It's Time For Another Video

As a quilter, I have been interested in making stencils for quite a while. When I originally tried to make one about a year ago, I couldn't figure out how to do it. Since then I have figured out the way to get a good stencil to cut. Several inquiries on Silhouette groups made me decide I should make a video to share the information. This is it. Remember you can watch them in a larger format if you go to YouTube to watch.

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A Good Day For a Video

Yes, here in the alleged "south" it is once again nasty. Started with rain, changed to sleet and now it's snowing. This winter has been incredible and not in a good way. Had several requests to do a video on kerning. I think I thought people knew what it was but the newest Silhouette Studio update has the option to turn kerning on or off. I vote for leaving it on. As a former typesetter, many years ago, kerning was something we did often. So here's all I could figure out to show or tell about kerning.

Another YouTube Video

Had a question from someone about making a cut file from a graphic. It was a graphic with very poor resolution and she wanted to trace it but make the parts separate. I kept thinking about how to explain it in an email but ended up figuring out I needed to do a video. I often see people wanting to turn graphics into cut files so thought it might be of interest to others. This is one you need to watch in full screen mode because of some of the detail working with nodes that you won't see with the regular size YouTube screen.

Videos, Videos

For a while I quit doing videos on the Silhouette/Cameo because the screen recording software I was using conflicted with a Mac OS update and every time I moved the mouse, the screen flashed. I checked a few months ago and it had been fixed…don't know if it was a Mac fix or a software fix. Now, I've found another screen recorder I really like. The one I was using had a maximum of five minutes and sometimes I just needed a few more seconds. The new one I'm using does not have a limit. I will admit there is a limit to how long I should be talking though!!!

When I first started doing YouTube instructional videos, no one else was doing them and there was a need for information. Now there are so many excellent YouTube tutorials I usually see no reason to do a video…but someone posted on YouTube asking me to do one on filling letters with patterns and making another color of border or outline…so I did that video tonight. I also did one last week on something but I am linking to the newest video here. If there is something specific you are having trouble with, post a comment and I'll see if I can figure it out and make a video.

Vinyl

Another great thing to cut on any cutter is vinyl. There are tons of kinds but I sort of think of them as indoor vinyl (removable), outdoor vinyl (permanent) and heat transfer vinyl. There are tons of special kinds of vinyl too but mainly I use the three basic kinds. You can decorate  clothing, walls and just about anything. You can cut incredibly detailed designs in vinyl which makes it so versatile. I am showing an example of a very reasonably priced note holder that I purchased to make gifts last year. The outside was plastic but I still used heat transfer vinyl on it. I just couldn't linger when pressing it (learned that on the first one). A little vinyl, a little time, and a great inexpensive gift.

Little Gifts

The Silhouette/Cameo has been an absolutely great way to make boxes and containers for little gifts and treats. Here is one I made for some seam rippers that were token gifts to the Renegade art quilt group at our Christmas party. Basically it was a little box that opened at the top and bottom. I cut the halo, face, hair, arms/hands and wings on the Silhouette. The wings were embossed with an embossing folder. The hair was colored with a light brown marker. Eyes are black marker dots and cheeks are pink chalk. The halo was painted with gold paint and the edges antiqued with brown ink. It was a lot of fun to put together and it brought back memories of my folk art painting days. It is true that I drew the parts but you could easily find files online that you could use to cut parts to decorate a simple box. Make a small gift extra special for someone.

New Year's Resolution - 2014

I have two blogs and my resolution is to post to them and share what is going on. I was pretty embarrassed to see that I last posted on this blog in January of last year. It's not that I haven't been going crazy with my cutters...just seemed have too many things to do with my card classes and starting my new machine quilting business.

I had been regularly posting YouTube videos about using the Silhouette but a MAC operating system update came along and it conflicted with the program I used to record the videos. I could record them but every move of the mouse caused a flash on the screen...really not fun to watch. Decided to find another program, which I never did, or see if a new update to the operating system of the Mac or to the program would happen. Finally in June I discovered I could do videos without the flashing and ended up doing two videos that friends requested. Haven't done any more videos because it seems like now there are so many people out there doing great tutorials that there isn't a real need for anything. If someone can't figure something out and asks, I am always glad to make a video on the subject.

I have made some changes. I finally bought myself a Silhouette Cameo (Merry Christmas to me) and have been using it for a few days. The first thing I did was make a "belated" Christmas card to send out. I ran out of handmade cards before Christmas so needed a little stack of these. My favorite thing to do is find images and make them into cutting files. I don't do a lot of other things but print and cut is my main use of my Silhouette.  Made this card from an image I found and had used it for a belated birthday card.

Rearranged my cutters and decided to sell my Zing and keep my old Pazzles Pro for cutting heavy duty things and engraving, etc. Hope if you have a cutter, you are using it to it's full potential. If you need help, post a message and I'll see what I can do.

Making a Background Template

It is really easy to make a simple template for polka dots or stripes and just keep the template in your Silhouette Library and grab it whenever you need to make a quick background to match something. I have six or seven templates I use. I have polka dots widely spaced (like shown in the video), I have closely spaced ones, a snowflake background and several striped backgrounds. It's just so handy to have them and it doesn't take that long to make up a template. You'll be glad you have them once you take the time to make some of them.

SILHOUETTE/CAMEO 29: Cutting out lettering welded to an opening.

Another person on the Yahoo group looking for help to make a cutout so I did a quick video on how to do it. It basically is just making sure you start with an object that is a compound path. That means that if you have a square with another square inside of it, you need to choose both and make them a compound path, then you can weld things inside or on the edges. 

SILHOUETTE 28: FIXING GAPS IN LINE ART SCANS

Another new person posted on the Make-the-Cut board about trying to do scans in Make-The-Cut that they were unable to do in Silhouette Studio. I have not done what was asked in Make-The-Cut but had done it in Silhouette Studio and had made a video several months ago and I referred her to it. Now the same person wants to know what to do when the line art or item you are scanning has gaps in the outline since that makes the trace very strange. If there aren't many gaps, it isn't hard to fix. If there are tons of gaps I personally would trace it out by hand using one of the node tools...but if there aren't too many gaps it is quick to fix and here is a video on how to do that.

NOTE: My original video had some weird flashing in it that I had no idea where it came from but I posted it since the lady who wanted the information was in a hurry...I deleted the video and it is reposted below without the weird mystery flashing.

SILHOUETTE 27: IMPORTING GRAPHICS

Someone posted on the Silhouette Yahoo group that they had a new Cameo and didn't know how to import a graphic and use it as a print and cut. This is a quick video on how to do that. Images are easy to find. Decide what kind of image you want, go to Google, type in the name (I typed in Mickey Mouse) and then on the left side click on "images" and you will be amazed at what comes up.

Free File for Silhouette Users

I've been doing quite a few files for my classes and for my own personal use and decided I would see if I could share one of them. This is a snowman card that hinges at the top. The inside message is printed on the snowman card itself and can easily be changed to whatever you want. The pieces can be used as a print and cut or could be separated and cut from different colors of card stock. Hope you enjoy! Hoping to post a Zing/MTC version in the next day or so. This file is a Silhouette Studio file. The snowman card on the right is the size of the file and the one on the left I just reduced all the parts to make it fit in a 3" square envelope.

Silhouette Studio Designer Edition Knife Tools

My friend, Sharry, just upgraded her Silhouette Studio to the Designer Edition and asked me about how the knife tool worked. The Designer Edition has a lot of options and is one of the things I use quite a bit. Some of the tools work just the same in the regular edition so this is relevant to how it works even if you don't have all the oddball cutting path options. Hope you learn something...

Adding Decorative Elements to a Border

Had another person on the Silhouette Yahoo Group with a new Cameo that needed some help in making borders for a tile. Decided it was video time again. I ended up making two videos because I talked too long. The "screenr" program I use is limited to five minutes and I had more to say so made a Part 2 video about adding things to borders. To do successful things with borders it is really important to grasp the concept of compound paths. My YouTube Video, Silhouette Studio SD 19, has a detailed explanation of how compound paths work. In the case of welding the decorative elements and/or dividers or lines to a border you have to be sure that all of the elements you are working with are compound paths. Anyway, here are two videos where I go on and on about it.

New Cutter...Zing Joins my Cutter Family

Just got my Zing a few days ago and since this is  card class week I haven't had a chance to do much of anything but hook it up. Could be some Zing videos in my future but I am much more familiar with Silhouette Studio so don't hold your breath. There are so many Make-The-Cut experts that I would hesitate to offer much advice but you never know.

Several people asked why I didn't buy the new Silhouette Cameo with the wider cutting area instead of buying the Zing. Well, the Silhouette does remarkably well at PNC (Print And Cut) and I can't imagine needing to print and cut anything larger than the Silhouette SD does. I am primarily a card maker but I do dabble with other things, especially vinyl, and have occasional had just "cut" files that were too large for the Silhouette SD. The Zing has a 14" wide cutting area and a LOT more cutting force. I will be able to cut fabric, felt, stencils, chipboard, etc. I'm looking forward to having more choices and options.

The other thing is that I can use Silhouette Studio on my Mac and Make-the-Cut, the software for the Zing, is not Mac-compatible. I would always prefer working on my Mac. I might install Parallels so I can run Windows on my Mac but haven't decided yet. First I need to get more memory for the Mac and my pocketbook is empty at the moment since I just had to buy a new Mac, the Zing and the new Kindle Fire.

More reports on the Zing in the future and possibly more Silhouette videos to come.

Fixing Awkward or Weird Joins When Welding Letters

Know I haven't posted in a while but been busy and no one had a question I could answer. Today someone posted on the Silhouette Yahoo Group about fixing some bad spots when welding some letters. It was specifically about welding Edwardian Script letters. The way to fix them is usually using node editing. The thought of the words "node editing" scares people off. You don't have to know tons about it to do these simple fixes to letter joins. A video will show how easy it can be. Video below...to see it bigger watch directly on YouTube.

Borders, Replicating and the Pesky X and Y Axis Questions

Yesterday someone on the Silhouette group posted a question about making a border from a graphic. I posted a rather simplistic answer saying to replicate and weld.  A very knowledgeable and talented lady, Meadelie, posted a much more detailed answer referencing replicating using the x and y axis tools to control the objects. I got two emails from people saying they didn't understand that and wanted me to make a video explaining it...so that is what I did this morning. Oh and I also removed the Cricut "Expression" as one of the things represented on my blog header and replaced it with the word "Zing" which is a new cutter I hope to get soon.

Anyway, here is a short video on how to replicate and control it using the x and y axis choices. A quick way to get a border from almost anything (in this case it is a pumpkin from Lettering Delights).

Welding Purchased Graphic Files

Yes, more on welding. I had tried to explain this in a Yahoo group post but it is so hard to explain things and SO much easier to just show them. This is how you incorporate purchased graphic files into your own print and cut projects quickly and easily.

Welding and Compound Path Issues

Another very quick and very basic video on welding to address some problems people encountered that are on our Silhouette Yahoo Group. Hope this helps. If not, let me know and I'll see if I can figure out what you are having a problem with...or maybe I can't. As always, I am absolutely no expert at this and there are much more knowledgeable people on the Yahoo group but I just look for a quick way to do what I need to do.

Bleed Zones

Sounds like a good subject right before Halloween. Had a request to show how to make a bleed zone around a traced image. This is so you have a "halo" of color or whatever (called a bleed) around your object so that if your cutter is not cutting exactly on the cutlines...you can get a nice cut without the white showing. I hope this is what someone wanted to see...if not, email me and let me know what I missed and I'll try again.