Basic designing and cutting Vinyl

Hello everyone

Well it’s been a long time since I posted but as they say “better late than never”!

I actually did these videos at the beginning of the lock-down/confinement however I had problems getting the 2nd part of the video off my phone and have only just been able to resolve this problem.

This is a ‘back to basics’ video so if you are confident in your knowledge of your machine then it might not be for you

In the first part I show how to import, manipulate, replicate and group items in readiness for cutting either on a 12 x 12 mat which can be done on either the CM machines or the SDX machines or on the roll feed option which is only for the SDX machines.

Here is the link to the video – part 1

In the second part I am concentrating on cutting on the machine, weeding and adhering to a shiny surface such as a mug .  I now only have an SDX machine however, the CM machine using the 12 x 12 mat is very much the same procedure.  It is not possible to use the roll feed on the CM machines.

I do have to apologise about this video however.  I made the video not thinking about the fact that part of me would be visible in it.  Had I realised I would have worn something other than my ‘onesie’.  It was a Sunday and because of lock-down I was confident that no one would call unexpectedly so decided to have a ‘dress-down day’ – opps 🙂  It could have been worse, that’s all I’m saying!

Here is the link to the video – part 2

Hope this is helpful

Anne x

WiFi Updates

Hi folks

So sorry I haven’t been around for such a long time but unfortunately for me “life” is getting in the way and I have not even had much chance to craft let alone share anything but thanks for hanging on in there regardless!

I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if most of you are way ahead of me over this topic however, just in case you aren’t, I thought I would share.

I had to make a quick card yesterday and so sent my design to my CM900 over WiFi, went to my machine to find a completely different looking icon for the WiFi and another little icon.

Ever curious I clicked on this to see that I could opt to “update” my machine there and then – fantastic – we now no longer have to put the update onto a USB and then upload it into our machines (provided, of course they are WiFi), it automatically updates over WiFi – this was a fabulous find, not sure quite when it came out but if you haven’t “fallen” across it – then do switch your machine on.

The only thing I can’t be sure of is if it only works when you send something from Canvas to the machine as I wasn’t expecting it so I had no idea it was going to happen!

kind regards

Anne

.SVG files – a happy accident!

You may already know this but for me it was a revelation and has opened up so many more possibilities for me.

I was working in Sure Cuts ALot as I had recently found out that you can save files from here as .fcm and as far as I am aware, other than Canvas this is the only one in which you can.  I have been learning it as it is so much more advanced than Canvas.  You possibly know that before I would design something in Adobe Illustrator and then open it up into Canvas in order to convert it from an .svg to a .fcm file.

Well, to cut a long story sideways, I saved my SCAL file onto my usb stick and went to open it up on my sNc.  I then thought “oh dear” well, actually it was a little worse than that! but I digress.  I realised that in actual fact I had saved it as an .svg.  I then though “what would happen if I try opening it?”  so I tried ….  Delight upon delight – it opened, I went into the page and it could be manipulated in exactly the same way as a .fcm file.  Yipeee me thinks.

Today, I decided to test it out on Adobe, drew a file, saved it as an .svg and bingo, it opened perfectly on the sNc.

The possibilities are even more enormous now, you can design in your favourite programmes, save as an .svg and open directly on your machine.  AND it you wish to save it onto canvas as a .fcm or onto your usb as one all you need do is save it to your chosen storage and it will automatically save as a .fcm file.  In-cred-ible is all I say.

Below are some photos to show you what you can expect to see as you can see you do not actually see the image, but click on it as normal  press ok to open it onto the virtual mat where you can group it to manipulate as you desire   you then just save it in the normal way   in this case to my usb and here it is as a .fcm

Hope you all find this useful, I have to say I haven’t actually seen it mentioned anywhere else or on the C & C shows!

Anne x

Guitar Card

Made this for my Brother-in-Law today so thought I would share the cutting file with you all.  I drew the shape in Illustrator and then imported it into Canvas,  cut on Adorable Scoreable card and the foiling I did on my TODO machine.

Below is the .fcm file for the card and the music notes

Normal terms apply

Guitar .fcm file

Swirls and Flourishes – update

Spurred on by a recent craft show I have been playing with Illustrator and came up with a flourish that I would like to share with you.

Red one is slightly different to the blue one & I have a problem with Canvas at the moment and I can’t rotate it but when it is rotated you will see it is the self same flourish just with a more oval shaped dot.

I drew the flourish in Illustrator, created a couple of different outlines to them and then imported it into Canvas but that didn’t import it as I had drawn it.  I therefore printed off the flourish and scanned it into my machine and it worked perfectly.  Sent it through the cloud to Canvas and it showed it correctly.   I have drawn the flourish relatively large as I need it to be substantial enough when reduced to cut without problems.  As of yet I have only cut them at around 4 inches  The flourish in blue actually needs a little tweaking by me to make it perfect but I am pretty happy thus far  – will post the .svg files when I have had a chance to tweak them.

Might even have a got at making some different ones – the housework might just have to take a back seat!

I have now had a chance to download a link to the .svg file for the flourishes

Flourishes .fcm file

Flourishes .svg

and a photo of the files cut – the smallest is really quite small and it cut perfectly so possibly could go smaller although not sure you would actually need to unless you were making a tiny card.

 

 

Boxes

I had a go at making a couple of simple boxes which you may find a little bit of fun.

I have made the boxes in two section as it saves on card and the triangular box you can get out of one piece of A4.

The photos are very basic as I have only made them from bog standard white card – however I think if you were to cut one section out of one colour and the other out of another colour or some gloss card it would look quite classy.

The round box has an extra piece for the lid as you can’t bring it together with ribbon to close it.

Obviously you could use any shape you have to make boxes like these.

 

 

as you can probably make out from the photos, 3 sides have been glued together and one flap has been left as the entrance to the box and all you need to do is secure with a piece of ribbon.

As we now have the brilliant new update to our machines I will only be publishing my files as .SVG in future.  If you really want them as .fcm files I would be happy to convert them if you drop me a note.

 This shows one section of the triangular “Tree Box” and I have marked in pen where you need to score before fitting together.  When both sections have been scored all you need to do is place the pieces in a cross section (see next photo) and glue the square in the middles to each other.  After that fold the rounded shapes outwards and glue together making sure you leave one section unglued – thread the ribbon through and pull closed.

  Do exactly the same with the circular/square box and finish the top off with the separate circle – score the a square in the centre of the circles to form the flaps to glue together.

Christmas Tree Box.svg

Circular/square Box.svg

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

Happy New Year to you al xx

Watering Can

I was inspired to do this last week when I needed a card for a man.  I always find men so much more difficult to make cards for so was very happy with the result.  It could of course equally be made for a lady who has green fingers.

The bird is from the artwork on the sNc just sized down and the gnomes were some card so just cut them out after scanning in the cardstock.

Please feel free to use ad lib but please respect my terms of use thank you.

Below are the .svg and .fcm cutting files

.SVG

.FCM

Congrats Card

Made this for my great niece who did really, really well in her A-levels despite having Dyspraxia and she has earned herself a place in University so I am just so proud of her and naturally all the support my fabulous niece and her husband have given to her over the years.

You can cut the card and fold it in half to just use the word Congrats or if you wish to write something longer inside you can place it round a matching or, as I did, a coordinating insert.

It cut out very cleanly – I have to say I am very impressed with the Brother Scan N Cut on the whole.  I have owned other machines in the past, one of which was way more expensive than this and this comes out way on top.

Here are the cutting files for you :

 

.fcm file

svg file

 

 

Word Christmas Tree Topper

As promised here is my free cutting file – sorry to use the “C” word and it is still only summer but I know there are lots of you out there who are well on the way to not only making but completing the task – I am sadly not one of these people and even though I have made this topper it will no doubt not be used for a good few weeks as yet!

Have tried cutting it and it cuts out beautifully, have added some corners in to co-ordinate also.  I hope you enjoy it.

As per normal, you are free to use this for personal use only but the file is not for re-sale.

 

Cutting files :

.fcm file

.svg file

Flower Head

I drew this in Illustrator yesterday and cut it out on my Brother Scan N Cut – I was very happy with the outcome

 

If you cut it out and struggle to ‘build’ it let me know and I will put a tutorial on when I get back from England

Cutting files here:

.svg file

.fcm file