A 12" Overlay Cut On an 8" (or 9") Cutter

by | Jul 15, 2008 | Overlay

Thanks to Sharon M for allowing me to post her layout below. She has an 8″ Graphtec cutter but was able to create this overlay by using the Ginsu Knife tool in Klic-N-Kut Studio to cut the overlay vertically in half, and then cut the two pieces separately. She then used the wreath die cut and the gift die cut to hide the seams. This is VERY clever and a great way to achieve a 12″ x 12″ overlay with a cutter limited to 8″ (Craft Robo, Silhouette, Wishblade, Pazzles Mini) or 9″ (KNK Element).

Creating a PopUp Card

by | Jul 11, 2008 | Free Files, Free Videos, Popup Cards, Round Corner

Today is one of THOSE days! It took me ALL day long to make this video thanks to a dozen interruptions and two dozen silly mistakes! lol But it’s now ready. Here’s the actual card to show the final result:

and then I have both this final card final and a practice file for you to use when viewing the video:

Popup Final File

Popup Practice File

The video to watch is here:

And I created a second one that might make it clearer where those fold lines and cut lines are being placed:

A special acknowledgement to several members at UK Scrappers for coming up with a clever way to position the upper fold line in just the right spot. I borrowed that idea and then came up with my own way of putting in the fold lines using the guidelines in KNK Studio. All of my methods will work the same in Design Master. Also, if you are unfamiliar with welding titles to frames, then master that part in Chapter 4 of the KNK or DM User Manual before starting your own popup card using my tutorial.
For an extra challenge… Recreate the wave of welded flowers…. I’ll explain how I did that on Monday. 🙂

Five New Videos!

by | Jul 6, 2008 | Clipart Viewer, Manipulating Images, Polyarc, The Font Thing, Videos


At last, I have new videos released! Links to the store are in the left column here and I’ve added these five to the Suggest Video Viewing Order so that you can see where they fit in with the rest. The topics include:

  • 36 Tidbits: These are 36 relatively recent discoveries and most of them will prove useful during designing and editing your images.
  • The Power of Polyarc Editing: Learn how to use the 9 tools in the Polyarc Editing Smart Bar.
  • Manipulating Images: A video for those who are new to graphical programs and need help learning to do the very basics. Experienced users may also learn a new trick or two!
  • Using the Clipart Viewer: The clipart viewer allows you to see and import graphical images into the software and the video shows you how to set up new locations and order them in a way that will be useful to you. Note that owners of Klic-N-Kut cutters receive this video on their Designs and Images Collections 1 CD.
  • Using The Font Thing: The Font Thing is a freeware program for organizing, managing, and installing fonts to use with your digitial cutter but most users don’t realize how to use ALL the functionality provided. Based on seeing SO many questions from users for the past 9 years, I decided a video might just be the “thing” to get users fully utilizing this terrific program. There’s a link in the product description to download the software and I recommend making sure it installs correctly on your computer before buying.

Thanks to ALL of my customers for their continued support of my videos! Because you continue to purchase these videos, it allows me to continue making the time to help at the Yahoo groups and create free videos to post here at my blog. You all are the best!

Aperture Card

by | Jul 5, 2008 | Aperture Card, Free Videos, Welding

One of the members of the Design Master Fun Yahoo group needed a reminder of how to create an Aperture card. So, today’s post is a video on this procedure. A few reminders to everyone about this entire process:

(1) You must create a frame from two shapes so that you can do your welding. Now, I kind of made it complicated by using the Transform>Outline tool in the video. You could actually just draw your oval and then draw anything around it… a rectangle, for example. Do the Arrange>Make Path and then later, after welding, delete the outer rectangle. It’s irrelevant what you choose for that outer path since it will later be deleted.

(2) The frame and the interior images must be the same color before welding.

(3) And don’t forget that Arrange>Text to Graphics will break up a typed title so that you can arrange the individual letters in any manner you choose!

Have fun with this! Here’s a link to the video: Aperture Card