Thursday, November 19, 2015

CRICUT: Slicing large images in Design Space

Ever wanted to cut something larger than the 12" x 12" or 12" x 24" mat?

Well, here's how you do it using Cricut Design Space. I'm using a tree image from the Zoobaloo© cartridge.

  • Insert your image on to the canvas and resize it to the height or width you want your finished project to be. I'm setting the height of this tree to 50 inches.



Cricut Cartridge sale

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking through my links. 

There's a big cartridge sale over at Cricut.com! 50 cartridges have been reduced to $9.99 and most of the others are $19.99 or less.  The sale is for two days only.




Happy crafting!  ♥






Friday, November 13, 2015

Cricut Explore Air


**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking through my links.



Want to be able to easily make pretty décor, personalized gifts, and fun cards for upcoming holidays? Then you need to treat yourself to a Cricut Explore Air™ — Cricut's very popular electronic cutting machine. It's the best DIY crafting tool to be developed since the sewing machine!

The Cricut Explore Air is versatile, easy to use, and allows for very precise cuts. It's also incredibly affordable, especially since Cricut generously discounted the cost by up to $200 on the machine and bundles — just in time for the holiday crafting season! 


And you can get FREE SHIPPING in the US by using the code FREESHIPNOV

With the Cricut Explore Air™, you can cut over 60 different types of material, including paper, fabric, plastic and vinyl to name a few. The Explore Air also features Cut Smart™ technology, which allows you to cut a wide range of shapes and sizes with exceptional precision, from ¼" tall up to 11½" wide x 23½" tall.

This Cricut Explore machine is called the Air because it has built-in Bluetooth® capability. This means you can use Cricut’s free iPad app and design anything you want from your iPad, just like you would on your home computer, but with the convenience of being able to take your projects with you anywhere. Then, you can just wirelessly send your project from your iPad to your Explore Air to bring it to life.

While the Cricut Explore Air is impressive on its own, purchasing it with one of Cricut's bundle offerings makes it even more valuable. Each bundle comes with different accessories that allow you to expand your creativity and make your crafting projects even more simple and fun to create. Plus, by purchasing your Explore Air with a bundle, you're able to save a bundle in the process!

Go to Cricut.com and check out the savings Cricut is offering on their Cricut Explore Air™ and bundles today so you can get your very own in time to make this holiday season your most creative one yet!




Happy crafting!  ♥






Saturday, November 7, 2015

CRICUT: Writing Style Fonts

Here's a list of the fonts that have a writing style in Cricut Design Space. (That means they are single line fonts that don't have to be filled in and are perfect for using the writing feature in Design Space.

Fonts that are included in the subscription are noted as such.



You can download this list as a PDF from here: https://app.box.com/s/eheqwaq3lc1annd1xfir6rs8esj9ir33


Happy crafting!  ♥






Tuesday, November 3, 2015

INKSCAPE: Curving text for use in Cricut Design Space


Curving text in Inkscape is easy!!

Download Inkscape from here: https://inkscape.org/ (That's the official and only safe site to download Inkscape.)

Tip: At any time if everything looks a bit small on the Inkscape screen click the + button on your keypad to zoom in. Click the - key to zoom out. Hold down the space bar and move your mouse to re-position the screen. 

Let's begin!

  • Open Inkscape and click the circle toolbar icon



Monday, November 2, 2015

Using 3rd party programs to convert SVG's for use with Cricut Design Space

There are many SVG's available for use with Design Space. But some import into Design Space better than others. That's dependent on which design program was used to create those SVG's.

Some SVG's will import just as a black box. Some will open as a blank box with a broken link at the top. And some will open with all the layers on top of each other. (See examples below.)

  

When this SVG is inserted onto the DS canvas this is what it looks like. Not ideal!



Accordion Christmas Pudding card and tutorial



Here's a really pretty card I put together using a SVG from Tina's Cutting Files Studio.


This card can be made up of as many panels as you wish just by cutting extra panels and adhering them together.

Here's some instructions on how to use this SVG in Cricut Design Space.

First you'll need to follow the instructions on converting the SVG to make it Design Space compatible. http://www.thenoncraftycrafter.com/2015/11/using-3rd-party-programs-to-convert.html


The following method works if you have converted the file using Sure Cuts A Lot 4. There are extra steps if you use Make the Cut, Craft Artist 2 or Inkscape.
Those instructions will be added to the end of this tutorial soon!

Now that you have converted the SVG it's ready to import into DS.
  • Open Design Space, sign in and click Upload Images from the left side toolbar.
  • Click the Upload Image button


  • Click Browse


  • Locate your newly saved file and click Open


The SVG image will appear in the preview window.

  • Click Save


It will now appear in your Uploaded Images Library.

  • Click on the image then select Insert Images


  • If it's a large file with many pieces (like this one) you may see this image.

The SVG will open on your screen. If it opens too large to see the whole design you can click the zoom out button.



Before cutting the file make sure you've attached everything. Otherwise all the individual lines including the score lines will be placed on their own cutting mat as shown below.


  • Select the entire image and click Ungroup from the bottom of the Layers panel. 

If you don't, the file may end up too big to fit on the mat and you'll get this error message. 


  • Drag your mouse around individual shapes that have more than one line and click Attach. 
 


  • Click Attach from the top of the Layers panel.

(That piece alone is made up of 10 individual lines. So you must select all of them before you attach.)

This image shows that there's multiple layers (lines) in the image. 


  • Repeat for each of the other shapes. 




Some of the shapes don't require attaching. For example this shape is only made up of one layer as indicated in the Layers panel.




In this svg there's some stray very small dots that I delete. I don't know where they belong but their absence doesn't affect the file so I get rid of them. (I've circled them below.)



You can also delete this text:

  • Click the Go button and check that everything is correctly attached. 

There's no stray lines anywhere but for some reason one layer has been placed on top of another in the preview but that will be fixed later.  


Before cutting this file you need to decide how many panels you want in your card. In my example I have used 4 panels. Some images I will need to duplicate and some images I will delete so they're not cut.

I won't be needing the two single panels so I can delete those.



Before duplicating any of the images we'll change our colour scheme.

Currently all the shapes are the same colour. To put each layer on its own cutting mat we need to change the colour of the individual shapes.

I selected Cocoa for the filigree piece.

  • Click on that shape in the Layers panel then click the scissor icon. 

The colour palette will open and you can select your colour.




This piece I also changed to Cocoa.

This piece to Cream.

I changed the berries to red and the leaves to green. Everything else I left as white. 


Next I need to duplicate the filigree layer 3 times so I have 4 of them.

  • Select that layer on the canvas and from the bottom of the Layers panel click the Duplicate button three times. 



Each of these pieces I'll need to duplicate three times.

  • Select them all by dragging your mouse around them and duplicate them all at the same time.




Here's all the pieces ready to cut.




  • Click go and everything will be sorted to the correct colour mats ready for cutting and assembly!



You'll find that many of the svg's from Tina's Cutting Files Studio work this way.


Happy crafting!  ♥





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