Operation Write Home

Erica from http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/ challenged us to help her reach her goal of 1000 cards for Operation Write Home.   I worked on some last week and put them in the mail on Saturday.   These are some of the cards I made.

My personal favorites are:

Exploring Summer in Paris!

Do you ever see a cart and think I would never use it or maybe there is just one or two dies that you just must have?   That is pretty much how I felt about Summer in Paris, the cart, that came in my Cricut/Gypsy bundle last summer.  I'm not a girly girl, into super frilly things and this cart is frilly.   It is also a challenge.  In fact, Provo Craft issued a huge challenge right on the back; "Images should be cut at 5.5" or larger for best results."  Really?  Did you have to put that on the box?

I like a good challenge and the hot air balloon really caught my attention.   I have a bunch of photos from a big Hot Air Balloon Festival and I was thinking the cut without the frilly stuff would make a great journaling block.   It's still a challenge.   SIP 2, Laurie 0.  I gave up for now!

What I have learned so far:

• You can definitely cut smaller than 5.5" and get a pretty decent cut.
• Definitely make a practice cut.   I have been using The Paper Company Textured Value Packs and not sure on the heavier cardstock that I picked up at Joann's when it was on sale.   My cut settings for both papers are Blade 4, Pressure 3, Speed 1, and I cut twice.
• With heavier cardstock, you do need a sticky mat.  I thought I would be smart and use a new mat.   Big mistake.  It took forever to get the little tiny pieces off the mat.  Sticky enough to hold the paper (tape the edges down if necessary) but not so sticky that you would rather throw the mat away than clean off all those itty bitty pieces that are going in the trash anyway. 
• The plain cuts by themselves are really cute.   Have fun with patterned paper, scissors and bling if that's more your style.