Over then last few weeks I have really been struggling to be creative. My room was a mess and I hadn’t put paper away in a very long time. I was just moving enough around each week to get my blog done. I think this is something that we all deal with from time to time. So we just need something to get us inspired and feeling more creative.

With packing and all the house things this has been hard for me to find time and energy to figure out what would help. So this weekend Steve helped me rearrange my room and just him being with me got me to clean it up some.

We packed what I could do without until we get into the house and put things away! Then we moved the tables and then there came the dreaded paper!! As many of you know we refer to me as frugal but cheap is a good word too! So I save every little scrap of paper that I think I can use for something. This leads to a lot of paper pieces. Over the years my system for storage has had to grow to fit it all. And now is no exception. I’ve taken a few pictures to help you see, (don’t judge, I know it is ridiculous). So I have done pretty good because 2 days later I only have 3 colors to go through to be done. True they are they 3 biggest, least organized but at least it is getting there.

Hopefully seeing my room inspires you to change yours up a little and get inspired again!! We are coming into the holiday season and there are so many fun crafts to do!!

If you want to know more about my paper organizing system, just let me know and I’ll explain it in more detail!

Thanks for stopping by!
Lu

This week I had a different project in mind but it didn’t work out. So I thought I might talk about the pros and cons of buying cartridges vs. paying for the subscription with the Cricut machine.

You know that neither Steve nor I can resist a bargain! Well when we were at Tuesday Morning the other day Steve spotted this Sesame Street cartridge for $12.99, tax made it about $14.00. If you have looked at cartridges that is a pretty good price. And I was surprised to see it at Tuesday Morning. I’m not really into Sesame Street but Steve thought we could do some cards and things for the grandbaby. So we picked it up.

So looking at it I was pleasantly surprised to find how many sayings it has on it!

So let’s look at the two options.

With a cartridge you get a limited amount of images, just what is on the cartridge.  This Sesame Street cartridge came with 100 images.  While this is good for that one project or two it is sometimes limiting because if you want a flower and the cartridge is all letters you will be buying another cartridge.

There are a lot of cartridges out.  And you can find almost any image. Also if you aren’t using the internet to design and cut things this is the only way to cut things. So for the older machines this could be the best option. I personally had/have about 60 cartridges because I have had the older machine for so long. I would say that I used it a lot less then than I do now.  Also if you aren’t hooking up to the internet there are a lot of people out there that are selling their cartridges after they have linked the cartridge to their online account and you can pick them up pretty cheaply.

The one time that I encourage someone to buy a cartridge is if they want to do things with images that are licensed, like Disney, Sesame Street, Anna Griffin. Here is my reasoning: you are going to pay a couple of dollars for that image on the subscription side and it only gives you 1 image, for a little more money you can use the hundreds of images that come on the cartridges. Most of us out there that use a princess image are going to want more than one princess!!!

Let’s talk about the subscription.  There are images that you can use without a subscription for free, but it is fairly limited.  The subscription is a monthly or yearly fee. Right now I think that when you buy a machine they are giving you a free, all access trial for 2 weeks.  This 2 weeks starts when you set up you account. I also got a free period when we bought this Sesame Street cartridge.  The subscription gives you access to thousands and thousands of images. There are also already designed projects that you have access to for free. It is easy to tell what is on the subscription because they put a small, green A in the corner.

I recommend the subscription especially for beginners because it lets you try so many different things! You can play with flat images, layered images, lettering, 3-D objects as well as the print then cut.  And you can try it for a month at a time.  Once you decide if that works you can decide to do it for a year at a time and save a little.

Hope this helps!  Feel free to ask me any questions you have that I didn’t answer here!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lu