Where do i start?

My daughter has a cricut and I just love it. I have been scrapbooking for almost 4 years, yes, I'm a scrapaholic lol. Two places that you can go and look at the gallery of layouts is scrapbook.com and scrapjazz.com. You can get some really great ideas for layouts at both of those websites. I have 7, 12x12 albums, 2 that are still a work in progress, and 4 8x8 albums, one of which I am presently working on for 2009, which includes my resent move. A few are by year and some are by subject or theme.

Hello! I am a crafter and scrapbooker. I am for sure a Addict! I just recently got a Cricut as well and I love it! I would say the first place to start as far as scrapbooking goes is organization. If your pictures and memories aren't organized you will feel very overwhelmed as to where to start. Once you get your photos organized I would make a list of scrapbook albums you would like to create. Scrapbooking can be very overwhelming if you believe that you have to do something with every picture you take. Choose those memories that are the most important to you and do something with them. I have a first year album for both of my boys and a school album for my older son. I will make a school album for my youngest as well as well as Birthday albums for both my children. For everything in between I plan on doing some albums focusing on individual events and family vacations.
As far as getting started with the Cricut, I love using mine for tittles and embellishments. Youtube has some great videos for getting started as well. I have also found excellent craft ideas on there as well. Good luck. Just choose something small and do be afraid to jump all in!

Isn't that just the way it works. You get a cool new toy that you wanted forever and when you get it, all you can do is look at it. Why don't you start with cutting out some basic titles for pages you are working on? As you use it, you will figure out all of the machines nuisances. I have some friends that have one, and they let me use theirs. I felt more comfortable using it the more I used it. I remember the first time I borrowed it and I didn't have a clue what to do with it. My friend dropped hers off at my house saying have fun. I was at a loss back then. lol

Congratulations on your purchase of a Cricut! You wont believe the things that you will be able to do with this machine, It's incredible. I bought one when they first came out, which I regret because now they are less expensive and also, they now have a better model, cricut expressions. But anyway, I read all of the others responses and thought they were excellent and I agree with all of them. When I first started scrapping, I used the 2 websites like they were my bible.

I know it can be a lil' overwhelming, but like someone suggested, once you get organized and know exactly what it is you want to accomplish, you will feel less stressed and will get so much accomplished.

I wanted to share one of the things that helped me to get familiar, as well as comfortable with my cricut. The first thing I did was just played around with it, to figure out how it worked and all. But then, I decided to use the things that I actually cut out while I was getting acquainted with my cricut. For example, I typed people's names using the keyboard and other things like special dates that I knew would eventually make it to a scrapbook but while doing that, it actually gave me the idea to use these trial and error items for making personalized cards, gift wrap, birthday/occasion bags, bookmarks, door signs, chore charts, magnets, lettering for my classroom bulletin board, etc. These small tasks helped me learn all the ins and outs of the cricut, while also being able to create some really cool stuff!

It also depends on which cartridges you have too. But you can do so much as a whole, even if you only have one cartridge to start with. I started with "Jasmine" because I love the font. Please keep us updated as you become user friendly with your new toy, as you may have some tips for us that you will want to share. Good Luck and Have Fun.