Happy October!

It's World Card Making Day and I am away from home and my craft room.  I hope you will have a chance to do some crafting today.  For information about the World Card Making Day Contest you can click HERE.  There are 20 fabulous prize packages that you could win.

We drove to upstate New York on Friday and, since I was in the passenger seat, I finally got to take a photo of this sign on the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90).  So... I am wondering if any of my readers live anywhere near Oacoma, South Dakota!

This sign is another that I always wanted to photograph - I have an idea about a way to use it for a scrapbook page.

The drive is long but there is some nice scenery along the way.  Unfortunately, the leaves are just beginning to show touches of color here and there - in a few weeks it will be much prettier.

We did see some amazing clouds - and only a little bit of rain.

This little bear has seen better days (one hand is missing) but he was a friendly ambassador at the rest stop.

I may use his face for another digital project.  The shapes are also a good inspiration for a paper piecing project.  I do take a lot of photos because I find inspiration in many places - and I want to remember it all!  Thank goodness for digital photography - I would never be able to develop the number of photos I take if they were on film!

In honor of the new month and World Card Making Day, I thought I'd link back to this cute and simple card that I designed a few years ago.  You can read the original post and download the Design Studio file at THIS POST.

You can cut this file with the free trial version of the Design Studio on the Original Cricut (baby bug).  You should be able to download the trial version HERE.  If you have an Expression or Create you can download the file and replace the shapes from the George Cartridge with shapes from Plantin Schoolbook (for the Expression) and Don Juan (for the Create).  Just check the size and "X" and "Y" positions in the Shape Properties box to help you place the shapes.

The Design Studio program had so much potential but it has been more or less abandoned - the only updates that are issued are to add cartridge content while the actual program remains as it was in May of 2010.  I still prefer it for most of the designing I do with Cricut shapes, however, the lack of continued development of this program has led me to investigate and purchase other programs and machines.  The Gypsy and the Cricut Craftroom online tool are the two design options that Provo Craft is continuing to develop.  The Gypsy is just too small and too slow for many people and the Craftroom is still in Beta and will always require internet access.

I still get many requests for help with Design Studio and I may find time this fall to update some of my videos and tutorials to help those of you who are new to the Cricut.  You can find Design Studio very inexpensively at various online sources - most recently I saw it for $16.95.  I could not find the program listed in the shopping area of the Cricut.com site so it may not be available for sale much longer.

If you have a Gypsy, I am adding a link for the Gypsy version of the file for the cat card in this post.  I converted the file but haven't cut the card from the Gypsy so please don't try it on your last piece of special paper (!) - do a quick test cut on ugly paper first.

Halloween Cat Card - Gypsy 


The October Deal and Kit of the Month from Creative Charms should be available on the Creative Charms website today - I'll add some photos and descriptions as soon as I can.

Today is also the first day that the Cricut Expression 2 will be available to order from Creative Memories.  This LINK will take you to the page for the Cricut cartridges on my personal website  - I am not sure if the machine will be on that page and I couldn't check it Friday night since the sites had not yet been updated.   I'll be posting more about this in a few days.  The price is $299 and includes the two standard built-in cartridges (Cricut Alphabet and Cricut Essentials) and another cartridge exclusive to Creative Memories - the Best of Times Sampler cartridge.  Shipping within the US will be $8.50 for standard delivery.

We made it to the farm and the weather is a bit uncertain but we expect to have a great celebration of our nephew's marriage tomorrow - come rain, shine or the predicted high winds!  Please send a few positive weather vibes our way - we are celebrating in a tent!

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