Tag Archives: Cricut Expression

Finally got Design Studio activated

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My husband called Provo Craft at their activation number in Design Studio listed on the “activate by phone” page. For some reason, she helped him get it activated when previous calls didn’t, nor did any help she or others offered to get it to “activate by internet” work … always outcome of “Error Code 3:” which means it’s already activated by another computer in their server. No matter that they “said” they cleared it and it’ll work, it never did. Others said nothing they could do unless we called. When called a couple of time it was run-around like, and they couldn’t do anything.

It wasn’t that we tried every day. I tried via email and via website support form fill-out with follow-up emails several months. Multiple times I initiated a new round of “please help me” and after awhile I did have 3 different people respond via email that they had cleared it and I should be able to “activate via internet” though never could I.

So getting it done yesterday was only because I got on the bandwagon again to get it done. I suppose it could have been done via the phone eons ago, but it just is something that went against us, it just didn’t work out the times we tried. So it’s done now. I guess my laptop will die or need to be OS reinstalled or something, rendering me with the problem again. FWIW

I have yet to hook my laptop up to my Cricut Expression, but just knowing it SHOULD work is enough for now. I opened a few files in Design Studio, and also tagged most of my cartridges that I own as “My Cartridges”, that’s it.

I have bad Fall Allergies the last few years, and this year is the worst of them all. I expect next year to be worse. And the year after that. So anyhow, I just don’t feel like doing much. Taking Benadryl & Sudafed (classic, not PE) & Advil round the clock.

Cricut Gypsy & Cartridges

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I bought a Cricut Gypsy at the end of November 2009. There was a cricutrewards.com point bonus and a cricut.com $100 store credit bonus for buying the Gypsy at that time. I didn’t get anything from either place then. I wasn’t sure what to get, there being so many cartridges that I would love to have …

Today I finally bit the bullet and made myself look and choose. So I chose a newer cartridge “Forever Young” which is very girly/fashion oriented. Nice for cards to sisters, daughters, pages about them in scrapbooks, room decorations, etc.

I also chose a Cricut tool, the spatula, which I’ve wanted since having the Cricut Expression, but have only looked in Michael’s for it and they have never had it when I’ve looked. I had to pay for shipping, but no tax, but it all came out of the $100 store credit. I have less than $10 left, but more than $9. Nicely, I can add money from a credit card and let it sit there until I use it. Just like my Playstation Wallet. Makes it easier to buy when I’m ready to buy. Sounds sort of dumb, but it’s easier to divide the moments. Put money in a spot to just automatically get easier than using a credit card. Use the credit card when you aren’t overprocessing information about what you are buying. Only having a decision on how much money to add, then freely choose stuff another time, within those limits. In any case, I like it.

There are several other cartridges I’d like to have, some new, some older. One of the older ones I can get from cricutrewards.com if I get 100 more points, which I may get from buying this newer cartridge on cricut.com The one I’m speaking of is “Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More”

There are less interesting cartridges available on cricutrewards. Most of the stuff I’d like isn’t there. Also, there is some kind of sale at Michael’s this week, $39 on cricut cartridges. I couldn’t tell from their ad whether it was all, or just particular ones. Not that I’ll have the opportunity to buy any.

I’ve moved my Cricut Expression to the basement, setting up my crafting things down there finally, but then the cold came, such a mild winter until I moved some of my major things to the basement. It’s just too cold to work down there. I’m getting my crafting self back after a dull January/February so far. Actually I HAVE been doing some, working on my scrapping calendar which I got for Christmas, it’s a kit in a calendar. All calendar pages are blank grids. Color & Print papers and stickers for all the numbers and design elements are in the back of the calendar. There is plenty to work with to embellish the top half to death. Layer after layer of paper on paper and a photo on top. I have the basic structure of the top half done through April, only the whole thing done for January and now February, when the bug hits I take it down and do more work. At the end of the year I’ll take the calendar apart and put it all in an 8×8 album, in the same order as the calendar, so any notations are there in a 2010 scrapbook.

I need to get scrappier and also make cards galore this year. I need to get that all up and running so that maybe I’ll truly make a card to send for Christmas in 2010. I made 2 1/2 prototype cards in 2009. All for naught. But I did use my Gypsy, it was great!

Christmas/New Year/Simplify

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I got a new camera for Christmas, actually a Sony Handycam, HDR-SR11. I’ve had a couple of Handycams over the years, but not for several long years, and never one like this. The old ones were tape driven, and were problems for me over and over and I tore one apart and gave another one away, which that one worked for my sister in the Seattle area, but not for me in GA, it kept the dew lamp on here and wouldn’t function, even when inside our A/C’d house all the time. For her it worked. Just plain worked, no more dew lamp.

So I have a nice HDD sort of Handycam now, and it’s really good. I have a Memory Stick Pro 4 Gig card in for Photos, and put all the video on the HardDrive. I have to get better at shooting video so that I have to do less editing. I haven’t edited yet either, just looked at some things on my computer about it, I don’t relish working with the stuff since I seem to have little time on the computer with a toddler in the house again. (baby is getting bigger and older day by day, he’s no baby anymore! Well, hardly at all.)

I also feel bad about all my photos from all the years past, I still haven’t gotten them into albums, they sit in boxes, by date, but in boxes. I want them all in album with text comments. Then all digitized and then all my digitals that I have now, and the ones I need to get done, to have good tags on my computer, and then the really worthwhile photos put into scrapbooks.

I struggle with the scrapbooking aspect of it. I have had scrapbooking ability since early 1996, before my children were born, and here I am 13 years later and I haven’t one complete scrapbook. I started with CM, but I hate their albums. I have a few other albums now, the past couple of years, and have created pages for them, but nothing cohesive. I like full 12×12 pages, in protected sleeves, and move-able since they are complete. CM isn’t that at all.

So next about it is space. I still don’t have really good space, or any space at all, to scrapbook. So it’s too hard to get anything done at all.

Recently I have had new stamps added to my collection, wonderful clear stamps, and I can’t use them with no setup to work!

I got a Cricut Expression last year for my birthday, I had a table it was on, but it’s not there now. It was sort of useful at first, but now it’s not. I need dedicated space for it to work for me. I like it and did use it on my bed to make some things at Christmas, but the card I wanted to make didn’t materialize, so I sent nothing out, but had some tags for presents, whoo hoo.

So that’s what’s bugging me, so many “memory” things I need to get in order STILL and more added to it with video ability. Simplifying all this is what I need, starting with the place to do it, and the stuff to put it in. That is scrapbooking and desk space for my needs, and books to put everything in. And also, for sure, places for each scrapbooking supply to be useful.

It’s not probable that this can occur to the extent I need it to while in the house we live in now, but I need to get SOMETHING carved out for me, SOMETHING!!!! Simpy something!!!!

Cricut Cartridges

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I got a Michaels.com email last week, with the news that Cricut cartridges were to be $40 each, and if you buy 3, then you can get Design Studio (software to use the Cricut with your computer) for free (limited time offer.)

I was able to go and get 3 cartridges Wednesday the 30th of July.

(I have a Cricut Expression, which I got mid-July 2008, for my birthday.)

I got Jasmine, Opposites Attract, and Walk in My Garden.

I looked at all the carts. online before hand, and had several singled out as possibilities, and the above three were all in that list. I did want one that wasn’t in the store I was in. I am not sure which one above I would have not gotten if they would have had Printing Press available that day. I would have gotten Jasmine for sure, but the other two … one or the other would have had to go.

I haven’t played with them yet, it’s been too busy here for that.

I have been able to download Cricut Design Studio though, which is available for free download as a trial. It will not start for me though. I found on their site where in FAQ’s that it won’t always open correctly at first, but will on second or third try.

It hasn’t done that for me. Not ever for me. Not after three or four or five or six, and more tries. Not after re-starting my PC either, or trying again and again after a re-start, and then again, un-installing it, re-start, re-install, try opening again, nothing. I haven’t gone the way of asking them for help yet, but I will need to get something figured out if getting the nice deal (free software with at least an $89 value) for buying three more than half-priced cartridges will mean anything of value for me (actually getting to use DS!) Of course, the three cartridges are of value to me, of course, it’s just the kicker is the software, and I do want it to work.

I have Win XP SP2 on my desktop and it won’t work. I also have a laptop with Win XP Media Center 2005 and it won’t work either. I’m in the process of removing all my data from the laptop and am going to re-install the whole thing, since I had a problem with my DVD drive and swapped mine and my hubbies, and messed up some things in the process that only a full clean install will provide, and hadn’t been able to do that because I couldn’t find my disk for that purpose, and suddenly it showed up on the floor after a couple of months of searching for it. Go figure. I can’t. So anyhow the hope I have is that when I get my laptop into tip top shape I’ll see if it’ll work with Design Studio at some point before and after updates, blah, blah, blah. And basically figure it out. Hopefully. At least I’ll have a better working laptop, freespace instead of the clogged harddrive I had been working on since I’ve been moving all my music and photos and documents to my desktop this past weekend.

My Cricut Expression Birthday

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My birthday was on Friday. We were out of town for a family wedding. So compensation was in order to amend how that was for me. My big present was:

A Cricut Expression machine.

If you click the above link you can see that, right now, the msrp is $499.99. We bought it from Costco online … for $349.99 (+ tax) and the price includes S&H. Well that was a few days before my birthday that we ordered it. We arrived home on Sunday night, and my package was on the doorstep.

I didn’t open it until the next night, being tired from the trip and lots of things to re-organize, and being so tired …

I played around with it a bit, and then yesterday I watched the DVD disc that comes in the package, then went and tried a few new things. I made a rectangular “bag” for my daughter, to put some of her small hair accessories in. I put flowers on the two wider sides as well. All this from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge that comes with the original package. I then made a {belated} birthday card for my sister using the same cartridge. I didn’t finish it until today, putting some of it together last night, and the rest today. One of the fun things I did, was to make heart confetti to put in the envelope with the card.

I was more creative with this stuff than I’ve been in months and months (with no cutting tool except my scissors and craft knife … blah.) I didn’t want a Cricut when they first came out, but since the Cricut Expression has come out I’ve thought about IT here and there and finally came to realize that this is the tool I wanted the most, not a manual cutting system, and I liked how it seemed to work (from afar) and just decided it was right for me. I was very happy to be able to get it for my birthday, for a decent price.

So then I started writing this post, and I went to the manufacturer’s site and then to Costco.com to look at the product on each site. That is when I about blew my stack when I looked at the Costco page and saw that, “what ….? $269 …? What is THIS!?”

the Cricut Expression page on Costco’s site.

So then I went to our bank online and looked at the transactions to verify the Costco.com charges, and sure enough, we paid a lot more than that. So my hubby called our Costco store and they assured him they’d be able to adjust the price for us, corporate Costco, so he then called the right number and sure enough, they will refund the ajusted amount withing 48 hours. How nice, and how right for them to do so, with just a week or so between our purchase and the price change, or less than that, I don’t know for sure.

I finished my sister’s card today, then decided to cut out a few things for potential scrapbook pages, then got inspired to make another card, one for a friend, for no particular reason except for that (being a long-distance friend.) I have all the basic parts, just need to finish the inside ideas, then put it all together. With this card I went and made shadows for my title. Wow does it look great, and it wasn’t hard to put them together with my glue stick. (Yes, using the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, again.)

I didn’t take a picture of anything yet, I haven’t sent my sister’s card yet, but I have it sealed up, so I can’t take a picture of it anymore. I will try and take a picture of my next card, maybe the “bag” I made. I’m sure I’ll make a new bag next. A rounded one out of 12×12 paper/cardstock. :)

The best thing about this is I have ideas for cards and now I can implement them easily, and make a coordinating envelope out of really nicely patterned paper so easily (when before I’d just use a stock plain envelope, or no envelope at all for cards to immediate family members.)

I’ve always liked scrapbooking, and using scrapbooking supplies to make cards and other stuff, but I haven’t always made stuff very often, and I haven’t really scrapped much at all, in reality. I have scads of photos in boxes, and even more now that are digital (way more photos taken since going digital!) Now the Cricut Expression will have me making projects galore, and hopefully that will include getting several scrapbooks completed before the years end.