by Sandy McCauley | Feb 3, 2009 | Editing, Free Files, Free Videos, Outlining Images, Tracing
At the new KNK_Groove Yahoo group, Sherri P posted that she was having some problems following the user manual tutorial on tracing. I replied that the new Vectorize Wizard is so loaded with functionality that it can be overwhelming to follow the many steps I show in the manual. Because Sherri had scanned the image she wanted to trace and only needed a simple tracing, I suggested she send me the file so that I could show her a quick way to trace it.
Well, the interesting thing about this particular image (and why my readers here ended up with a free video) is that this is a situation outside of what we normally see when tracing. First of all, one would think this would be ideal for using center line tracing because it’s basically an outlined image with a white filled center (refer to my Center Line Tracing video or any of the KNK Studio manuals). I tried Center Line Tracing, however instead of ending up with separate puzzle pieces (the goal of this project), I had an overall outline of the dinosaur with separate, disconnected lines for the middle of the dinosaur. Now this would be perfect if the user planned to just cut the outside of the dinosaur and then, perhaps, dash-line cut the intererior lines. But to achieve 3 separate puzzle pieces, Accuscan would be needed instead.
Now tracing it was easy (as you’ll see in the video). The next issue was that the trace lines will be made on either side of the outlines of the image. In most cases, this is also never a problem. But with Sherri’s project, we needed to end up with three puzzle pieces that fit together. So, I came up with the idea of using Transform>Outline to make some of the pieces just a tiny bit bigger, resulting in a better puzzle fit.
So, check out the video and I also am including a link to the original KNK file sent to me by Sherri in case you want to play along! Special note to non-Groove and non-Maxx owners: this same method should work for those of you with the original monochromatic vectorizing (just use the Scan and Trace Wizard) and those of you with color vectorization (same method I show in the video).
Tracing and Editing Sherri’s Dinosaur
And then here is the original file:
Dino Puzzle To Trace
I also sell a video on using the Auto Tracing for KNK, ACS, DM and plan to have a new one soon covering the details of the Vectorize Wizard available in the latest KNK Studio Maxx software.
by Sandy McCauley | Dec 18, 2008 | AI Files, Designing, Fan Shape Tool, Free Files, Free Videos, Rainbows - Designing
Once again, Carol has come up with a FUN KNK Studio request! What’s the easiest way to make a rainbow? Well, there are probably three or four different ways to achieve this… thus this could be Part 1 in several posts about rainbows. We’ll have to see. But the method that came to my mind is not bad and creates the rainbow in a fairly easy, methodical, manner using the Fan shape. Basically you just create one fan, and then start duplicating it and modifying two settings up in the Smart Bar, along with recoloring each fan, as you go.
Making a Rainbow
For those who would rather just have the file, here’s a link to download it. Also note that I will be converting all of my files to both .ai and .svg for those who own other cutters and would like to have some of the files I make:
Rainbow File in KNK Format
Rainbow File in AI Format
Now, regarding Roy G Biv… I hadn’t heard that acronym in 20 years! But I found it this morning when I was searching the Internet for the order of the colors in a rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet.
by Sandy McCauley | Dec 8, 2008 | Breaking Path, Free Files, Free Videos, Making Path, Welding
I heard from my VERY first Klic-N-Kut customer yesterday, Kristi H. She posted about needing to modify a very ornate font. So, I had a look at it and decided that this would make a great tutorial in basic welding. I’m not sure I actually fully understand what Kristi needs, but that’s okay. After watching this, I know she’ll let me know if I went down the wrong path. lol In the meantime, this is what I would want to do with these letters to make them more usable for my own cutting.
I have both the video and the letter “H” that I used for the video, in case you want to play with this same font yourself for practice. Note that I kept it rather simple, but you could include a lot more of the flourishes, if you so desire.
Video on Modifying an Ornate Font
File Used in the Video
by Sandy McCauley | Jul 25, 2008 | Decorative Edge Card, Free Files, Free Videos, Polyarc
Today’s post is for Lynn G who requested a method for making a deckle edge. Even though Lynn posted some samples, I’m not sure I created exactly what she wanted. At first I was trying a random, sort of torn edge look to a card. But after cutting it, I decided that tearing would look a hundred times better than what my free-hand squiggle line produced! lol So, I decided to take a more formal technical approach and use some curves to the pattern and upon cutting, I liked the results. Note that in the video, the final result would look like the card below. So I took the pattern, just dragged the corner to make it MUCH smaller and then created a vertical array with several more copies and created the second look… which is much nicer and more in line with what I think Lynn was looking for (which is the card above). So, while I noted that you could do it in the video, I didn’t show that part, but it’s really quite simple. I’m also uploading the final card in .knk format that I cut and the link to it is below, as well.
by Sandy McCauley | 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 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. 🙂
by Sandy McCauley | May 21, 2008 | Color Selection, Free Files, Invisible Colors
How can I color thee? Let me count the ways…
There are SO very many tips and tricks with color selection that it’s hard to name them all, but here are a few to get you started. First off, you can grab a sample file to play with from this link:
Sample File for Color Selection.
(1) Always have the Job Palette turned on: View>Job Palette so you can see what colors have been used in any project. Look for white or invisible colors and get rid of them. With Fill turned off, they will appear with black outlines and you will mistakenly think they are black. The only time it’s useful to leave them that way is for print and cuts where you may not want cut lines to be printed. But other than than, I find these serve no useful purpose to paper crafters.
In this file, I have BOTH showing and there are a few ways to eliminate them. You can go back to my post on May 2 and watch the video that shows you how to change them to ANY other color… just not white or invisible or clear, OR you can use the method in the next step.
(2) Double click ANY color on the Job Palette and all objects of THAT particular color will be selected. You can then send those colors to be cut, resized, copied/pasted, etc. This is useful when, say, you’re in a swap and you have a detailed paper piecing with a variety of colors and you need to cut multiples and want to copy/paste the items, one color at a time, into a new document so you can multiply them to cut however many copies you’ll need from that one sheet of cardstock. In the case of our file here, we will double click the white color and then click on Black at the bottom to change all of the white images to black. Repeat with the invisible color. Now your image still looks the same, but the invisible and white are now converted to black.
(3) Okay… now say you need TWO colors at once. The first color could be a particular item and the second color could be details on that item that will be pounced or drawn with pen. Or, in this file, let’s say you want to cut the outside mat of all four words from the same color of cardstock, even though one color is blue and the other is orange. Simply double click the blue color and then, holding down the SHIFT key on your keyboard, double click on the orange color. All items of BOTH colors will be selected. You can continue to hold down the Shift key and double click more colors as desired.
(4) Now… let’s have a look at another way to do it… Hold down the Alt key on your keyboard and click the color you want. Now you’ll see all of the other colors become cross-hatched and their corresponding lines in the image become dashed lines. This means those colors are hidden and you cannot select them. In this case I’ve performed an Alt- click on Red to hide all colors but red:
(5) If you wish to “unhide” another color, just hold down the Ctrl key and click on that color. In this case, I held down Ctrl and clicked on the green button (look for a tiny bit of color still showing in the hatched region). Now red and green are available, but all the others are still hidden and cannot be selected.
(6) Now click on Alt and click on either red or green twice and all the colors will be restored. If you wish to hide only one color, then hold down the Ctrl key and click on that one color and it will become dashed on the screen and cannot be selected. You can continue to hold down the Ctrl key and click other colors to hide them. Clicking a second time with Ctrl key held down will restore them… thus it works as a toggle.
Now, play, play, play with this until it becomes second nature to select by color in ALL the ways available to you!
