The software that must be used to run the Cricut Explore can not be installed on Windows 8.1 and Firefox. At first, the software was only available if you had purchased the machine. A few days ago, it became available via a download on the Cricut website. I can't 'try before I buy' because I can't install it!
As a money saving ploy, this is working well. I guess I have just saved myself on the order of $300+ just by not installing this software. Perhaps I should look for some other things I can decide not to buy?
Showing posts with label papercrafting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label papercrafting. Show all posts
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Explore
The new digital cutting machine from Provo Craft is called the Explore. The Explore is available on the Home Shopping Network, but it is part of a bundle of stuff that I do not want. (It is sold out.) The Explore will be available in stores on March 15. Not getting the bundle of extra stuff that I'm not going to use will save me $50 or so. I should probably put my name on a waiting list to make sure that I can get my hands on one.
What are the features that make me want this machine? It can work with True Type fonts. I can also create using files with .svg, .jpg, .png, .bmp, .gif, and .dxf formats. Yay! Prior to this, the only way I could create my own graphics was by using software that wasn't really designed for that. With the ability to upload my own graphics, I can use any application to create them. A possible downside to the Explore is that the single graphics are pricy. 99 cents and up isn't cheap. The backwards compatibility in the Explore covers much of my hesitation about the price of those single graphics. I have an extensive library of graphics already.
The new software is called Design Space and it only works with the Explore. The Cricut blog states you must be connected to the internet to use Design Space and you must use Design Space to control your Explore. It also states that all the headache that I have already dealt with to link the graphics I have purchased to my on-line Cricut account was not wasted effort. Everything that is already linked to my account will be available when I use Design Space. Whew!
What are the features that make me want this machine? It can work with True Type fonts. I can also create using files with .svg, .jpg, .png, .bmp, .gif, and .dxf formats. Yay! Prior to this, the only way I could create my own graphics was by using software that wasn't really designed for that. With the ability to upload my own graphics, I can use any application to create them. A possible downside to the Explore is that the single graphics are pricy. 99 cents and up isn't cheap. The backwards compatibility in the Explore covers much of my hesitation about the price of those single graphics. I have an extensive library of graphics already.
The new software is called Design Space and it only works with the Explore. The Cricut blog states you must be connected to the internet to use Design Space and you must use Design Space to control your Explore. It also states that all the headache that I have already dealt with to link the graphics I have purchased to my on-line Cricut account was not wasted effort. Everything that is already linked to my account will be available when I use Design Space. Whew!
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Cricut Flower Shoppe
I have this cart for my Cricut and I kept fighting with it. I'd look up instructions and get something to almost turn out, but I wasn't ever really happy.
I have had an epiphany! The flowers are put onto the cartridge display in pieces sorted into columns. If you start at the top of the column, you will have the center of the flower. Then, you simply cut each pattern down the column and you will have the middle and outer petals of the flower. Last, at the bottom of the column, you have leaves that match the flower.
For an initial test, cut everything at the same size. 2.75" is a good start. after you play with your flowers a bit, you'll find which pieces you want to cut smaller or larger. I like to cut the centers up to two times larger because I like they way they look.
To roll up the center of the flower, start at the outside of the spiral. Roll around a toothpick or needle to start. I use a paper piercer, because it has a nice handle on it. I don't roll around the paper piercer for long, only an inch or two. I remove it and keep rolling. The ruffled edge can do whatever it wants, but the goal is to keep the smooth edge even, to create a flat piece that will glue down to the tab that's left at the end. The angle of the spiral will cause the petals to fan themselves out. Then allow the spiral to spin loose to be just a smidge larger than the center tab. Don't worry that you aren't gluing down the entire spiral. It won't came apart if you glue enough of the first length that you rolled up to create the center.
Once the glue has dried, I bend the petals out with my fingers, one petal at a time. If I try to do too many or bend too far, they will rip or crush and the center of my flower looks a bit worse for the wear. I've found that warm, barely damp fingers also help. Cheap paper is frustrating to work with.
It is dark in my studio at the moment and a picture will be a fail. When I have sun, I'll add photos.
I have had an epiphany! The flowers are put onto the cartridge display in pieces sorted into columns. If you start at the top of the column, you will have the center of the flower. Then, you simply cut each pattern down the column and you will have the middle and outer petals of the flower. Last, at the bottom of the column, you have leaves that match the flower.
For an initial test, cut everything at the same size. 2.75" is a good start. after you play with your flowers a bit, you'll find which pieces you want to cut smaller or larger. I like to cut the centers up to two times larger because I like they way they look.
To roll up the center of the flower, start at the outside of the spiral. Roll around a toothpick or needle to start. I use a paper piercer, because it has a nice handle on it. I don't roll around the paper piercer for long, only an inch or two. I remove it and keep rolling. The ruffled edge can do whatever it wants, but the goal is to keep the smooth edge even, to create a flat piece that will glue down to the tab that's left at the end. The angle of the spiral will cause the petals to fan themselves out. Then allow the spiral to spin loose to be just a smidge larger than the center tab. Don't worry that you aren't gluing down the entire spiral. It won't came apart if you glue enough of the first length that you rolled up to create the center.
Once the glue has dried, I bend the petals out with my fingers, one petal at a time. If I try to do too many or bend too far, they will rip or crush and the center of my flower looks a bit worse for the wear. I've found that warm, barely damp fingers also help. Cheap paper is frustrating to work with.
It is dark in my studio at the moment and a picture will be a fail. When I have sun, I'll add photos.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
My Studio
The image for this blog heading is my old studio in Virginia. My studio space in Florida doesn't photograph as well. I took over the living and dining room of this house and laid out my studio to have space for paper, computer, sewing, and embroidery. I ended up putting in a space for my grandson to work on his projects. Paper is the northeast corner, embroidery is the southeast corner, sewing is southwest, and reading/grandson space is the northwest corner. He gets the square coffee table and can sit on the floor.
There are five bookcases. There are crates, boxes, and tubs. There is storage under the
paper crafting tables and under the cutting table. I have my
grandmother's sewing cabinet, my mother's sewing cabinet, and my grandfather's curio cabinet. Storage, as they say, is
non-trivial. There are also six tables for workspace, not counting the ironing board.
While ten people could not all work in here at once, there are ten separate work zones. Cutting, sewing, ironing, reading, kid, computer, embroidery, diecuts, paper and stamping/beading. I use lots of local lamps as the living room has no ceiling light. The dining room has the chandelier, that I got Bud to loop up high enough to walk under. Neither window gets a lot of direct sunlight. That's a Good Thing down here. Direct sunlight = hot.
I put up a folding screen to block access from the butler's pantry and a dog gate to block access from the front hall. There are toxic things in my studio that would kill Jack if she were to get her teeth into them. Jack would not still live Some of them are stored well within her reach. Even my grandson is not allowed in if I am not in here with him.
Even with this incredible workspace, before I quit working, I didn't feel like making stuff very often. Now, I'm getting back to work in a big way. Each day I either make significant progress on a project or I finish something off. With all that, I have only started my attack on three years of round tuits.
While ten people could not all work in here at once, there are ten separate work zones. Cutting, sewing, ironing, reading, kid, computer, embroidery, diecuts, paper and stamping/beading. I use lots of local lamps as the living room has no ceiling light. The dining room has the chandelier, that I got Bud to loop up high enough to walk under. Neither window gets a lot of direct sunlight. That's a Good Thing down here. Direct sunlight = hot.
I put up a folding screen to block access from the butler's pantry and a dog gate to block access from the front hall. There are toxic things in my studio that would kill Jack if she were to get her teeth into them. Jack would not still live Some of them are stored well within her reach. Even my grandson is not allowed in if I am not in here with him.
Even with this incredible workspace, before I quit working, I didn't feel like making stuff very often. Now, I'm getting back to work in a big way. Each day I either make significant progress on a project or I finish something off. With all that, I have only started my attack on three years of round tuits.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Resolution
I'm not a computer geek for nothing. Ignore the 'Loading' screen. Press on with the re-installation of the software. Uncheck the pre-selected items that make no sense. Make sure the darned thing is plugged in and charging. Go away and do something else. Et voila! One functioning Gypsy.
Then I had a small cleaning fit and re organized a storage shelf. Or three. Not a big deal. I just made labels, alphebetized a set of books and put heavy stuff down low and lighter stuff higher up.
Then I had a small cleaning fit and re organized a storage shelf. Or three. Not a big deal. I just made labels, alphebetized a set of books and put heavy stuff down low and lighter stuff higher up.
Friday, July 17, 2009
A Crop Away
I'm heading down to Florida to spend a week with family. I have two Basic Gray Chocolate Chipboard albums and I pulled paper and embellishments from my Club Scrap stash. (Body and Soul) I've selected stamps, ribbons and what not. Since we are driving a small car and not my truck, I'm limited for space. I will keep it down to my crop tote, my tool bag and the small Tonic trimmer.
The luxury of the trip will be that I'm taking a compact 4x6 photo printer, so we can print photos while we are there. During the week, I'll create pages and populate them with pictures taken during the week. Go me! MIL can create pages and populate them with whatever photos she wants.
I'll be cropping with my MIL, who has some tools and supplies, but I'm not at all sure just what she's got. Thank goodness, I long ago created a packing list for crops. All I have to do is follow my list and I know I won't forget anything.
The luxury of the trip will be that I'm taking a compact 4x6 photo printer, so we can print photos while we are there. During the week, I'll create pages and populate them with pictures taken during the week. Go me! MIL can create pages and populate them with whatever photos she wants.
I'll be cropping with my MIL, who has some tools and supplies, but I'm not at all sure just what she's got. Thank goodness, I long ago created a packing list for crops. All I have to do is follow my list and I know I won't forget anything.
Monday, December 22, 2008
200+ Pages?!?!
The reason you are not seeing photos of completed carousels all over the place is quite simple. These are a BIG project. You aren't going to complete one in a short time. I have spent two pleasant evenings working on mine, and I have 0.5% of it complete. Perhaps. It is probably because I'm doing complete layouts for each page, with journaling and embellies. But I'm using my stash!
Come to think of it, I've seen only two photos of completed carousels; one was filled with a card collection and the other was a baby album made before the baby was born, with no photos. Hmmm..... But the baby album did give me a couple of ideas for pages that I'd like to include. I've got to track down chipboard, though.
Come to think of it, I've seen only two photos of completed carousels; one was filled with a card collection and the other was a baby album made before the baby was born, with no photos. Hmmm..... But the baby album did give me a couple of ideas for pages that I'd like to include. I've got to track down chipboard, though.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Carousel Information
I went out on the web looking for information on the 7 Gypsies Photo Carousel and couldn't find much, other than ads. However, I have information now! Thanks to a teaching friend of mine and my own experimentation, I now know that:
The idea is to fill the carousel to the point that the center metal portion is not visible when you part the pages to look at a pair of them.
Filling the carousel will take anywhere from 75 to over 100 page protectors, depending on how thick your layouts are. That would be twice that number in finished pages or 150 to over 200 layouts. It can hold a lot of stuff!
A partly filled carousel is tippy and off balance. You can easily add pages, but moving them around isn't always easy. There are ridges to keep the pages from slipping on the clips as you spin. Squishing pages together to add a clump can be tricky.
The larger page protectors are designed to hold the 7 Gypsies clear stamp sheets, but they will work on the photo carousel and hold a 5.5" x 7" layout. That's portrait dimensions, not landscape.
Using layout ideas for 8.5 x 11 pages works well for these pages. The proportions aren't the same, so you can't simply scale down. Just use the general idea.
I have been printing my photos 2-up on a 5" x 7" piece of photo paper and they are a good size for a layout using the larger page protectors.
It is a very good and useful thing to have ribbons, tabs and other decorative pieces stick beyond the page protectors. It becomes very difficult to find anything if you don't. You get lost going around and around.
Since I'm using the clear stamp pages and not the 4 x 6 photo pages, most of the 7 Gypsies 97% finished items, like the calendar pages with tabs or their pre-cut chipboard, are too small. I need to cut my own out of manila folders or chipboard.
I need to allow at least 15" x 15" of flat area to display my finished carousel, and to look impressive it needs more like 20" x 20". It will occupy most of my square coffee table. It will not fit on the average bookshelf, not even with part of pages extending beyond the shelf. If I were using only the 4 x 6 pages, the finished carousel would be much smaller, needing only 12" x 12" of space at a minimum.
The idea is to fill the carousel to the point that the center metal portion is not visible when you part the pages to look at a pair of them.
Filling the carousel will take anywhere from 75 to over 100 page protectors, depending on how thick your layouts are. That would be twice that number in finished pages or 150 to over 200 layouts. It can hold a lot of stuff!
A partly filled carousel is tippy and off balance. You can easily add pages, but moving them around isn't always easy. There are ridges to keep the pages from slipping on the clips as you spin. Squishing pages together to add a clump can be tricky.
The larger page protectors are designed to hold the 7 Gypsies clear stamp sheets, but they will work on the photo carousel and hold a 5.5" x 7" layout. That's portrait dimensions, not landscape.
Using layout ideas for 8.5 x 11 pages works well for these pages. The proportions aren't the same, so you can't simply scale down. Just use the general idea.
I have been printing my photos 2-up on a 5" x 7" piece of photo paper and they are a good size for a layout using the larger page protectors.
It is a very good and useful thing to have ribbons, tabs and other decorative pieces stick beyond the page protectors. It becomes very difficult to find anything if you don't. You get lost going around and around.
Since I'm using the clear stamp pages and not the 4 x 6 photo pages, most of the 7 Gypsies 97% finished items, like the calendar pages with tabs or their pre-cut chipboard, are too small. I need to cut my own out of manila folders or chipboard.
I need to allow at least 15" x 15" of flat area to display my finished carousel, and to look impressive it needs more like 20" x 20". It will occupy most of my square coffee table. It will not fit on the average bookshelf, not even with part of pages extending beyond the shelf. If I were using only the 4 x 6 pages, the finished carousel would be much smaller, needing only 12" x 12" of space at a minimum.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
The Latest Project
I got one of the 7 Gypsies Photo Carousels. I think it will be a great addition to our family room, and be something on the coffee table that is not clutter. But I'm struggling with designing layouts for the different sized pages and with figuring out how many pages it is going to take to fill it. I've got one of the special shaped hole punches for it, so I can create my own pages. There are pocket pages, there are calendar pages, there are all sorts of pages I could buy, but I'm trying not to shop like crazy for this thing. I want to create the pages for myself out of the paper that I already have.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Calendar Project
As promised, here are the photos of the calendar that I'd been working on.
I didn't photograph each and every month, they didn't all turn out the way I wanted them to, but this should give a general idea of what I design things to look like.The paper and ribbons are from My Minds Eye and the calendar cards are from Creative Cafe. The ink is Adirondak Currant and the stamps are from Fancy Pants, Club Scrap and Impression Obsession. There are rub-ons from Prima Marketing and Basic Grey. The floss is an overdyed from Needle Necesseties. The rings are from 7Gypsies.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
By Request... Disney!
I made this little red book to keep notes in. I had reservation numbers, times, addresses and phone numbers, all sorts of things went into my little red book. It is considered 'glue free' because the covers are put together by folding and wrapping the paper in such a way that the ends all tuck in and it holds together without glue! I used my Cricut to make the embellie of The Mouse.
This is a countdown page that I made as a gift for the couple that traveled with us. It's based on the countdown page made by Kathy Fesmire in the Sandylion book, The Essential Disney Idea Book. I used my Cricut again for the title and the characters and purchased stickers for the camping Mickey and Donald. I ended up having to sew the vellum down because it was the easiest way to get nice, tidy pockets that would stand the strain of the tags. The tags are paper that I ran through the printer using a Disney-like Font I downloaded from I know not where. Then I cut the paper up and glued it to a light cardboard and inked the edges. I put the eyelets in with the CAD.
I've got a few Disney 12 x 12 pages finished, but not photographed yet. It's too hot in my studio to do a whole lot of moving around. I'm sipping ice water and tapping idly on a keyboard. FWIW, Britt-ish Designs, on Scrap Matters has a lot of digital Disney-like kits and embellies. I've got a couple of her kits and when I run out of Disney paper (hah!) I'll go to doing Disney Digital pages.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Cricut!
Whew! I had the idea to use the Cricut cartridges that I already own to decorate the memorabilia envelopes. That will go well. I can do different characters and use the Beast that I cut before. The character names cut much larger than you think they will and will fill in a lot of the area of the envelope. The characters themselves cut much smaller than I'd like, but they look so nice.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Disney Silliness
I am in the process of creating a Mouse sized ring. One of the guys in our group is just silly enough to 'propose' to Minnie Mouse, because Mickey won't. I'm creating a ring for him to use that would fit on a Minne sized, gloved hand. This is requiring the use of Diamond Glaze glue, a bead container, gold ribbon, and lots and lots of glitter.
I've got the giggles just contemplating what might happen. I know this man, he'll get down on one knee and declare himself. The question is, how will Minnie handle it? I'm sure this has happened before, but it might not have happened to that particular Minnie-cast member. We'll remind him that he's already married, should she get stuck. But, we will let Minnie keep the ring anyway.
I've got the giggles just contemplating what might happen. I know this man, he'll get down on one knee and declare himself. The question is, how will Minnie handle it? I'm sure this has happened before, but it might not have happened to that particular Minnie-cast member. We'll remind him that he's already married, should she get stuck. But, we will let Minnie keep the ring anyway.
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