Sweet Treats Cricut Cartridge - Couple of Sample Cuts

Hello.  I got several of the new cartridges in the past week or so.  One of those I picked up was the "Sweet Treats" cartridge from our local Michaels.  I was excited about this cart because I like to make bags, boxes, containers.  I tried a couple of them.  I cut out 2 "cupcake holders" and 1 "Party Favor Boxes".  I cut 2 of the cupcake holders trying  to figure out the sizing for a cupcake.  You would "think" that they would give the basic sizes to cut to get the correct size for something like this!!!

My biggest issue with this cart is what I feel like was deceptiveness on PC's part with this cartridge. At first glance you would think you had 50 cupcake holders.  However, in fact, there is only 1 "cupcake holder" and 49 more IDENTICAL cuts.  There is NOTHING DIFFERENT on any of those cuts.   The shift function gives you "emblishments" to add to the cupcake holders that make them "different". Then there are a large number of identical cuts on the Party Favor Boxes.  There are 3 of 1 and 5 of another that are identical on the word cuts.  They are actually the same boxes but just 2 different sizes, 3 one size and 5 of  another. Then there are 10 identical cuts for the "candle" party favor boxes.  So you don't have 50 different "Party Favor Boxes" you get far fewer. Again, the shfit feature for each gives you "emblishments" that make them different.  However, I don't need 10 or 50 of the same cut for that.  Just give me one cut and then the different embelishments.

At first glance, I thought hey, these look identical - then I thought no they wouldn't do that.  So, before I accused them I decided to make sure that I was correct and I cut them all out to verify they were in fact identical as I suspected.  Sad to say, I was right.  :(  Then there are a number of "not available" spaces (23 or more based on my account!!!)  Plus, this I didn't verify, but I believe that some of the cards and the tags may be the same as well.  Again, just with a different emblishment with the shift feature.   :(  So when you start adding it up, there are probably well over 100 that are blank or identical.  Compared to the newly released Old West and Pagoda that has no identical cuts or N/A's on them so they have a full 700 images!  Sorry PC but I don't see that as acceptable.  If you can't do a fully loaded cart with different images, then make it a soulutions cart!

With that said, here are the 3 items that I made with the Sweet Treats cartridge.  The first 2 are the cupcake holders.  The first one the purple one with the crown I loaded the mat with a 12x12 piece of paper and told it to "fit to size"  (at the moment, Sweet Treats and Paisley are not avialable on the Gypsy or DS software - maybe tommorrow or soon!).  With fit to size, it said it was cutting at 11".  When the cut is completed and the holder is folded up and glued together, you get a completed holder that is fairly large.  It gives you a 4"x4" square bottom and its width is 4" wide at the bottom, 4 1/2" wide at the top.  It's height is 3 1/2".  To get the "crowns" you use the shift function.  It cuts out 2 side panels leaving 2 sides undecorated.  You can do all 4 sides by cutting it again. I think this size is probably even still too big for a jumbo cupcake.  However, it would make a nice size box for other treats.

The second cuupcake holder I "guestimated" the size to cut based on my results from the first one.  I cut it at 7".  This gives you a 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" square bottom. It is 2 1/2" wide at the base and 3" wide at the top.  It is 2 1/4" in height.  I used the shift function to cut the scalloped border.  This cuts 4, one for each side.  This is probably the right size to hold a regular size cupcake or muffin.

Finally, I tried one of the Party Favor Boxes.  I cut the number 6 ice cream cone.  Again, since for some unexplainable reason, PC does NOT provide sizing guidelines, I had to "guesstimate" or try a "fit to page" and just see what he end result was.  I put in the 12"x12" paper and told it to "fit to page".  It then cut this Party Favor Box at 5 3/4".  As a result, it only uses 1/2 the page of paper but it takes the full 12" width to cut it out.  If you could use DS or the Gypsy.  You could manipulate this a little to get more height if you wanted.  The "favor" part of the box ends up being approx. 3 x 2 3/4" in width and a little less then 2 1/2" in height.  Not a huge box by any means!  You then need to cut the layers of the ice cream out.  Since you will need "2" of them, you will need to "flip" some of them for one side.  Not a problem if you use plain one color paper, but an issue if you use a print (as I did for the strawberry ice cream).  If you do that you will need to "flip" the ones for that side.  I found it easier to mark mine as I cut L for left and R for right.  I then embossed with the Cuttlebug "swirl folder" so I had to make sure I was embossing the "correct" sides as well!! They also have added the "holes" for adding a handle.  I don't know that I would have added a handle, but without it being loaded on DS, I couldn't do a hide/contour feature on it to prevent those holes from cutting, and the Gypsy doesn't have that feature so I wouldn't have been able to do it on there at all.

End result, I like a lot of the things on this cartridge. However, I do feel that PC "short changed" us by giving so many identical cuts!  I would not pay full price for this less then complete cartridge!!  Glad I got mine on a sales price match!!  Please let me know if you have any questions or want to see a particular item cut out from this cartridge. There is of course no .cut or .gypsy files for this since the are direct cuts from the cartridge and they are not yet avilable on on the DS or Gypsy cartridge listings for use.  Have a great day!

DazyCutr's Corner - Cards made with MS Punches

Welcome to DazyCutr's Corner! Rheba a.k.a. DazyCutr on the Cricut MB is going to share my blog. She will post her beautiful card creations here as often as she wants. I'll encourage her to post other things too!! Here is her first sharing with us. They are cards made with MS Punches. She learned this technique from Becca at AmazingGrace. You can find Becca's website here http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/. Becca refers to these as "circle frames". This first card was created using a MS around the page punch, fall leaves. To create this frame I cut a circle 3 3/4", and using Becca's directions I marked the back of the card stock in 1/8th sections. I used the corner punch from the set and went around the circle. I really like the look of this.

The cornucopia is cut from Speaking of Fall @ 1 3/4". The pumpkins, apple and cherry are part of the cut. I added glaze to them

"Give Thanks" is cut from Don Juan @ 1/2".

I used the border and corner punch for the background paper.

This is a real fun technique with endless possibilities. I have created a few more.

This second card was made using the MS cupcake punch. I had to make the circle a little bigger for this one, 4" The cupcakes around the circle are punched out and what you are seeing is the background paper through the cupcake cut out. In the center is the actual punch. I added a little glaze to them and doodled the edges.

The scalloped circle is from Mini Monos.

Happy Birthday is a stamp.

Here are some additional cards made with this technique. One has deer and one has snowmen. The "winter" is from Stretch Your Imagination, "Season's Greetinngs is from Don Juan. The tree is a cricut cut but can't recall which cartridge! Anyone care to guess?!! The snowman head and hat are from Speaking of Winter.

These last two pictures are not very clear, but you can click on all of the pictures for a larger image.

Some Simple and Quick Birthday Cards

My DD and I made a lot of simple cards that we gave to my mother-in-law at Christmas for her to use to send out to friends and family. She recently mentioned that she needed "more" birthday ones as she had sent out the last one! LOL So, I went to work making some quick and simple cards. I used card bases that I had previously purchased. Some were plain white, others had a design already on the front that I "added" to. Here are a few samples of some of those cards.

The first card used a plain white base, cut a piece of "dotted paper" to fit and applied to the front of the card. Then added a cupcake cut from A Child's Year to it and used stickles on the cupcake and around the edge of the dotted paper. Inside it says "Happy Birthday Cupcake."

The second card also used a plain white base, cut a piece of paper with different types of ice cream (including a popcicle on it, used a marker to "outline" the edges (Be careful when you do this - I used one that "bled" through to the inside top of the card and so I then used an inside liner paper to cover that up!). The popcicle cut was cut from the Doodlecharms cartridge (I think!). I added some marker around its edges and some stickles to it. The small blue oval was cut out for the "saying" I wanted on the front which is "how old would you be if you didn't know how old you were." I lked that as most of us remember having popcicles as children. Inside it simply says Happy Birthday.

The third card had "birthday" grettings all over the front of the card already. So, I simply added the silhouette cut of 3 children playing together from A Child's Year cartridge to the front of the card and inside again used the stamp that said "how old would you be if you didn't know how old you were."

3 simple but quick birthday cards. Hope someone likes them! I do these "simple" because I figure they are "looked at" and then tossed so I don't put a lot of work into them!

Cupcakes .svg file

Here is a set of cupcakes. They are an .svg file. They can be used with graphics programs like Inkscape or IMPORT it into Make The Cut (MTC) or SCAL (Sure Cuts a Lot). They cannot be used with Design Studio (DS) or the Gypsy. There are several layers to each cupcake. The base shape. The icing which has 2 layers to each cupcake. The second cupcake has a cherry and finally, both have the wrapper layer. Download the cupcakes .svg file. Download the cupcakes .scut file.