If I had to pick just one tool to craft with, it would likely be my Cricut!

A little about me and my “Bug” since the story of my 1st Cricut is actually kind of a funny one.  One of my friends had mentioned that she did not think she would be using her Cricut much as she transitioned to digital scrapbooking.  She had also mentioned that she was interested in taking up golf.  WAY back in the day when I was single and working a corporate job in San Francisco, my parents bought me golf clubs thinking that would be beneficial to my career.  After injuring my back, doing a 180 degree change in my career goals and meeting my husband who was not a golfer, I realized that golf was not in my future.  I proposed to my friend that we trade my golf clubs for her Cricut.  This sounds kind of crazy now when Cricuts are pretty reasonable, but back when they first came out, they were pretty pricey.  We made the trade and I have been chirping along ever since.  Although I still have this original “Baby Bug”, I have had several since that time and am currently doing most of my work with an Expression 2 machine.

These machines can take your scrapbooking to amazing new heights.  In addition, I have found so many uses for this machine outside of scrapbooking.  I have used my Cricut to make signs for my business, banners for my school, countless projects for my Girl Scout troop, greeting cards, posters and projects for my children’s school assignments and much more.

Perhaps the most interesting use of my Cricut came as I was getting ready for a bridal shower I was throwing for my nephew’s fiancee.  I remembered back to one of my own bridal showers that was done by my husband’s co-workers.  One of the cool, local ethnic food places near my husband’s office in Berkeley, CA had taken a plate of hummus and decorated the top of it with a multitude of different spices in a patchwork quilt design.  That gave me the idea to decorate my own hummus…or in this case monogram it!

To do this, I started by spreading my hummus and giving it a fairly flat surface.  I then took some heavy paper and cut out a large M (using the Creative Memories Divine Wedding cartridge).  Instead of using the shape that the Cricut cut out, I used the outside (the negative of the shape) as a stencil.  I placed this gently over my hummus and sprinkled some paprika over the opening.  I carefully lifted up the paper and was left with the above result.  Pretty fun for a last minute idea 10 minutes before I ran out the door to the shower!