Trees aWard in Tutorials

2011-12-10T04:29:00.001+01:00

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/13088/teach-yourself-to-sew-how-to-sew-a-dart

Apple Strudel Recipe

2011-10-29T17:25:00.000+02:00

How to Finish Your Boutonniere

2011-07-20T21:11:00.000+02:00

This is 5 of 5

Add Accent Flowers and Greenery to Your Boutonniere

2011-07-20T21:09:00.000+02:00

This is 4 of 5

Wire and Tape a Rose for a Boutonniere

2011-07-20T21:08:00.000+02:00

This is 3 of 5

Choose Flowers for a Boutonniere

2011-07-20T21:06:00.000+02:00

This is 2 of 5

How to Make a Boutonniere

2011-07-20T21:03:00.000+02:00

I always wanted to know how this was done. This is number 1 of 5.

2011-05-17T21:26:00.001+02:00

Sorry for the long absences to posting on my various "Trees aWard in ..." blogs of late, this is due to me convalescing from a long term illness. I am currently doing more Art than crafts and when I have the energy I will be posting on my Art blog. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Tutorial in using Crayons (or Oil Pastels)

2010-07-14T10:33:00.002+02:00

I had a box of Oil Pastels given to me for Christmas. When I opened them, I was a little disappointed, as they were just the same as Children's Crayola crayons, but probably more expensive. Initially, I thought that they would be more like the chalk pastels that artists use but a little more waxy so they didn't turn to powder so easily when you use them, however still giving the chalky effect. That's what I thought pastels meant. Well they stayed in my cupboard for a while, as they were blunt on both ends, and I needed to get a sharpener to use them. Or so I thought, until I found this series of wonderful pictorials from Dorcas Designs.

I followed the tutorials and found that they were perfect. So now I can use my stash, instead of watching it gather dust, and every time I use them I fondly remember who gave them to me with love as a Christmas present.

~~(My work in progress pictures to follow - when my camera re-charges so I can download the pictures)~~

Author's Update (16 July 2010): You can see my work in progress pictures on my Craft blog here.

Crayon Tutorial - Part 1
Crayon Tutorial - Part 2
Crayon Tutorial - Part 3

Thanks very much Dorcas for showing me how.

Colouring with Twinkling H2O’s

2010-05-21T10:59:00.001+02:00

Colouring with Twinkling H2O's found on www.shop.whiffofjoy.com

This is an excellent tutorial that I found on the www.whiffofjoy.com blog. It is so well done that I just had to share it with you.

While you are at it, pop back to Whiff of Joy and check out their stamps. I guarantee there will be some there that you just would not be able to resist.

Enjoy the video.

Making Digital Stamps using a scanned hand drawing and Inkscape

2009-11-15T12:53:00.001+01:00

A question that I get asked a lot is how do I do my digi stamps. The answer to this is quite simple. I take a photo of what I am interested in. Then sketch a hand drawing from that photo. Or you can use a light box to trace the photo. Then scan the drawing into my laptop and trace round it with a Vector Graphics Program.	To print properly the line art needs to be 300dpi, and be saved into a JPG (non transparent background) or PNG (transparent background) format. It also needs the lines to print very black and clear, so any editing of the image to make it larger should not show any imperfections. When I am creating a digi stamp for sale, I save my images in A4 or A5 size because it is most common that most paper crafters have an A4 printer and would not wish to print a digi stamp any larger. I also want to try to keep the file size as small as possible so it can be sent at low internet speeds.
	Last night I went down to the small harbour and took some photographs. This is one that I thought would make a good composition for a watercolour painting. However, for this exercise I’m looking at the boats. Especially the red and the blue one on the far right. I made sure to set my camera for the largest mega pixels just in case I needed to crop the photo later. That way, I could crop and still have a sharp photo to work from.
	I decided on the blue boat, and cropped the photo to create the composition. The lines look good for a digi stamp. It is instantly recognisable and would be quick to colour in after purchase. It also follows the watery theme of my digi stamps to date that you can find at www.squigglefly.com.
	I printed off the photo and made a sketch of the boat. I used a blue pencil because all the illustrators seem to use one. The reason for this, is that when you want to ink in your lines later the non-photo-blue pencils usually don't show up when photocopied so it saves a lot of rubbing out time. Apparently the blue lines do show up when scanned straight from the originals, but as I am going to digitally ink up my drawing there is no real need to use blue, I’m just being posh.
	I scan in the drawing into the laptop at 300dpi, and once it has been digitised I can crop it to a more manageable size. There are many vector graphic programs on the market and people say that some of the best are Illustrator or CorelDraw but I use the open source package called Inkscape, because I am on a budget. Just remember to save often because it tends to crash (or it does for me in this latest version). And I use a graphics pen and tablet, rather than my mouse. Cleaning up the drawing to make it into a digi stamp is probably the longest stage and actually takes longer than the drawing itself, so making digi stamps is a labour of love if you are only going to use it once. Fortunately they are becoming more and more popular, and you can buy digi stamps at very little cost.
	Import the drawing into Inkscape and embed the photo into the document. File > Ctrl+I > find your photo > OK Extensions > Image > Embed Images > Embed only selected image > Apply Lock the layer with the image on it and create another layer above it to use for vectoring the outline to your drawing.
	Choose the Bezier tool and start to draw the outline around the image keeping fairly close to the outer edge, by clicking with the tool. You will need to Choose the Edit Paths Nodes tool if you need to tweak the lines in any way and if you are not sure how to do this, watch Screencasters.heathenx's Episode 75 video tutorial which will give you the basics to using the Bezier tool in Inkscape. It will be like stretching an elastic band round the image to produce the vector line, I use open ended lines and don’t close any lines because I am not going to colour in the image, I just need the black outline to make a digi stamp. You can see the outcome of tracing the drawing as I have marked it in Red to show where I have already been. I also have chosen not to include all the lines that I drew in blue in order to streamline the digi stamp. You can see the blue pencil showing through in the ripples of the water, the sign under the window and the name of the boat on the outside. I have also chosen to leave out the buoy and the tarpaulin on the roof of the boat hut.
Congratulations! You have made your first digi stamp!	After I am happy with the laying down of the vector lines, I choose which ones I want to make thicker or thinner, this is easily done because the lines are open ended. Usually I make the foreground lines anything from 2.5 to 3 (pixels) thick, and the background 1px to 2px. Anything finer than 1px will mean that the lines may not print out properly if the image is reduced in size too much because they will be too thin for the printer to pick up. Anything larger than 3px, and the digi stamp lines will be too bold when expanded to A4 size. When all the adjustments have been done. Select all the lines and export the selection as a png. File > Export Bitmap > Selection > Width and Height (enter required value) > 300dpi > File name of your choice > Hide all except selected > Export You will now have a .png file of your black line drawing that will have a transparent background, within the parameter of a printable A4 sheet of paper, and will have the correct dots per inch for clear sharp printing, without any pixilation to the design.

Print and Cut with Inkscape and Craft Robo

2009-11-03T18:40:00.001+01:00

This is an improvement to the decoupage ideas of my tutorial Gone Wild for Digi Stamps Tutorial, Part 2. In the meantime since I have done the tutorial I have found excellent tutorials that got me thinking on how to improve the way that I print and cut with Craft Robo, using Inkscape. Using a combination of all of tutorials, (a bit of this and a bit of that) I came up with this tutorial that you may find useful. A better way to decoupage without the need for the Bezier tool.

Thanks go to:

Cardsulike – Inkscape Silhouette Page Settings
Clever Someday – Print and Cut
Cardsulike – Using Inkscape to Cut on your Silhouette and Robo, and
Carolyn – Changing a stencil type dingbat

Preparing the Craft Robo Page Template in Inkscape
	This is the screen that you see if you open up a new page in Craft Robo that is in Landscape. You can notice that it consists of: Registration Marks (the black L shapes) Printing Margin Box Cutting Margin Box, and No print, no cut grey area What we want to do is copy this page in Inkscape and calibrate it so that the print and cut on the computer screen works with the printer and also cutter, cutting where expected.
	First I use the Snipping tool programme that comes with Windows Operating System in the Accessories file. I capture the page from Craft Robo (CR), using the rectangular snip. I then save this on my desktop so I don’t loose it. It will save as a JPEG and you will be using this as a guide. The screen on the CR represents an A4 page size and so does the one in Inkscape, so hopefully, the calibration should only be a matter of millimetres. This is the variation of Cardsulike – Inkscape Silhouette Page Settings, where the seed was sown.
	Open up Inkscape. My default page is A4 so I don’t need to change anything. I created a layer called “Image Layer” and imported the JPEG image of the CR page into that layer and adjusted the size of the image to fill the page. I then reduced the opacity by about 50% to grey it out a bit and locked the layer so I did not mess up things by mistake, later on. This has the effect of diming the page so I can see more accurately where to copy the line placements of the elements of the CR page.
Keeping the elements on separate layers can make things more convenient later on when you want to print or cut.	Create another layer and called it “Cutting Margin”. Use the create a rectangle tool without the fill option selected, and copy the cutting area from the CR JPEG page with the rectangle tool. Lock the layer afterward. Create another layer and call it “Registration Marks” Use the Bezier tool and draw in the three L shapes from the CR page. Lock the layer afterward. You now have your guidelines to use within Inkscape that match the guidelines within Craft Robo. You no longer need the CR JPEG image so that layer can be deleted.
	I made my page more fancy, by adding instructions to the outer edge to help me remember. I sometimes take a break with playing with things and my memory needs as much help as it can to get back into it when I start playing again. It’s just the way I am. The page preparation has now largely been done. I saved my template in the inkscape template folder so that I can use it from the pick list when I open a new page. You can do the same for Portrait if you want to.
Getting the outline of an image so it can be cut with Craft Robo
	Find an image that you would like to get the outline of, such as this freebie that I am offering so that you can print and cut it. I am going to use one of my freebie digi stamps that you can have, in order to play along with (just click the image). I was too late to use this cauldron for Halloween, but I have already shown you how I used it in my Cauldron of Flowers post here, so you can see a Cauldron is not just for Halloween.
	Import the image in Inkscape, onto the “Image Layer” of the Robo Page you prepared earlier. Adjust the image height and width to what you want the final image to be. I have made my image 8.5cm tall or 3.5” tall (about the size of an ATC), which is a good size for this exercise. If you want to keep the ratio the same as the original, remember to close the padlock before you change either the width or the height. You could always eyeball it if you don’t want an image so short and fat.
	Select the image in order to autotrace the image. Shift + Alt + B > OK There is no need to change the settings if you have a good contrasting image. The default settings should be fine.
	Close the “Trace Bitmap” screen and you will think nothing has been done. Wrong. You have just vectorised your image and must now click on the image, which will pick up your vector file, move your mouse to the side and you will see the two images side, by side. Check that it says “Path” and then you are sure it is the vector not the image. Keep the vector file selected you want to break it apart and then choose path union. (Shift + Ctrl + K) > (Ctrl + (+))
	Remove the fill option and make sure that the stroke paint is selected. Shift + Ctrl + F I have changed the colour to red and made the stroke style width 3 px so that you can see it for this tutorial. Congratulations, you have now outlined your image. Inspiration for this came from Clever Someday – Print and Cut.
	Keep the vector file selected because now you want to move it to the “Cutting Layer” of your Robo Page you made earlier. Shift + Pgup You now have the image on the “image layer” and the cut line on the “cut layer”, but they do not marry up. Finally you deselect your vector file, then Reselect both the image and the vector file. (NB: if you had never moved the two files apart after Autotracing this step would not be relevant as one image would be sitting directly on top of the other). You now want to align them vertically and horizontally. Shift + Ctrl + A
	Perfect Alignment! (Without the need for the Bezier tool)
How to calibrate the printer and the Craft Robo
	So far we have created a template of Craft Robo for Inkscape. Import an image into Inkscape and created a cutting line of the outer edge of the image. Now we want to make sure that when you print the image and then cut the image the two elements look like they do on the screen. We now need to calibrate the cutting line with the image. Open the Layers window. Shift + Ctrl + L Hide the layers that you do not want to print. i.e. “Cut Layer” and “Print and Cut Area” then send to print in the normal way. Ctrl + P
	This is how it should look now. You can measure the image and make sure that it is the dimensions you were after (in my case it is ATC height, 3.5” or 8.5 cm). The registration marks are what the CR will be looking for in the next step. Place the printout onto the CR cutting mat and put it into the CR the normal way. This next bit is a variation of Cardsulike – Using Inkscape to Cut on your Silhouette and Robo
	As we are calibrating the CR I shall be using the pen and drawing the cut line in Red so that I can see where to adjust the settings. This will only need to be done once so that you find the offset for your template. Send the document to print in the normal way. Ctrl + P In the next screen, under “Select Printer”, choose the Graphtec Craft ROBO > Preferences > Cutline Settings > Modify Colour > Pick the same colour as your cutline on your document, in my case it is red > OK> Controller.
	The Craft Robo Controller Screen will appear. Adjust the setting for the CR so that you choose the pen option > Landscape > Registration Marks > Search Registration Marks > mm > and then press the “Registration Mark Reading” button.
	The CR will go through the process of finding the registration marks on the printout page and finish up with the pen nib directly above the lower left corner of the registration mark group of three that you made on the template. You can be confident that things should line up if the registration marks are located before cutting, once you have calibrated the cut lines with the printout. All you need to remember is the degree by which you offset for this particular template you created, every time you need to use it. Close the CR controller screen > OK to printing preference screen > Print > OK
	The pen will now draw the outline of the image with the red pen. You can see that the pen line is off balance to the image, but it is only be mm. The next bit may need a bit of tweaking, but in my tests it was pretty spot on. If you want you can use a shape like a square to calibrate with that is easier to measure, but that wouldn’t have looked so pretty in my tutorial. Without removing the cutting mat. Take a ruler and measure the difference along the x axis (horizontal, width) and the y axis (vertical, height) in mm.
	In my case for the width (x axis) the red line must be moved 11mm to the left. This will be a (-) number so the resulting calibration for the width is (-)11mm.
	For the height (y axis) the red line must be moved 6mm to the bottom. This will also be a (-) number, so the resulting calibration for the y axis is (-)6mm. If you imagine a compass, moving the cutting lines S or W to meet the edge of the printed image produces (-) numbers and moving the cutting lines E or N produces (+) numbers. Your template that you created will most likely have different settings to mine, but they will not be far out, and by the time you calibrate your portrait template you will be proficient at calibrations.
	Now print with the CR again with your offset margins and see what happens. Send your document to print Ctrl + P > Select Printer (Graphtec CR) > Preferences > Basic Setup tab, Offset > With –11mm > Height –6mm > Cutline Settings tab, > Modify Colour > Red, OK > Controller > Landscape > Pen > Registration Marks > Search Registration Marks > Registration Mark Reading. When the CR comes to rest Close > OK > Print > OK The pen should now trace the outline of the image, and be identical to the picture on your computer screen within Inkscape.
	After calibration. You can see the original red outline, and you can now see the red outline pretty close to the outline of the image. Good enough for me. I could fiddle about with percentages of mm, but I am very happy with the result. If I really wanted to, I could use a very old fashioned tool that my grandmother used called a pair of scissors and trim the image up. If you do not want to go so close to the edge, follow Carolyn – Changing a stencil type dingbat tutorial to make a cut line a little further away from the edge as with her stencils.
	Finished Print and cut. You now have a template that you can use to design your projects on. You can print the project, and you know the offset margins to set so that you can cut your project and everything should line up beautifully. Remember, calibration only needs to be done once, per template. After calibration, your projects should be a doddle to do, just remember the settings. Please let me know how you get on when following this tutorial, hopefully I haven’t missed anything.

Gone Wild for Digi Stamps Tutorial (Part 1)

2009-10-25T13:34:00.002+01:00

	Here is the tutorial of my card that I blogged earlier. Just in case anyone was waiting for it here and didn’t realise that I had already put it on my Craft Blog a few days earlier. It uses a grand total of 4 different digi stamps from 4 different suppliers and a sunset photo that I took from my window. Supplies: Flower Girl by Victoria Case Garden Gate by Dustin Pike Daisy Crazy by Sketching Stamper Digi Stamps Fall Leaves by The Digi Shack Author’s own, a photograph of the setting sun from my window.
How to prepare the Digistamps to make a Composition.
	First purchase a digi stamp or use a freebie that you find on the web and save this to your computer. I then use a Photo Editing Programme, Paint.Net that is free to download and I open the image in the editing programme. Layers > Import from File > locate the image you want to use highlight it and then > Open. This will have the effect of opening the digi image in a layer in the programme so that you can start to manipulate it.
This is one of the windows that you will find open in the standard screen view when you open the package. You can turn these on and off to get more space for drawing if you want to, but for now we need to see the different “Layers”. I am assuming that you know how to use layers in a manipulation package. The concept is quite simple. The image on the topmost layer is the image that you see on the top of the composition. What	comes below, is hidden by the topmost layer. A but like decoupage or real life. You can’t see through objects unless they are transparent. The layer that is titled “Background” starts off white, but in this picture you can see that I have made it sky blue. We need a layer that is not white to help us see where we need to delete the background of the image making areas transparent. Once the background to the image is transparent we need another colour other than white or black to shine through to show us where we have been and where we need still to go.
I used the colour pallet in the “Colour” window and chose the blue square from the bottom pick list of colours. You can use any colour you like as long as it is not white or black.	Choose the Paint Bucket tool (the one with a square around it in this picture). Click onto the “Background” layer with this Paint Bucket tool and the whole page will be filled with the blue colour (or whatever colour you chose). In the end, this layer will be deleted as we only need it as a visual aid for the next process.
This is the effect you are looking for.	Go to the “Layers Window”, and select the layer with your image on it because we are now going to be working on this layer. You can tell that you are in the correct layer because it is highlighted with dark blue in the Layers Window.
	Now chose the Magic Wand tool (the one that has a square box round it in this photo) and click on the white area of the image that you want to make transparent. You will see some running ants round the selected area and you want to remove that selected area to make it transparent by hitting the delete button.
	Once you remove the white background of the image by hitting delete, it becomes transparent, and the blue layer that you made earlier shines through the transparent layer and becomes your visual aid to show which areas you have done and which are still to be done. If the background layer was white – well, yes, you’ve got it, it will be the same colour as the colour you have just removed and you would not be able to tell easily where to go next. I find it helpful this way, but there are other methods which you will learn or fall across as you continue to learn for yourself.
	Continue deleting areas until you are happy and then do the same for the other elements that you would like to use for your composition.
	You will want to hide the daisy stalks behind the bushes but in front of the fence, so it is necessary to have a layer of the white area of bushes from Dustin’s image to use as a mask to get the effect that you are after. I select the two white areas by holding down the Ctrl key which makes running ants round both areas, then I invert the selection (Ctrl+I) and press delete to leave me with the white I am looking for.
How to Compose the Scene using the Layers Option within the Photo Editing Programme
Now it is time to compose your scene, since you have all your elements with transparent backgrounds, anything in the resulting background will shine through the gaps as if you are looking through the object for example the wooden fence or the prongs of the rake. Keeping each element on its own layer gives you the flexibility to move it about if you change your mind and place the element in a different place on your composition without affecting the rest of the scene and without the need to rub out or re-draw the digi stamp.	Layer 2 (This contains two copies of the Daisy Crazy digi stamp)
Layer 3 (this contains two more copies of the Daisy Crazy digi stamp but they are positioned so that they overlap the daises that are on Layer 2)	This is only a digital way of doing what you would be doing with rubber stamping and masking, but with the added advantage that you can resize your image to fit the perspective of the scene you are trying to make. And you can move things about without having to re-do everything you have done before. These layers show that I am adding the flowers on the left hand side of the composition.
	You can see that the composition is building up nicely with the daisies in front of the fence, superimposed on each other intertwining with each other as if they would in real life. This is all achievable because you have made the transparent background to the daises in the first place. The daises consist of about 3 layers with one or two copies of the Daises Crazy digi stamp on each layer. However, you can also see that the stalks are showing in the bushes which we do not want. This will be rectified when we use the “bushes” layer that we made up earlier.
	Remember the bushes layer? This is now going to come into its own, you must put this layer at the top of the stack of layers of your project, so that it covers the stalks from the daisies’ layers below it. This is a better way of masking them, then rubbing out the stalk which you could do, but if you decide to alter the placement of daisies to make them taller for instance, you move the selected daisy digi stamp on the selected layer and do not need to redraw any stalks that you may have rubbed out with the rubber tool earlier.
	Almost there. I now have a composition that I am happy with. The rake is leaning up against the fence there are two boarders of daisies growing either side of the fence. I used 7 copies of the original image of daisies. Because the background is transparent, they all intermingle with each other nicely giving a natural look. However, I don’t like the sky. I could print out the composition and paint in the sky, but all those fiddly bits behind the fence posts and daises will probably drive me mad. Now here is where I use a photograph of a sunset to give the feel of a good day’s work done. A bit of gardening and a bit of clearing up. …
How to use a Photograph for your Background.
	When you are happy with your composition you will need to make all the separate elements into one. To do this, you need to merge all the layers that you have just created effectively making a new digi stamp but of a composition you have constructed using different digi stamps. To do this in Pain.net, find the top most layer in the “Layers” window and click your mouse to make sure it is activated. Then press Ctrl+M so that you merge the layer you are on with the layer below it to make it one. If you make a mistake press Ctrl+Z to undo the last command and backtrack.
	You now have your composition on one layer and the photograph on the other. Select the layer with your composition on it and select the composition so with the rectangle select tool and choose the Move selected pixels tool to grab your composition to be able to move it about on the photograph.
	I looked at the different colours of the sky and how it affected the background through the fence. When I was happy with the placement I cropped the whole project to remove the waste and to be able to print the image without the need for using ink that was not needed.
	This is the final effect that I was after. I can now print this out, and colour in the white spaces using my preferred method, and have a beautiful sky that is how nature intended it. I then decoupaged the image of the Flower Girl by Victoria Case to show who did all the work in the garden.

Gone Wild for Digi Stamps Tutorial (Part 2)

2009-10-14T12:11:00.005+02:00

	Anyone who visits my Craft Blog will recognise this card. I did a pictorial for the background which is (Part 1) and now I will show you how I did the decoupage of the Flower Girl by Victoria Case that was cut out with Craft Robo.
What you want to do is either purchase a digi stamp or use a freebie that you find on the web and save this to your computer. The idea is that you then use a Vector Graphics Editor Programme, such as Inkscape that is free to download and open the image in the graphics programme to work on it to make the decoupage cutting file.	To do this, I want to draw a cutting line round the outside of the image and send the file with the graphics digi stamp and cutting line, to my Craft Robo to print and cut the image. This tutorial will hopefully tell you how to do that.
How to prepare the Inkscape to cut out a digi stamp with Craft Robo
	You will need to set the page size within Inkscape so that the digi stamp that you import into the programme will be scaled to the correct size to be cut with the Craft Robo. Follow the settings given by CardsuLike in this excellent Pictorial here in my version I have made the cutting margin red and put it on the bottom layer. Make sure that you lock the padlock so this layer is not altered by accident.
Preparing the Layers to work on within Inkscape
	I have created several layers that I will either work on or lock as I work through the process of creating the cutting line. The bottom most layer you can see, like I mentioned above, I created a guideline for the Cutting Margin for Craft Robo. I closed the padlock so that the layer is protected. The layer above, I have named “Image Layer” this is where I will import the JPEG of the Digi Stamp that I want to work on. I can resize it and place it anywhere within the red cutting margin guidelines and know that it will print and cut accurately. Again, I will lock this layer, because I do not want to change the image I just want to use it as a guide so that I can vectorise the cutting line. The topmost layer I will use for the cutting line.
	I have imported the digi stamp that I want to use. Ctrl+I > find the image you would like to use > Open. When it came into inkscape, it was much larger than I wanted, so I reduced it to the size of an ATC and placed it in the lower left corner of the red guidelines. There are various ways of reducing the size of the image but I just selected the image, which showed up the grab handles, and reduced the size of the image by 50% to get the size I was after.
	I then reduced the Opacity to 50% this will help to make the cutting line stand out as the digi stamp will dim slightly (remember to reset the opacity to 100% before you print the image), and then I protected the digi stamp layer by putting on the padlock. The next step is quite a basic technique and there are lots of tutorials on the web to show you how to do this if you don’t already know. I make sure that I am on the layer that I previously named “Cutting Line”. It should be highlighted in the Layers pallet. If you are not on the layer but on a locked layer, you will wonder why nothing is happening. Which should give you a clue.
	Choose the Bezier tool and start to draw the outline around the image keeping fairly close to the outer edge, by clicking with the tool. It will be like stretching an elastic band round the image to produce the cutting line. This is your cutting line which I have highlighted in red to make it easier to see for this pictorial. The more accurate you are here, the less you have to trim up with the scissors later. This is the bit that takes the time, but it is worth it because each image you purchase will only need to be vectorised for cutting once.
When you need to cut your file you follow this excellent Pictorial from CardsuLike that tells you how to cut your vector file directly from Inkscape instead of having to go through Craft Robo’s DesignMaster programme. I’m all for streamlining, the process, less room for errors that way.	When you reach the last page in CardsuLike’s tutorial it is then that you select whether to print the image with the printer, in order to get the cutting registrations marks or it you choose the cutting option.
Initially you will want to print the digi stamp onto your preferred paper and have the registration marks printed around the image. You have already decided on the size of the image when you brought it into inkscape and placed it within the cutting margin. I then take the page off the printer and place it on the cutting mat that came with Craft Robo. I then watercolour the image on the cutting mat which stops the paper from curling when you watercolour the image as the mat is sticky. I use laser paper instead of watercolour paper so every trick helps.	If I don’t flood the image the paper will not buckle too much, and when it dries it will dry flat against the sticky cutting mat. After the image has been coloured and is thoroughly dry then I follow the Cardsulike tutorial again, but this time I ask the Craft Robo to cut the image. Since the cutting registration marks were printed out prior to watercolouring the image, the Craft Robo locates the cutting lines round the image and cuts accurately to the red lines that you drew round the digi stamp with the Bezier Tool within Inkscape. Then you can layer up the image onto your background (see Part 1) with decoupage squares in the normal way.

Authors Update: You may also like to have a look at this excellent tutorial using Paint Shop Pro.

Masking Rubber and Digi-Stamps together to make a picture

2009-10-13T21:13:00.000+02:00

I had very many lovely comments about my card that I made by manipulating my digi-stamp round the rubber stamp that you can see in this photo, so I thought that I would do a quick pictorial to show you how easy it is to manipulate the Digi-stamps and Rubber stamps together.

If you have read my previous tutorial about how to stop the printed lines of digi-stamps from bleeding, this will give you the confidence to try the digi-stamps as you will see that digital are quite as versatile and in some cases more adaptable, than rubber stamps. So, if there is no problem with the ink, and no problem with combining the two types of stamps (i.e. masking) and no problem with resizing or storing the stamps then there is no reason why you shouldn’t give digital a go. Just remember to back up your collection of digi-stamps for safe keeping.

Authors Update: I recently had a request to show the finished photo of the mermaid card, so I have updated it here for you to see as well as on my http://treesawardincrafts.blogspot.com site. (Scroll down for the tutorial)


Under the Sea
	I usually have a good idea about what I want to do with a stamp before I buy it and when I saw the Mermaid, I instantly remembered my sea shells that I had. I just knew that I would be using them with this digi-stamp. This is the finished image that I shall be showing you haw to achieve (waiting to be coloured and made into a card). I used Squigglefly.com’s Mermaid as the digi-stamp. Dawn Bibby Designs’ clear flower stamps, and some sea shells that I bought from a craft fare. The ink I used for the rubber stamps is Staz-on.
	I first decided what cardstock I was going to use, and printed out the digi-image roughly the size of the cardstock. If you do not know how to do this, I suggest that you visit Squigglefly.com’s excellent tutorial on how to resize digi-stamps (why reinvent the wheel)? I tested how it would look by putting the card and paper onto a light box (not shown in this photo) to check the placement of the Mermaid’s fit on the card. It was evident that there would be a vacant space on the right of the card that I thought would look odd, so I ran the paper through the printer again shifting the digi image up a bit and to the right within the word processor package before I printed it again.
	I started to stamp some shells in the blank areas of the picture. The idea is, that the first layer of images that you stamp will be the top layer of the picture. You must make sure that none of those images overlap each other, and as the picture fills up with images, each image must be masked off before it is stamped. The result is that every over lapped and masked image will then recede into the background, giving perspective to the picture.
	I stamped off more images onto some paper and cut round them decoupage style. Then I fiddled about with them, by placing them onto my picture to get it fixed in my head the sort of finished result that I was after.
	Now I new what I wanted to do, the trick was to mask away what had already been stamped and stamp over the mask with the rubber stamp to produce the optical illusion.
	As you can see I am building up the design nicely, and getting the result that I was looking for when I was fiddling about with the cut out stamped images.
	Continue masking and stamping to build up the design.
	Happy with the design, I took the card stock and placed it over the picture. Then I drew pencil lines along the edge to show where I should concentrate my colouring in. Finally, I sprayed hairspray over the entire printed page and allowed it to dry ready to colour the image in and make up the card.

I hope you like my pictorial, and if you need any further help with masking, pop over to Bev’s tutorial, which is where I got the idea from in the first place, I just adapted it to use with my digi-stamps as well as my rubber stamps.
You should now be able to see how easy it is to manipulate your images to the best effect but please ,just remember to back up your collection of digi-stamps for safe keeping away from your computer.

How to stop Printed Lines of Digi-Stamps from Bleeding.

2009-10-12T12:49:00.000+02:00

I have not long discovered digi-stamps myself, and needed no encouragement to try them. I am blessed with being computer literate (or at least better at computers than some) I don't know why, 'cos I was a complete dunce at school. Now you must be thinking that you will not be able to use them as well as your favourite rubber stamps but fear not I will give you the benefit of my learning curve. It is up to you to try for yourself and see if you like them. It took me a while of trial and error, but now I have my preferred method there is no stopping me.
How do you Stop the Print Lines from Bleeding when Watercolouring?
I think the most useful tip for me was to keep an image stash box and print the images off and then forget about them for a few days. I did that with one digi-stamp and when I re-discovered the image in my image stash box I started watercolouring it and found half way through that I realised that I was working with a digi-stamp and not an image I had stamped with staz-on. Mind you, I'm not flooding my watercolour as much as I used to either because even staz-on bleeds if I do, so I suppose that helps as well. If I am in a moderate hurry, I dry the ink with a heat gun and then leave it for a few hours rather than days, as I suggested before. This allows me to print in the morning and work on the image in the afternoon.
Using Spray Fixative.
A suggestion was made to use a fixative, to fix the ink to the paper. I thought that this was a good idea, because there are times that I want to make a quick card and do not have the time to leave the image to dry for a couple of days. A friend of mine told me about hairspray being used as a fixative instead of the expensive proprietary inkjet printer fixative that you can buy. I have tried it and it does work, any cheap hairspray will work and will leave your paper with a slight perfume, which I find pleasant to work with.
I hold the paper about 12 inches away from the spray nozzle and spray for about 4 seconds moving the can over the image capturing the print lines. I am using copy paper, and when I first did it the paper looked glassy as if it were a grease mark on the paper, however this disappears when it is dry. I have used the heat gun here to dry out the paper and check that it is completely dry by holding it up against the window or a light box. There should not be a grease mark appearance when it is dry. You may get away with using less hairspray, and one day I will try that.
I then decided to water colour with my whispers pens (now that I had found the hair spray and had used it on my experimental image). I was amazed at the difference it makes, I can now use inexpensive copy paper the same way as if it were watercolour paper. In the past I was only able to use my Whispers by scribbling onto some acetate and picking up the colour with a water pen and then water colouring the image. The problem I had was not to flood the image with water. When I used the pens directly on the copy paper it soaked in too quick and would not move with the water so I got hard lines which looked a little odd as they would not blend in. Now though, with the addition of hair spray over the image which stops the paper from being so absorbent, I can draw a band of colour along the spine of a printed line then blend the colour into the body of the image with the water pen, just as if I was using expensive water colour paper. As I am blending away from the printed black line into the body of the image there is no danger of flooding the lines and making them bleed. Coupled with the added protection of the print lines being fixed with the hair spray, I think I am finally finding my groove of how to get the effect I want.
Can you use Embossing Powder?
I tried printing an image on acetate, but it never dried. I was using the wrong type of acetate, but it got me thinking about using embossing powder. After printing the image, I whipped it off the printer and flooded it with embossing powder which stuck to the ink as if I had used a stamp pad. The results were good It worked, to me it looks just like staz-on and heat embossed lines they were thin and sharp where they needed to be, and I was able to use up my stash of acetate. There are many places where you can buy special inkjet printable acetate and one place you can try is Joanna Sheen, which is what I am going to try next time. It's the sort of thing you might be more likely to get in an office-supplies place rather than just a craft shop so keep a look out on your travels. What you are looking for is that stuff that has got a coating on it that takes the ink, so it's not quite as clear as uncoated acetate which is what I was trying first, but unless you've got a direct comparison, you probably won't see the difference.
I printed out on paper with the hope of using embossing powder hot off the press, but just could not get the embossing powder to stick to the ink, however fast I took it out of the printer. I tried adjusting the ink settings by making the ink "heavy" but it came out of the printer too slow and was dry before I could put the embossing powder on. However, it seems a better quality for doing water colouring with and has a very slight tactile edge to it because the ink is so heavy, so this will do well with the hairspray method and leaving it aside for a few days for good measure. "Normal" printing meant that the paper spat out the printer quicker, but still was dry before I could use the embossing powder on it. I must have that new “improved” ink cartridge with quick drying ink or my paper is too absorbent, I haven’t yet tried this method with coated paper or iridescent paper that may not be quite so absorbent.
I thought I would try to trace the lines with a glue pen or the fine tip end of my Whispers Strokes pens, a bit like the double ended embossing pens you can get, they are supposed to be quite juicy. I thought that before it dried I could sprinkle the powder over it and heat set it and then I would get finer lines with the Whispers Strokes than I could get using the glue pen. The jury is still out on this test, as I would like to try different paper absorbencies before I make a decision on whether I like the effect or not. I would like to try printing some paper that has been previously fixed with hairspray to see if that will prevent the ink from drying so quickly enabling me to emboss with it. So plenty to try before I decide not to emboss with digi-stamps.
Well that is all the advice that I have to offer for now, I hope that some of it was useful, and remember half the fun is the discovery.

Update from Author. One day I noticed that my printer was set to "Draft" printing. I know this is because I was trying to save printer ink way back in the day, but I thought that I would give it a go without the Draft setting. Guess what? no more bleeding of ink!

Print and Cut « Clever Someday

2009-09-19T12:19:00.000+02:00

Print and Cut seems to be ever so popular and with the new cutting machines everywhere it is getting even easier to do. Check out this excellent tutorial from Clever Someday. This is the end result. How cool is that?

Print and Cut « Clever Someday

Crissy Armstrong is the new artist for Squigglefly.com

2009-09-18T09:43:00.002+02:00

www.Squigglefly.com is introducing their new Artist who is none other than the wonderful Crissy Armstrong. Crissy has been very successful in producing Rubber Stamps for High Hopes Stamps, until the end of July 2009, and is now doing Digi Stamps for www.Squigglefly.com! I am so elated, because not only do I love High Hopes Rubber Stamps ever since I won Rhonda’s blog candy but I love Digi Stamps and watercolouring. Many of you will know that I am teaching myself art and I am also lucky enough to be an artist for www.Squigglefly.com, I am so pleased that Crissy has joined the Squigglefly family as I am sure that I will learn heaps from her.

Crissy has done some wonderful tutorials on YouTube that are well worth watching. In the first place, they cameo one of her new Digi Stamps for Squigglefly that will be launched tomorrow (19 September 2009), in the second place it is using a digi stamp, and in the third place it is showing you not only how to watercolour but that watercolouring digi stamps is no different to using rubber stamps. Something we have been telling you lot for ages now. Yay! If you still need convincing, watch these excellent tutorials that Crissy has produced – I guarantee that you will want to head straight over to Squigglefly and buy some stamps if you haven’t already got some.

Part 1

Part 2 and

Part 3

Digital Image Colouring

2009-08-12T15:11:00.001+02:00

This is a video that I found that uses Dustin Pike’s images and as I now have quite a few of his images I thought that it would be a good idea to keep this sort of thing up my sleeve for later, when I have time to get my head around it. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

How to use a stamp positioner to do some masking

2009-04-09T23:15:00.000+02:00

This is a wonderful tutorial that Bev has produced that has opened new avenues to me in the way that I use my stamps. Masking off various areas of where you stamp can push an image that you are trying to achieve to the foreground or to the background giving you perspective to your overall picture. I love combining rubber stamps with digital stamps, testing the boundaries of them both and seeing if I can produce a story in a picture. I know that there are probably many more tutorials out there that offer the same knowledge but the tutorial that you can find here, I found particularly useful to me. I hope you do too.

How to get Copic like results with Bic or Sharpie markers

2009-04-08T11:14:00.000+02:00

At the moment I do not have any markers of any kind, but there is so much said about them that it is something that I will be considering in buying for the future. When I do, I will need to know how to use them, and the video goes a long way to showing how versatile they are. I hope you enjoy watching it.

Watercolour Video

2009-04-07T11:12:00.000+02:00

Now one thing that I love to use is watercolour. I have loved it ever since I was at school. Only over the last year or so, have I had the time to dabble in art again and I love every minute of the day now. In fact, there are not enough hours in the day. Thank goodness my DH loves doing all the mundane chores and is happy to watch the sport on the telly so he leaves me time and space to re-live my childhood.

Suffice it to say, this video is very interesting if you are into watercolouring, and it has helped me to kick start me in the right direction again.

Printing, Printers and Ink

2009-04-06T18:40:00.000+02:00

As I am increasingly digitising my creativity due to cost and the wonderful web I found this article very interesting. I do love doing all my work on the computer, but sometimes I need to print things off, and when I do, I often have a battle with myself at how much ink I am using. Sadly, my initial investigations found that I could not get a CISS for my printer, which is a shame because it is the first and only one I ever bought, and I love it. This doesn't mean that I can be selfish about the information though. You may find this article useful to yourself.

http://www.funkyfairyspapercrafts.com/shop/Printing.php

The following suggestions are just based on my 'personal' opinions, to help you get the 'BEST' possible results for the 'LEAST' amount of money!!!

Iam in NO way connected to any companies or product mentioned.

Firstly think about 'Why' you are wanting to print out papers at home.

If you are printing out papers at home from your home pc,it is normally because it's the more 'cost effective' option,rather than buying shop bought papers.

Most of us have one of those all in one scanner,printer machines ect.....but how much is your ink for it? I have one of those machines here (but i don't use mine) The ink for mine is about £50 for 2 cartridges,so now if i used THAT machine to print out my papers,it just would NOT be cost effective,it would be cheaper to buy the shop bought papers.

I personally have always gone for epson printers,because you can buy fairly cheap compatable ink cartridges for them . You 'DON'T' need an expensive top of the range printer to print out papers,you 'DON'T' need the most expensive ink either.
The printer i use now is a very normal cheap everday printer. It is an Epson D92,which you can buy for £30 and under . It's not the 'fstest' printer in the world,but it gives me the quality print that i want.

You can buy 'fairly' cheap compatable ink cartridges for this printer too,however i don't buy ink cartridges anymore, as i bought a CISS instead. (continuous Ink Supply System) The CISS is basically a cartridge that sits in your printer were you would put a 'normal' cart, the CISS cart has plastic tubes connected to it that are also connected to large ink tanks. You don't replace the cartridge,you simply pour ink into the ink tanks .

You have to buy the CISS that is for YOUR particular printer. So when i bought mine i bought the one that was compatable with an epson D92. The CISS complete with full tanks of ink cost £25. Upto now,since i bought the CISS i have printed LOADS of papers ...AND photo's,yet i'm still using the same ink that came with the CISS. When you want more ink for your CISS you buy a set of 100ml bottles of ink. My printer takes 3 colours and a black. So i get 4 100ml bottles of ink, and with p&p it costs roughly £11. (I used to pay that for 1 set of cartridges) now for the same price the inktanks hold 20 + times the amount of the cartridges.So the CISS is very,very cost effective.(I used ebay for the CISS, and for the refill inks)
Paper! I have tried out loads of different papers.I also print onto card,acetate,shrink,vellum,safmat ect...but when it comes to your everday paper which you will use the most,i have found 1 that is just perfect for this. I use this paper all the time,and i won't use any other. The paper i use is Tesco Finest printer paper. It is 120gsm ,nice thickness,nice and smooth,its' just perfect, and it only costs just under £3 for 250 sheets.

If you were to print a patterned paper onto normal thin printer paper and a sheet of the tesco finest,straight away you will see the difference,because when printing your own papers ,it DOES make a BIG difference as to what paper you use.
Every time i print out my papers i get perfect results everytime. I use the epson 92, CISS, tesco finest paper....AND i print them out at TEXTquality!...and the print perfectly.

There is no point printing out papers if you are having to print at best/photo quality all the time,this will consume your ink quickly,so wouldn't be very cost effective....UNLESS you had a CISS

So if what you want is the BEST possible results for the LEAST amount of money, then just follow the advice i have just given you :)

Free Video Tutorials from Samping up Acadamy

2009-04-01T08:36:00.000+02:00

This is a fantastic site that has a free video tutorial section. It is regularly updated with new and interesting projects and is so useful in learning new techniques. You can find the sit here.

Trees aWard in Tutorials

Apple Strudel Recipe

How to Finish Your Boutonniere

Add Accent Flowers and Greenery to Your Boutonniere

Wire and Tape a Rose for a Boutonniere

Choose Flowers for a Boutonniere

How to Make a Boutonniere

Tutorial in using Crayons (or Oil Pastels)

Colouring with Twinkling H2O’s

Making Digital Stamps using a scanned hand drawing and Inkscape

Congratulations! You have made your first digi stamp!

Print and Cut with Inkscape and Craft Robo

Preparing the Craft Robo Page Template in Inkscape

Getting the outline of an image so it can be cut with Craft Robo

Perfect Alignment!

How to calibrate the printer and the Craft Robo

Gone Wild for Digi Stamps Tutorial (Part 1)

How to prepare the Digistamps to make a Composition.

How to Compose the Scene using the Layers Option within the Photo Editing Programme

How to use a Photograph for your Background.

Gone Wild for Digi Stamps Tutorial (Part 2)

How to prepare the Inkscape to cut out a digi stamp with Craft Robo

Preparing the Layers to work on within Inkscape

Masking Rubber and Digi-Stamps together to make a picture

How to stop Printed Lines of Digi-Stamps from Bleeding.

Print and Cut « Clever Someday

Crissy Armstrong is the new artist for Squigglefly.com

Digital Image Colouring

How to use a stamp positioner to do some masking

How to get Copic like results with Bic or Sharpie markers

Watercolour Video

Printing, Printers and Ink

Free Video Tutorials from Samping up Acadamy