“Magic” floating windshield message
A dark background, and light colored, reversed letters are all that is needed to “project” your message from dash to windshield. You can do it with a printer, but it’s ink-intensive, so I put my diecutter to work instead. This is white vinyl on black cardstock, but white cardstock letters would work fine, too.
A couple of caveats. It only works when light is shining through the windshield (so during the day and under street lights) and polarized lenses dull the effect significantly for the viewer. But hey, it’s cheap and this low tech heads up display is a cool way to surprise a special someone with an encouraging message (hijack their fancy sunglasses first) or remind yourself of something important.
Silhouette software options compared
With the popularity of the Cameo (and earlier SD model), and the introduction of premium software from Silhouette, there are lots of questions about which software is best. There’s not an easy answer, because it depends on what you want to do, and how much you want to spend. I have prepared a comparison chart to help you choose what’s right for you, Silhouette’s own software, Make the Cut or Sure Cuts a Lot.
New tricks for Swiss Dots
After seeing all the “companioning” going on with stamps and embossing folders and stamps and punches and stamps and dies, I decided to make some digital stamps and backgrounds to go with tools I already have. Thought the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder would be an easy place to start, but I was wrong. I am not much for giving up, though, so hours later, I finally succeeded with the results you see here.
Here’s how to reproduce my results:
- Download the PDFs here Pink Flowers or Snow Gradient.
- Print at 100% size (make sure any automatic scaling is turned off) on heavyweight paper or card stock.
- Trim the printed portion at the top and sides so it will fit in the folder and your machine. Leave excess paper at the bottom of the image so you will have something to hold on to.
- Load the sheet into the Cuttlebug Dotted Swiss Folder with the image and the flat side of the folder facing you.
- With the folder at least slightly open, position the page so that the dots on your image align with the holes in the folder. This will take a little patience, especially if your folder is warped from wear like mine is.
- Carefully close the folder while holding the paper in place so that it does not slip out of position.
- Continue carefully loading the embossing folder between the required plates so that the paper does not slip, and run it through your embossing machine.
- Remove the embossed printout, trim and sand as desired (I sanded the flowers shown above, but left the snow as is).
And if you are a digital enthusiast who likes to change colors etc., you can download the .png files here, suitable for tinkering.
As always, hope you enjoy this and make great project, which you will share with me so I can link back to you.
Free Moroccan Tile Vector
I’ve created a vector version of the digipaper in my previous post. Great for a 12 x 12 background or modify it to fit a card front, etc.
Free Morocco Tile digipaper
Like most of you, I’m busy working on Christmas presents and other holiday projects, but I have some freebies I want to share in the meantime. Here are some Morocco tile 12 x 12 high resolution digital papers and also a single high resolution seamless pattern tile which you can use to create your own paper in any color.
And by request, a vector PDF version here. This should also import into AI, Inkscape and most diecutting software.
How to save a wordle in high resolution on a PC
Over on the Wordle Yahoo Group folks are always asking how they can save a wordle to print at a large size so I wanted to make a short video to show how. The video demonstrates the “print to PDF” technique using a virtual print driver (CutePDF Writer in this case). Printing to PDF is handy for lots of things besides saving wordles so don’t be put off by the fact that you will need to install a piece of downloaded software.
You can get CutePDF Writer at http://www.cutepdf.com
If you want to see the CutePDF install process for your operating system, check out these videos (not by me)
For Windows XP
For Vista
For Win 7
Note to Mac users
There’s nothing to install! PDF printing is built in. Just click the PDF button at the bottom of any print dialog window and choose “Save as PDF…”
Another million view giveaway
Update: Random.org picked #8 and #28 so congratulations to sdybash and Marina, who I am contacting via email. Thanks to everyone who entered!
My friends at ScrappyDew.com have generously donated some blog candy to keep my million view celebration going a little longer. You may know Rob for his awesome tutorials, but the main product for this Army family’s business is ultra cute paper piecing patterns in multiple formats for diecutters. Leave a comment on this post to win one ScrappyDew Collection of your choice (the Zoo Collection above is just one example). We’ll be giving away two at random from entries received before midnight EST Tuesday night October 25, 2011.
After you’ve entered my blog candy contest, stop by the Scrappy Dew site for this awesome gorilla freebie, and be sure to tell Rob how much you appreciate all he does for diecutters and for his country.
Cursives for Diecutters
New owners of digital diecutters often ask what are the best fonts for welding (or “connecting” if they haven’t been indoctrinated into our odd vernacular yet). We may give a few suggestions but usually brush them off with something about personal preference. It turns out that there are some fonts that are inherently weld-friendly thanks to their attentive typographers.
I set out to find a dozen or so that are nice looking, fool-proof for welding (as in, type and go; no tracking, kerning, nudging or schooching required, at least for the letter combos I tested) and, best of all, free. Here’s how they look typed out and then welded in preview. Gorgeous, aren’t they?
So here they are, for your welding enjoyment.
Lobster Two Bold and Lobster Two Bold Italic
Once you have typed your word or phrase, the letters should already be overlapping properly, so all that is left for you to do is click on the word or phrase so that the selection box appears around it and activate welding as follows:
In Silhouette Studio : Press the Cut Style button then press “Cut Edge”
In SCAL : On the Appearance section of the Properties palette click the Weld checkbox (unless it is already checked)
In MTC : Click the Weld button or press CTRL + W
It is recommended that you always do a cut preview to verify that any welding is as expected before cutting.
Celebrating a million views
Yesterday I glanced at my blog stats page and was amazed to see this.
Wow, it snuck up on me, but I think a celebration with some blog candy is in order, don’t you? First off, I’m gonna give away a Cricut Forever Young cartridge. Just make a comment in this thread (one per person, thanks) to qualify and I’ll pick one at random. Entries will close tomorrow, October 11, 2011 at midnight EST. And if you aren’t a Cricut user, check back, ‘cuz I’m roundin’ up some blog candy of interest to the rest of my visitors.
