Cricut Cake Machine Cutting Mat

Cricut has two new tools to use with your Cricut Cake Machine to help you create fantastic projects. The Cricut Cake Machine Cutting Mat comes in two sizes, 12 X 12 and 12 X 24. These wonderful mats are constructed from clear, durable plastic and feature easy to follow measurement lines. The two sizes gives you, the decorator, more options when sizing images and phrases to your particular cake. They are priced $11.99 for the smaller one and $15.99 for the larger size through the company, and are a must have for your cake decorating set up.

The decorator first lays out and rolls flat a section of gum paste. This is then laid onto the cutting mat, matching it up with the measurement lines, depending on type and size. The design is chosen on the machine and the mat is inserted. When the machine begins working, it lays out and cuts the design for you. When done, the mat is removed and you pull away the unwanted edges around the cut. The phrase or design is left behind, and you can lift and place on the cake as planned. The entire process takes only minutes and is extremely user friendly. Decorating has never been easier for the beginner crafter.

In the past, it would take years of experience to do lettering and constructing intricate swirls and flourishes. Pastry bags, custom templates, and a keen eye were required, along with an extended period of practice time. Now, there is no other reason for you to have to dream of being able to do work like this. With these tools, your options for decorating cakes and cupcakes are unlimited as your imagination. Using the Cricut Cake 12×24 Cutting Mat in combination with the other tools, you can create in minutes and with as much beauty as any professional.

The Broad Spectrum of Cricut Cartridges

Cricut electronic cutters are known for their versatility and this versatility comes from the wide range of cartridges available for the machines. Cartridges are an essential part of how the Cricut machines work. The machines won’t even work when there is no cartridge installed. This is why each machine comes with it’s own cartridge already included, so you can start rafting with the machine right away. Of course, crafters get bored very quickly and that one cartridge will soon begin to wear out it’s usefulness. That’s why there are tons of cartridges available to buy separately, to increase the uses of your machine. Whenever you get bored of one cartridge you can simply choose another one from the range, eventually building up a collection of cartridges for every occasion. Every cartridge is fully compatible with each machine, including the larger favorite, the Cricut Expression

There are 5 different categories of cartridges. There are licensed cartridges, shape cartridges, font cartridges, Classmate cartridges, and Solutions cartridges. Within each section, crafters are sure to find cartridges that increase their use of their Cricuts and add spice to their scrapbooking experience.

Font cartridges each contain enough designs to print the entire alphabet, allowing you to build whatever phrases and words you wish. Also, some cartridges feature more than one font and some include shapes and patterns to match the font. Fonts range from whimsical and cute to basic and practical. The most popular font cartridges include the All Mixed Up, Ashlyn’s Alphabet, and the brilliant Opposites Attract cartridge.

Shape cartridges differ from font cartridges in that they contain images and shapes rather than fonts. For example, Wild Card contains shapes you might need to create stylish cards and envelopes. The Pagoda cartridge is another such cartridges containing useful images for a wide range of uses, which will be evident in its name.

Another type of cartridge is the licensed Cricut cartridge. Unlike other cartridges these may not only contain only a font or only shapes. They usually contain a mixture of both, often focused around a central franchise. These themes include popular characters like Hannah Montana and Disney princesses, and contain images and fonts associated with them.

The Cricut Classmate Cartridges are designed to be especially useful to teachers, teaching assistants, art technicians and anyone else who has the need to construct bulletin boards and classroom aids. The people at Cricut know that these people often have needs of their own and have created this range especially. For geography teachers there is 50 States. Primary school teachers might enjoy using the Cursive 101 cartridge. Whether it is a bulletin board you are creating or a classroom display, this range is great at supplying teacher with designs specific to them.

Finally, the Solutions line of Cricut cartridges has been designed for scrapbookers on a budget. These cartridges may not carry the wide range of designs and features seen on the other cartridges but they are available for a much lower cost. Nearly all cartridges carry an MSRP of around ninety dollars, but Solutions cartridges are available for around the fifty dollar mark. As with other cartridge lines there are many to choose from, including wedding and birthday themes.

The advantage of owning a Cricut cutting machine has always been their incredible versatility. The cartridge system allows you to quickly adapt and increase the designs you are able to create. New cartridges are regularly released meaning that this evolution is ongoing. It’s no wonder that Cricut machines are often named as the most adaptable machines on the market. For more information on Cricut products, including where to find a cheap Cricut Gypsy be sure to check out Cartridge Helper.

Simply Sweet Cricut Cartridge Offers Pleasing Fonts

Simply Sweet Cricut Cartridge is the new font system released in July 2009 by Provo Craft, manufacturer of paper crafting products. Eagerly awaited by crafters everywhere, the Simply Sweet cartridge is a whimsical addition to font libraries. Its style is young-at-heart, and reproduces child-like letters, numbers, shapes, icons, and more. Creator of an entire range of products that promote paper crafting, Provo Craft Cricut cartridges are compatible with its three cutting machines. Users do not need a computer for this product.

Simply Sweet offers a variety of easy-to-use features. Among these are letters, numbers, common punctuation marks, icons, and phrases. The letters are in upper and lower case. Three of the all purpose phrases are “Birthday” “Congrats”, and “Get Well Soon”. The shapes included are circles, hearts, flowers, stars, a birthday gift box, butterfly, and diaper safety pin. A stitched circle and heart are also available. Other font features include tab, blocked, shadow, and blockout effects. Paired with the original Cricut machine, Simply Sweet Cricut Cartridge can produce colorful letters from 1″ to 5.5″ in height and 11.5” in length. If used with the Cricut Expression machine, it produces fonts up to 24″.

This new font cartridge can be used for a variety of crafting projects. Scrappers will find it a fun addition that will provide children’s themes to pages. Photos of a child’s birthday party can be enhanced with the fun and colorful font images. For card crafters, the font system can complement get well, congratulatory, and birthday occasions as well. Cards for newborns can be decorated with these innocent and care free images. Early childhood teachers and others can accent bulletin boards to creatively offer information to staff and parents.

The Simply Sweet Cricut Cartridge is sold directly through Provo Craft, or by a variety of craft retailers and is fully compatible with the cheap Cricut Gypsy and the cheap Cricut Juke Box.

Scrapbooking with Cricut Cartridges

Scrapbooking is time honored tradition in the United States.  No one wants to forget those special moments you had with your loved ones.  Many creative people have found scrapbooking to be a great outlet for creating crafts and designing unique things.

Scrapbooking centers around photographs, and now that most people use digital pictures you would think scrapbooking would have lost its touch.  I mean, people have even replaced their picture frames with digital ones.

Quite the opposite has happened.  Scrapbooking has kept up with the digital age with things like the digital cutting machine – the cricut.  You can buy cricut cartidges that will cut just about any material in just about any shape, design, or font you can create on your computer.

It is just amazing to see how even craft activities have kept up with modern technology!