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Saturday, March 26, 2011

Cricut Craft Room April Launch

    I would just like to let everyone know what my blog is about. First and foremost about helping people love their Cricut and use it to its fullest legal potential. I LOVE my Cricut and ALL of my cartridges, yes I own them all :) It is my vice, I don't drink or smoke, but Cricut cartridges are where I spend all of my extra money. My blog is for Cricut lovers. If you do not love your Cricut and its cartridges and the other Provo-Craft items, you might not want to keep up with my blog. I have a Yudu and CuttleBug and I do own other company's products like Stampin' up, Slice, and Sizzix. On occasion you will see me use of a few of the other products here, BUT this is for Cricut Lovers, so at least one of my Cricut Machines will be used in all of my projects, videos, cards and layouts.
    So, I had surgery and have not worked on anything in about a week. My husband went away to work for the week and I promised I would not use my machines while he was gone. To make sure I wouldn't he took all of my power cords... I promised him i would not work in my studio, but I had to sneak up there, I missed it... I decided to work on some things with my new cartridges. The Ultimate Creativity bundle and the new 8 seasonals with the same ultimate creativity series.... low and behold, he took ALL of my power cords... I have 8 Expressions, Imagine, Personal, 4 sewing machines and 1 computerized embroidery machine. He took ALL of the power cords, some can work in other machines and he didn't know which went to what so he took them all with him.... That is SO wrong, I went to call him about it and told on myself, as soon as it came out of my mouth I realized I outed myself that I did what I said I wouldn't do. Gosh darn it!
    But I still have my computer. So on to Cricut Craft Room. The big announcement on Cricut Craft Room's official launch. It is scheduled to be launched at the end of April, I am thinking with the E2 (expression 2). That is my speculation. All they say is that they think it will be ready to launch at the end of April.
   So I am working my way through the cartridges and making files with all of the color codes and such. One of the great things about Cricut Craft Room is that even if you do not have the imagine, you can design in Imagine mode and see everything in color, then when you select your machine it will show it in the outlines or cut lines that will be cut on your machine.
   I unintentionally stirred up alot of controversy on the Cricut Message boards. I posted about Cricut Craft Room (CCR) and I said what I was doing about making files and such. Here is what I did not realize, I was posting on a non-Circle thread. The Circle for those of you who do not know what it is, it is the Cricut Circle, a paid membership where you get a new exclusive cartridge every3 months. You also get access to certain threads on the message boards and alot of people share their .gypsy and .cut files. After getting alot of negative flack, I decided to post things saying that I would only share with Cricut Circle members, again I posted that on a non-circle board, so it went public to everyone, boy did the nasty PM (private Messages) roll in. If you notice I am defining what the shorthand (PM and CCR) actually means. My grandma keeps asking what does TFS mean.... It took me the longest time to figure out that TFS means Thanks For Sharing. So for those of you who do not know what this short hand means, you will like my Postings, for those of you who already know I am sorry but I am going to define these things to help those who do not know. I was told in some of those nasty emails that EVERYONE knows what PM means, who do I think I am acting like people don't know this stuff, well guess what, there are a few people out there who do not know what this means, I am trying to help them. There is nothing like trying to read post and not knowing what PM, TFS, LOL, ROTFL,  nothing like trying to decode while you read. (PM- Private Message, TFS- Thanks for Sharing, LOL- Laughing Out Load, ROTFL-Rolling On The Floor Laughing.) I am from the texting generation, but I still have to stop and decode every once in a while.
   Back to the Cricut message boards. I received a few VERY nasty emails from people on there. Oh my! I did not mean to insult anyone or treat anyone like they were dumb. I received alot of flack from people saying even beginners know you can put multiple colors of paper and a mat and load it and have it cut from several colors at a time. Yes I know people know how to do this. But what I am doing is helping people who don't have TIME to figure all of this out. I am making files so anyone can go to Cricut Craft Room (Free on-line design software, similar but better than design studio) or use their gypsy. Also my 3 year old daughter and 75 Year old grandma do NOT know how to put multiple colors on the mat and cut all of the pieces to a character or die cut. If this insults your intelligence or creativity, then do not use them. I am not twisting anyone's arm to use my files. I have received ALOT of positive feedback on these so far. Basically if you do not know what I am talking about, here it is. I am putting these together based on what I THINK people want, based an thread on the Message Boards. I am making a file, as you can see on my earlier posts, where you will see the Imagine file, Cricut file and paper placement. This will in no way be used on any other software. These will be ONLY in .cut and .gypsy file formats. There for your have to have the cartridge to use my files. You still need to purchase the Cricut cartridges and load them to your gypsy or CCR. I will be providing a picture of a .jpeg of the paper placement. It will not have the items outlined on it, because clever people will just use one of those other software programs to get out of buying the cartridge. I am not here to enable those people I am here to help Cricut Lovers. Please do not bog down my site by commenting on the 3rd party software programs. If you use those other programs, you will not like my Blog, so please send the negativity about Cricut products to another site or sounding off board. I used one of those other programs before and found out that it voided the on warranty my machine. They sold it advertising the Cricut, so I ASSUMED it was make by Cricut. Now I know it is not. I will not mention those as I do not want to give them any business.
     So for those of you who do not have time to learn your cricut or don't want to spend time making your files, and just want to cut your stuff out then get working on your project, you will love my files. You will also have them forever, if you want to make an Ariel you will have everything ready to sit down and make one in less than 4 minutes, start to finish. I am here to help you!
    I still have between now an the end of April to finish getting through as many cartridges as I can before the official launch of CCR. (as for my abbreviations, if I have already defined an abbreviation earlier in the post, I will not define it each time it shows up in the same post)
   Cricut has asked us not to share the website where CCR is, BUT they want us to talk it up and build the hype. I have made a help guide, it is complied from the CCR help page. All I did is copy and paste items, the information belongs to Cricut so there is no permission to share as your own.
    I know they have extended the invitation to CCR with most of the Circle Members. I am sure people outside of the circle have been giving an email invite, but i have no idea for sure.
    Like always if there is something you would like me to try with it. I am more than willing to do so, just send me a message. Also if you would like the 27 page help guide for CCR email me and I will send it to you. I do not see anything wrong with sharing this. I would go online and read about a gypsy before I buy it and there is nothing wrong with that. So my guide is to help you learn HOW TO use it before you 'buy it' yes it is free but you get the picture. I will learn how to add a file soon. I am not new to graphic editing or Cricut stuff, blogging is what is new to me. I will try to attach the file to this.
   If anyone can help me how to post a PDF file on here it would be great then I can share it. In the meantime, email me and I will send it to you.

6 comments:

TerryM said...

Can I just say THANK YOU. Finally someone with a blog that I feel is here for the Cricut crafter.

Donna said...

I too, like Terry, am so glad to see the Cricut used. So many are now into just selling their products, and don't use the Cricut very often. So thank you Erica.

Donna C.
goCricutgo (CC)

Rebecca said...

Wow, I can't believe people would be so hostile about you doing such a kind thing and compiling so much information for the cricut lover! I say thank you!

Sheri said...

Erica, I am new to your blog. Can't wait to learn. Thanks for taking the time to help all us beginning baby bugs to become circuits.

Sheri said...

Erica, i am new to your blog. Can't wait to learn. Thanks for taking the time to help all of us beginning baby bugs to become cricuts.

BethFondren said...

i have emailed you for a copy of the 27 page ccr guide. i havnt recieved anything so maybe my email did NOT get to you. i would really like a copy. i am not sure if i am supposed to be a circle member. if i am let me know i will do it. thanks and God Bless! Thanks for all your hard work!