#but banging pots and pans is a great method it works

[6leggedhorse]

Cleansing: How to do it and Choices and Reasons

Sometimes, energy can get hella stanky. It can become stagnant and what was once drawing in abundance and joy, is now drawing in boredom and lackluster vibes into you space. Today we’re embarking on a journey of sorts to understand cleansing and how to keep your space clean spiritually. So grab your favorite drink, a snack or two, your pet and get comfy!

What is cleansing?

To cleanse is to remove, clean or wash away stagnant,old or negative energy. You can do this with different materials and methods that can help and correspond to your goal of cleansing your space. This should be done if you have: negative energy in the space, stagnant energy, got the evil eye casted upon you, or have a basic low power spirit in the home. You can do this however often you may like whether it’s everyday with something as simple as sweeping or as bi weekly like cleaning your bathroom or monthly with running sage or music through the house. Make your cleansing ritual YOURS, you do not need to follow what another witch does on TikTok with 20+ steps on how to cleanse. You don’t have to go to Five Below and by the corny 5 dollar incense kit; you also don’t have to buy that 90 dollar clear quartz tower. Make it as simple or as extravagant as you want, just don’t destroy your bank account!

References

Choices on how to Cleanse

Sage

Traditionally used by Native Americans/Indigenous people, Sage has strong cleansing properties and a smell. It’s said that if someone gets a headache from Sage, it means they have bad energy or intentions or both. However, they may have allergies or simply are sensitive to the smell. When using Sage, be sure to not culturally appropriate the practice or buy from an unethical business. Be sure to get it locally or go to your local spiritual wellness shop or if you have a friend that’s got indigenous blood in them. If you’re GIFTED the Sage bundle, it’s okay to use it or give it away as a Native American myself, I do not mind giving Sage to friends or family for me personally I’m saying “protect yourself there’s yucky crap out there.” Now, for alternatives, you can use rosemary, Yerba Santa or even lavender to help cleanse. Be sure to do this with open windows as the smokes not great for your lungs and to free the energy!

Music/Noise/Sound

Whether or not it’s those frequency beats, banging pots or pans, or dancing to Chappell Roan, music, or just noise in general helps move the energy. Be sure to use positive songs or music with good intentions or songs that make you happy to help clear the stagnant energy. So if it means you listen to K pop and dance to it to help vacate the space do it. Like to use heavy metal? Use it. You want to listen to Norse themed music? Fuck it we ball. As long as it works for you, and makes you happy! Be sure to keep the windows open to free the energy

Incense

Similar to the Sage, incense can have the same effect on others when they enter your space and they may get a headache. You may walk around the room or explore the house with incense to clear the space. Be sure to do so with open windows as the smoke isn’t good for your longs all the time and to free the energy.

Crystals

Clear quartz, selenite, black tourmaline are a few great examples of cleansing your space. Whether you walk around with them or place them strategically throughout your home. They can be rather absorbent so be sure to cleanse them, Refresh their intent and research the best way to cleanse your crystals as some cannot be in water.

Salt lamps;Salt

Himalayan salt lamps or just salt can help clear and keep bad vibes out of your space effortlessly. However, just don’t eat it as you’ll be ingestion negative energy. This is one of the best ways to cleanse your space while in the broom closet. It also helps when you’re sick, improve sleep, improve mental health and clean the air. If you use plain piles of salt just be careful as ants and bugs do exist and they may see this as a clear invite to your home.

Palo Santo

I don’t know too much about this, but I think this is fairly similar to Sage, so please get this from an ethical source, and avoid cultural appropriation as much as possible. If I u understand correctly this is a Latinx and or south American cleansing item. It does have a smoke affect so this may trigger allergies and you need to open windows that way your not inhaling too much smoke and freeing the energy. It is said that this can also help with burns and stress as well as keep mosquitoes away.

Declutter

Clean your closet out. Wipe down surfaces. Sweep. Mop. Dust. Vacuum. Wash your bedding. Do laundry. Toss out those shoes with the sole that is being held together by duct tape. To declutter is also getting rid of your stagnant energy and whether you donate things, sell them or throw em’ out, it’s still getting rid of the energy. This is also great for broom closet folks! You can use moon water to clean surface tops or sound too; but be sure to make this ritual your own!

Plants

Plants can be protective and bring in specific intentions as well as being strategically placed. Again, another broom closet idea to keep your practice on the low. It’s said that if your plant is dying and you try to revive but it still dies or if it rapidly dies even though you did everything right, it may have protected you from a curse. Be sure to care for your plants, you can even put crystals in them to give them more power as crystals and plants are earth created things.

Epilogue and Life Update

TRIGGER WARNING: mentions of death/animal death/loss/mental health struggles/completion of suicide/grief

Hey guys,

These past four weeks have kicked my ass. Hard. After I lost a dog to Pyometra, the other dog my family had also just recently passed away from the same infection. My family is at a loss and paranoid beyond belief as they just got a new puppy for the dog that just passed away a few days ago. They plan on cleaning the entire back yard, keeping squirrels out as they’re pests in the area, regulating what goes into the back yard, watching what the puppy eats and drinks, no more water bowls outside etc. you name it they’re planning on or already have done it.

About two days prior to the most recent animal death, a former co-worker of mine passed away. He was, from my understanding and theory, struggling with mental health. He worked at the same place for a little over 40 years, his parents passed away, and he was in and out of relationship. But he was one of the most chillest dudes I met; unfortunately, he suffered in silence. He worked his shift and went home and unfortunately completed suicide. My former workplace got the call the next morning being told this by one of his family members. So, in between this the animal losses I lost a former co worker who was nothing but good to me and had nothing bad to say about me. I’m devastated, I keep busy during the day, but become paranoid and hyper vigilant towards the night as I await the call or text about the puppy passing away. Despite but not being the only one being paranoid, I feel completely leveled to nothing but tears when I’m not busy.

If you or someone is struggling with mental health or suicide, I encourage you to call someone. A friend, family member, teacher or who ever you know has your back. Things do get better but with time; sometimes things get worse before they get better; that’s how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Here are a couple resources:

- 988: call or text or chat online or ASL

-741741: text BRAVE to 741741

- 1 (800) 273- TALK (8255): call; it’s the nation hotline for suicide.

-https://www.mass.gov/info-details/crisis-hotlines

-https://rainn.org/

END OF TRIGGER WARNing

I hope you guys enjoyed this blog post, I ended up changing the schedule as Fridays I’m super tired from work just want to relax lol. Please take care of yourselves and I hope to see y’all soon! Please like, comment and reblog!

Until next time!

[helloparent]

20 Preschool Activities and Play for Children.

Preschool activities, Games and Learning are fun!

Hello, parents and caregivers! Are you seeking fun methods to keep your energetic preschooler engaged, laughing, and learning at the same time? Well, you are in luck! We've compiled a list of 20 very fascinating preschool activities that will pique your child's interest and allow them to explore their surroundings through play.

What is the best part? These preschool games are simple to put up, use only household items, and may be played both indoors and outdoors. So prepare to be silly, creative, and possibly a little messy (don't worry, we have cleaning techniques too!). Let's get into these fun preschool learning activities and educational games for preschoolers:

1. Musical Freeze Dance Party

Put on some fun tunes and let your little one boogie for their preschool activities! When the music stops, say "Freeze!" Speak. And ask your dancer to maintain their pose. Whenever the music starts again, it's time to put away those idiots! This educational game for preschoolers is great for developing listening skills and clearing up those confusions.

2. Color Finder Hunt

Pick a color and go on a hunt around your house or yard and challenge your child to find as many objects as possible in that particular color. You can make it competitive by keeping score or adding variety by changing colors. This educational game for preschoolers is an easy way to learn colors and get moving!

3. Shape Recognition

Take some chalk or masking tape and draw different shapes on the ground outside (or even on the floor inside if it's raining). Call out any shapes and ask your child to push, jump or jump over those shapes. This is a fun way to get active while reinforcing shape recognition.

4. Snack Necklace

Let your child make their own trendy (and delicious!) ornaments by stringing O-shaped cereal or other circular food items onto a piece of yarn or string. They'll develop fine motor skills while also making a lovely snack. Just be sure to monitor the necklace pieces for safety and keep them short.

5. Recycled Tool Band

Save toilet paper rolls, empty boxes, pots and pans – anything that you can shake, tap or bang to create musical magic. Let your child decorate their "instruments" as they wish, then have a little concert! It's loud, creative fun.

6. Laundry Basket Basketball

Place balled-up socks at different distances into an empty laundry basket. Keep score, try silly stances, and make it a silly game to work on aiming and motor skills. You can even decorate the basket to create your own special hoop!

7. Cotton Ball Bowling

Place some empty bottles or containers on the floor and let your child roll them or knock them over by gently throwing cotton balls at them. You can even count how many pins they get each round to work on the numbers!

8. Dance Freeze

Similar to freeze dancing, but without the music! Say different dance moves like "Wiggle like a bug!" or "Fly like a butterfly!" And let your little dancer dance. When you say "Freeze!" It is said that whatever stupid posture they are in, they have to stay there.

9. Parachute Play

Use an old bedsheet as a "parachute" and ask your child to run under it while you go up and down. then swap roles! You can toss light balls or plush toys up and bounce them around by shaking the parachute.

Also Check: Preschool Extracurricular Activities

10. Indoor Obstacle Course

Get creative by using tunnels made of couch cushions, step stools, hula hoops, boxes – anything you can find in your living room to create a fun obstacle course to crawl down, jump and straight across!

11. Car wash for toys

Fill a small tub or sink with soapy water and let your child "wash" their toy cars, dolls, or plastic animal figures! This is a great sensory activity that also works on fine motor skills. Just make sure to set up a drying station with towels when you're done.

12. Paper Plane Pilot

Fold some fun paper airplanes and let your child practice throwing and flying them around the house or yard. See whose plane can fly the farthest or straightest. You can even decorate and name your planes first!

13. Homemade Pizzeria

Keep some dough on hand and use it to make fake pizza! Your child can roll out the "dough", add toppings by poking holes with a pencil or straw, then when their design is complete you can "bake" and "cut" their creation.

14. Bubble Blowing

Bubbles are a blast for kids of all ages! Mix up some homemade bubble solution using dish soap and water, then let your child blow bubbles with a stick or even just a straw. See if they can blow giant bubbles or catch them before they burst! You can also add a few drops of food coloring to create colorful bubble fun.

15. Simon Says

Help your child practice listening skills with this classic game. You'll be Simon, "Simon says clap!" As if giving orders. or "Simon says to jump on one leg!" Hunt? Your child should only follow commands that begin with "Simon says." If you give instructions without saying those magic words, they shouldn't do it! Take turns being Simon to keep them on their toes.

16. Treasure Hunt

Treasure hunts are an exciting way to get your child moving and learning. Hide some small objects or toys around the house, then give your child a simple treasure map with X's marking the hiding spots. Or make it even more interactive by giving them clues to follow to each location instead of a map. You can even follow some counting or coloring instructions along the way!

17. Puppet Show

Let your child's imagination run wild by putting on a puppet show! You can make easy puppets out of paper bags, socks, or even decorate some cardboard boxes. Then put on a big performance, make up stories or act out your child's favorite books. It also helps to develop social skills like taking turns if you each have a puppet.

18. Building Block Towers

Simple wooden blocks, Lego, or any type of building bricks can keep kids entertained for hours. Challenge your child to build a tower as tall as possible, or work together to build anything from houses to spaceships and pretend zoos. You can also try making something more complex by following the step-by-step instructions to practice the following steps.

19. Flour

Get creative with homemade or store-bought flour! Let your child roll out long snakes of different colored dough, then decorate them with buttons, dried pasta, or anything fun you have around. Once their "parade floats" are ready, line them up and let the parade begin! Small toys and plushies can also join the march as you make up stories and sing songs along.

20. Sidewalk Scribble Awesome

On a nice day, take art and learning outside with sidewalk chalk! Let your little one draw pictures, write their name, leave fun messages, or turn the street into their own hopscotch court. To practice recognition you can also ask them to trace the letters, numbers, shapes, or any other educational element that you write about first.

The joy of educational games for preschoolers is endless!

These preschool activity ideas are only the beginning; there are countless preschool activities and alternatives! The most essential thing is to let your child's natural curiosity guide the way, to be creative with everyday household goods, and to spend every minute of quality time together.

Don't forget that certain preschool activities might be dirty, so dress for fun and lay down an old sheet or towel if you're playing indoors. Supervise any small pieces or items, and feel free to modify activities based on your child's age and ability. Most importantly, relax and enjoy seeing your child's smile as they explore, imagine, and make amazing memories through playful learning!

So, what are you waiting for? It's time to be silly, creative, and develop a rewarding relationship with your preschooler through these thrilling play experiences!

Check: Preschool in Wagholi, Preschool in Noida

[haikyooot]

emi did u just drop a tag implying u had a face off with a bear with no elaboration aside from that little fact?!?

LMAO 😂😂😂 it REALLY isn't more glamorous than that line.

I had hopped out the car walking around a bit. I was probably about 8 meters away? It was a pretty young bear, still a cub. Let's just call them Megumi. I think we were both that spiderman meme of wtf. But Megumi was also grunting and snorting and I was like oh shiet. And basically backed my way to the car slowly, while they walked their way. No aggression, just confusion lol, but let's be real I was more scared of the ma Toji that I couldn't see. They were probably just in the midst of road/meadow crossing and I was intruding 😂 no i do not have a picture despite the camera around my neck at the time

I mention Toji and Megumi bc I saw this the other day 😂😂😂😂😂

[devising-stuffs]

Week 7: Devising logbooks ᕕ( ᐕ )ᕗ

19/11/2021 Morning class

Today we worked in the theatre instead of in the class upstairs and we split into groups to fill the gaps on scenes we had yet to look at in the book of Alice in wonderland! The group I was in decided to focus on the Duchess chapter! ଘ(੭ ᐛ )♡

Process!

We noticed that even though we have a lot of the material now, we don't know how to connect everything fluidly. Therefore, we decided to work on a possible transition from the previous chapter to this one to tackle this.

In the theatre, there were these arch windows that were out in the space. Seeing them sparked an idea in Joanna's mind so after receiving permission, we got to working on the idea. The windows were wheeled which she thought would add to the whimsical feeling of the original story.

We both decided to stand in place for two Alices; her being the one from the previous scene and me being the one for the chapter we're building on. We played around with ways we could spin the windows around so she could swap places with me. Throughout one of our attempts, Curtis had the idea of one of us exiting the same time the other entered. Joanna executed this idea by crawling under the space below the windows in time with me as if crawling through a gap in the wall. We went with this idea instead since it clearly shows Alice exiting and entering a brand new space in a way the children watching would easily understand

In the book, the description of the house says how it's loud and chaotic because of the chef in the kitchen and the loud crying of the baby in the Duchess' hands (get a screenshot of this bit)

I contributed my ideas on the staging of this section of our piece and I suggested we try to create the chaos in the book. I recommended that the Duchess (who was played by Nana in our group) and the baby (Lee) should be placed centre stage and the chef slightly off to either one of the ends of the stage as the 'kitchen area.' I also had the idea of recreating the noises the thrown pots and pans would make by the cast that's not involved in the scene to bang on the furniture or hit props for a short period of time to help set the atmosphere of the scene. When we rehearsed these ideas, I tried to show in my face and physical actions that the madness of the house was unsettling to Alice and she didn't like it, however she soon succumbed to their madness as soon as she interacted with the characters.

Another part of the chapter inspired me to create a method of bringing in audience interaction. This part was the lullaby the Duchess sings the baby to sleep. We improvised this bit when we showed back to the class, but I definitely feel like this would be great to develop in future!

.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡ଘ( ᐛ ) ଓ+..｡*ﾟ+

Second class

Tasks:

Create the 'building blocks' for our piece- Anne bogart

In this less practical lesson, we discussed as a group what the 'building blocks' of our piece are. The reason why we did this is to help filter our ideas to a fixed plan instead of vague suggestions.

The term 'building blocks' is sourced from Anne Bogart's 'Viewpoints book.' These block come in three categories which are:

Question

The question's purpose is to stimulate the thought of what we're trying to achieve out of the piece. What is the theme of the piece? What do we hope to get out of the piece? Who is the piece made for? The question is able to hit all of those points and will be what we will always come back to when we reach a tough spot.

Anchor

The anchor is what we are going to use as our main theme for the production. This is the energy that we want our play to maintain so we have the anchor so we can remind ourselves of this.

Structure

The structure is the way we format the piece. How are we going to tell the story? Our idea of the way we present the production is what this is for so we can make the rest of rehearsal process similar.

Below are the building blocks that we came to by the end of the class.

[multifandom-damnation]

Torment and horror and the forceful drugging that was the night before has left Roy bedridden, filled with shattered ribs and puss-filled stab wounds, covered in old itching bandages and a pressure in his chest that made it burn and his breath leave his lungs with every shift.

But his loves take away his breath and break his chest, his heart in a whole nother way, and he'd prefer their method to the Hatters, thank you very much.

Hey all! Just a little warning before we got in here: if you either didn't read or couldn't make sense of my tags, there is a mention of rape/non-con/ underage/ child abuse in this story. It's just a line, a sentence, but those who are uncomfortable with it be weary. There is also a large mention of children being kidnapped and "hypnotized" (for lack of better term) and they are in very provocative clothing because Jervis Tetch is a delusion and terrible man. That's just backstory, however, and this fic mostly focuses on Joyfire and the love they all share. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy it x

(Also Femdom and Kori being amazing towards the end, few crude references and lots kissing but considering you're here, you'll be fine)

Roy huffed, fiddling with the old metal lighter on his bedside table. He flicked the latch, a flame igniting at the tip and flickering around his fingers. He closed the lid, and the flame died.

He could hear Jason banging around in the kitchen, pots and pans clanging together and Spanish music wafting in through the speakers, the ticking of the burner lighting as Jason turned it on. Kori was singing, loud out of tune singing from the other room, soft thumps from her dancing feet pattering across the wooden floor and Roy strained to hear if she was singing along to Jason’s music or singing a song of her own.

Scratching his chest, he placed his hand by his side and went to heft himself up, only for the stitches on his side to tug, making him grunt and slowly lower himself back down on the cushions. He made a face and swatted one away, watching the mini baby blue beanbag fling across the room. One out of many, the suffocating amount of cushions piled up around his head and behind his back, convincing him that Kori had replaced the matrices in the spare bedroom in favour of a pile of pillows.

It wasn’t really a spare bedroom. It was his old room, before they decided to screw being proper and just buy one king-sized bed and sleep in Jason’s room, the largest room in the house. Roy’s stuff was still on the wall, some clothes that didn’t all fit in their shared wardrobe piled in the corner of his own, spare caps in a uniform tower by the window, pictures and posters and postcards and memories all tacked to the walls with too-sticky glue tack, leaving ugly grey stains in the place where it had peeled off the already chipped white paint.

Kori thought that moving in here would be safer, the solidarity comforting and the stillness a better alternative to Jason’s snoring and their sleep-induced fights with the darkness, Kori’s unsettling nature to levitate whoever she was holding up with her and drop them when she let go, the constantly moving mass of tangled limbs like a spider in a web and the night-terrors that seemed to grip their hearts and rip it through their already broken rib cages.

Yes, Kori thought Roy would be safer in his old room, away from the hurricane that was his sleeping loves.

Roy looked down at his chest, the bruises hidden by white bandages, speckled with blood and green oozing puss from the wounds and stitches that had torn and needed to be replaced, winding along his chest and his sides down to his belly-button, his cracked ribs making it hard to breathe, to move, to lie. He lifted his hand and peaked under the bandages, lifting the highest ones to check if the slice was still there, still dripping and oozing and with all stitches attached.

Slowly lowering it back down, he cursed himself for being so careless. He reached across to his bedside table, grabbing the glass of water and taking a swig, before swishing it around in his mouth and spitting it out into the bin by his side. The taste of last night was still in his mouth, and Roy felt like throwing up at the memory. He wouldn’t though, he probably wouldn’t ever throw up again for as long as he lived if he could help it, needing to vomit up whatever glowing green toxin the Mad Hatter had shoved down his throat the night before had turned him off puking for the rest of his life.

He rubbed his wrists, the red rashes and bruises still pressed into his skin from where he had tried to pull at his bonds, his wrists bound by rope behind the chair seated at the tea-party. Hatter had tried to make him drink from the little porcelain cups, but he obviously didn’t think that far ahead, and when Roy wouldn’t- couldn’t- drink, the Hatter tipped his head back, grabbed his neck and poured it down his throat. It burned when it touched his skin, making him woozy and dizzy and all kinds of messed up, and Kori had told him later his eyes were like a neon sign, glowing the same colour as the tea, half-lidded and absent.

He had shoved two fingers down his throat the moment they brought him home and he stumbled into the bathroom, head right over the bowl and heaving the liquid up, someone was holding his hair back, but he wasn’t sure who, didn’t care- he found out later that it was Jason, who’d sent Kori out to make coffee and get the first aid kit, which is when she had smothered his room in every pillow she could find- he just wanted to get it out.

He’d insisted he was alright, said he could help out and take care of his wounds, but he’d run into the table and the fridge and tripped over his own feet on his way to the couch leaving blood-stained handprints on the walls so many times that Kori ended up carrying him to his old room, and he hasn’t moved since.

He could hear Kori giggling from the lounge, the music turned down low enough to hear their voices through the walls. He couldn’t make out the words they were saying, but it was definitely something to do with Kori convincing Jason to teach her how to dance, and Jason laughing and spinning her around by the hand.

Roy sighed, adjusted his position on the bed scratched his chest again. The bandages were old, rough and itchy, irritating his skin over the already healing scars from earlier missions. He made a mental note to get more once Kori and Jason would let him leave his bed.

They’d had a deal a long time ago, a proposition for when one of them got hurt, to carry on with their lives and not worry about the other unless it was to bring them food or water or company and Kori and Jason were great at that, could distance themselves enough so that they could still be concerned by their injured other but not let it hinder them into an uncontrollable mess of worry and fear.

Roy had never been good at that. He got too attached to people and their problems too quickly, losing sleep over the wellbeing of the people he cared about. Often times, someone had to drag him away from the bedside, forcing him to eat and holding him down in the bed so he couldn’t escape and give in to his closing eyes and let exhaustion overtake him. It was usually Kori, being nearly invincible and extremely hard to hurt, she usually was the one to drag Roy away from Jason’s bedside and make him take care of himself.

The music outside turned off completely, Jason’s soft chuckles floating through the air. Roy tried to get up again, but a flare of pain from his rips had him falling back down, rolling his eyes and groaning in pure annoyance.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, the rabid cackling of the Hatter ringing in his ears and the circling strobe lights of the casino burned behind his eyelids. The memories were burned into his brain almost like the green toxin that had made a permanent home in his gums.

“Where’s my Alice?” on repeat, again and again, “Oh, there she is! Come meet my Alice.” He was directed to stare at one of the many women in blond wigs, blue dresses, smeared red lipstick and glazed over eyes, black and white striped garters and bruises up and down their skin. Roy had eyed them as they sat down, silently and with droopy eyes, a drowsy smile plastered on their porcelain painted faces.

A pair of purple cat ears had been placed on Roy’s head, his hat discarded and his arrows gone. Closing his eyes, he tried to resist the lull of the lights and the too-sweet smelling tea and treats littered around the table like a spoiled kid’s birthday party.  “Now now!” Tetch chided, slapping Roy’s face until he opened his eyes. “You haven’t even had any tea yet! No point falling asleep before it’s even begun, aye? Children!” He turned, called down a corridor, wide opaque glass doors hiding the dark hallway. “Bring the Cheshire Cat some tea before he disappears, would you?” Clanging, giggling, heavy breathing, footsteps and then silence down the hall.

Roy snorted, “If you think I’m the Cheshire Cat, you’ve obviously never met the real Cheshire.” You’ve obviously never met Jade because you’re still alive. He wanted to say, wanted to laugh in his face that the mother of his daughter would die before she let him near Lian, let him near any child and any girl in need of a hand to hold and a warm place to stay.

The Hatter turned to him with wide angry eyes, a cattle rod raised high in his right arm, but the door opened and a row of children in sequined mini dresses and dress shirts walked out, some in blue butterfly wings and hookah pipes on their belts, others with bunny ears and gloves, but all with the same identical bruises and glazed-eyes as the Alice’s, fake smiles plastered on their too-cheery faces.

A little girl with a black eye and newly-crooked nose brought him the green gunk in the tiny tea-cup, and Roy could see bruises up and down her legs in the rounded shape of fingertips showing from underneath her sequined dress and she walked away with a shuffling limp. Roy had grit his teeth and clenched his bound fists from behind him, but the Hatter laughed in his face and was pouring the green liquid down his throat, and Roy was suddenly feeling groggy and sluggish and unsteady, eyes blurring and mouth going dry, fingers and toes going numb, mind going cloudy and then stopping altogether.

He was aware that there were explosions and gunshots from somewhere else in the casino, but all that mattered to the Cheshire Cat was the tea he wanted to drink to please his dear friend and the tales he had heard of the Jabbowoki, the cookies and the crumpets and the tarts he promised he would eat and many gifts he had to give his darling lost Alice-

A knock on his door brought Roy from his thoughts, and he quickly swished his mouth out with more water and spat it out before he told them to come in.

A golden-brown hand opened the door, accompanied by purple manicured nails and the waft of chilli, and Roy smiled to greet her. She walked through the doorway with a smile on her face and his breathing stopped.

Her hair was braided into two-semi circles like suns on the side of her head, her fringe swept to the other side like an ocean wave and the longest parts of her hair tied up into a high ponytail with her own hair as the band holding it all together. Her lips were painted a perfect shade of deep purple, eyelids the same colour, a tinge of gold to them. Grey leggings with a light blue racing stripe were clad on her legs, a baby pink crop top and a short turquoise jacket on her shoulders. She had on lace up sandals, the same purple as her lipstick. The breath was taken from his lungs in a burst as if his Princess had ripped it out as payment for being in his presence. She smiled, and Roy felt himself going lightheaded, had to lean his head back against the cushions.

Jason came next, grey hoodie over white patterned t-shirt, hair as if he walked through a cyclone, tussled and messy. He had a tired and welcoming smile on his face, his eyes slightly lidded, his lips red and puffy, tints of purple ringed the edges, a dark bruise on his neck, also ringed in purple like a border. Roy had to remind himself to breathe as Jason licked his lips and sauntered into the room, threading a hand through his already messy hair, staring holes into Roy’s very soul.

“How are you feeling?” Kori asked, sitting down gently on the edge of the bed, placing the bowl of chilli on the bedside table. Jason leaned against the doorframe as Kori rearranged the pillows around his head.

Roy shifted, trying to sit upright again, but he hissed as he felt his cracked rib shift. Kori tutted at him, gently resting a hand on his back and lifting him up so he could shuffle backwards and lower himself back down. “I’m alright,” He grunted as his stitches pulled. “I’m feeling a bit better. I’ll be out of bed in no time. I can’t get the taste of the stupid green stuff out of my mouth though and these bandages are itchy as hell, but I can deal.”

Jason chuckled, pushed himself off the door frame and moved around Kori to the other end of the bed and sat down, leaning against the backboard. “We got them out Roy,” He answered the question in Roy’s eyes. “The kids. We got them out. Jarvis is in prison, we called the GCPD and they took them home. They’ll all be needing some sort of therapy, maybe even rehab, but we got them all out.”

Sighing and closing his eyes, he leaned back heavily against the pillows. Kori put a hand on his shoulder. “There was a little girl.” He said quietly, thinking back to the moment. “She gave me the green stuff. She had a broken nose and a black eye- “

“And bruises on her legs and a limp?” Jason finished and Roy’s eyes shot open, he nodded frantically. “We got her. She was a daughter of one of the GCPD officers, he was the first in there. She’s safe.”

Roy raised his hands and pressed the palms hard into his eye sockets. “Thank God.” He muttered.

“What do you remember?” Kori asked, gently dragging the tips of her fingers down his cheek, sliding down to his bare shoulder and trailing along his arm, the skin tingling and sending a shiver down his spine.

I thought I was in wonderland. He thought, blinking a few times to get rid of the psychedelic swirls. “Nothing,” he lied, biting his lip as Jason looked him up and down, a hunger in his eyes Roy only saw in rare moments of pure desperation in the secret of their bedroom. He lost his train of thought as he thought about it, struggling to get back on track. “I don’t remember anything after the tea.”

Kori looked at Roy as though she knew he was lying, but she let it slide, instead leaning back on one hand and running the other through her hair, closing her eyes for a moment. Roy smirked at a fading yellow bruise he had kissed into her hip not too long ago, the skin peeking out from below her riding up crop-top.

Leaning forward and pressing his lips to Roy’s pulse point, Jason mouthed over his neck, kissing purple stains into the pale skin. “Get better soon, Roytoy,” He purred, deep and husky, making Roy’s eyes flutter and his breathing hitch in his chest. “You’re no good to us bedridden, and nobody can work their tongue better than you.”

Chocking on the breath that finally, suddenly forced its way out his lungs, Roy felt a heat crawling up his chest. He licked his lips and made contact with Jason’s lust clouded eyes and he smirked again, in control of the situation for once in his life. “Yes, Boss.” He sneered, watching in satisfaction as Jason’s pupils grew, his cheeks turned as red as the hood he adorns and his breathing grew uneven and jaunty. It wasn’t often Roy got to have authority, and he was savouring every moment of it, savoured the power he had over Jason right at this moment and loved to watch him, make him, squirm-

Purple nails gripped his chin and yanked it quickly to the side, nails digging into the flesh of his cheek, and Kori narrowed her eyes at him. “He’s not the boss around here,” she whispered, colliding her lips against his and turning her face this way and that until it was almost painful- but Roy didn’t tell her to stop. Didn’t tell her that he couldn’t breathe and that his chest was burning because he had already given her his heart and his air and his soul, he belonged to her and Jason, belonged to her in every possible way, and he lived for it, lived for loving her, lived for loving them, and when Kori pulled away and traced Roy’s lipstick covered lips with her nail and half closed her eyes with the smirk of a devil, he didn’t take in another breath.

Not until she leant forward and mouthed breathe on his skin, the opposite side of Jason’s as she liked and sucked and bit and pulled the veins on his neck until he was sure she was drawing blood, that he opened his mouth and gasped a shuddering breath as she pulled back. “I am.”

When she shoved his chin away, he fell hard against the headboard with the breath knocked out of him, purple smeared across his face and bruises on either side of his neck. Jason and Kori were both staring at him with the eyes of hungry wolves. “You look like you want to eat me alive.” He panted, not making any move to clean his face.

Kori’s grin turned demonic, her teeth showing as she tilted her head back so she was looking at him through half-lidded eyes and full lashes. “That might not be a bad idea.”

Roy spluttered as Jason dug his nails into the meat of Roy’s leg making him gasp. “Don’t get too cocky,” he snickered, paying Roy back for the fleeting moment of victory he had before. “I’m her second in command.”

“Whoa,” Roy muttered, head spinning and eyes flickering closed, breaths coming in fits and starts. “You two are going to be the death of me.”

Kori laughed, loud and melodic like a wind chime outside during a storm, the in charge persona entirely dissipated until all Roy had of it was the memory. “I hope not,” she pushed herself upright and kicked off her shoes, floated a foot off the bed so she could flip around in the air and land gently so she was on her stomach, her chin in her hands. “Our lives would be rather uneventful without you.”

Snorting, Jason pushed himself backwards until his back was leaning against the wooden board at the foot of the bed, his legs crossed. “It would also be less stressful too.” Roy reached behind his head and threw a pillow at him, but Jason reached up and caught it with a chuckle, putting it behind him so he could lean on it. “But really, it would be so boring.”

Roy smiled, felt a warmness in his chest, but not the blushing sort, the sort that made you feel all warm and fuzzy when you felt love and love back and Roy stared at the works of art in front of him, the beauty that was the view he got to look at every single day of his life.

“Hand me the chilli then.” He sighed, hand outstretched and Kori sat up a bit to reach over and hand it to him. “Let’s hope you didn’t make it as hot as Ollie does. If you did, I swear I’m breaking up with you.”

Kori giggled, floated eye level with Roy and kissed him again, softly this time. When she pulled away, Jason came forward and did the same. It was strange, how even the smallest kind of affection from the loves of his life could take his breath away. It made the broken ribs and the stabs and the bleeding worth it.

“No you won’t,” Jason yawned, leaning back. “You love us too much.”

“Yeah,” Roy admitted, “I really really do.”

Kori raised her hand, palm towards Roy. “I love you, Roy Harper.”

Jason did the same, hand touching Kori’s and lacing his thumb with hers. “So do I, no matter how annoying you can be.”

Roy forgot about his chilli, placing it on the bed so he could join his hand with theirs, tangling their fingers together. Their matching tattoo stark on their wrists, the gun, the arrow and the sun warming Roy up from the inside out at the depth of their love. He had many tattoos, didn’t think that one more would matter, the tattoo on his side testimony enough to his deep and evolving love. Jason says it’s a phoenix to better cope, but Roy made sure he asked for a Robin, a degrading Robin on purple flames as a tribute to his loves. Jason hates it until Roy tells him that without the death of the Robin, Jaybird would never have been born, and Jason shuts up with tears welling in his eyes.

“I better get well soon, then.” Roy squeezed their hands and they both squeezed back. “God knows you need me.”

Kori laughed. “Eat up, or I’ll feed you.”

Jason cackled as Roy feigned mock fear, shoveling mild chilli into his mouth as though his life depended on it. Yes, Roy could deal with the aching in his chest from puncture wounds and broken bones, but the everyday breathtaking sight of his loves are what he really lives for.

[craftsmanindiaonline]

Earthen Cookware

Earthenware plus time plus love.

Good things come to those who wait. It’s especially true in the kitchen, when we braise classic winter dishes like stews, roasts, goulash and ragout to warm us, body and soul. Earthenware, stoneware and ceramic dishes work especially well and are currently enjoying a comeback to the kitchen. Here’s to tasty tradition, slow cooking and your good health!

Try a little tenderness As with so many kitchen and cuisine trends, preparing food in non-metallic vessels like earthenware pots or ceramic roasting pans is a link to tradition and artisan cooking, and to the good old-fashioned products and ingredients that our grandparents knew and loved. We’re increasingly buying regional and seasonal produce, we set store by freshness and authenticity, and we take time to prepare and enjoy our food. Slow cooking provides a calming counterpoint to the stress of deadlines and rushed lunch breaks. The best relaxed-pace dishes involve braising, like stews and roasts.

All-round genius Cooking and baking in stone and earthenware dates back to the days when people prepared food over an open fire, or used the thermal properties of clay by burying the ingredients in the earth to cook slowly. Even now, many regional cuisines maintain the tradition of slow, gentle cooking in pots and roasting dishes made from sand, clay, earth or ceramics. The North African tagine continues to be popular, as are the Turkish Güveç pot, the Indian tandoor and Spanish cazuela (although the latter is now mainly used to present typical dishes). Last but by no means least, in Germany the Römertopf brand of ceramic cookware has been popular since the 1970s for preparing Sunday roasts.

Slow burn towards an explosion of flavour Meat melts in your mouth, fish stays succulent, and vegetables retain their bite. Not only does this old-school cooking technique offer an alternative to the popular sous-vide method, but it’s also bang on trend. No wonder professional chefs love it too! “In our restaurant, slow-cooked dishes have been bestsellers for years. Braised lamb or beef shoulder, ox tail or calf’s head – I love preparing meals this way,“ explains Hans Jörg Bachmeier from the famous Blauer Bock restaurant in Munich. “That’s because this method can create an explosion of flavour like no other.” He also says very little can go wrong, because “if you’re using a good pot then the liquid drips back on top of the food while it simmers, so the taste intensifies without becoming overly seasoned.” The chef explains that desserts and sweet dishes can also be prepared in this type of dish, “especially specialities from southern Germany such as sweet yeast dumplings, filled dough rolls and dessert soufflés like “Scheiterhaufen” or a pancake soufflé with quark and raisins.”

Tasty, modern and sociable Our TV chef loves this slow cooking trend, and not just because of the great taste. It really comes into its own when he invites a group of people over to eat, and he either cooks or has them bring several dishes to serve all at once. Everyone feels at home, and can try a bit of everything. “I find it much better for sharing and communication than cooking a meal with several courses.” Of course there are other cultures where this idea is already commonplace, for instance in North Africa, where people habitually gather for shared meals. And as Mounir Chaikhoun from the “Mounir” restaurant in Frankfurt explains, nobody arrives empty-handed – or with an empty dish. We asked him to share a recipe from his home land of Morocco. Here’s the delicious dish he chose, prepared in a traditional tajine, which he says is “synonymous with North African cuisine”.

[familycuisinee]

how to cook boiled frozen shrimp | Family Cuisine

<p>No need to defrost shrimp before cooking. Learn how to cook shrimp from frozen, taking them straight from the freezer to the pot. It makes dinners a breeze and they taste so good!</p> <p>Remember back when I told you that you don’t have to defrost fish or chicken breasts before you cook them? Well, you don’t have to defrost shrimp before cooking them either!</p> <p>To be honest, I don’t love cooking chicken from frozen. I do that more in a pinch when I forget to take it out. It doesn’t turn out quite as good as when defrosted first. The fish turns out really good, especially thicker pieces. But, the shrimp!?!? They’re amazing cooked from frozen! They turn out even better when not defrosted first. Seriously.</p> <h2>Here’s A Video Showing How To Cook Shrimp From Frozen:</h2> <h2>What Kind Of Shrimp Should I Use?</h2> <p>So, don’t buy the “previously frozen” shrimp at the grocery store. They often cost more and you need to use them up right away. Instead, get a bag of frozen shrimp. Then put them into your freezer and you’ve got the makings of a quick meal on hand and ready to go.</p> <p>What kind of shrimp work best? Medium to large shrimp. And make sure they’re already deveined. It will say deveined on the bag. The reason you want them deveined is that you won’t be able to take the veins out yourself while they’re frozen and it will be hard, if not impossible to do after they’re cooked as well. So deveined shrimp are required. Other than that, I prefer them to be peeled but with the tail on, or easy peel. Either way, you can cook them from frozen and then serve. People can easily take the peels off after they’re cooked.</p> <p>Note that the shrimp also need to be frozen separately, not in a big clump. If you shake the bag, you should hear a bunch of frozen shrimp all moving around separately in there. If 2-3 are frozen together here and there, that’s fine. But no bigger clumps than that. If the shrimp are bought frozen from the store, they are usually frozen separately. If they’ve clumped up in the bag a bit, try banging the bag lightly on the counter. This could dislodge them.</p> <h2>How Do You Cook Shrimp from Frozen?</h2> <p>Today I’ll show you my favorite way to cook shrimp from frozen…poaching. Tomorrow I’ll be roasting them (from frozen) on a pan with some asparagus for a one-pan dinner that’s ready in 10 minutes.</p> <p>Poaching is truly my favorite way to cook shrimp, especially for shrimp cocktail, but for almost any preparation. It’s such a gentle cooking method and it leaves the shrimp plump, juicy, and tender - never tough.</p> <p>The crazy thing is that to poach the shrimp from frozen, you do everything EXACTLY the same as for poaching thawed shrimp. You just leave them in the water for an extra minute. One minute. That’s all.</p> <p>So here’s what you do.</p> <h3>Step #1</h3> <p>Get a medium or large saucepan. This depends on the number of shrimp you’re cooking. 12-15 large shrimp cook well in a 3 quart pot. You’ll need a bigger pot if you’re doing more than that. Fill the pot about 3/4 full of water.</p> <h3>Step #2</h3> <p>Add salt. I use about 1/2 teaspoon for the 3 quart pot.</p> <h3>Step #3</h3> <p>Then you can add other aromatic ingredients if you’d like. Half of a lemon is a great addition. Squeeze the juice into the pot before adding the halved lemon.</p> <p>Peppercorns and parsley are two other things you can add. These aren’t as important as the salt but are nice additions.</p> <h3>Step #4</h3> <p>Bring the pot to a rapid boil over high heat. (Cover the pot to make it boil sooner).</p> <h3>Step #5</h3> <p>Remove from the heat and let it stop boiling.</p> <h3>Step #6</h3> <p>Add the frozen shrimp.</p> <h3>Step #7</h3> <p>Stir.</p> <h3>Step #8</h3> <p>Cover the pot. And let sit off of the heat for 5-6 minutes, until shrimp are opaque and pink. Yes, this is correct. The pot is not supposed to be on the heat at all anymore. The shrimp are poaching in the leftover heat of the water. If you keep boiling them, the shrimp will not be good at all!</p> <h3>Step #9</h3> <p>If you’re planning to serve the shrimp cold (like for shrimp cocktail) or use them later, prepare an ice bath: In a large bowl, put two cups of ice cubes and fill halfway with cold water.</p> <h3>Step #10</h3> <p>If you want cold shrimp, once they’re cooked, drain off the hot liquid and transfer shrimp (but not the aromatics) to the ice bath. Let them sit in there for a few minutes to fully cool off before draining.</p> <p>If you want the shrimp to be served warm instead, drain off the hot liquid and serve immediately. You can add them to a pasta sauce or squeeze some lemon over them and serve them as is.</p> <h3>Step #11</h3> <p>Note that if they had the peels on, you can serve them with the peel or take the peels off before serving.</p> <p>Here’s the instructions for how to cook shrimp from frozen in handy printable form:</p> Print <h6>This post originally appeared in January 2018 and was revised and republished in September 2020.</h6> <img src="https://ift.tt/3zRvcHr" alt="How to Cook Shrimp from Frozen" /> source https://familycuisine.net/how-to-cook-boiled-frozen-shrimp/

[cliftonsteen]

Recreating A Coffee Shop Cappuccino At Home

The cappuccino is one of the most popular and well-known drinks in the world. The winning combination of milk foam and espresso is a favourite of many, and it has inspired a number of other milk-based coffee beverages.

While the drink dates back to the 1800s, the traditional Italian cappuccino emerged in the 1930s. This was before the invention of the modern espresso machine – meaning that you don’t need one to create a classic cappuccino at home.

To explore how it was possible to prepare this delicious drink outside your local coffee shop, I spoke with three cappuccino experts. They are Tosca Cesaretti and Misha Bussemey, the co-owners of Texas-based Springtown Roasters, and Chiara Bergonzi, a three-time Italian latte art champion, an SCA trainer, and an international judge.

Read more: What is a Cappuccino?

How Is A Cappuccino Made?

A cappuccino consists of three basic parts: measured proportions of milk, coffee, and milk foam. In the classic Italian recipe, the foamed milk does mix with the coffee, instead just sitting on top. While variations on the foam and the ratios exist, these three parts always remain the same.

Tosca and Misha say: “While the ratio is one part coffee to two parts milk, the milk is broken down to one part steamed milk and one part foam.” However, according to them, variations are acceptable, as long as the final result suits the drinker. 

In her book, Latte Art, Chiara states: “The creamy effect of the [cappuccino’s] foam must create a round and comforting beverage, which caresses the palate, with a pleasant temperature between 60 and 65ºC.”

For Tosca and Misha, it is much more than the proportions and ratios that set the cappuccino apart from other milky coffees. They believe that drinking a good cappuccino is a truly sensory experience; it combines the visual effect of good-looking foam with the sweet aroma of foamed whole milk in contact with the coffee. 

In Italy, a cappuccino is a morning beverage, prepared to be enjoyed quickly so it doesn’t lose its creamy and bubble free consistency. Traditionally, it is prepared with less steamed milk and more foam, which gives it a more intense flavour. The trademark of a traditional Italian cappuccino, according to Chiara, is “the white crown on top, surrounded by a ring of coffee”.

Choosing the right mug for your cappuccino is also important. Pick the wrong cup, and your cappuccino may lose heat too quickly. According to the Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano (INEI), a cappuccino mug should have a wide rim and a narrow base. 

However, for a homemade cappuccino, Chiara believes that size is not a real issue. “Many people use cups that are either too big or small,” She says. “This is OK – it’s keeping the right proportion that is really important.”

Home Brewing Methods For Cappuccinos

In coffee shops, cappuccinos are prepared with specific, professional-grade equipment. However, you don’t necessarily need these tools to prepare a cappuccino at home.

If you don’t have a home barista or espresso machine, you may want to use a stove-top coffee maker, such as a moka or Neapolitan flip pot. These alternatives are more affordable, and can also be used to produce concentrated, espresso-like shots of coffee.

You might also like What Is A Ristretto?

For a homemade cappuccino, Tosca and Misha recommend a moka pot. “The coffee should be really strong because we’re adding the milk. The moka pot is excellent for that, as you get all the oils and the natural fats, all the good stuff that exists in the coffee.”

According to Tosca and Misha, a French press is also a suitable alternative. However, when brewing for a cappuccino with a French press,  the ratio for the coffee and the water should be adjusted. Tosca and Misha’s advice is to decrease the amount of water until you reach a concentration that you are happy with.

It’s worth noting that you may have to adjust other variables, such as the coffee variety, grind size, and extraction time, to find a recipe that works for you. It’s important that you’re prepared to experiment and refine your recipe over a number of different attempts.

If you do decide to invest in a machine, there is a wide range to choose from with a variety of different features. Chiara says that the right machine for a cappuccino will have good, stable pressure for the coffee, as well as a milk steaming vapour wand.

No matter which method you choose, what’s important for a cappuccino is that you produce a highly concentrated coffee. When using some brewing methods, like the pour over, this can be more difficult to achieve. “Filters take away the body of the coffee, which is precisely what we want for a cappuccino,” Tosca and Misha add.

Choosing Your Coffee

Before you even start making a quality cappuccino, you will have to carefully choose the right coffee. You should try to buy freshly roasted beans, and if possible, get recommendations on which to choose from a local roaster. Tosca and Misha recommend choosing a medium roast, and grinding your beans finely – as if you were making an espresso. This is the ideal size for the moka pot.

Your grind size will ultimately vary depending on how you are brewing your coffee. Chiara says that trial and error is key. Even with lower quality grinders, you can experiment with different grind sizes and brewing methods until you find something that works for you. 

She also says that pre-ground coffee can be suitable, as long as it’s of very good quality and reasonably fresh. Those who don’t own or use a grinder can often ask a roaster to grind coffee to a size of their choice. And while fine coffee is ideal for the moka pot, French press coffee should be more coarse. If you have any questions, it may be worth speaking to a roaster.

The Right Kind Of Milk

Creating perfect cappuccino foam is all about chemistry. There are a number of different factors that influence it – from the quality of the milk through to the heating temperature. While a thermometer will help, Tosca and Misha explain that choosing the right type of milk is an important first step.

“Essentially, good organic whole milk is the best. It has the most fats, and that’s what you really need to get the bubbles and the foam.” However, you need to make sure that you don’t overheat your milk, as this can kill the proteins and leave your foam too thin.

For those who want to create a perfect, barista-quality cappuccino at home, the Specialty Coffee Association provides temperature guidelines. The SCA recommends that milk is heated somewhere between 50°C (122°F) and 70°C (158°F).

When it comes to non-dairy milk options, soy and almond milk also produce a good foam. Tosca and Misha don’t recommend coconut or cashew milk, however, as “they are very thin and watery”.

Getting That Magic Foam

The simplest way of frothing your milk is to use a saucepan and a whisk. Just heat up your milk on the stove and when it starts to bubble, turn off the stove and start whisking. If you have a thermometer, you should take the milk off the heat at around 70ºC, as the SCA recommends. Keep whisking until your milk starts to froth and thicken, and you will soon have your foam.

Your other options are to heat up the milk on the stove and then use a blender until it gets frothy. Just be careful that the milk is not too hot, as too much pressure could cause your blender some damage.

Believe it or not, the French press can also be used to steam and foam your milk. This is the method that Chiara recommends. She says using very cold milk before heating it up in a pan helps produce a good foam. Once heated, you simply pour the milk into your French press, and then pull and push the plunger until you create your foam. 

To separate the steamed milk from the foam, all you need to do is pour it very slowly into a separate container, and swirl gently to remove any air bubbles. Baristas often remove the air bubbles and separate the foam by banging the jug against the counter, but this can be messy if you’re not careful. 

Another “semi-pro” option is to buy a milk frothing machine, of which there are a wide variety of options available. However, if you want something more compact and affordable, you can invest in a handheld foam wand. Tosca and Misha even describe it as “great to take on vacations”.

Other Variations

Following a strict recipe with set ratios means you have more freedom to experiment with your cappuccino in other ways. For example, you can add the traditional pinch of cocoa powder or ground cinnamon, which date back to the early 20th century. In some European countries today, cappuccinos are even made with cream and sugar, rather than steamed milk and foam.

Misha adds cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg, but says the exact recipe “depends on [her] mood in the morning. Tosca has an even more detailed recipe that she calls “The Mini Miel”: “I make the cappuccino with really strong coffee, and I’ll take one tablespoon of honey to sweeten it, and I add a dash of salt. That’s my little secret!”

No matter how you choose to brew your coffee or froth your milk, it’s important that you create a cappuccino that you love. Your recipe will need to be adjusted and tweaked no matter which method you choose, and trying and making mistakes will help you to develop a perfect recipe in the long run. 

Most importantly? Remember to enjoy the process. As Misha and Tosca say: “Try to have a lot of fun with it. Experiment with it all.” 

Enjoyed this? Then try How To Make A Cappuccino With A French Press

Photo credits: Tosca Cesaretti, Cris Flores, Gaia Schirru

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The post Recreating A Coffee Shop Cappuccino At Home appeared first on Perfect Daily Grind.

Recreating A Coffee Shop Cappuccino At Home published first on https://espressoexpertweb.weebly.com/

[bi-rezi]

LONG below cut, just cosplay thoughts, nothing beyond lists of what i’d need for certain characters and some rambling

the reason for all this is that the friend who went with me to geek kon last year asked if i wanted to go this year. i told them maybe because on the one hand it was super fun but on the other hand i have a job now, so we’ll see. any amount of this may or may not pan out.

for jasprose:

white wig

white face paint

fur? (just for cheeks)

white cat ears

purple/pink headband

long-sleeved white tunic (with purple/pink trim and puff sleeves)

white leggins with pink/purple trim

pink/purple socks

white shoes with pink/purple trim

the fucking, neckpiece thing

pink/purple party hat

fangs (opt.)

pink/purple contacts (opt.) (ONE EYE OF EACH WOULD BE SICK AS FUCK)

for davepeta:

so much god. probably not worth it, sadly.

for karkat:

new, better wig

loose plain black shirt (to add symbol)

plain gray pants - do i already have these?

teeth (opt.)

gray/red contacts (opt.)

ears (opt.)

for dave:

wig (throwback to when i had dave hair haha)

shirt

red contacts (opt.)

for rose:

new, better wig

white/lavendar pencil skirt

purple contacts (opt.)

for dead aradia:

wig maybe

horns - wire, tinfoil, yarn, paint

black t-shirt - cut up sleeves + slit in bottom hem

long gray skirt - cut up

red and white socks

black vans w/ white laces (opt.)

white mesh contacts (opt.)

ears (opt.)

for kanaya:

wig maybe

black t shirt

red skirt - make?

white face paint (opt.)

green lipstick (opt.)

purple sash with green stain (if white face paint) (opt.)

gray/green contacts (opt.)

ears (opt.)

for roxy:

wig

shirt

skirt

legwarmers

scarf (opt.)

pink contacts (opt.)

for dirk:

wig (and id have to style it, ugh)

shirt

glasses - probably part thrift, part make, though it depends on what kind of stuff i can find

i have a broken styrofoam head so its a pipe dream of mine that i sculpt that with clay into a semi-realistic severed head and then either carry it around as dirk with the sendificator over my head or as jake and kiss it occasionally, but i have a lot of different feelings over the latter lately so probably i’d do the former. either way, that’d be a lot of work.

for sollux:

wig (hopefully not same wig as karkat/kanaya/anyone else)

horns

shirt

gray pants

a pair of white shoes and a pair of black shoes (which is annoying as fuck BUT i could use the black shoes for aradia w the white shoes’s laces and vice versa for roxy so id be able to use them for other stuff. plus vans-type shoes are cheap)

red and blue glasses (probably make somehow??)

red/blue contacts (opt.)

teeth (opt.)

ears (opt.)

nepeta’d be cool but a pretty particular (purrticular) type of person (nepeta stans, basically, and i’m not one of those) tends to cosplay her so ill pass

for terezi:

wig

horns

shirt

glasses - make somehow

red shoes

red contacts (opt.)

teeth (opt.)

ears (opt.)

for vriska (pre loss of eye and arm because that shits hard):

wig

horns

shirt

gray overshirt

glasses

red shoes (preferably something that looks like converse but i could just use the same shoes for her and terezi)

i dont actually remember if i have good blue lipstick or not. i know i have shitty blue lipstick that basically doesnt have pigment but im not sure about good blue lipstick. in any case i know tricks for that but hm. not sure.

blue/gray contacts (opt.)

fangs (opt.)

ears (opt.)

equius... im just not really interested. i once thought about doing eridan but i dont like him anymore so nah. feferi... would be cool, but i think the skirt would be a little beyond my knowledge of sewing. i could do jane or jade but frankly i find them harder to emulate as a cosplayer and i could do john, jake, or dirk, but i just dont wanna.

for meenah:

braids - i wont make the mistake of trying to make them out of real fake hair again, i promise you that, i still have two seven-foot chunks of loose hair in the basement that im not doing anything with

trident - i literally have all the materials for this i just havent made it

glasses - make somehow/thrift a pair

shirt - the one i used to have is ruined (i know canonically she wears a t shirt but for some reason everyone cosplays her in a crop top, including me.) (i fucked up my shirt by not knowing how to work the printing stuff i got, like, the night before the con.)

tank top (depending on whether my current one fits me still)

horns - the ones i have are pretty much beyond fixing now so i’d have to start over. that’s fine though, i have plenty of materials.

teeth (opt.)

mesh contacts (opt.)

ear fins - i have these but i could stand to paint them pink since atm theyre purple, but otherwise theyre pretty close to perfect as is.

universal items i’ll probably need no matter what:

black and white t shirts (thats pretty much everyone)

screenprinting paper for dark or light shirts, depending on who i do

i have paint but having more wouldn’t hurt, and i might want/need white paint as well

fangs/teeth - for these i’d like to buy nice scarecrow fangs and use those and then maybe make some shitty mouthfuls of teeth with fake nails and that melty plastic shit

wigs - i’m willing to shell out a bit more for these as well. i’d like a nice short black one for karkat, kanaya, and if i ever decide to do jane, john, or jake, and though i have a long black wig it sucks pretty hard and i need a better one, probably curly, with bangs. though straight would be okay for most of these anyway. the only person who needs a medium length wig is terezi, and that’s actually pretty much true for all of hs, which is... too bad.

horns - i have a few pairs of horns already and PLENTY of clay to make more, but for bigger horns i’d need more than model magic. for aradia (and probably eridan and mmmaybe equius though im not doing either of them) and maybe vriska and kanaya (just to make those joints easier) id use the wire, tinfoil, and yarn method, but anything smaller than that i can use my clay. i already have peixes and vantas horns, though the peixes horns are broken and are resisting being fixed and the vantas horns don’t attach very well. i also have leijon horns in the works as well that were originally for davepeta. but id use clay to make vantas, captor, leijon, maybe maryam, pyrope, and maybe equius horns, and i used it for my peixes horns (though i didnt attach them well to the headband so those didnt go great).

contacts - i have actual regular contacts now, so now i wont have to worry about being blind ever. the next step is to get cosplay lenses (yes i know safe sites to get them from, yes i know my prescription and what size to get, yes i know how to be safe buying contacts). the best investement for sure would be a gray pair and a mesh pair, just speaking in terms of sheer number of characters. beyond that, it depends on who i end up cosplaying as to what color lenses i buy. for instance, if i decide on aradia, meenah, and dave, white and red lenses make the most sense. if i decide on rose, jasprose, and karkat, purple and gray ones make the most sense.

for any glasses, i’m going to be looking at thrift shops first and foremost. if i don’t find anything in a reasonable time, i’ll find stuff online.

i have probably two-thirds of a pot of snazzaroo, which will probably be enough, but if i decide to do a sprite or vampire kanaya, i’ll need white paint as well. plus if i decide to do more than one troll, i might want more gray paint anyway.

ears - i dont have any rn. i know a few methods to make them and a few places i can buy them but i’d probably end up making them anyway, mostly for cost-effectiveness.

as for money... well, i’ll do my best. i have an actual job now, and it’s pretty good. ive worked a lot in my first few days and ill keep working so even with taxes my paychecks are gonna be pretty sweet. id take commissions but i still have yet to consistently create any kind of art so im waiting til i can do that. also i dont have a way to get that money rn. nbd either way; i dont have any expenses besides this type of thing atm so its not like im hurting for money.

also i wouldnt have to cosplay only homestuck but a) im lazy and b) ive never loved anything the way ive loved homestuck so i kind of wouldnt want to betray my brand(tm)

(but if i wasnt going to cosplay only homestuck, which might be a good idea since idk how much homestuck the person i’d be going with is doing, i’d probably do taako.)

[pensarelvirus]

The pandemic is a portal /  Arundhati Roy

. Who can use the term “gone viral” now without shuddering a little? Who can look at anything any more — a door handle, a cardboard carton, a bag of vegetables — without imagining it swarming with those unseeable, undead, unliving blobs dotted with suction pads waiting to fasten themselves on to our lungs? Who can think of kissing a stranger, jumping on to a bus or sending their child to school without feeling real fear? Who can think of ordinary pleasure and not assess its risk? Who among us is not a quack epidemiologist, virologist, statistician and prophet? Which scientist or doctor is not secretly praying for a miracle? Which priest is not — secretly, at least — submitting to science?

And even while the virus proliferates, who could not be thrilled by the swell of birdsong in cities, peacocks dancing at traffic crossings and the silence in the skies?

The number of cases worldwide this week crept over a million. More than 50,000 people have died already. Projections suggest that number will swell to hundreds of thousands, perhaps more. The virus has moved freely along the pathways of trade and international capital, and the terrible illness it has brought in its wake has locked humans down in their countries, their cities and their homes.

But unlike the flow of capital, this virus seeks proliferation, not profit, and has, therefore, inadvertently, to some extent, reversed the direction of the flow. It has mocked immigration controls, biometrics, digital surveillance and every other kind of data analytics, and struck hardest — thus far — in the richest, most powerful nations of the world, bringing the engine of capitalism to a juddering halt. Temporarily perhaps, but at least long enough for us to examine its parts, make an assessment and decide whether we want to help fix it, or look for a better engine.

The mandarins who are managing this pandemic are fond of speaking of war. They don’t even use war as a metaphor, they use it literally. But if it really were a war, then who would be better prepared than the US? If it were not masks and gloves that its frontline soldiers needed, but guns, smart bombs, bunker busters, submarines, fighter jets and nuclear bombs, would there be a shortage?

Night after night, from halfway across the world, some of us watch the New York governor’s press briefings with a fascination that is hard to explain. We follow the statistics, and hear the stories of overwhelmed hospitals in the US, of underpaid, overworked nurses having to make masks out of garbage bin liners and old raincoats, risking everything to bring succour to the sick. About states being forced to bid against each other for ventilators, about doctors’ dilemmas over which patient should get one and which left to die. And we think to ourselves, “My God! This is America!”

.

The tragedy is immediate, real, epic and unfolding before our eyes. But it isn’t new. It is the wreckage of a train that has been careening down the track for years. Who doesn’t remember the videos of “patient dumping” — sick people, still in their hospital gowns, butt naked, being surreptitiously dumped on street corners? Hospital doors have too often been closed to the less fortunate citizens of the US. It hasn’t mattered how sick they’ve been, or how much they’ve suffered.

At least not until now — because now, in the era of the virus, a poor person’s sickness can affect a wealthy society’s health. And yet, even now, Bernie Sanders, the senator who has relentlessly campaigned for healthcare for all, is considered an outlier in his bid for the White House, even by his own party.  

 The tragedy is the wreckage of a train that has been careening down the track for years

And what of my country, my poor-rich country, India, suspended somewhere between feudalism and religious fundamentalism, caste and capitalism, ruled by far-right Hindu nationalists?

In December, while China was fighting the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, the government of India was dealing with a mass uprising by hundreds of thousands of its citizens protesting against the brazenly discriminatory anti-Muslim citizenship law it had just passed in parliament.

The first case of Covid-19 was reported in India on January 30, only days after the honourable chief guest of our Republic Day Parade, Amazon forest-eater and Covid-denier Jair Bolsonaro, had left Delhi. But there was too much to do in February for the virus to be accommodated in the ruling party’s timetable. There was the official visit of President Donald Trump scheduled for the last week of the month. He had been lured by the promise of an audience of 1m people in a sports stadium in the state of Gujarat. All that took money, and a great deal of time.

Then there were the Delhi Assembly elections that the Bharatiya Janata Party was slated to lose unless it upped its game, which it did, unleashing a vicious, no-holds-barred Hindu nationalist campaign, replete with threats of physical violence and the shooting of “traitors”.

It lost anyway. So then there was punishment to be meted out to Delhi’s Muslims, who were blamed for the humiliation. Armed mobs of Hindu vigilantes, backed by the police, attacked Muslims in the working-class neighbourhoods of north-east Delhi. Houses, shops, mosques and schools were burnt. Muslims who had been expecting the attack fought back. More than 50 people, Muslims and some Hindus, were killed.

Thousands moved into refugee camps in local graveyards. Mutilated bodies were still being pulled out of the network of filthy, stinking drains when government officials had their first meeting about Covid-19 and most Indians first began to hear about the existence of something called hand sanitiser.

March was busy too. The first two weeks were devoted to toppling the Congress government in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and installing a BJP government in its place. On March 11 the World Health Organization declared that Covid-19 was a pandemic. Two days later, on March 13, the health ministry said that corona “is not a health emergency”.

Finally, on March 19, the Indian prime minister addressed the nation. He hadn’t done much homework. He borrowed the playbook from France and Italy. He told us of the need for “social distancing” (easy to understand for a society so steeped in the practice of caste) and called for a day of “people’s curfew” on March 22. He said nothing about what his government was going to do in the crisis, but he asked people to come out on their balconies, and ring bells and bang their pots and pans to salute health workers.

He didn’t mention that, until that very moment, India had been exporting protective gear and respiratory equipment, instead of keeping it for Indian health workers and hospitals.

Not surprisingly, Narendra Modi’s request was met with great enthusiasm. There were pot-banging marches, community dances and processions. Not much social distancing. In the days that followed, men jumped into barrels of sacred cow dung, and BJP supporters threw cow-urine drinking parties. Not to be outdone, many Muslim organisations declared that the Almighty was the answer to the virus and called for the faithful to gather in mosques in numbers.

.

On March 24, at 8pm, Modi appeared on TV again to announce that, from midnight onwards, all of India would be under lockdown. Markets would be closed. All transport, public as well as private, would be disallowed.

He said he was taking this decision not just as a prime minister, but as our family elder. Who else can decide, without consulting the state governments that would have to deal with the fallout of this decision, that a nation of 1.38bn people should be locked down with zero preparation and with four hours’ notice? His methods definitely give the impression that India’s prime minister thinks of citizens as a hostile force that needs to be ambushed, taken by surprise, but never trusted.

Locked down we were. Many health professionals and epidemiologists have applauded this move. Perhaps they are right in theory. But surely none of them can support the calamitous lack of planning or preparedness that turned the world’s biggest, most punitive lockdown into the exact opposite of what it was meant to achieve.

The man who loves spectacles created the mother of all spectacles.

 As an appalled world watched, India revealed herself in all her shame — her brutal, structural, social and economic inequality, her callous indifference to suffering.

The lockdown worked like a chemical experiment that suddenly illuminated hidden things. As shops, restaurants, factories and the construction industry shut down, as the wealthy and the middle classes enclosed themselves in gated colonies, our towns and megacities began to extrude their working-class citizens — their migrant workers — like so much unwanted accrual.

Many driven out by their employers and landlords, millions of impoverished, hungry, thirsty people, young and old, men, women, children, sick people, blind people, disabled people, with nowhere else to go, with no public transport in sight, began a long march home to their villages. They walked for days, towards Badaun, Agra, Azamgarh, Aligarh, Lucknow, Gorakhpur — hundreds of kilometres away. Some died on the way.   

Our towns and megacities began to extrude their working-class citizens like so much unwanted accrual.

They knew they were going home potentially to slow starvation. Perhaps they even knew they could be carrying the virus with them, and would infect their families, their parents and grandparents back home, but they desperately needed a shred of familiarity, shelter and dignity, as well as food, if not love.

As they walked, some were beaten brutally and humiliated by the police, who were charged with strictly enforcing the curfew. Young men were made to crouch and frog jump down the highway. Outside the town of Bareilly, one group was herded together and hosed down with chemical spray.

A few days later, worried that the fleeing population would spread the virus to villages, the government sealed state borders even for walkers. People who had been walking for days were stopped and forced to return to camps in the cities they had just been forced to leave.

Among older people it evoked memories of the population transfer of 1947, when India was divided and Pakistan was born. Except that this current exodus was driven by class divisions, not religion. Even still, these were not India’s poorest people. These were people who had (at least until now) work in the city and homes to return to. The jobless, the homeless and the despairing remained where they were, in the cities as well as the countryside, where deep distress was growing long before this tragedy occurred. All through these horrible days, the home affairs minister Amit Shah remained absent from public view.

When the walking began in Delhi, I used a press pass from a magazine I frequently write for to drive to Ghazipur, on the border between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

The scene was biblical. Or perhaps not. The Bible could not have known numbers such as these. The lockdown to enforce physical distancing had resulted in the opposite — physical compression on an unthinkable scale. This is true even within India’s towns and cities. The main roads might be empty, but the poor are sealed into cramped quarters in slums and shanties.

Every one of the walking people I spoke to was worried about the virus. But it was less real, less present in their lives than looming unemployment, starvation and the violence of the police. Of all the people I spoke to that day, including a group of Muslim tailors who had only weeks ago survived the anti-Muslim attacks, one man’s words especially troubled me. He was a carpenter called Ramjeet, who planned to walk all the way to Gorakhpur near the Nepal border.

“Maybe when Modiji decided to do this, nobody told him about us. Maybe he doesn’t know about us”, he said.

“Us” means approximately 460m people.

.

State governments in India (as in the US) have showed more heart and understanding in the crisis. Trade unions, private citizens and other collectives are distributing food and emergency rations. The central government has been slow to respond to their desperate appeals for funds. It turns out that the prime minister’s National Relief Fund has no ready cash available. Instead, money from well-wishers is pouring into the somewhat mysterious new PM-CARES fund. Pre-packaged meals with Modi’s face on them have begun to appear.

In addition to this, the prime minister has shared his yoga nidra videos, in which a morphed, animated Modi with a dream body demonstrates yoga asanas to help people deal with the stress of self-isolation.

The narcissism is deeply troubling. Perhaps one of the asanas could be a request-asana in which Modi requests the French prime minister to allow us to renege on the very troublesome Rafale fighter jet deal and use that €7.8bn for desperately needed emergency measures to support a few million hungry people. Surely the French will understand.

 As the lockdown enters its second week, supply chains have broken, medicines and essential supplies are running low. Thousands of truck drivers are still marooned on the highways, with little food and water. Standing crops, ready to be harvested, are slowly rotting.

The economic crisis is here. The political crisis is ongoing. The mainstream media has incorporated the Covid story into its 24/7 toxic anti-Muslim campaign. An organisation called the Tablighi Jamaat, which held a meeting in Delhi before the lockdown was announced, has turned out to be a “super spreader”. That is being used to stigmatise and demonise Muslims. The overall tone suggests that Muslims invented the virus and have deliberately spread it as a form of jihad.

The Covid crisis is still to come. Or not. We don’t know. If and when it does, we can be sure it will be dealt with, with all the prevailing prejudices of religion, caste and class completely in place.

Today (April 2) in India, there are almost 2,000 confirmed cases and 58 deaths. These are surely unreliable numbers, based on woefully few tests. Expert opinion varies wildly. Some predict millions of cases. Others think the toll will be far less. We may never know the real contours of the crisis, even when it hits us. All we know is that the run on hospitals has not yet begun.

India’s public hospitals and clinics — which are unable to cope with the almost 1m children who die of diarrhoea, malnutrition and other health issues every year, with the hundreds of thousands of tuberculosis patients (a quarter of the world’s cases), with a vast anaemic and malnourished population vulnerable to any number of minor illnesses that prove fatal for them — will not be able to cope with a crisis that is like what Europe and the US are dealing with now.

All healthcare is more or less on hold as hospitals have been turned over to the service of the virus. The trauma centre of the legendary All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi is closed, the hundreds of cancer patients known as cancer refugees who live on the roads outside that huge hospital driven away like cattle.

People will fall sick and die at home. We may never know their stories. They may not even become statistics. We can only hope that the studies that say the virus likes cold weather are correct (though other researchers have cast doubt on this). Never have a people longed so irrationally and so much for a burning, punishing Indian summer.

What is this thing that has happened to us? It’s a virus, yes. In and of itself it holds no moral brief. But it is definitely more than a virus. Some believe it’s God’s way of bringing us to our senses. Others that it’s a Chinese conspiracy to take over the world.

Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.

We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

*

Arundhati Roy’s latest novel is ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’

Fuente: https://www.ft.com/content/Arundhati Roy

[Publicado 3/abril/2020]

[nearthecityofchorrol-blog]

Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek

I’m a reasonably artistic individual. I all the time have been, and my maternal family history consists of lots of creative-minded individuals. One in every of my cousins is a bona fide skilled artist, my mother is musically gifted in addition to an amazing seamstress, my grandmother was an completed seamstress, quilter, and needlepointer…and the listing simply goes on.

I’ve discovered that I’m not notably skilled at creating imagery and designs out of skinny air (or my creativeness), but I actually take pleasure in creating. I first came upon concerning the existence of computerized craft cutters several years in the past and didn’t really know a lot about them – all I learn was that ProvoCraft had this line of Cricut-branded craft cutters that used very costly cartridges, and when a company reverse-engineered the software used to regulate the machine so as to launch a product that allowed using any pictures or fonts you needed, ProvoCraft sued the pants off of them and gained. Thank Invoice Clinton and the DMCA for that one.

In 2015, I happened upon a blog submit speaking about an all-new Cricut machine that was supposed to deal with customers’ number-one grievance: the lack to create your personal designs, separate from expensive cartridges, to be minimize on a Cricut machine. The more research I did, the extra I needed one among these new machines. Lo and behold, Santa purchased me a Cricut Explore Air for Christmas that same yr!

Santa seems an awful lot like my fiance Jay, by the best way. Think about that!

I acquired proper to work as quickly as I opened the field. True to my nature, I had to find methods to make this machine do greater than what your average crafter would do. Sharing is caring, so I decided other individuals is perhaps interested what I’ve discovered by way of my Cricut adventures.

Tools You May (Not) Want

Cricut provides a line of branded tools, in fact. Some of them are pretty good, and some of them are pretty terrible. I subscribed to Cricut’s promotional emails and picked up their primary device package once they have been having a 40% off sale on equipment. For the worth it’s okay, but at full worth it’s not value it.

Right here’s why – and I’ve given you some concepts on options to the Cricut tools.

Micro-tipped scissors

These scissors have a very sharp, very small blade, which does make them helpful for trimming tiny bits of cardstock and material. Nevertheless. a great pair of embroidery scissors can accomplish the same factor, and for trimming paper, nothing beats a very good set of interest knives. I’ve a set that Jay had laying round from working on model practice stuff, and I really like them – the handles are ergonomic and really straightforward to regulate, and the set comes with quite a lot of blades in a secure plastic case. Yow will discover the set I bought on Amazon for a bit underneath $18, however any quality interest knife set can be your greatest good friend.

Spatula

That is considered one of two tools from the package that I exploit recurrently. The spatula has a very thin metallic blade, which makes it indispensable when making an attempt to take away cardstock and paper out of your chopping mats. Cricut makes a set that features just the spatula and scraper (and typically bundles these two tools with the machine relying on what specific product and SKU you’re shopping for), so that’s in all probability a greater guess general than the costlier package I purchased.

Scraper

Like the spatula, the scraper is pretty indispensable. You should use it to knock bits of cardstock off your slicing mat shortly and easily. Cricut also makes an extra giant scraper which is perhaps higher bang for your buck.

That being stated, there are lot of different scraper options you will get for a bit cheaper – a small plastic pan and pot scraper will do the identical because the Cricut scraper.

Weeder

The weeder software is an oversized dental decide – and it turns out that, at the very least with the work I’ve carried out with vinyl, window clings, and cardstock, the Cricut-branded weeder is method, approach too huge. I began using a DenTek-branded dental decide that came with our electrical toothbrush and WaterPik set, and it’s worked a lot better than the Cricut weeder. I’d highly advocate choosing up a dental tartar decide (there are a ton on Amazon) over this Cricut device.

One really useful tip – you should use a weeder and a puddle of glue to piece collectively tiny cardstock bits. Dip the tip of the weeder in the glue to use tiny drops of glue to your items.

Tweezers

These tweezers are so freaking terrible. They’re 100% ineffective. They’re very imprecise, and the squeeze-to-open design is tough to make use of with my (considerably abnormal) tiny palms. I think they’re downright unusable in case you have arthritis or some other nice motor talent or mobility problems. There are a wide variety of precision tweezer choices out there which are a lot better – look in craft and pharmacy departments at your native massive box store. I additionally advocate Harbor Freight, if there’s one in your space – they’re principally the Aldi of hardware stores and sell a whole lot of cheap, private-label stuff, they usually have lots of hobbyist instruments and kit. You can too find options on Amazon.

Scoring Device

The Explore and Explore Air can minimize and score in a single cross (in other phrases, with out having to cease and alter instruments – the Explore One requires switching instruments between slicing and scoring). This is implausible for making envelopes, packing containers, and pop-up playing cards. The scoring device is certainly well worth the cash.

Further Tools and Provides

Chopping Mat

Once I first started creating stuff with my Cricut, I used to be working with my interest knives immediately on my desktop. My craft space is about up with an previous IKEA Jerker desk I’ve had since school, and the desktop floor is well-worn, so including little cuts to it didn’t hassle me. I decided to select up a chopping mat anyhow, as a result of it makes for a better work floor. I ended up getting this Alvin mat on Amazon, as a result of I have Amazon Prime and pretty much all the time decide stuff with same-day delivery each time attainable. Any chopping mat will work, but I undoubtedly advocate getting a slicing mat in case you’re going to do plenty of effective, detailed work.

Brayer Roller

A brayer curler is absolutely just a roller. I don’t know why it’s referred to as “brayer”, however that’s what you need to look for. I obtained this Speedball set on Amazon and have been really proud of it. I exploit the arduous rubber and acrylic rollers to flatten out cardstock and clean bubbles in vinyl sheets. These rollers are also nice for applying supplies smoothly onto your slicing mats.

Protip – on the set I purchased, the acrylic roller didn’t transfer in any respect in the handle. I utilized a bit of mineral oil to the pins on the ends of the curler, and that fastened it right up. Don’t use petroleum-based lubricants like WD-40, since those will trigger the acrylic to deteriorate.

Glue and Adhesives

Glue is tremendous necessary for pretty much any cardstock or paper Cricut venture. Thus far, I’ve simply been utilizing Aileen’s Cheesy Glue. As I mentioned earlier on this article, a dental tartar decide works rather well for dabbing on tiny drops of glue for piecing collectively a challenge. It’s not optimum, though – I have to maintain some scrap cardboard available to hold puddles of glue, and the glue starts drying out method too shortly. Not solely that, however Cheesy Glue has an annoying habit of wrinkling each paper and cardstock if even a tiny bit too much is used.

I’m still looking for the most effective adhesive options. I picked up a number of Tombow merchandise from Amazon this week and am going to attempt them out – I’m notably enthusiastic about this ballpoint glue pen! It seems to be like it can work great for placing everlasting glue on tiny strips and bits of cardstock when piecing together a challenge – and it might be no less than slightly less tedious.

Rulers and Straightedges

One other very useful gizmo is a top quality ruler. I’ve tried totally different ones and located that I really like metallic rulers out there pretty much anyplace – so long as you shield them from getting bent! A right-angle ruler or triangle can also be very, very useful for those who’re slicing out smaller items of fabric for slicing out a challenge. I don’t have any recommendations on this one – no matter you favor when it comes to measurement and material will work simply advantageous!

Tiny Trashcan

I’m lifeless critical about this one – you’ll have so many tiny pieces of cardstock, paper, vinyl, and material from working with a craft cutter! I acquired a tiny garbage can from my local Daiso retailer for $1.50 and added some vinyl to it to show it into Jake the Canine from Journey Time. Amazon doesn’t have many choices on this entrance. I found one at The Container Store for $5, but I feel you’ll be able to in all probability find a cheaper one at your local dollar retailer. It sits on my desk, and I exploit it each time I work on a challenge.

Markers and Pens

Writing with the Cricut is pretty candy. In case you have the Cricut Explore or the Cricut Explore Air, it comes with an adjunct holder that is used for the scoring device in addition to writing utensils. When you’ve got the Cricut Explore One, you want a unique accessory holder. You can even use this adapter within the blade holder on the Explore and Explore Air to do some hackier stuff (extra on that later).

Cricut has designed its holder to work with its personal pens, in fact, however there are different choices out there! I’m not going to go over all the things, as a result of this awesome weblog submit covers pretty much the whole lot you could be questioning about using non-Cricut pens with the Cricut Explore and Explore Air. A couple notes, although…

Pilot Precise V5 Rollerball Pens

Pilot V5 fine-point pens click on into the adapter properly, however it appears that ProvoCraft added something to the firmware to stop the pens from truly touching the paper in the event you attempt to use them. I found a simple workaround – for any shapes or strains you want drawn, set them to score as an alternative in Design Area. This can decrease the accessory adapter simply far enough for the pen to put in writing reliably on your materials.

Crayola High quality-Level Markers

I’ve found that using a dime and a nickle stacked provides the right shim for these markers (and anything that doesn’t snap into place) so that the height is good.

Software program

Okay, so this one is going to be a separate article. Cricut’s web-based Design Area device is pretty terrible. It’s required for sending your tasks to your Explore machine, but you undoubtedly don’t have to use it for creating issues. i exploit Adobe Illustrator CS6, however there are undoubtedly cheaper options out there – and I’m going to research them for you so you don’t should!

More to return…

The post Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek appeared first on Laptop Computer Info.

[my-scorched-earths-insides]

Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek

I’m a reasonably artistic individual. I all the time have been, and my maternal family history consists of lots of creative-minded individuals. One in every of my cousins is a bona fide skilled artist, my mother is musically gifted in addition to an amazing seamstress, my grandmother was an completed seamstress, quilter, and needlepointer…and the listing simply goes on.

I’ve discovered that I’m not notably skilled at creating imagery and designs out of skinny air (or my creativeness), but I actually take pleasure in creating. I first came upon concerning the existence of computerized craft cutters several years in the past and didn’t really know a lot about them – all I learn was that ProvoCraft had this line of Cricut-branded craft cutters that used very costly cartridges, and when a company reverse-engineered the software used to regulate the machine so as to launch a product that allowed using any pictures or fonts you needed, ProvoCraft sued the pants off of them and gained. Thank Invoice Clinton and the DMCA for that one.

In 2015, I happened upon a blog submit speaking about an all-new Cricut machine that was supposed to deal with customers’ number-one grievance: the lack to create your personal designs, separate from expensive cartridges, to be minimize on a Cricut machine. The more research I did, the extra I needed one among these new machines. Lo and behold, Santa purchased me a Cricut Explore Air for Christmas that same yr!

Santa seems an awful lot like my fiance Jay, by the best way. Think about that!

I acquired proper to work as quickly as I opened the field. True to my nature, I had to find methods to make this machine do greater than what your average crafter would do. Sharing is caring, so I decided other individuals is perhaps interested what I’ve discovered by way of my Cricut adventures.

Tools You May (Not) Want

Cricut provides a line of branded tools, in fact. Some of them are pretty good, and some of them are pretty terrible. I subscribed to Cricut’s promotional emails and picked up their primary device package once they have been having a 40% off sale on equipment. For the worth it’s okay, but at full worth it’s not value it.

Right here’s why – and I’ve given you some concepts on options to the Cricut tools.

Micro-tipped scissors

These scissors have a very sharp, very small blade, which does make them helpful for trimming tiny bits of cardstock and material. Nevertheless. a great pair of embroidery scissors can accomplish the same factor, and for trimming paper, nothing beats a very good set of interest knives. I’ve a set that Jay had laying round from working on model practice stuff, and I really like them – the handles are ergonomic and really straightforward to regulate, and the set comes with quite a lot of blades in a secure plastic case. Yow will discover the set I bought on Amazon for a bit underneath $18, however any quality interest knife set can be your greatest good friend.

Spatula

That is considered one of two tools from the package that I exploit recurrently. The spatula has a very thin metallic blade, which makes it indispensable when making an attempt to take away cardstock and paper out of your chopping mats. Cricut makes a set that features just the spatula and scraper (and typically bundles these two tools with the machine relying on what specific product and SKU you’re shopping for), so that’s in all probability a greater guess general than the costlier package I purchased.

Scraper

Like the spatula, the scraper is pretty indispensable. You should use it to knock bits of cardstock off your slicing mat shortly and easily. Cricut also makes an extra giant scraper which is perhaps higher bang for your buck.

That being stated, there are lot of different scraper options you will get for a bit cheaper – a small plastic pan and pot scraper will do the identical because the Cricut scraper.

Weeder

The weeder software is an oversized dental decide – and it turns out that, at the very least with the work I’ve carried out with vinyl, window clings, and cardstock, the Cricut-branded weeder is method, approach too huge. I began using a DenTek-branded dental decide that came with our electrical toothbrush and WaterPik set, and it’s worked a lot better than the Cricut weeder. I’d highly advocate choosing up a dental tartar decide (there are a ton on Amazon) over this Cricut device.

One really useful tip – you should use a weeder and a puddle of glue to piece collectively tiny cardstock bits. Dip the tip of the weeder in the glue to use tiny drops of glue to your items.

Tweezers

These tweezers are so freaking terrible. They’re 100% ineffective. They’re very imprecise, and the squeeze-to-open design is tough to make use of with my (considerably abnormal) tiny palms. I think they’re downright unusable in case you have arthritis or some other nice motor talent or mobility problems. There are a wide variety of precision tweezer choices out there which are a lot better – look in craft and pharmacy departments at your native massive box store. I additionally advocate Harbor Freight, if there’s one in your space – they’re principally the Aldi of hardware stores and sell a whole lot of cheap, private-label stuff, they usually have lots of hobbyist instruments and kit. You can too find options on Amazon.

Scoring Device

The Explore and Explore Air can minimize and score in a single cross (in other phrases, with out having to cease and alter instruments – the Explore One requires switching instruments between slicing and scoring). This is implausible for making envelopes, packing containers, and pop-up playing cards. The scoring device is certainly well worth the cash.

Further Tools and Provides

Chopping Mat

Once I first started creating stuff with my Cricut, I used to be working with my interest knives immediately on my desktop. My craft space is about up with an previous IKEA Jerker desk I’ve had since school, and the desktop floor is well-worn, so including little cuts to it didn’t hassle me. I decided to select up a chopping mat anyhow, as a result of it makes for a better work floor. I ended up getting this Alvin mat on Amazon, as a result of I have Amazon Prime and pretty much all the time decide stuff with same-day delivery each time attainable. Any chopping mat will work, but I undoubtedly advocate getting a slicing mat in case you’re going to do plenty of effective, detailed work.

Brayer Roller

A brayer curler is absolutely just a roller. I don’t know why it’s referred to as “brayer”, however that’s what you need to look for. I obtained this Speedball set on Amazon and have been really proud of it. I exploit the arduous rubber and acrylic rollers to flatten out cardstock and clean bubbles in vinyl sheets. These rollers are also nice for applying supplies smoothly onto your slicing mats.

Protip – on the set I purchased, the acrylic roller didn’t transfer in any respect in the handle. I utilized a bit of mineral oil to the pins on the ends of the curler, and that fastened it right up. Don’t use petroleum-based lubricants like WD-40, since those will trigger the acrylic to deteriorate.

Glue and Adhesives

Glue is tremendous necessary for pretty much any cardstock or paper Cricut venture. Thus far, I’ve simply been utilizing Aileen’s Cheesy Glue. As I mentioned earlier on this article, a dental tartar decide works rather well for dabbing on tiny drops of glue for piecing collectively a challenge. It’s not optimum, though – I have to maintain some scrap cardboard available to hold puddles of glue, and the glue starts drying out method too shortly. Not solely that, however Cheesy Glue has an annoying habit of wrinkling each paper and cardstock if even a tiny bit too much is used.

I’m still looking for the most effective adhesive options. I picked up a number of Tombow merchandise from Amazon this week and am going to attempt them out – I’m notably enthusiastic about this ballpoint glue pen! It seems to be like it can work great for placing everlasting glue on tiny strips and bits of cardstock when piecing together a challenge – and it might be no less than slightly less tedious.

Rulers and Straightedges

One other very useful gizmo is a top quality ruler. I’ve tried totally different ones and located that I really like metallic rulers out there pretty much anyplace – so long as you shield them from getting bent! A right-angle ruler or triangle can also be very, very useful for those who’re slicing out smaller items of fabric for slicing out a challenge. I don’t have any recommendations on this one – no matter you favor when it comes to measurement and material will work simply advantageous!

Tiny Trashcan

I’m lifeless critical about this one – you’ll have so many tiny pieces of cardstock, paper, vinyl, and material from working with a craft cutter! I acquired a tiny garbage can from my local Daiso retailer for $1.50 and added some vinyl to it to show it into Jake the Canine from Journey Time. Amazon doesn’t have many choices on this entrance. I found one at The Container Store for $5, but I feel you’ll be able to in all probability find a cheaper one at your local dollar retailer. It sits on my desk, and I exploit it each time I work on a challenge.

Markers and Pens

Writing with the Cricut is pretty candy. In case you have the Cricut Explore or the Cricut Explore Air, it comes with an adjunct holder that is used for the scoring device in addition to writing utensils. When you’ve got the Cricut Explore One, you want a unique accessory holder. You can even use this adapter within the blade holder on the Explore and Explore Air to do some hackier stuff (extra on that later).

Cricut has designed its holder to work with its personal pens, in fact, however there are different choices out there! I’m not going to go over all the things, as a result of this awesome weblog submit covers pretty much the whole lot you could be questioning about using non-Cricut pens with the Cricut Explore and Explore Air. A couple notes, although…

Pilot Precise V5 Rollerball Pens

Pilot V5 fine-point pens click on into the adapter properly, however it appears that ProvoCraft added something to the firmware to stop the pens from truly touching the paper in the event you attempt to use them. I found a simple workaround – for any shapes or strains you want drawn, set them to score as an alternative in Design Area. This can decrease the accessory adapter simply far enough for the pen to put in writing reliably on your materials.

Crayola High quality-Level Markers

I’ve found that using a dime and a nickle stacked provides the right shim for these markers (and anything that doesn’t snap into place) so that the height is good.

Software program

Okay, so this one is going to be a separate article. Cricut’s web-based Design Area device is pretty terrible. It’s required for sending your tasks to your Explore machine, but you undoubtedly don’t have to use it for creating issues. i exploit Adobe Illustrator CS6, however there are undoubtedly cheaper options out there – and I’m going to research them for you so you don’t should!

More to return…

The post Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek appeared first on Laptop Computer Info.

[whathungerpangs]

Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek

I’m a reasonably artistic individual. I all the time have been, and my maternal family history consists of lots of creative-minded individuals. One in every of my cousins is a bona fide skilled artist, my mother is musically gifted in addition to an amazing seamstress, my grandmother was an completed seamstress, quilter, and needlepointer…and the listing simply goes on.

I’ve discovered that I’m not notably skilled at creating imagery and designs out of skinny air (or my creativeness), but I actually take pleasure in creating. I first came upon concerning the existence of computerized craft cutters several years in the past and didn’t really know a lot about them – all I learn was that ProvoCraft had this line of Cricut-branded craft cutters that used very costly cartridges, and when a company reverse-engineered the software used to regulate the machine so as to launch a product that allowed using any pictures or fonts you needed, ProvoCraft sued the pants off of them and gained. Thank Invoice Clinton and the DMCA for that one.

In 2015, I happened upon a blog submit speaking about an all-new Cricut machine that was supposed to deal with customers’ number-one grievance: the lack to create your personal designs, separate from expensive cartridges, to be minimize on a Cricut machine. The more research I did, the extra I needed one among these new machines. Lo and behold, Santa purchased me a Cricut Explore Air for Christmas that same yr!

Santa seems an awful lot like my fiance Jay, by the best way. Think about that!

I acquired proper to work as quickly as I opened the field. True to my nature, I had to find methods to make this machine do greater than what your average crafter would do. Sharing is caring, so I decided other individuals is perhaps interested what I’ve discovered by way of my Cricut adventures.

Tools You May (Not) Want

Cricut provides a line of branded tools, in fact. Some of them are pretty good, and some of them are pretty terrible. I subscribed to Cricut’s promotional emails and picked up their primary device package once they have been having a 40% off sale on equipment. For the worth it’s okay, but at full worth it’s not value it.

Right here’s why – and I’ve given you some concepts on options to the Cricut tools.

Micro-tipped scissors

These scissors have a very sharp, very small blade, which does make them helpful for trimming tiny bits of cardstock and material. Nevertheless. a great pair of embroidery scissors can accomplish the same factor, and for trimming paper, nothing beats a very good set of interest knives. I’ve a set that Jay had laying round from working on model practice stuff, and I really like them – the handles are ergonomic and really straightforward to regulate, and the set comes with quite a lot of blades in a secure plastic case. Yow will discover the set I bought on Amazon for a bit underneath $18, however any quality interest knife set can be your greatest good friend.

Spatula

That is considered one of two tools from the package that I exploit recurrently. The spatula has a very thin metallic blade, which makes it indispensable when making an attempt to take away cardstock and paper out of your chopping mats. Cricut makes a set that features just the spatula and scraper (and typically bundles these two tools with the machine relying on what specific product and SKU you’re shopping for), so that’s in all probability a greater guess general than the costlier package I purchased.

Scraper

Like the spatula, the scraper is pretty indispensable. You should use it to knock bits of cardstock off your slicing mat shortly and easily. Cricut also makes an extra giant scraper which is perhaps higher bang for your buck.

That being stated, there are lot of different scraper options you will get for a bit cheaper – a small plastic pan and pot scraper will do the identical because the Cricut scraper.

Weeder

The weeder software is an oversized dental decide – and it turns out that, at the very least with the work I’ve carried out with vinyl, window clings, and cardstock, the Cricut-branded weeder is method, approach too huge. I began using a DenTek-branded dental decide that came with our electrical toothbrush and WaterPik set, and it’s worked a lot better than the Cricut weeder. I’d highly advocate choosing up a dental tartar decide (there are a ton on Amazon) over this Cricut device.

One really useful tip – you should use a weeder and a puddle of glue to piece collectively tiny cardstock bits. Dip the tip of the weeder in the glue to use tiny drops of glue to your items.

Tweezers

These tweezers are so freaking terrible. They’re 100% ineffective. They’re very imprecise, and the squeeze-to-open design is tough to make use of with my (considerably abnormal) tiny palms. I think they’re downright unusable in case you have arthritis or some other nice motor talent or mobility problems. There are a wide variety of precision tweezer choices out there which are a lot better – look in craft and pharmacy departments at your native massive box store. I additionally advocate Harbor Freight, if there’s one in your space – they’re principally the Aldi of hardware stores and sell a whole lot of cheap, private-label stuff, they usually have lots of hobbyist instruments and kit. You can too find options on Amazon.

Scoring Device

The Explore and Explore Air can minimize and score in a single cross (in other phrases, with out having to cease and alter instruments – the Explore One requires switching instruments between slicing and scoring). This is implausible for making envelopes, packing containers, and pop-up playing cards. The scoring device is certainly well worth the cash.

Further Tools and Provides

Chopping Mat

Once I first started creating stuff with my Cricut, I used to be working with my interest knives immediately on my desktop. My craft space is about up with an previous IKEA Jerker desk I’ve had since school, and the desktop floor is well-worn, so including little cuts to it didn’t hassle me. I decided to select up a chopping mat anyhow, as a result of it makes for a better work floor. I ended up getting this Alvin mat on Amazon, as a result of I have Amazon Prime and pretty much all the time decide stuff with same-day delivery each time attainable. Any chopping mat will work, but I undoubtedly advocate getting a slicing mat in case you’re going to do plenty of effective, detailed work.

Brayer Roller

A brayer curler is absolutely just a roller. I don’t know why it’s referred to as “brayer”, however that’s what you need to look for. I obtained this Speedball set on Amazon and have been really proud of it. I exploit the arduous rubber and acrylic rollers to flatten out cardstock and clean bubbles in vinyl sheets. These rollers are also nice for applying supplies smoothly onto your slicing mats.

Protip – on the set I purchased, the acrylic roller didn’t transfer in any respect in the handle. I utilized a bit of mineral oil to the pins on the ends of the curler, and that fastened it right up. Don’t use petroleum-based lubricants like WD-40, since those will trigger the acrylic to deteriorate.

Glue and Adhesives

Glue is tremendous necessary for pretty much any cardstock or paper Cricut venture. Thus far, I’ve simply been utilizing Aileen’s Cheesy Glue. As I mentioned earlier on this article, a dental tartar decide works rather well for dabbing on tiny drops of glue for piecing collectively a challenge. It’s not optimum, though – I have to maintain some scrap cardboard available to hold puddles of glue, and the glue starts drying out method too shortly. Not solely that, however Cheesy Glue has an annoying habit of wrinkling each paper and cardstock if even a tiny bit too much is used.

I’m still looking for the most effective adhesive options. I picked up a number of Tombow merchandise from Amazon this week and am going to attempt them out – I’m notably enthusiastic about this ballpoint glue pen! It seems to be like it can work great for placing everlasting glue on tiny strips and bits of cardstock when piecing together a challenge – and it might be no less than slightly less tedious.

Rulers and Straightedges

One other very useful gizmo is a top quality ruler. I’ve tried totally different ones and located that I really like metallic rulers out there pretty much anyplace – so long as you shield them from getting bent! A right-angle ruler or triangle can also be very, very useful for those who’re slicing out smaller items of fabric for slicing out a challenge. I don’t have any recommendations on this one – no matter you favor when it comes to measurement and material will work simply advantageous!

Tiny Trashcan

I’m lifeless critical about this one – you’ll have so many tiny pieces of cardstock, paper, vinyl, and material from working with a craft cutter! I acquired a tiny garbage can from my local Daiso retailer for $1.50 and added some vinyl to it to show it into Jake the Canine from Journey Time. Amazon doesn’t have many choices on this entrance. I found one at The Container Store for $5, but I feel you’ll be able to in all probability find a cheaper one at your local dollar retailer. It sits on my desk, and I exploit it each time I work on a challenge.

Markers and Pens

Writing with the Cricut is pretty candy. In case you have the Cricut Explore or the Cricut Explore Air, it comes with an adjunct holder that is used for the scoring device in addition to writing utensils. When you’ve got the Cricut Explore One, you want a unique accessory holder. You can even use this adapter within the blade holder on the Explore and Explore Air to do some hackier stuff (extra on that later).

Cricut has designed its holder to work with its personal pens, in fact, however there are different choices out there! I’m not going to go over all the things, as a result of this awesome weblog submit covers pretty much the whole lot you could be questioning about using non-Cricut pens with the Cricut Explore and Explore Air. A couple notes, although…

Pilot Precise V5 Rollerball Pens

Pilot V5 fine-point pens click on into the adapter properly, however it appears that ProvoCraft added something to the firmware to stop the pens from truly touching the paper in the event you attempt to use them. I found a simple workaround – for any shapes or strains you want drawn, set them to score as an alternative in Design Area. This can decrease the accessory adapter simply far enough for the pen to put in writing reliably on your materials.

Crayola High quality-Level Markers

I’ve found that using a dime and a nickle stacked provides the right shim for these markers (and anything that doesn’t snap into place) so that the height is good.

Software program

Okay, so this one is going to be a separate article. Cricut’s web-based Design Area device is pretty terrible. It’s required for sending your tasks to your Explore machine, but you undoubtedly don’t have to use it for creating issues. i exploit Adobe Illustrator CS6, however there are undoubtedly cheaper options out there – and I’m going to research them for you so you don’t should!

More to return…

The post Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek appeared first on Laptop Computer Info.

[tarsoakedgossamer]

Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek

I’m a reasonably artistic individual. I all the time have been, and my maternal family history consists of lots of creative-minded individuals. One in every of my cousins is a bona fide skilled artist, my mother is musically gifted in addition to an amazing seamstress, my grandmother was an completed seamstress, quilter, and needlepointer…and the listing simply goes on.

I’ve discovered that I’m not notably skilled at creating imagery and designs out of skinny air (or my creativeness), but I actually take pleasure in creating. I first came upon concerning the existence of computerized craft cutters several years in the past and didn’t really know a lot about them – all I learn was that ProvoCraft had this line of Cricut-branded craft cutters that used very costly cartridges, and when a company reverse-engineered the software used to regulate the machine so as to launch a product that allowed using any pictures or fonts you needed, ProvoCraft sued the pants off of them and gained. Thank Invoice Clinton and the DMCA for that one.

In 2015, I happened upon a blog submit speaking about an all-new Cricut machine that was supposed to deal with customers’ number-one grievance: the lack to create your personal designs, separate from expensive cartridges, to be minimize on a Cricut machine. The more research I did, the extra I needed one among these new machines. Lo and behold, Santa purchased me a Cricut Explore Air for Christmas that same yr!

Santa seems an awful lot like my fiance Jay, by the best way. Think about that!

I acquired proper to work as quickly as I opened the field. True to my nature, I had to find methods to make this machine do greater than what your average crafter would do. Sharing is caring, so I decided other individuals is perhaps interested what I’ve discovered by way of my Cricut adventures.

Tools You May (Not) Want

Cricut provides a line of branded tools, in fact. Some of them are pretty good, and some of them are pretty terrible. I subscribed to Cricut’s promotional emails and picked up their primary device package once they have been having a 40% off sale on equipment. For the worth it’s okay, but at full worth it’s not value it.

Right here’s why – and I’ve given you some concepts on options to the Cricut tools.

Micro-tipped scissors

These scissors have a very sharp, very small blade, which does make them helpful for trimming tiny bits of cardstock and material. Nevertheless. a great pair of embroidery scissors can accomplish the same factor, and for trimming paper, nothing beats a very good set of interest knives. I’ve a set that Jay had laying round from working on model practice stuff, and I really like them – the handles are ergonomic and really straightforward to regulate, and the set comes with quite a lot of blades in a secure plastic case. Yow will discover the set I bought on Amazon for a bit underneath $18, however any quality interest knife set can be your greatest good friend.

Spatula

That is considered one of two tools from the package that I exploit recurrently. The spatula has a very thin metallic blade, which makes it indispensable when making an attempt to take away cardstock and paper out of your chopping mats. Cricut makes a set that features just the spatula and scraper (and typically bundles these two tools with the machine relying on what specific product and SKU you’re shopping for), so that’s in all probability a greater guess general than the costlier package I purchased.

Scraper

Like the spatula, the scraper is pretty indispensable. You should use it to knock bits of cardstock off your slicing mat shortly and easily. Cricut also makes an extra giant scraper which is perhaps higher bang for your buck.

That being stated, there are lot of different scraper options you will get for a bit cheaper – a small plastic pan and pot scraper will do the identical because the Cricut scraper.

Weeder

The weeder software is an oversized dental decide – and it turns out that, at the very least with the work I’ve carried out with vinyl, window clings, and cardstock, the Cricut-branded weeder is method, approach too huge. I began using a DenTek-branded dental decide that came with our electrical toothbrush and WaterPik set, and it’s worked a lot better than the Cricut weeder. I’d highly advocate choosing up a dental tartar decide (there are a ton on Amazon) over this Cricut device.

One really useful tip – you should use a weeder and a puddle of glue to piece collectively tiny cardstock bits. Dip the tip of the weeder in the glue to use tiny drops of glue to your items.

Tweezers

These tweezers are so freaking terrible. They’re 100% ineffective. They’re very imprecise, and the squeeze-to-open design is tough to make use of with my (considerably abnormal) tiny palms. I think they’re downright unusable in case you have arthritis or some other nice motor talent or mobility problems. There are a wide variety of precision tweezer choices out there which are a lot better – look in craft and pharmacy departments at your native massive box store. I additionally advocate Harbor Freight, if there’s one in your space – they’re principally the Aldi of hardware stores and sell a whole lot of cheap, private-label stuff, they usually have lots of hobbyist instruments and kit. You can too find options on Amazon.

Scoring Device

The Explore and Explore Air can minimize and score in a single cross (in other phrases, with out having to cease and alter instruments – the Explore One requires switching instruments between slicing and scoring). This is implausible for making envelopes, packing containers, and pop-up playing cards. The scoring device is certainly well worth the cash.

Further Tools and Provides

Chopping Mat

Once I first started creating stuff with my Cricut, I used to be working with my interest knives immediately on my desktop. My craft space is about up with an previous IKEA Jerker desk I’ve had since school, and the desktop floor is well-worn, so including little cuts to it didn’t hassle me. I decided to select up a chopping mat anyhow, as a result of it makes for a better work floor. I ended up getting this Alvin mat on Amazon, as a result of I have Amazon Prime and pretty much all the time decide stuff with same-day delivery each time attainable. Any chopping mat will work, but I undoubtedly advocate getting a slicing mat in case you’re going to do plenty of effective, detailed work.

Brayer Roller

A brayer curler is absolutely just a roller. I don’t know why it’s referred to as “brayer”, however that’s what you need to look for. I obtained this Speedball set on Amazon and have been really proud of it. I exploit the arduous rubber and acrylic rollers to flatten out cardstock and clean bubbles in vinyl sheets. These rollers are also nice for applying supplies smoothly onto your slicing mats.

Protip – on the set I purchased, the acrylic roller didn’t transfer in any respect in the handle. I utilized a bit of mineral oil to the pins on the ends of the curler, and that fastened it right up. Don’t use petroleum-based lubricants like WD-40, since those will trigger the acrylic to deteriorate.

Glue and Adhesives

Glue is tremendous necessary for pretty much any cardstock or paper Cricut venture. Thus far, I’ve simply been utilizing Aileen’s Cheesy Glue. As I mentioned earlier on this article, a dental tartar decide works rather well for dabbing on tiny drops of glue for piecing collectively a challenge. It’s not optimum, though – I have to maintain some scrap cardboard available to hold puddles of glue, and the glue starts drying out method too shortly. Not solely that, however Cheesy Glue has an annoying habit of wrinkling each paper and cardstock if even a tiny bit too much is used.

I’m still looking for the most effective adhesive options. I picked up a number of Tombow merchandise from Amazon this week and am going to attempt them out – I’m notably enthusiastic about this ballpoint glue pen! It seems to be like it can work great for placing everlasting glue on tiny strips and bits of cardstock when piecing together a challenge – and it might be no less than slightly less tedious.

Rulers and Straightedges

One other very useful gizmo is a top quality ruler. I’ve tried totally different ones and located that I really like metallic rulers out there pretty much anyplace – so long as you shield them from getting bent! A right-angle ruler or triangle can also be very, very useful for those who’re slicing out smaller items of fabric for slicing out a challenge. I don’t have any recommendations on this one – no matter you favor when it comes to measurement and material will work simply advantageous!

Tiny Trashcan

I’m lifeless critical about this one – you’ll have so many tiny pieces of cardstock, paper, vinyl, and material from working with a craft cutter! I acquired a tiny garbage can from my local Daiso retailer for $1.50 and added some vinyl to it to show it into Jake the Canine from Journey Time. Amazon doesn’t have many choices on this entrance. I found one at The Container Store for $5, but I feel you’ll be able to in all probability find a cheaper one at your local dollar retailer. It sits on my desk, and I exploit it each time I work on a challenge.

Markers and Pens

Writing with the Cricut is pretty candy. In case you have the Cricut Explore or the Cricut Explore Air, it comes with an adjunct holder that is used for the scoring device in addition to writing utensils. When you’ve got the Cricut Explore One, you want a unique accessory holder. You can even use this adapter within the blade holder on the Explore and Explore Air to do some hackier stuff (extra on that later).

Cricut has designed its holder to work with its personal pens, in fact, however there are different choices out there! I’m not going to go over all the things, as a result of this awesome weblog submit covers pretty much the whole lot you could be questioning about using non-Cricut pens with the Cricut Explore and Explore Air. A couple notes, although…

Pilot Precise V5 Rollerball Pens

Pilot V5 fine-point pens click on into the adapter properly, however it appears that ProvoCraft added something to the firmware to stop the pens from truly touching the paper in the event you attempt to use them. I found a simple workaround – for any shapes or strains you want drawn, set them to score as an alternative in Design Area. This can decrease the accessory adapter simply far enough for the pen to put in writing reliably on your materials.

Crayola High quality-Level Markers

I’ve found that using a dime and a nickle stacked provides the right shim for these markers (and anything that doesn’t snap into place) so that the height is good.

Software program

Okay, so this one is going to be a separate article. Cricut’s web-based Design Area device is pretty terrible. It’s required for sending your tasks to your Explore machine, but you undoubtedly don’t have to use it for creating issues. i exploit Adobe Illustrator CS6, however there are undoubtedly cheaper options out there – and I’m going to research them for you so you don’t should!

More to return…

The post Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek appeared first on Laptop Computer Info.

[yourmadqueen]

Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek

I’m a reasonably artistic individual. I all the time have been, and my maternal family history consists of lots of creative-minded individuals. One in every of my cousins is a bona fide skilled artist, my mother is musically gifted in addition to an amazing seamstress, my grandmother was an completed seamstress, quilter, and needlepointer…and the listing simply goes on.

I’ve discovered that I’m not notably skilled at creating imagery and designs out of skinny air (or my creativeness), but I actually take pleasure in creating. I first came upon concerning the existence of computerized craft cutters several years in the past and didn’t really know a lot about them – all I learn was that ProvoCraft had this line of Cricut-branded craft cutters that used very costly cartridges, and when a company reverse-engineered the software used to regulate the machine so as to launch a product that allowed using any pictures or fonts you needed, ProvoCraft sued the pants off of them and gained. Thank Invoice Clinton and the DMCA for that one.

In 2015, I happened upon a blog submit speaking about an all-new Cricut machine that was supposed to deal with customers’ number-one grievance: the lack to create your personal designs, separate from expensive cartridges, to be minimize on a Cricut machine. The more research I did, the extra I needed one among these new machines. Lo and behold, Santa purchased me a Cricut Explore Air for Christmas that same yr!

Santa seems an awful lot like my fiance Jay, by the best way. Think about that!

I acquired proper to work as quickly as I opened the field. True to my nature, I had to find methods to make this machine do greater than what your average crafter would do. Sharing is caring, so I decided other individuals is perhaps interested what I’ve discovered by way of my Cricut adventures.

Tools You May (Not) Want

Cricut provides a line of branded tools, in fact. Some of them are pretty good, and some of them are pretty terrible. I subscribed to Cricut’s promotional emails and picked up their primary device package once they have been having a 40% off sale on equipment. For the worth it’s okay, but at full worth it’s not value it.

Right here’s why – and I’ve given you some concepts on options to the Cricut tools.

Micro-tipped scissors

These scissors have a very sharp, very small blade, which does make them helpful for trimming tiny bits of cardstock and material. Nevertheless. a great pair of embroidery scissors can accomplish the same factor, and for trimming paper, nothing beats a very good set of interest knives. I’ve a set that Jay had laying round from working on model practice stuff, and I really like them – the handles are ergonomic and really straightforward to regulate, and the set comes with quite a lot of blades in a secure plastic case. Yow will discover the set I bought on Amazon for a bit underneath $18, however any quality interest knife set can be your greatest good friend.

Spatula

That is considered one of two tools from the package that I exploit recurrently. The spatula has a very thin metallic blade, which makes it indispensable when making an attempt to take away cardstock and paper out of your chopping mats. Cricut makes a set that features just the spatula and scraper (and typically bundles these two tools with the machine relying on what specific product and SKU you’re shopping for), so that’s in all probability a greater guess general than the costlier package I purchased.

Scraper

Like the spatula, the scraper is pretty indispensable. You should use it to knock bits of cardstock off your slicing mat shortly and easily. Cricut also makes an extra giant scraper which is perhaps higher bang for your buck.

That being stated, there are lot of different scraper options you will get for a bit cheaper – a small plastic pan and pot scraper will do the identical because the Cricut scraper.

Weeder

The weeder software is an oversized dental decide – and it turns out that, at the very least with the work I’ve carried out with vinyl, window clings, and cardstock, the Cricut-branded weeder is method, approach too huge. I began using a DenTek-branded dental decide that came with our electrical toothbrush and WaterPik set, and it’s worked a lot better than the Cricut weeder. I’d highly advocate choosing up a dental tartar decide (there are a ton on Amazon) over this Cricut device.

One really useful tip – you should use a weeder and a puddle of glue to piece collectively tiny cardstock bits. Dip the tip of the weeder in the glue to use tiny drops of glue to your items.

Tweezers

These tweezers are so freaking terrible. They’re 100% ineffective. They’re very imprecise, and the squeeze-to-open design is tough to make use of with my (considerably abnormal) tiny palms. I think they’re downright unusable in case you have arthritis or some other nice motor talent or mobility problems. There are a wide variety of precision tweezer choices out there which are a lot better – look in craft and pharmacy departments at your native massive box store. I additionally advocate Harbor Freight, if there’s one in your space – they’re principally the Aldi of hardware stores and sell a whole lot of cheap, private-label stuff, they usually have lots of hobbyist instruments and kit. You can too find options on Amazon.

Scoring Device

The Explore and Explore Air can minimize and score in a single cross (in other phrases, with out having to cease and alter instruments – the Explore One requires switching instruments between slicing and scoring). This is implausible for making envelopes, packing containers, and pop-up playing cards. The scoring device is certainly well worth the cash.

Further Tools and Provides

Chopping Mat

Once I first started creating stuff with my Cricut, I used to be working with my interest knives immediately on my desktop. My craft space is about up with an previous IKEA Jerker desk I’ve had since school, and the desktop floor is well-worn, so including little cuts to it didn’t hassle me. I decided to select up a chopping mat anyhow, as a result of it makes for a better work floor. I ended up getting this Alvin mat on Amazon, as a result of I have Amazon Prime and pretty much all the time decide stuff with same-day delivery each time attainable. Any chopping mat will work, but I undoubtedly advocate getting a slicing mat in case you’re going to do plenty of effective, detailed work.

Brayer Roller

A brayer curler is absolutely just a roller. I don’t know why it’s referred to as “brayer”, however that’s what you need to look for. I obtained this Speedball set on Amazon and have been really proud of it. I exploit the arduous rubber and acrylic rollers to flatten out cardstock and clean bubbles in vinyl sheets. These rollers are also nice for applying supplies smoothly onto your slicing mats.

Protip – on the set I purchased, the acrylic roller didn’t transfer in any respect in the handle. I utilized a bit of mineral oil to the pins on the ends of the curler, and that fastened it right up. Don’t use petroleum-based lubricants like WD-40, since those will trigger the acrylic to deteriorate.

Glue and Adhesives

Glue is tremendous necessary for pretty much any cardstock or paper Cricut venture. Thus far, I’ve simply been utilizing Aileen’s Cheesy Glue. As I mentioned earlier on this article, a dental tartar decide works rather well for dabbing on tiny drops of glue for piecing collectively a challenge. It’s not optimum, though – I have to maintain some scrap cardboard available to hold puddles of glue, and the glue starts drying out method too shortly. Not solely that, however Cheesy Glue has an annoying habit of wrinkling each paper and cardstock if even a tiny bit too much is used.

I’m still looking for the most effective adhesive options. I picked up a number of Tombow merchandise from Amazon this week and am going to attempt them out – I’m notably enthusiastic about this ballpoint glue pen! It seems to be like it can work great for placing everlasting glue on tiny strips and bits of cardstock when piecing together a challenge – and it might be no less than slightly less tedious.

Rulers and Straightedges

One other very useful gizmo is a top quality ruler. I’ve tried totally different ones and located that I really like metallic rulers out there pretty much anyplace – so long as you shield them from getting bent! A right-angle ruler or triangle can also be very, very useful for those who’re slicing out smaller items of fabric for slicing out a challenge. I don’t have any recommendations on this one – no matter you favor when it comes to measurement and material will work simply advantageous!

Tiny Trashcan

I’m lifeless critical about this one – you’ll have so many tiny pieces of cardstock, paper, vinyl, and material from working with a craft cutter! I acquired a tiny garbage can from my local Daiso retailer for $1.50 and added some vinyl to it to show it into Jake the Canine from Journey Time. Amazon doesn’t have many choices on this entrance. I found one at The Container Store for $5, but I feel you’ll be able to in all probability find a cheaper one at your local dollar retailer. It sits on my desk, and I exploit it each time I work on a challenge.

Markers and Pens

Writing with the Cricut is pretty candy. In case you have the Cricut Explore or the Cricut Explore Air, it comes with an adjunct holder that is used for the scoring device in addition to writing utensils. When you’ve got the Cricut Explore One, you want a unique accessory holder. You can even use this adapter within the blade holder on the Explore and Explore Air to do some hackier stuff (extra on that later).

Cricut has designed its holder to work with its personal pens, in fact, however there are different choices out there! I’m not going to go over all the things, as a result of this awesome weblog submit covers pretty much the whole lot you could be questioning about using non-Cricut pens with the Cricut Explore and Explore Air. A couple notes, although…

Pilot Precise V5 Rollerball Pens

Pilot V5 fine-point pens click on into the adapter properly, however it appears that ProvoCraft added something to the firmware to stop the pens from truly touching the paper in the event you attempt to use them. I found a simple workaround – for any shapes or strains you want drawn, set them to score as an alternative in Design Area. This can decrease the accessory adapter simply far enough for the pen to put in writing reliably on your materials.

Crayola High quality-Level Markers

I’ve found that using a dime and a nickle stacked provides the right shim for these markers (and anything that doesn’t snap into place) so that the height is good.

Software program

Okay, so this one is going to be a separate article. Cricut’s web-based Design Area device is pretty terrible. It’s required for sending your tasks to your Explore machine, but you undoubtedly don’t have to use it for creating issues. i exploit Adobe Illustrator CS6, however there are undoubtedly cheaper options out there – and I’m going to research them for you so you don’t should!

More to return…

The post Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek appeared first on Laptop Computer Info.

[ultrashipshapesunk-blog]

Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek

I’m a reasonably artistic individual. I all the time have been, and my maternal family history consists of lots of creative-minded individuals. One in every of my cousins is a bona fide skilled artist, my mother is musically gifted in addition to an amazing seamstress, my grandmother was an completed seamstress, quilter, and needlepointer…and the listing simply goes on.

I’ve discovered that I’m not notably skilled at creating imagery and designs out of skinny air (or my creativeness), but I actually take pleasure in creating. I first came upon concerning the existence of computerized craft cutters several years in the past and didn’t really know a lot about them – all I learn was that ProvoCraft had this line of Cricut-branded craft cutters that used very costly cartridges, and when a company reverse-engineered the software used to regulate the machine so as to launch a product that allowed using any pictures or fonts you needed, ProvoCraft sued the pants off of them and gained. Thank Invoice Clinton and the DMCA for that one.

In 2015, I happened upon a blog submit speaking about an all-new Cricut machine that was supposed to deal with customers’ number-one grievance: the lack to create your personal designs, separate from expensive cartridges, to be minimize on a Cricut machine. The more research I did, the extra I needed one among these new machines. Lo and behold, Santa purchased me a Cricut Explore Air for Christmas that same yr!

Santa seems an awful lot like my fiance Jay, by the best way. Think about that!

I acquired proper to work as quickly as I opened the field. True to my nature, I had to find methods to make this machine do greater than what your average crafter would do. Sharing is caring, so I decided other individuals is perhaps interested what I’ve discovered by way of my Cricut adventures.

Tools You May (Not) Want

Cricut provides a line of branded tools, in fact. Some of them are pretty good, and some of them are pretty terrible. I subscribed to Cricut’s promotional emails and picked up their primary device package once they have been having a 40% off sale on equipment. For the worth it’s okay, but at full worth it’s not value it.

Right here’s why – and I’ve given you some concepts on options to the Cricut tools.

Micro-tipped scissors

These scissors have a very sharp, very small blade, which does make them helpful for trimming tiny bits of cardstock and material. Nevertheless. a great pair of embroidery scissors can accomplish the same factor, and for trimming paper, nothing beats a very good set of interest knives. I’ve a set that Jay had laying round from working on model practice stuff, and I really like them – the handles are ergonomic and really straightforward to regulate, and the set comes with quite a lot of blades in a secure plastic case. Yow will discover the set I bought on Amazon for a bit underneath $18, however any quality interest knife set can be your greatest good friend.

Spatula

That is considered one of two tools from the package that I exploit recurrently. The spatula has a very thin metallic blade, which makes it indispensable when making an attempt to take away cardstock and paper out of your chopping mats. Cricut makes a set that features just the spatula and scraper (and typically bundles these two tools with the machine relying on what specific product and SKU you’re shopping for), so that’s in all probability a greater guess general than the costlier package I purchased.

Scraper

Like the spatula, the scraper is pretty indispensable. You should use it to knock bits of cardstock off your slicing mat shortly and easily. Cricut also makes an extra giant scraper which is perhaps higher bang for your buck.

That being stated, there are lot of different scraper options you will get for a bit cheaper – a small plastic pan and pot scraper will do the identical because the Cricut scraper.

Weeder

The weeder software is an oversized dental decide – and it turns out that, at the very least with the work I’ve carried out with vinyl, window clings, and cardstock, the Cricut-branded weeder is method, approach too huge. I began using a DenTek-branded dental decide that came with our electrical toothbrush and WaterPik set, and it’s worked a lot better than the Cricut weeder. I’d highly advocate choosing up a dental tartar decide (there are a ton on Amazon) over this Cricut device.

One really useful tip – you should use a weeder and a puddle of glue to piece collectively tiny cardstock bits. Dip the tip of the weeder in the glue to use tiny drops of glue to your items.

Tweezers

These tweezers are so freaking terrible. They’re 100% ineffective. They’re very imprecise, and the squeeze-to-open design is tough to make use of with my (considerably abnormal) tiny palms. I think they’re downright unusable in case you have arthritis or some other nice motor talent or mobility problems. There are a wide variety of precision tweezer choices out there which are a lot better – look in craft and pharmacy departments at your native massive box store. I additionally advocate Harbor Freight, if there’s one in your space – they’re principally the Aldi of hardware stores and sell a whole lot of cheap, private-label stuff, they usually have lots of hobbyist instruments and kit. You can too find options on Amazon.

Scoring Device

The Explore and Explore Air can minimize and score in a single cross (in other phrases, with out having to cease and alter instruments – the Explore One requires switching instruments between slicing and scoring). This is implausible for making envelopes, packing containers, and pop-up playing cards. The scoring device is certainly well worth the cash.

Further Tools and Provides

Chopping Mat

Once I first started creating stuff with my Cricut, I used to be working with my interest knives immediately on my desktop. My craft space is about up with an previous IKEA Jerker desk I’ve had since school, and the desktop floor is well-worn, so including little cuts to it didn’t hassle me. I decided to select up a chopping mat anyhow, as a result of it makes for a better work floor. I ended up getting this Alvin mat on Amazon, as a result of I have Amazon Prime and pretty much all the time decide stuff with same-day delivery each time attainable. Any chopping mat will work, but I undoubtedly advocate getting a slicing mat in case you’re going to do plenty of effective, detailed work.

Brayer Roller

A brayer curler is absolutely just a roller. I don’t know why it’s referred to as “brayer”, however that’s what you need to look for. I obtained this Speedball set on Amazon and have been really proud of it. I exploit the arduous rubber and acrylic rollers to flatten out cardstock and clean bubbles in vinyl sheets. These rollers are also nice for applying supplies smoothly onto your slicing mats.

Protip – on the set I purchased, the acrylic roller didn’t transfer in any respect in the handle. I utilized a bit of mineral oil to the pins on the ends of the curler, and that fastened it right up. Don’t use petroleum-based lubricants like WD-40, since those will trigger the acrylic to deteriorate.

Glue and Adhesives

Glue is tremendous necessary for pretty much any cardstock or paper Cricut venture. Thus far, I’ve simply been utilizing Aileen’s Cheesy Glue. As I mentioned earlier on this article, a dental tartar decide works rather well for dabbing on tiny drops of glue for piecing collectively a challenge. It’s not optimum, though – I have to maintain some scrap cardboard available to hold puddles of glue, and the glue starts drying out method too shortly. Not solely that, however Cheesy Glue has an annoying habit of wrinkling each paper and cardstock if even a tiny bit too much is used.

I’m still looking for the most effective adhesive options. I picked up a number of Tombow merchandise from Amazon this week and am going to attempt them out – I’m notably enthusiastic about this ballpoint glue pen! It seems to be like it can work great for placing everlasting glue on tiny strips and bits of cardstock when piecing together a challenge – and it might be no less than slightly less tedious.

Rulers and Straightedges

One other very useful gizmo is a top quality ruler. I’ve tried totally different ones and located that I really like metallic rulers out there pretty much anyplace – so long as you shield them from getting bent! A right-angle ruler or triangle can also be very, very useful for those who’re slicing out smaller items of fabric for slicing out a challenge. I don’t have any recommendations on this one – no matter you favor when it comes to measurement and material will work simply advantageous!

Tiny Trashcan

I’m lifeless critical about this one – you’ll have so many tiny pieces of cardstock, paper, vinyl, and material from working with a craft cutter! I acquired a tiny garbage can from my local Daiso retailer for $1.50 and added some vinyl to it to show it into Jake the Canine from Journey Time. Amazon doesn’t have many choices on this entrance. I found one at The Container Store for $5, but I feel you’ll be able to in all probability find a cheaper one at your local dollar retailer. It sits on my desk, and I exploit it each time I work on a challenge.

Markers and Pens

Writing with the Cricut is pretty candy. In case you have the Cricut Explore or the Cricut Explore Air, it comes with an adjunct holder that is used for the scoring device in addition to writing utensils. When you’ve got the Cricut Explore One, you want a unique accessory holder. You can even use this adapter within the blade holder on the Explore and Explore Air to do some hackier stuff (extra on that later).

Cricut has designed its holder to work with its personal pens, in fact, however there are different choices out there! I’m not going to go over all the things, as a result of this awesome weblog submit covers pretty much the whole lot you could be questioning about using non-Cricut pens with the Cricut Explore and Explore Air. A couple notes, although…

Pilot Precise V5 Rollerball Pens

Pilot V5 fine-point pens click on into the adapter properly, however it appears that ProvoCraft added something to the firmware to stop the pens from truly touching the paper in the event you attempt to use them. I found a simple workaround – for any shapes or strains you want drawn, set them to score as an alternative in Design Area. This can decrease the accessory adapter simply far enough for the pen to put in writing reliably on your materials.

Crayola High quality-Level Markers

I’ve found that using a dime and a nickle stacked provides the right shim for these markers (and anything that doesn’t snap into place) so that the height is good.

Software program

Okay, so this one is going to be a separate article. Cricut’s web-based Design Area device is pretty terrible. It’s required for sending your tasks to your Explore machine, but you undoubtedly don’t have to use it for creating issues. i exploit Adobe Illustrator CS6, however there are undoubtedly cheaper options out there – and I’m going to research them for you so you don’t should!

More to return…

The post Tools for ProvoCraft’s Cricut Explore Air – A Better Geek appeared first on Laptop Computer Info.