Planning Ahead for the Greenville Circle Crop

Yesterday was along and busy day. I drove to Atlanta and back (6 hours) and brought my younger son, Ian, home with me. Ian is on an early fall break until the end of the month. It was SOOO nice to see Ian and to spend time with him on the drive home. Of course after we arrived in Aiken I had to share Ian with Doug and Bethany.

After returning home and having dinner, I went to my friend Beth's house to work on wedding items for her beautiful daughter Libby's wedding. Libby is getting married in 10 days and Beth had some finishing details that needed handling. A group of us assembled the favor packages, the hospitality bags for the hotels, and the bubbles for the reception departure. With seven of us working it only took a couple of hours to knock out all three tasks. It would have taken Beth many, many hours to finish these tasks alone. The group of friends was happy to assist. In fact, if Beth had not let us help her we would have been very unhappy with her. Your friends should be there when you need assistance.

Anyway, my busy day prevented any new crafting.  Since I cannot yet share photos of the two banners I made for the Cricut banner contest, I decided to share the 3 x 3 inch calling cards I made for the Greenville, SC Southern Christmas Circle Crop. 

I used the Art Philosophy cartridge and Cricut Design Studio to create my cards.  I cut the base card in white American Crafts cardstock.  The frames were cut in assorted blue/wintery printed cardstock.  The centers were mostly older Stampin' Up cardstock.   I used one design, but four different cardstock combinations.

I cut the cut snowflakes in silver metallic cardstock.  I ran out of the metallic cardstock, but MFK - my friend Kathy told me that she has a sheet of 12x12 inch metallic silver cardstock that I may have to finish all of my calling cards.  This, my friends, is why you need a BFF who is also a paper crafter!!  When you have a crafting emergency you can run to your BFF for assistance.  Anyway, Kathy has the cardstock set aside for me!!

I finished the cards by printing my personal info on 8.5x11 inch cardstock.  I opened a MS Word document and created text boxes that coordinated with the design studio tag placements.  I ran the cardstock through the printer and then I carefully measured and lined up the cardstock on the cricut cutting mat.  I quickly marked the paper edges on the mat to make repeat cuts much quicker.  I then cut the tags with the Cricut and affixed the info tags to the back of the calling cards!

You have NOOO idea how unlike me it is to have a project nearly finished seven weeks before it is needed!!!   After all, I am the woman who has no idea what I will be posting at Everyday Cricut this Saturday.

A Provo Craft Happy Mother's Day Surprise

I had the most amazing FedEx delivery to my doory yesterday - a LARGE, lightweight, mystery box.  At first I thought perhaps it was my E2, until I picked the box up and it weighed nearly nothing.   I opened the box and found a beautiful bouquet of Cricut paper flowers and a lovely Mother's  Day card!
 

The card read:

"Dear Susan,

Happy Mother's Day!  We at Provo Craft are inspired by your crafting creativity and appreciate your passion for our products.  Enclosed is a small token of our appreciation, a bouquet created just for you by our design team. 

To further extend the celebration, we encourage you to give 11 of the flowers to fellow moms in your community, inviting them to become members of our community.

Each flower recipient will receive a unique gift:  three months free membership to the CRICUT CIRCLE by Provo Craft, a select community of Cricut enthusiasts, offering access to exclusive products, offers and content:

• Four exclusive cartridges per year, one each quarter, ONLY available to Cricut Circle members;
• Special buying privileges such as rebates, monthly coupons and opportunities to buy other exclusive products for your Cricut, from friends and partners of Provo Craft;
• Extra reward points and special cricut.com discounts;
• A members-only bracelet with an exclusive Cricut Circle charm;
• Access to a free, on-line version of Cricut magazine; and
• Inspiration and education from exclusive Cricut Circle webinars, swarms, meet-ups and events.

So go ahead, surprise another mother with a special gift from you, and us.

Happy Mother's Day! 

Sincerely,
Your Friends at Provo Craft"

Can you imagine just how excited I was to receive this wonderful gift?  I immediately called and emailed a few "Cricutting" friends who are not yet circle members and almost immediately found homes for six of the eleven flowers with the Cricut Circle free quarter certificate!   I do, however, have a few of the flowers left to give away.  If you are not a member of the Cricut Circle, this Mother's Day flower offers a perfect opportunity to give it a try.  The first FIVE interested people can claim a free quarter in the Cricut Circle!!!   Leave me a comment or send me an email and I will contact you.

I can't wait to see what exciting things happen today......

Cricut Cricle Crop in Atlanta

Wow, the Cricut Circle Crop was FABULOUS!   We had such a fun filled day in Atlanta!   Shannon from Provo Craft along with two members of her design team spend the day guiding us through demos and cropping and snacks and prizes and guest visitor and a Cricut Store and …. FUN.  Shannon was so enthusiastic, so lively and so lovely – but not one of my photos captured any of that.  I am sorry Shannon.  You deserved so much better than this photo!

Our guest visitor was none other than the amazing Theresa Collins.  Theresa has a new Cricut Imagine cartridge coming out soon and she shared some of her designs and papers with us.  Shannon’s team put together Theresa’s Cricut Imagine print & cut book kits for each of us.  We made great books using the Theresa Collins products and the Your Story machine!!

Above - This is one of my table-mates, MADGE, who I accidentally called Helen (who sat across from me) binding her book in the Your Story.  Madge was awesome.  She managed to get near the front of the line for the store so she took my money (because I was at the far, far end of the line) and made my two purchases for me.  I wanted a Cricut Circle scarf (very pretty) and one of the new Cricut Quilled Flower sets!  So cute. 

Now speaking of my bad photo day – this is Susan in SC from the Cricut MB.  This is not a great photo of Susan.  She is just beautiful – inside and out.  Susan was also at our table of four.  We had such a nice group, and they made sure that I behaved!!

There were several demos of Provo Craft products:  the new Quill set, the new Cuttlebug, the new folders and new cut and emboss Cuttlebug products, and everyone was given the opportunity to use the Yudu.  I passed on the Yudu opportunity in order to let others have more time.  I own a Yudu so already I knew how to use the machine.

Did I mention prizes?

And more prizes?  I won a new cartridge and a Yudu Card Shop machine.  Madge won a set of screens for the card shop so I traded her my cartridge for her screens.  That way she had something she could use and I received extra screens!

There were two swaps organized by Amy and Paulette from the MB.  We had a ribbon was and a goodie bag swap.  I made the trading card boxes (from my previous blog post) for the goodie boxes.

The final two photos provide an overview of the room, everyone chilling during a mini break (hence the number of empty seats).  Behind the photographer is the demo area and snack area.

If you are ever presented with the opportunity to attend a Provo Craft crop run to sign up!   This was such a nice day, but over far too soon.  Our day flew by!   Susan in SC and I spoke with Shannon and received permission to plan a South Carolina Circle Crop later in the year!!  Sooooo do join the circle and start saving for a fun weekend in SC!!!

Cricut Circle Crop - Atlanta

Hello everyone.  I am here in Atlanta getting ready for the first ever Atlanta Cricut Circle Crop!!!  Can you say EXCITED???  Thursday night I met 18 other women who are also victims of this horridly addictive disease we call CRICUT!  Yes, every one of them is totally and completely Cricut addicted!!

Susan in SC, from the Cricut Message board, and I joined a large group for dinner at Carrabas and then a smaller group for dessert at the cheesecake factory.  (Little side note:  how does one remember the difference between desert and dessert?  Dessert has two S's and you know you always want more dessert than you want desert.  Okay that was our lesson for the night).   I am stuffed and I suspect I will have to live on water, fruits and veggies next week as all of my weight watchers points have been spent!

Back the the Circle Crop.... The last I heard there are 44 or so of us attending.  Theresa Collins will be popping in to share her latest kit with us and walk us through assembly.  Provo Craft has promised great door prizes and loads of fun. 

Two FABULOUS women from the MB arranged the group dinners (yes, I said dinnerS - there is another Friday night) and a couple of swaps.  There are two swaps - a goodie bag swap and a ribbon swap.  I brought 25 one yard lengths of Stampin' Up ribbon to trade in the ribbon swap.  And I made (with the much appreciated and enjoyed help of MFK and her sister Kimberly) 50 3.3 inch boxes to hold the circle trading cards.  Since everyone is supposed to bring 3x3 cards I thought they could use boxes in which to store their cards.  The boxes are my contribution to the goodie bag exchange. 

The boxes were a quick cut on the 12 x 12 mat using George and Basic Shapes, some quick pre-marked scoring, a Cricut Circle logo on the front and my signature stamp watermarked onto the bottom of the box.

Best of all, I designed the box so that it only needs two lines of glue to hold it together!!

My 3 x 3 Circle Trading Cards were created using my computer and printer, as well as the Cindy Loo cartridge.  I don't know WHAT I would have done without Kathy's and Kimberly's assistance on assembling the cards.  The Cindy Loo cut was a challenge to cut this small.  After Kathy and Kimberly left I finished the cards by adding gems using my I-Rock gem setter and color on the bird and some leaves with Copic markers.    The back side of the card has my name and Busy with the Cricky information.

I will keep you posted on  how the Cricut Crop developes..... I am so ready for all of the fun!!!  I must dash off now as I do not want to miss a thing!!!

Cricut Circle Arrives in Aiken

Were you aware that FedEx has standard delivery on Saturday?  I found out today when my wonderful FedEx van rolled up and dropped off my Cricut Circle membership box!!!

Inside the box was the welcome letter, the membership certificate, French Manor Cartridge and my Cricut charm bracelet. 

I just had to lay the bracelet out on a white surface and take a photograph to share.

I just wanted to share... Now I must get back to working on the new product!!!!!