SEPARATING COLORS - PART 2

Hello all and welcome to our blog. I hope you have all downloaded the image we will be working on and have Paint.net (or other good graphics program) ready to go. The important thing is that you must have a 'Magic Wand' or 'Fuzzy Select' tool. This feature enables you to select an area consisting of a single color. It is represented by an icon that looks something like this:

The first thing we must do is to create a new folder in which to save our images. When we are done you will have an image for each color that you want to cut. Make sure that you remember where your folder is and what it is called.For the first part of this lesson we will make an image consisting of only the gold parts of the original image. If you remember from the post 'First Image' it is easiest to convert an image to an SVG if it is a silhouette, so we will make a silhouette of the gold parts of the image. Open the 'badge' image with Paint.net and select the 'Magic Wand' tool. The cursor will be a little '+' sign with a diagonal line. The 'Hot Spot' of the cursor is the center of the '+' sign.Since we only want the gold areas for this silhouette, we need to make all the other colors disappear. Click the cursor on the green area on the lower left of the shield. You will notice a dotted line that seems to flash surrounding the green area. This means the the selected green area will be the only area affected by the next coloring step.

All we have to do to make the highlighted green area disappear is to paint it the same color as the background, in our case, white. Select the 'paint brush', make sure you have white selected as the color, and pick a brush size. I like to use a fairly large brush so I can color an area in a couple of swipes. You don't have to worry about 'staying inside the lines' because the highlighted area is all that is affected.

Now, just paint the green area white by clicking and holding the left mouse button and moving the cursor over the green area. Just continue selecting everything that isn't gold and painting it white. If you happen to click or paint a gold area just click 'Edit' then 'Undo' on the toolbar. Don't worry about the small areas inside the letters or the remaining edges of the painted areas, we'll get to them later. You should now have an image that looks like this:

On the toolbar click 'Edit' then 'Select All'. Notice the the entire image is enclosed by the flashing outline. Select the paint brush and white as your color, and a brush size that you are comfortable with. Now paint out all edge lines, etc. that are easy to get to with the brush size that you are using. But BE CAREFUL here because the whole image is selected and a slip might cause you to paint some of the gold - REMEMBER THE UNDO FUNCTION!
You now should have an image that looks like this:

You should save the image at this point. Use the folder that you created earlier and use a file name that is easy to remember, like 'badgegold'. There are still some black areas and edge remnants but we will get rid of them and smoothen any jagged parts in the next post. If you have any questions -email us- . Until then;

GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY CUTTING!!

THEY'RE STICK PEOPLE

Hello all. We're sorry to interupt the "Separating Colors" post but this is screaming to get done. Marla (Hi, Marla!) created some stick people on Facebook and asked me to convert them so she could cut them in vinyl to put on her van, which I did. She liked them so much that she wanted to share them, but the stick people created with that program are copyrighted. There has been some interest in stick people over at the YAHOO SCAL Group so lets get stick people to anyone who wants some. First you have to open Paint, then make a circular shape for a head, then draw........ Of course we're only kidding, but the point is anyone can draw stick figures and they are very easy to convert in Inkscape . You can use almost any graphics program there is and you should end up with exactly the stick person you want. We drew ours using a graphics tablet that we got from TIGER DIRECT for 50 bucks. You will even get a good figure using the mouse.

Personalize your figure with skis, scissors, golf clubs or whatever. If you can't convert them to SVGs send them to us. Maybe we should put up a page just to show what everybodies' stick person looks like. Let us know in the comments section or by email

GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY CUTTING!!

FIRST STEP TO THE 'SEPARATING COLORS' PROBLEM

Hello again everyone. There has been a lot of interest on separating the colors of an image over at the SURE CUTS A LOT group on YAHOO . Over the next few posts, I'll show you one way to do this using a free program called Paint.net. This is a super piece of software that rivals ADOBE PHOTO SHOP in features. I have found that Paint.net is easy to use and a very powerful program. When we are finished all the parts of this lesson you should be able to determine if an image is suitable for cutting and be able to make an SVG of each color. For this lesson we will use the image of a military badge that we recently converted for a member of YAHOO Groups. This image is a good place to start because it is very sharp and has excellent contrast. To download Paint.net click on the button. To get the image that we will convert, right click the image and save it (remember where you saved it).

So go ahead and install Paint.net and save the image. In the next post we will start to manipulate the image and break out the colors so that each color can be converted to an SVG for cutting. Remember to send us any good SVGs that you would like to share; we'll add them to the library. Until then:

GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY CUTTING!

USING MICROSOFT PAINT TO MAKE WELDED IMAGES

A very useful resource for Windows users has been right there all the time - Microsoft Paint. It is included with Windows and is very easy to use. I find that welding letters in Paint is easier than doing it in SURE CUTS A LOT. For this post we'll make the phrase "ST.PAT" with welded letters but shapes use exactly the same technique. I am using a free font called MERLIN because it is stylish, cuts nicely, is easy to weld (because of the shape of the letters), and has a Celtic feel to it.

To start, open Paint and make your background a size that's easy to work with by clicking "Image" then selecting "Attributes". 4" X 3" is a good size so just type the values in the appropriate boxes. Make sure to select the proper units, then click OK. It's best to have a big background area so you'll have plenty of room to move the letters around. Now select the text tool (the box with the "A"). Drag a square a little bigger than the size of one letter. A text select box will appear so you can pick the font and size you want. When you have selected the font and size, type a capital "S". At this point, make sure that you have the 'transparent' background selected. There are 2 boxes with colored shapes inside; 'transparent' is the bottom one. Now make another text box in a different area of your image and type in a capital "T". Continue making text boxes and typing your letters until you have all the characters needed to make your image.

Using the "Rectangle Select" tool (the dotted line rectangle next to the star) drag a box around your capital "S" and drag the letter to the top left part of your image. Then drag a box around a "T" and drag it so the cross of the "T" is touching the top of the "S". The "S" is now welded to the "T". Continue with the other letters until your ST.PAT image is the way you want it.

Finally, using the "Rectangle Select" tool, drag a box around the finished text and drag the entire text image to the upper-left corner. Crop the image so the completed image fills the back ground using the handles (dots halfway along the right side and bottom of the background - you will get a 2-headed arrow when you're on the handle). The finished image can now be saved.

After your imaged has been saved, you can open it with INKSCAPE and convert it to an SVG file as discussed in the previous post.

GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY CUTTING!!

FIRST POST AND FIRST IMAGE

Welcome to MY CRICUT SURE CUTS A LOT. We're just beginning to learn about blogging as a form of networking for people with similar interests, so please bear with us if we make a few errors. What we hope to accomplish is to have a library of ready to cut patterns and images that are "ready-to-cut" on your CRICUT machine. We will add our own images, but we also encourage you to send us your patterns to add to the library. We have set up a website to store the images. You can download them at: CRICUT SVG Images

Although the website is far from being done we are working on it all the time, so please come back every week or so to check out our progress and get more images.To use these patterns on your CRICUT, you will need the SURE-CUTS-A-LOT software which you can buy through the link on the right. The cost is about the same as one CRICUT cartridge but you will be able to cut thousands of free fonts and images. The other links are software programs that you can use to make your own SVG files. They are excellent programs and they are FREE! In later posts we will discuss how to use them to help you make your own SVG files. If you are already creating SVG files for your CRICUT and would like to share them, please email them to us at: cecilbadlands@gmail.com (please put 'svg file' in the subject line). When we add your submission we will acknowledge your contribution by putting your name or a link to your blog/website on the contributors'page. If you want to download the free software now and play with it; GO FOR IT! Remember - it's electronic, you can't hurt anything.

YOUR FIRST SVG FILE

Our first tip is a general rule that we use when finding an image and creating an SVG file to cut on the CRICUT is try to find a silhouette of the image. Google Images is a great place to start: http://images.google.ca/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi . For example; type in heart silhouette, and save a black and white silhouette image that you like. You can use JPEGs, BITMAPS, GIFs, PNGs and other types of images.

Next, start INKSCAPE and click 'File' and 'Open' then select the image that you just saved. Now click on 'View'-Display Mode...- and click 'Outline...'. The image will be replaced with a red "X". Click on the border of the red "X" and it will be selected.

Now click on 'Path' then click 'Trace Bitmap...' and another window will appear. Make sure the red "X" is selected. In the new window, click on 'Brightness cutoff' and set the threshold value to about .650 then click 'Update'. Your image will appear the way it will look after cutting on your CRICUT. If you like the way it looks click OK. An outline of the image will appear in the red "X". The outline is the cut your CRICUT will make.

Close the 'Trace Bitmap' window. The outline image will be selected but you will need to select the red "X". With the red "X" selected, hit the 'Delete' key on your keyboard and the red "X" will disappear. You are left with your finished SVG file. To save it, click on 'File' - Save As... and a new window will appear.

Decide where you want to save your SVG file and navigate there. Be sure to name the file and change the file type to .svg (near the top of the 'Save'window) before you click the 'SAVE' button.

CONGRATULATIONS!! Your svg image can now be imported into the SURE CUTS A LOT program and cut on your CRICUT. REMEMBER - it's easiest if you start with a silhouette. We'll show you how to convert other images into silhouettes in future posts.

Send us your SVG files for cutting on the CRICUT machine:

cecilbadlands@gmail.com

GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY CUTTING!!!