10 more great welding cursive fonts for diecutters

Here’s a list of 10 more cursive fonts that cut and weld wonderfully, and, as you can see, they look great as well. Download at the links below the graphic.

1)Alex Brush 2)Arsenale White 3)Bira 4)Dancing Script 5)Grand Hotel 6)KG Always a Good Time 7)Monoment 8)Sacramento 9)Sofia 10)Xiomara

The first set of great fonts for welding is here.

Accessing OpenType options with software you already have on your Mac

OpenType fonts are amazing, but you can’t get to all the awesomeness without Adobe Illustrator or InDesign, right? Wrong! Where there’s a will, there’s a way to get your hands on a bunch of OpenType features and every single glyph using just the software that comes with your Mac. I show you how in this video. (Tim Cook you can thank me later.)

Here are the written steps for accessing OpenType features via TextEdit:

1. Open TextEdit (v1.6 or 1.7 are known to work) If TextEdit is not already in your Dock, type TextEdit in Spotlight search or find it in your Applications folder or LaunchPad.
2. Type your word or phrase and highlight it.
3. Select Format>Font>Show Fonts or ⌘-T to open the OSX Font Panel
4. Select a font from the scrolling list and adjust the size for ease of viewing.
5. Click on the gear icon at the lower left of the Fonts Window and select Typography to open the Typography window.
6. Click the triangles to expand or condense the list of Typography features, which will vary depending on the font selected.
7. With all or some of the text selected, begin toggling features in the Typography window while watching changes to the text. This is a trial and error process to find alternatives accessible from the Typography window.
   Tip: Try the process above with any program that has the OSX Font Panel.

When you are finished formatting your word or phrase, it can be exported via one of two ways:

• screen capture (low resolution) : shift-⌘-4 to save a .png version to your desktop for import into another application; or shift-control-⌘-4 to save to the clipboard for pasting into another application

or

• export as PDF (fully scaleable) : File>Export as PDF then type in name, choose location and click Save to create a vector PDF.

This PDF can be converted to SVG with the webapp Misc2SVG using the following steps:

1. Go to http://www.network-science.de/tools/misc2svg/
2. Click the Choose File button and navigate to the PDF you just exported and click Open.
3. Click “senden.”
4. Click Download.
5. Safari: right click (or control-click) image in browser window and Save Page As, name file, select location, leave format as “Page Source” and Click Save.
   Firefox: right click (or control-click) image in browser window and Save Page As, name file, select location, leave format as “Web Page, SVG Only” and Click Save.
   Chrome: right click (or control-click) image in browser window and Save As, name file, select location, and click Save.
   This SVG is suitable for Inkscape, diecutting software, etc.

Here are the written steps for viewing and exporting vectors for all the OpenType glyphs via Font Book:

1. Open Font Book. If it is not already in your Dock, type “Font Book” in Spotlight search or find it in your Applications folder or LaunchPad.
2. Click on the font name to select the font you want to work with.
3. Choose Preview>Repertoire for a preview of all the glyphs in the font.
4. File>Print, choose Repertoire from the Report Type drop down menu. (Click the Show Details button and/or select Font Book from the pull down menu if you do not see this option.)
5. Adjust the Glyph Size slider as desired and use the preview window to identify the page range you want to export.
6. Enter the page range in the appropriate boxes.
7. Press PDF>Save as PDF, then enter name and location and click Save.
8. This vector PDF can be converted to SVG with the webapp Misc2SVG using the following steps:
9. This vector PDF can be converted to SVG with the webapp Misc2SVG using the following steps: Go to http://www.network-science.de/tools/misc2svg/
10. Click the Choose File button and navigate to the PDF you just exported and click Open.
11. Enter the page number of the page you would like to convert into the box above the senden button. Only one page can be converted at a time.
12. Click “senden.”
13. Click Download.
14. Safari: right click (or control-click) image in browser window and Save Page As, name file, select location, leave format as “Page Source” and Click Save.
    Firefox: right click (or control-click) image in browser window and Save Page As, name file, select location, leave format as “Web Page, SVG Only” and Click Save.
    Chrome: right click (or control-click) image in browser window and Save As, name file, select location, and click Save.
    This SVG is suitable for Inkscape, diecutting software, etc.

Pin-friendly title page for my video made using only TextEdit and the font Lavanderia:

The other font shown in the video is Florence.

10 great free dingbat fonts for diecutters

Free dingbat fonts are a great source of images to use with your diecutter, but how do you know which ones cut nicely? I’ve done the trial and error for you on these ten fonts that are perfect for diecutting. Links are listed below the graphic.

1)09kutups 2)Efon 3)Board Dudes 4)Damask Dings 5)Hibiscus 6)Kalocsai Flowers 7)Peoni Patterns 8)ND Urban 9)Sepeda 10)Sewing Patterns

10 great Doodlebats for diecutters

10 more great Doodlebats for diecutters

Class of 2013 free SVG

In honor of my niece, and by request, I’m posting the 2013 version of my “class of” SVG. Hope you enjoy the file and congrats to all your graduates!

Click here to download in SVG format

Click here to download in .studio format

Terms: Free for personal and commercial use. Just don’t sell the file in digital form. Please share the link to this post, rather than the file itself. Thank you!

2011 is here

2012 is here

CAS spinner card and template

In January, I took the Clean and Simple Cards 2 class at onlinecardclasses.com. I really enjoyed it, and am just now getting around to doing some of my homework cards. On of the big plusses of the class was getting to see what others in the class were making, and that’s how I found this great spinner card design from Stephanie at Pink Star Creations.

Stephanie’s card (shown above) uses the spinner card dies from Paper Trey Ink, but I created mine (top of page) with Silhouette Studio. (If you don’t have a Silhouette, you can still use the template with your PTI die and the free version of Silhouette Studio.)

As you can see, I lifted Stephanie’s design pretty much completely, except that I used a “real” paper airplane where she used a stamp, (which was our class assignment that day.) My template also includes a paper airplane digistamp if you’d rather use that. It will probably hold up better in an envelope, for instance.

If you aren’t familiar with spinner cards, they use a simple sandwich of some foam and 2 disks (often pennies) to travel through a slot and create a spinning element that really makes for a fun card.

What I love about this idea, and turning it into a Silh Studio template, is that you can so quickly change it up for a different theme. Bring in a new image, drag and drop a pattern, customize the sentiment and a new card is born.

My advice is to keep this template on your hard drive instead of in your SS library. When you want to use it, open it, immediately do a “Save As…” and rename it. That way the original is preserved, as well as all the placement on the mat, which you lose when you use the library. I’ve also included instructions in the margins of the files as shown in the screen capture below.

Download the Silhouette Studio template here.

Download the SVG template here.

Here are a couple more cards I made with the same template and artwork from Lettering Delights. The first one uses a bee from the Bugaboo set and a honeycomb image, from the Reindeer Games paper pack, oddly enough. (I did have to change the colors from reds to golden yellows.) For the monkey card I used an image and pattern from the Monkey Around collection.

 

All of my cards, and a few extra sentiments I included on the template, feature LD Cotton Candy font.

Special thanks to Stephanie for the great card and for giving me permission to share the template based on it!

How to trace using transparency in Inkscape

Ever wonder how to autotrace those hard to handle .pngs with light colors against a transparent background. It’s quick and easy in Inkscape? Hint: It involves my favorite tool…the paint bucket. I’ll show you in less than 2 minutes.

How to make your own “print and punch” designs

I have gotten several requests for a tutorial on making the digital stamps/printables that match the punches. The problem is I use a mix of oddball software for these and it isn’t a very straightforward process the way I’ve been doing it.

Nevertheless I’ve been able to distill it down to a set of general steps that you can use with whatever design software you are familiar with. If you don’t know how to complete a particular step you may need to check Google or Youtube for a tutorial on how to do specific things with your specific software (for example “how to fill a shape with a pattern in PSP”). So here we go:

-Punch a piece of black paper with the punch you want to design for.

-Scan the punched out shape with some sort of dimensional reference such as a 1 inch square cutout, a ruler, etc.

-Bring the scanned image into your design software and autotrace or make a path/shape of the punch’s outline.

-With the aid of your reference item, resize the traced punch shape to its exact real-life size. In other words, the one inch square should read 1.0 inches when measured within the software. Once you’ve done this, the reference item can be deleted. Save a copy of the punch shape somewhere safe so that you only need to do these first steps once.

-Working from a copy of the punch shape you saved, use inset, internal offset, contract or other similar command to create a new shape for your design with the desired margin to the edge of the punchout. Also save this inset shape somewhere safe as this only needs to be created once as well.

-Fill the inset shape with the color or pattern of your choice.

-And/or set the stroke (outline) of the inset to the line style of your choice, or use pattern along path, text along path with symbols, etc. to create the border of your design.

-Add shapes, text and other elements as desired to your design.

Tip: I find it helpful to use a digital overlay of the punch’s negative (the hole it leaves behind) to better visualize how the design will appear after punching. It’s even better if this is on its own layer that you can toggle on and off as you work.

-Once you have a design you like, duplicate it and use it as a base for additional designs with different colors, sentiments, etc.

Tip: Remember that because these files are made for specific punches, they must print at the exact design size to work correctly. Saving the print-ready versions as PDFs is a good idea for this reason, especially if you are sharing the files.

When distributing files, convert text to paths or rasterize text (so that the files work for those who don’t have the same fonts installed as you). But remember to always keep a fully editable version for yourself.

Cool online tool for diecutters and other font lovers

If you follow this blog you know I love web apps and I am always on the lookout for new and cool ones. Mariairie left me a comment a couple of days ago with a link to IcoMoon, an icon font generator for web developers. At first I didn’t understand it or see any application for us diecutters, but the more I played the more excited I got. Here are some things you can do with IcoMoon:

Easily export all or selected glyphs in a font to individual SVG files.

1. Go to Free Font Converter, browse for your font and set the “…format to convert to” to SVG and click the big blue Convert button. An SVG font with the same name as your TTF will be downloaded to your computer (SVG fonts carry the .svg extension, just like a single SVG image)
   
2. Click the Import Icons button in IcoMoon and select the SVG font that you just generated. You will see all the glyphs from that font appear under “Your Custom Icons”
   
3. Click on the glyphs you would like to export to SVG. Selected glyphs will be outlined in yellow. To select multiples at once, click on the first and then hold down the shift key while clicking on the last one you want to select
   
4. Click the Images button. A zipped folder containing SVG versions of each glyph you selected will be downloaded to your computer. How cool is that?! Perfect for creating a specialized alphabet or for sorting images from a mixed theme dingbat font, among other uses we haven’t imagined yet.
   

Create a personal favorites dingbats font.

1. Go to Free Font Converter and convert each of the source fonts to SVG as shown in step 1 above.
2. Import your first font into IcoMoon as shown in step 2 above, select the glyphs you definitely do NOT want and press the trash can icon to delete them
   

   

3. Repeat this process with successive fonts until all your favorite glyphs appear under “Your Custom Icons”
   
4. Select the glyphs that make the final cut for your favorites font
   
5. Click the Font button
6. Type a character in the top box above each glyph and/or drag and drop glyphs to set their encoding (which key you will type to access each glyph)
   
7. Click the gear/flower icon and type a name for your font in the box and click the X to save it. (choose carefully as internal font names are not easily changed)
   

   

8. Click the Save button. A zipped folder containing TTF and SVG versions of the compilation font will be downloaded to your computer
   

   Note: The key word here is personal. Use these “mix” fonts on your own computer only. Please don’t use this technique to redistribute copyrighted fonts/glyphs/images.

Make your own dingbat font.

1. In Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator or other vector editor, create a set of SVGs you would like to compile into a font. (I am still experimenting with the format but starting using a 512 x 512 pixel high document seems to work.)
2. In IcoMoon, click the Import Icons button and navigate to your SVGs and import them.
3. Click and/or shift-click to highlight all of the SVGs which are now showing under “Your Custom Icons”
4. Click the Font button
5. Type a character in the top box above each glyph and/or drag and drop glyphs to set their encoding (which key you will type to access each glyph)
6. Click the gear/flower icon and type a name for your font in the box and click the x to save it. (choose carefully as internal font names are not easily changed)
7. Click the Save button. A zipped folder containing TTF and SVG versions of the compilation font will be downloaded to your computer

Caveat: So far I have only been able to get IcoMoon to work using Chrome as a browser.

My Bible word art prayers anwered

I’m always on the lookout for word art of bible verses and can not believe I never found Papercraft Memories before. Karen creates stunning word art, gives away high resolution versions for personal use generously, as well as often showing how she uses the word art in a card. Much of it would also be suitable for making vinyl cut files. I am so excited to find this site, and couldn’t wait to share it with you. Please stop by and feast on the Word made visually beautiful, and be sure to leave some blog love for Karen.

 

 

Grad card with custom background paper

This week’s challenge (CFC54) at CAS-ual Fridays blog was for a masculine card with “designer’ paper. Well, I’m the designer of this one of a kind background paper that features the name, year, school colors and school name of the graduate. It was easy to create in a word processor (type text, format, copy, paste, repeat to fill page) and is quickly re-customizable for multiple grads with the find/change command. I also used it as matching gift wrap for small packages. The mortarboard and its shadow for the card were cut on the Silhouette SD and mounted with an action wobble. The tassle is fastened with a brad painted with nail polish to match the cap color.