New Cricut Machine

We saw the new Cricut machine today - it is sooo much nicer and better than the original. It is the same size as the original (not the Expression) but it cuts as small as quarter inch and has many more functions, as well as looking better.

We also got to see the new Cricut Jukebox - I had seen a picture of this on the ProvoCraft website but couldn't work out what it is. It is a box that can take (I think) 8 cartridges, you plug them in and it comes with a cable to plug into your Cricut, where the cartridge would normally go. You can now switch between any of your 8 cartridges and cut on the same sheet of paper, no need to turn it off and remove the cartridge before installing a different one. Apparently you can even link two of these together and work with 16 cartridges. The container also has space to store the keypad overlays and the books - fabulous idea. I believe this is going to retail just under £80.

Dad's Truck

These are cards that Lesley made for the class on cardmaking for men. The stamp is 'Dad's Truck' by Printworks and can be found on our website. So you see you can make it a card for a man or someone going travelling or even a young lady that has just passed her driving test!

The first card uses the JudiKins Jeans Pants for the background and a guitar on shrink plastic in the boot.
The second card has been made using the JudiKins Popeze for the pop-up effect, the background uses A Stamp In The Hand stamps.
The third card has been stamped onto a pretty paper and then cut out. The bumper and wing mirrors are coloured with Silver Krylon pen.

I will be back with more artwork tomorrow (today is my first day back in the office so my head is still spinning!).

Can we fix it?

We went to the Discovery Science Center, they had a Bob the Builder exhibition which went down really well with Bailey. Today we are visiting the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

We'll be home in a couple of days, doesn't time fly when you are having fun.

Day at Knotts Berry Farm

We spent the day at Knotts Berry Farm, this was the first year that Bailey could go on lots of the rides in Camp Snoopy. As per previous years we hardly got to leave the Camp Snoopy area of the park. For Bailey is was the first time on most of the rides and you can see from the first photo he is not entirely sure what to make of some of them.

He loved the characters and even went up on stage with Charlie Brown (Annabel was too scared to put her hand up), although Bailey did not smile and wave like the other kids on stage when it came to leave the stage he had to be gently persuaded.

As you can see from the third photo he loved the car ride, he also loved the truck ride and the final photo is his face when the ride finished and he had to get off.

It was a fairly cool day, so I managed not to get sunburnt again, at 5pm the skies suddenly opened and we had a huge thunderstorm so we took refuge in the nearby Claim Jumpers restaurant for dinner and to avoid the rush hour traffic before the journey home.

The Grunion Run

Most people haven't heard of Grunion, I know I hadn't until 3 years ago when JudiKins took us on our first Grunion run. We decided to go again this year. We all met up at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium which has 2 beaches frequented by the Grunion. Grunion are a small fish that come up to the beach to lay eggs during high tide after the new moon. We spent an hour or so exploring the museum before we were called to the beach to see the Grunion in action.

When you see the movie of previous grunion runs there are thousands of Grunion on the beach, they are about 8" long. We have to stand back from the sea and be very quiet, not move and turn off our torches. The Grunion send scouts onto the beach to make sure it is clear before they all descend on the sand, so if you are too noisy or have lights on they will not come.

We stood on the beach for what felt like ages, it was a breezy and cool evening. In the photo you can see Judi wrapped in a blanket to keep warm. Eventually the Grunion appeared, but like the previous time there were only a couple of hundred - it is still an impressive sight. By the time we were allowed to take photos there weren't many left on the beach. We left the beach around 11.30pm.

Sea World

We spent Monday at Sea World in San Diego. It wasn't too hot until we sat down to watch the shows, then I could feel the sun burning my skin. We were all wearing factor 50 sunscreen but I still managed to get a little sunburn.

In the photos you can see Annabel and Martin enjoying the 'Journey to Atlantis' ride. They went on twice and got absolutely soaked.

We are spending today with our friends at JudiKins.

Julie Long - Princesses

Princess artwork by Julie Long.

Karen Brown - Pirates

Pirate artwork by Karen Brown.

Galina Varese - Princesses

Princess artwork by Galina Varese.

Vacation

I am currently on holiday with my family in California. We arrived yesterday evening and as you can see from the photo we have wonderful sunshine, currently it is around 90 degrees which is a little too hot for me but I won't complain just yet.

I have scheduled the rest of the design team artwork to appear here over the next few days and on Saturday morning at 10am you can watch the show on Create & Craft.

Please post comments here on what you think about the show, are there enough demos or do you prefer when we do more? Or is it the artwork that you prefer to see? Please let us know what you think so we can improve on future shows.