Comprehensive Overview of Cricut Cartridge "Formal Occasion"

Today I will be doing a comprehensive Overview of the Cricut Cartridge "Formal Occasion."  It is filled with a variety of wonderfully unique images.  In this post we will look at:

• a Sample view of the cartridge images
• a list of themes you can use the cartridge for
• a look at all of the frames offered on the cartridge
• a Frames and Mats Reference Sheet in PDF for download
• a look at a few handbook pages with some explanation of the possibilities
• a link to the PDF of the handbook
• a spreadsheet with a list of the images, words and phrases with their pages numbers including a link to download the PDF version.

A Sample view appears on the back of each cartridge box and usually shows a portion of the images that can be cut with the cartridge; but Formal Occasion shows all of the primary images in its Sample.  What is great is that the artwork on this cartridge is not limited to a dance, prom or "formal occasion.".  You can embellish a lot of different subjects including:

• sewing
• Cinderella
• princess
• taking photos on vacation or anytime
• dress up/ little lady
• girlfriends
• shopping
• athletics (high top shoes)
• favorite music/ band
• decorative flowers and paisley work on Ba-zillion different subjects as a decorative element
• heritage / time
• home
• the beach / vacation
• the city
• cowboy
• camping/ mountain vacation/ hiking/ nature
• night/ evening
• movies/ play
• love/ romance

and that is just what I came up with in 5 minutes.

In addition to the primary images, you also get frames and mats for your photos and layered phrases like "Prom," "New Year's Eve" and "Dance Until Dawn".  Almost all of the phrases include a mat or frame that matches the photo frame.  Below are all the photo frames/ mats that are included on this cartridge with their page numbers.

All of the frames and mats are layered.  You can use just one of the layers or stack them all to add additional dimension and color.  I turn to Formal Occasion for almost all of my framing needs.  It used to take me forever to flip through the handbook to find that perfect frame to mount a photo or use in a card but I created a frame  reference sheet which makes the process so much easier.  You can download a PDF copy of this Formal Occasion Frames and Mats Reference Sheet by clicking the link below.  If you would like to share this information on your blog, instead of copy and pasting this info, please paste a link to my site.:

FORMAL OCCASION FRAMES AND MATS PDF

Lets take a look at a few pages out of the handbook so you can see how they are laid out:

The Frame options below include 3 mats and one frame which is the wonky oval on the Frame Layer.  If you wanted to cut a more substantial frame, you could pair the mats from this page with a frame from another.  You could also use this little frame on its own to emphasize a word in a title or around the focal point of your photo.

For the example above the word in the phrase can be used alone or with 1 or more of the mats.  The phrase below is not legible unless you cut both the Phrase and the Phrase layer.  Both Layers + shift are not necessary for the phrase to properly reveal the word Homecoming.

The dress image above offers 3 different mat sets.  There is a mat set for the dress, a mat set for the phrase, and a additional mat set (under the Frame options) for your photo although you could use it as a mat on a card or as a decorative element elsewhere.

To get a better look at the handbook, click here to view the handbook in PDF format.

Last but not least, here is a list of all of the images and phrases on this cartridge with their page numbers.  If you find any errors in the spreadsheet, please let me know so I can correct it. If you would like to share this information on your blog, instead of copy and pasting this info, please paste a link to my site. The spreadsheet below is saved as a JPEG but you can download a PDF version of Formal Occasion here:

FORMAL OCCASION PDF