Pardon me, I've gone CRICUT CRAZY!

CRAZY!  TOTALLY CRAZY FOR CRICUT!

Yeahp- you saw that right- I'm shouting, not just typing all in CAPS, email-from-Mom-style.

Why am I so Cricut-Crazy tonight?

Maybe you're something like me- prone to excitement, a tad obsessive and suffering from a severe case of SILHOUETTE envy.

You know what SILHOUETTE envy is-  it's the feeling you get when you're cruising the scrapblogs with your mouth open, drooling a bit over all the classy cuts the Silhouette can do...

Then, you turn to your Cricut.  It's sittin' at its spot.  Staring at you, like a kid with a runny nose.

Before I get too far with my story, let's take a trip down memory lane.

I got my first Cricut a little over a year ago.  It was the 'baby' Cricut.  Is that the Cricut Create?  The Cricut Personal Cutter?  I can't remember its official name and I'm too lazy to open a new tab on the old browser here and Google it- but you know what I'm talking about- the 'baby' Cricut that cuts on those 6x12 mats.  Yeah, that one.

I didn't buy my Cricut at a store.  I got it from a scrappy co-worker, who had recently upgraded to the Expression.  I kinda lucked into CricutLand.  She even gave me a cartridge (Home Accents).  My first Cricut and my first cartridge!  What a day!  Because I have such an obsessive personality, I didn't have 'just one cartridge' for long.  That evening, I was combing Wal-Marts and lucked into a couple of 'lite' cartridges in the clearance aisle for 7.00 each.  I also scored DON JUAN.  I'm guessing someone tore up the box for the Cricut machine it was packaged with- as an employee had found it and it's keypad overlay and taped them together.  The cashier didn't know what to do with a box-less, no book-no machine cartridge so she let me have it for 7.00, too.

I was hooked!  I loved cutting things out.  I'd cut things out just to watch the machine cut them out.  When I saw (about two months later) that MICHAELS was going to sell the BRAND SPANKIN' NEW and beautiful CRICUT EXPRESSION 2 at their 'open at 4pm on Thanksgiving DAY sale,' I took that as a sign that YES, I must buy it...  So, after Thanksgiving din-din, I bugged my Mom into braving Michaels with me.  And BRAVING, it was.  The place was packed.  And crazy.  As I cruised aisles with my CE2 in my cart, no less than SEVEN women started up conversations with me by saying, 'Ohhhhh! You're gonna make a girl happy on Christmas DAYYYYY!'

Yeah.  No less than SEVEN women assumed I was there to buy the thing for a lucky little lady back home.  The first lady, I crushed her excitement by exclaiming, "WHAT? WHO? HUH?  WHAT THE HELL YOU TALKIN' BOUT?!  THIS BE MINES!"  She looked as if I'd hit her with her own knock-off Coach bag.  Huhhhhhh?  I didn't know it provided a vicarious thrill, imagining another lady opening up a Cricut on Christmas morning.

So, the rest, I allowed their joy.  I told great stories.  Nice stories, too.  Nice, sweet stories.  Even while I fought the urge to make up a story like, "Yeah, I'm trying to make it up to her, for sleeping with her sister- hope the new Cricut does the trick!"

Wow- how I digress.

Anyways.  I ended up being the head of a two Cricut household.

But shortly after my big CE2 purchase, I began seeing all these Silhouette cuts on all these kick-ass layouts.  Dangit.

I started shopping for a Silhouette.  No store carried this elusive thing.  I don't know if you're like me and/or I don't know if you know this about me- but I HATE to order things online.  I hate paying for something and waiting for it to arrive.  I go crazy.  And then I usually end up needing a vacation day from work on the scheduled delivery day so that I don't have to risk the mailman putting a slip of paper into my mailbox cuz the box was too big and THEN HAVE TO WAIT LONGER TIL I CAN MAKE IT TO THE POST OFFICE DURING THE TEN MINUTES THEY'RE OPEN WHEN I'M NOT AT WORK to pick up my treasures.  Therefore- I've remained Silhouette-less.

But this week, something magical happened.

I began to USE my CE2 again.  While cruising online for Cricut tips, I downloaded the newest Cricut Craft Room software onto my MacBook.  I know this isn't a brand new thing and you're probably gonna shout "WHAT'S NEW AND EXCITING ABOUT THAT?!"

Well, it's NEW to me.  Not so new to me, as I used the 'online only web version' a tiny bit, in the past, while pretending to be working but really just playing at the office.  But now, with the app on my computer- I had a brainstorm.  A real hurricane.  (Sorry, East coast.)

See that?!  Silhouette style frames with attached WORDS!  Yeah!  And IT'S EASY!  Click on an image.  Resize it.  Size it.  Weld letters to it.  Make a new shape by sticking another shape on its side.  (Note to my readers: going forward, I have changed the terminology.  'Sticking' means 'welding.'

And there's those cute little effers all cut out.  I'm in love.

Couldn't stop cutting all night.  There's an arrow with a word attached! 

And...well, I'll stop with the show-n-tell, now.  It just kinda went on like that for hours and hours- 'designing' in the Cricut Craft Room, cutting and squealing like a pig in CARRIE.

Thank you, Cricut Craft Room.  You made me love my Cricut again.  I still want a Silhouette.  Sure, I do.  But I no longer feel like the ugliest scrapper at the crop.

-kory