Look what I made! First SCAL project

[Kim1964]

Wow! I want to be hopemax when I grow up.

 

[morgansmom2000]

Wow, that's amazing! I think I'll download inkscape today and play while Morgan is at dance!

 

[Tigger1221]

Thats really cute and I am in the DL swap an get one! I am trying to convincing DH I need Sure Cuts Alot and he seems interested in it.

 

[hopemax]

Great job on your little guy (and lucky me... I get one!). Where did you get the cruise coloring book? I would love one to do some paper piecing for my cruise albums.

I got it when we were on the Trans-Atlantic cruise in May 2007. I don't know if they still carry one. If you start the book from one side it's all cruise, if you flip the book (so the back cover is now the front cover) it's Pirates.

Thanks for all the kind words. It turned out to be much easier than I expected. Especially, with the paint bucket method. I did have to restart my file about 8 times, before I "got it." It probably would have been better to start with something easier. Having experience with other image editing programs (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc) probably helps.

And when I cut it with the Cricut, it went so easy. I think SCAL's pathing algorithm is better than ProvoCraft's. I was using old mats and an old blade. Cutting from carts was causing all sorts of tearing, but nothing tore at all, for all 6 sets.

 

[JohnsonsLoveDisney]

Thats so awesome!

I too had trouble "getting it" the first time i did an image. Then i had that ah ha! moment. That is so much better than my buzz-mobile.

 

[New England Eeyore]

I've spent some time this afternoon watching those tutorials and they were really helpful. I think I understand that method, but what I need help on is cleaning up the images themselves to get to that point. The ones in the tutorials had no distracting background stuff, but if you're pulling out from a coloring page, how do you clean it up so you are just working with the Mexican boy, for example. I know it involves terms like nodes and bitmaps and that's where my brain always got mushy when I tried to learn it before. I think a video would be great - I need to go search and see if I can find one.

 

[hopemax]

I didn't use nodes, or anything like that. I scanned my image. In my Paint Shop Pro, I erased the lines I didn't need. Just a simple, click on the eraser tool, and erase. Inkscape, apparently doesn't have an eraser tool. You could do this in paint easily.

Then in Inkscape, I said, I want this part to be red, so I clicked on the paint bucket, clicked on red, clicked in the image where I wanted the red. There is a field for Threshold. If it doesn't all fill in with the color you want, you can increase this number until it does. There is another field called grow by, and if you increase this a little, it will get closer to the black line, so the pieces will fit together closer (I think I should have done this on my Mexico boy, but live and learn).

For my next project, I am going to be scanning from a book that has manilla pages instead of white, so I am going to see how much of a difference it makes. In Paint Shop Pro, cleaning up a manilla page is a lot of work.

 

[New England Eeyore]

Well, that's certainly simple enough - I can do that! That is very helpful - thank you!

 

[hopemax]

I got it when we were on the Trans-Atlantic cruise in May 2007. I don't know if they still carry one. If you start the book from one side it's all cruise, if you flip the book (so the back cover is now the front cover) it's Pirates.

It appears I am confusing my coloring books. The Cruise one is a stand alone book. The Pirates one shares with Pirates of the Caribbean movie stuff, with the Fab 5 dressed up as pirates.

The SKU on the back of the Disney Cruise Line Coloring Book is 400152003032. I don't know if it is still for sale. You used to be able to order Cruise stuff through WDW merchandise. I don't know if you still can.

 

[kkbeaton2]

It appears I am confusing my coloring books. The Cruise one is a stand alone book. The Pirates one shares with Pirates of the Caribbean movie stuff, with the Fab 5 dressed up as pirates.

The SKU on the back of the Disney Cruise Line Coloring Book is 400152003032. I don't know if it is still for sale. You used to be able to order Cruise stuff through WDW merchandise. I don't know if you still can.

Thanks. I have a friend going on a cruise soon, so I will ask her to pick me up one. I didn't even look for coloring books when I have been on our cruises. I guess that's because I had never done paper piecing like that before!

 

[123SA]

So I tried last night and I gave up. I am unfamiliar with all of these programs (paint shop etc) so I think that is a problem. I understand what she is doing with the separating layers, but I can't follow what tools she is selecting along the sides and top. THe whole change to outline mode, pink line, switching from one color to the next...The second tutorial where she has a black rectangle -- I don't know how to make a black rectangle. I also don't know if I need one. I was working with a Mickey coloring page and I definitely want a base. I need a tutorial that assumes I know nothing, which is true, and clearly states each and every step.

When I didn't have 3 kids, I loved the challenge of learning. Now, I just don't have the time to suffer through all of the trial and error. I need a book with clear directions that I can read and follow.

 

[Iris]

I don't have paint shop pro so I cannot clean up the image before going into inkscape, I must do the work directly in inkscape although I can use the color bucket but the images are not as smooth as I would like.

Here are some excellent tuturials for inkscape with many different methods:

http://forums.surecutsalot.com/viewforum.php?f=17


There are several specific tutorials regarding breaking items apart, cleaning up an image, etc.

 

[ZeroToHero]

I'm considering getting this, but I had a question first. Do you (1) make your image you want to cut, and then print it out all in seperate colored layers, and the Cricut cuts it, or (2) make the image with different layers, put the right colored paper in the cricut, and it cuts it?

I have the tiny Cricut, so does SCAL even work with it? Or do you need the Cricut Expression, with its inks and everything?

(Sorry to hijack your thread, hopemax... )

 

[hopemax]

I only have the baby bug, and as you can see, it worked fine. The cuts are just like the Disney cricut carts, and you assemble it just like you would assemble a Disney piece. So option 2.

 

[ZeroToHero]

I only have the baby bug, and as you can see, it worked fine. The cuts are just like the Disney cricut carts, and you assemble it just like you would assemble a Disney piece. So option 2.

Thank you very much! I can see SCAL in my future...... (I'll give it to my mom as a present, and then just... share. )

 

[TinkerBean]

ZtoH - Don't forget YOM...
(your other mother)That's me

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

ZtoH - Don't forget YOM...
(your other mother)That's me

SCAL is pretty cool. I like being able to glue down one whole piece to a shadow instead of all the letters individually.

 

[ZeroToHero]

ZtoH - Don't forget YOM...
(your other mother)That's me

You ruined my Other Mother's Day present for you!

Hopefully we'll all get a present of going on the scrap for my birthday.

 

[New England Eeyore]

I was on the computer for like 5 or 6 hours yesterday trying to figure this out, and it was only at about 10:30 that I had a Eureka moment and got the hang of it - then it was too late to cut anything. I'm hoping to find some time tomorrow to try it.

I was not able to get the colors to fill properly until I jacked the threshold way up (like to 30 or something.) Then - eureka!

Iris - I don't have a fancy program either, but like Hope said, Paint, which I believe comes on all PCs is a really simple program but it will do the job. That's what I did.

123SA- I don't know how to make a black box either. Well, I could make the black box, but I didn't know how to get the image to be on top of it without disappearing. What I did was draw a box using the line tool to be able to get my shadow feature, but then I couldn't erase the lines, so my shadow also has a box around it. For now, I can live with that. And you don't have to have a pink line - that was just so she could show us more clearly.

Another thing I figured - in the tutorial, she linked everything together of one color (shift-clicking), which led to a lot of empty space (which would be wasted paper) between elements in my piece. I figured out it was better not to link them. I could then just drag all the colors to one place as close together as I wanted.

I also did the resizing tip from the scrappy dew tutorial and put a little star next to every color. I have the big bug, so I should be able to make everything fit on one mat which will be nice. Although now that I'm thinking about it - I saved one file for all the pieces, and seperate files for the pieces grouped by color. If I just cut my paper to fit on exactly the right spaces on the mat, I can probably just work with the master file - I don't have to open all the colors and resize them. Or am I missing something? I'll have to try that.

 

[hopemax]

123SA- I don't know how to make a black box either. Well, I could make the black box, but I didn't know how to get the image to be on top of it without disappearing. What I did was draw a box using the line tool to be able to get my shadow feature, but then I couldn't erase the lines, so my shadow also has a box around it. For now, I can live with that. And you don't have to have a pink line - that was just so she could show us more clearly.

If you make the rectangle, before you import your file it will on top. I couldn't figure out how to make the rectangle be below it after importing either. I haven't looked to see if there is a way or not. NEE - Did you try breaking apart the image (Ctrl +K) and then deleting the box?

Susan, if you move your mouse over the images on the left, it will pop up and tell you what function it is. The ones I have used are the arrow (for selecting, moving and resizing), the square (to make the box), the paint can (this is what you use to fill the colors. After you select the paint can, you select your color by clicking on the color. If you right click, it will ask if you want to change the fill color or the stroke color. If you change the stroke it will make the different colored line). From the top menus, the only two you need are the View, which you can find the Zoom and below it is where you can change to Outline view and back to normal view. And Path, which is where you find the Break Apart.

Another thing I figured - in the tutorial, she linked everything together of one color (shift-clicking), which led to a lot of empty space (which would be wasted paper) between elements in my piece. I figured out it was better not to link them. I could then just drag all the colors to one place as close together as I wanted.

Me too. After you get your small parts in the place you want them, you can select them all, using shift, and then go to the Path menu and select Combine. Then you can move them around as one group

I also did the resizing tip from the scrappy dew tutorial and put a little star next to every color. I have the big bug, so I should be able to make everything fit on one mat which will be nice. Although now that I'm thinking about it - I saved one file for all the pieces, and seperate files for the pieces grouped by color. If I just cut my paper to fit on exactly the right spaces on the mat, I can probably just work with the master file - I don't have to open all the colors and resize them. Or am I missing something? I'll have to try that.

If you have room, you should be able to use just the master file. But those of us with little mats, not so much. Well, I could use the master file, if I only had to make 1, but I would rather cut each color when I am making 6 of them. I think I will handle less pieces of colored paper that way. Less cutting the paper into pieces to make everything fit on the mat.