Clever Someday

10 more great welding cursive fonts for diecutters

Kay — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 23:54:46 +0000

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

Kay — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 02:59:35 +0000

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:

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.
Type your word or phrase and highlight it.
Select Format>Font>Show Fonts or ⌘-T to open the OSX Font Panel
Select a font from the scrolling list and adjust the size for ease of viewing.
Click on the gear icon at the lower left of the Fonts Window and select Typography to open the Typography window.
Click the triangles to expand or condense the list of Typography features, which will vary depending on the font selected.
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

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:

Go to http://www.network-science.de/tools/misc2svg/
Click the Choose File button and navigate to the PDF you just exported and click Open.
Click “senden.”
Click Download.
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:

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.
Click on the font name to select the font you want to work with.
Choose Preview>Repertoire for a preview of all the glyphs in the font.
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.)
Adjust the Glyph Size slider as desired and use the preview window to identify the page range you want to export.
Enter the page range in the appropriate boxes.
Press PDF>Save as PDF, then enter name and location and click Save.
This vector PDF can be converted to SVG with the webapp Misc2SVG using the following steps:
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/
Click the Choose File button and navigate to the PDF you just exported and click Open.
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.
Click “senden.”
Click Download.
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.

Part 8 … Tracing Without Tears

Kay — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:18:22 +0000

Part 8 of the Tracing Without Tears series puts the point editing info from Part 7 into use to clean up a broken line trace, and to manually trace an image that can’t be autotraced. Thanks so much for your incredible support of this series!

And in case you missed Part 1 (intro), you can find it here,Part 2 (threshold) is here, Part 3 (line art) is here , Part 4 (print and cut) is here, Part 5 (filter tech) is here, Part 6 (photos) is here and Part 7 (point editing) is here.

And there’s a playlist here.

10 great free dingbat fonts for diecutters

Kay — Wed, 01 May 2013 22:36:08 +0000

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

Kay — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:23:02 +0000

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

Part 7 … Tracing Without Tears really Point Editing

Kay — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:58:16 +0000

Part 7 of the Tracing Without Tears series is not really about tracing at all. It’s about point editing, or node editing, which is prerequisite information for cleaning up traced images and so much more. I needed to lay this groundwork so I could answer your questions in the next video. So thanks for bearing with me as we veer off course a bit. Perhaps you’ll find this handy for more than just tracing.

And in case you missed Part 1 (intro), you can find it here, Part 2 (threshold) is here, Part 3 (line art) is here , Part 4 (print and cut) is here, Part 5 (filter tech) is here, and Part 6 (photos) is here.

And there’s a playlist here.

Vinyl Cost Calculator

Kay — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:30:09 +0000

I’ve recreated my Vinyl Cost Calculator on Instacalc, along with some instructions (it’s easier than it looks). Type in a few particulars and it quickly returns a comprehensive total cost per square foot. This is great for comparison shopping or for deciding what quantity you should order.
Here’s an annotated screen shot (click to enlarge) with all the info (plus overkill) you need to get started.

Click here for a printable PDF of the above instructions

Click here to go to the calculator

Cheat Sheet: Cut vs. Cut Edge

Kay — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:41:22 +0000

I have all kinds of powerful software to work in, but I can’t help exploring Silhouette Studio to try and find out why it behaves as it does. I began researching yet another double line problem and discovered some interesting facts about how SS operates. I figured out how to keep the double lines at bay, which also led me to a way to offset text and keep it editable, and a way to add a quick bleed zone to objects. You know I’m not one to keep the minutiae to myself Click here for a printable PDF.

Part 6 … Tracing Without Tears

Kay — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:00:33 +0000

For those of you who have been clamoring for a tutorial on tracing photos, I’m happy to announce the release of Tracing without Tears Part 6. I’ve learned so much along the way, and have become impressed at how much you really can do with just the limited capabilities in Silhouette Studio. I thought this would be the end of the series, but I’ve got a few extra tips and tricks that didn’t fit in the other videos so I guess there will be at least one more after this. Thanks again for all your kind comments and encouragement.

And in case you missed Part 1 (intro), you can find it here,Part 2 (threshold) is here, Part 3 (line art) is here , Part 4 (print and cut) is here, and Part 5 (filter tech) is here.

And there’s a playlist here.

CAS spinner card and template

Kay — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 02:08:10 +0000

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!