have other crafts, gift cards or scrap book pages that could use fun embellishments, check out our selection. We also have great summer fun, baby shower, and other packages available.

How to make a Wall*E cake

Trying out cake decorating for the first time can be a bit intimidating, but I'm going to show you step by step how to go about it. This Wall*E cake pan was used to create a tasty confection for one of my grandchildren. First removed the picture and wash it out.

Next, grease and flour the pan. It can be hard to get all of the little edges and corners in these shape pans and we recommend using a pasty brush with shortening on it to make sure you get complete coverage. If you don't have a pastry brush, you could just use a plastic sandwich bag on your hand, but make sure every bit of the bottom is well covered, then flour it. If you don't grease it well enough, you'll have bits of cake stick to the pan.

Next, pour the batter into the pan.
When the cake it out and cooled partway, flip it upside down on a cooling rack or a clean dish towel to dislodge the cake from the pan.

Next, ice the outside part around Wall*E. The contrast and lighting is what makes it look like the cake is darker brown than in the previous picture. A spatula is a great tool to use in this step. When you are trying to get the frosting to smooth out nice, one simple trick is to dip you spatula or knife in a cup of water between swipes so the frosting won't stick to it. Just make sure you don't get the frosting too wet.

One great thing about these character pans is that Wilton includes directions on which tips to use when and special tips on how to get your finished product to look right. In this case, they suggest you use a #5 tip to outline the wheels and eyes, and a #10 to fill the spaces in. To smooth the larger section, dip your fingertip in a bit of corn starch, then smooth the frosting with it.

After that, outline the rest of Wall*E in the yellow frosting and fill it in.

With a little care and time, you could be producing this cute cake for a special child in your life. Pastry bags, tips, and other tools you may need are available on our Web site.

Radio Fences does the job for less

They say good fences make good neighbors. This is especially true when you have a dog. The Petsafe Radio Fence not only keeps dogs out of your neighbor's yard, it can be customized to keep dogs out of garden beds, ponds, and other landscaping areas that attract animals, and it's far less money than putting up a fence around your property.

The in-ground fencing system includes the modules you plug into the wall, wire to bury under ground, or stake to grass level, software teaching you how to train your dog, training flags, a collar and receiver. If you misplace the CD or are unable to use it for some reason, training videos and instructions are also available for viewing or download on the Petsafe web site.

Safe and effective for all pets over 8 lbs. The system works by delivering mild static correction through two Contact Points that touch your pet's neck. If your pet crosses the established barrier, a correction will be sent to get your pet's attention, but will not harm him. The adjustable collar allows you to create a perfect fit for your pet. There are two different contact points available depending upon the length of your pets coat.

Extra collars and flags are available to purchase with this system, along with extra wire if you need to cover a larger area than the 500 feet of wire enclosed. If you move, you can easily take the radio fence controller with you and purchase new wire for your new home.

There are several systems available for smaller dogs, hard-to-train dogs, even systems for cats.

Infrared pet door lets your dog choose

Wouldn't it be great if your dog could open doors?
Your dog can now have access to the outside when he and you wants him to

The Staywell Electronic Infra-Red Pet Door is made for the dog on the go. This electronic pet door knows when you want your dog to go out or in, and smart enough to keep other animals out too! The Staywell Electonic Infra-Red Pet Door features infrared technology, and your dog never waits for it to unlock.

Infra-Red eliminates the problems associated with magnetic and electronic pet dog doors. With the infrared feature, this electronic pet door has no issues working in a steel door as most electronic pet doors do.

The Staywell Electronic Infra-Red Pet Door lets you control whether your dog is allowed to enter or leave your house. Just set the controls to to allow "enter/but don't leave", "leave but don't enter", "go in/go out", or locked" A small transmitter fits on your dog's collar signaling the door to open only for him and allowing only his use.

When your dog approaches the Pet Door it will unlock from a distance of two to six feet away. No other animals will be allowed in or out. The door will lock again in both directions preventing young children or animals from entering or leaving.

To read more about the specifications for this great prodcut, visit our Website.

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.