Posted on March 19, 2017 by kabram — 2 Comments

How to Make Custom Silhouette Cut Outs

Do you love a custom silhouette as much as I do? I recently made some artwork for my girls’ playroom and received a lot of questions on how I did it. This article won’t go into too much depth as the process varies remarkably depending on the photo that you start with.

DIY Custom Silhouette from Photo

A crisp, clean silhouetted photo with nothing in the background will be much easier to create a custom silhouette cutting file from than one that has a lot going on.

First, take a look at the two photographs that I started with. In the first one, I caught an adorable moment of my husband and daughters holding hands. In the other, I have a mostly silhouetted view of my girls running through a tunnel at a playground.

custom silhouette image of father and daughters

Can you guess which one was easier to convert into a custom silhouette svg cutting file? Yep, the one on the right. While the second image is already well on its way to being a silhouette in its own right, the image of the three holding hands has a lot going on in the background. When there is a lot in the background, you aren’t going to be able to trace the image to get a nice crisp outline. So, this is the first thing you need to resolve if you want to get a nice svg cutting file from your photo.

First Step: Edit your image in some variety of Photo Software

While I just signed up for a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud and am having a great time with it, the cost may be prohibitive for some. If you don’t have a go to image editing software, I highly recommend GIMP. It is a free software and can do quite a lot – almost as much as Photoshop if you know how to work it.

As I mentioned before, it is hard to give explicit directions for this step as it can vary so much between images. However, the goal is always the same. You need to make your image into a black and white image with lots of contrast and you need to remove as much of the background noise and distraction as you can.

Here is what my images looked like after I had played around with them for a while and cleaned them up as best as I could. Because the one with my two girls in the tunnel was a cleaner image to start with, it was already starting to look like a cutting file. On the left, however, the image with the three holding hands still needed a lot of work.

Second Step: Trace the Image

There are several ways to approach this next step. You can use the built in trace function in Silhouette Studio, however I typically prefer to use Inkscape. Here is a demonstration of using the trace function in Silhouette Studio to produce your custom silhouette image. As you can see, the result is quite messy and would require quite a lot of processing to make it as nice as my final draft.

Now, here is a different way to generate your custom silhouette using Inkscape. Inkscape is a free software available for download and is quite versatile. Notice how the resulting custom silhouette trace is much cleaner. This means there will be a whole lot less cleaning up by hand to do and it will take a lot less time. Remember, your time is valuable! In addition, I have also found Inkscape to be much more responsive and kind to me when I edit cutting files node by node.

If you look closely in the GIF above, you will see that the “Trace Bitmap” function has lots of options. Take your time and play around with these features. For my image, the “Brightness Steps” option seemed to work the best. I then separated the layers it gave me and picked the best one. I didn’t take the time to go into detail regarding this feature, but there are lots of tutorials on it already if you poke around. Here is one that I found. And, another good site if you want to learn more about Inkscape.

Adobe Illustrator also works with SVG files and will probably be something I play around with more in the future. In the meantime, please enjoy these GIF images and feel free to ask me any more detailed questions you may have regarding the process.

Third Step: Clean it Up

While this step is the most tedious, it is also very crucial to getting a nice clean cut. Basically, you need to go into your traced cutting file and do a few things. Let me see if I can list them out.

Delete nodes that you don’t want (you can see there were a lot of cluttered points on my images above).
Connect the paths where the trace didn’t get it quite right. For me, I needed to reconnect the girls’ ponytails to their heads!
Alter any shapes that seem a bit off if you desire.

With some practice and a LOT of patience, you can end up with a file that looks something like this one:

Custom Silhouette of My Girls

Click to download FREE SVG file.

Fourth Step: Cut it Out

Finally, we get to the fun part! Now that you have your file all ready to go, open it up in Silhouette Studio. I have the designer edition and can open SVG files directly. If you do not, you can save your file as a DXF from Inkscape and import it from there. As a caution, I do warn that I have personally had struggles with this method and recommend you read my experience with it before you invest too much time into trying to cut out your files.

The file with the custom silhouette of my two girls that I show above I ended up separating into two cuts. My other file, with them holding hands, only took one cut.

Since their playroom is all decked out in pink and green, I used a pretty pink 12″ x 12″ cardstock I had on hand. While this playroom has been a long time in process, it just keeps getting more exciting (in my humble opinion, of course). Feel free to check it out.

For the two layer cut, I cut the tunnel background into the pink layer and cut the girls out of the white cardstock. On the other cut I just used the pink as a solid background.

Once you get your images cut out to your liking, weed them and get them looking just right. Take a minute to sit back and admire them! If you made it this far, congratulations! I know this is a long tedious process, but you can get such fabulous custom silhouette results!

Fifth Step: Frame It!

Don’t let your beautiful silhouette just sit there on your craft table. Get it off the table and into a frame! I promise, this part is really no so hard. You will need:

A frame large enough for your cutout. Some I found on Amazon.
A decorative background paper.
Something to add dimension behind the cutout. I used scraps of Cork that I had on hand.
Adhesive I used a tape roller from the scrapbooking section of the craft store.

Decide where you want your background. Mine was slightly smaller than the frame, but larger than the mat. In order to ensure it wouldn’t slip around, I adhered it centered to the example insert they always have in the frame. Next, add your cork (or something with similar dimension) to the back of your custom silhouette cutout. Then, adhere it to the background. Center your art in the frame and close it up. It is really that simple.

Father and Daughters finally in their frame!

My sweet little girls all settled in their frame.

Well, I suppose that is all I have for today. Have you made any custom silhouette artwork? I would love to see it! Oh, and please excuse the quantity of social media images that follow, I really can’t put down my new CC apps!

Posted on March 10, 2017 by kabram — 2 Comments

UPDATED: How to Make a DIY Bed Buddy (a cozy microwave heating bag)

Cozy DIY Bed Buddy for my Little Girls

Well, it has been a while since I made my first DIY bed buddy. You can take a look at that first attempt in this post. This time, I had already made a bunch of rectangular bean bags for my little girls. So, I already had the first step done. For the design, I kept it very similar to the one I originally came up with.

The only major change I made was how I made and attached the handles. Surveying my awesome dinosaur bed buddy, I decided that the handles were both overly complicated and a possible choke hazard! Take a look. See how long the handles are?

Change: New Straps

My mind can see some child deciding that this would make a good necklace and choking themselves. Hence, I keep this one put up and came up with a different method to use for the handles. First, I used a strap instead of a string. Second, I made it much shorter. Third, I didn’t make the extra little “strap holder” parts and sewed the handles directly into the seams.

My girls love to have things that make them like Mommy or Papa. My daughter has been toting her new mini bed buddy all over and calling it her “buddy bean bag” instead of her bed buddy.

Microwave Your DIY Bed Buddy

Pop it in the microwave for 30 – 60 seconds and you or your children can cuddle up with it. For the large one, I like to microwave it for 2 and half minutes for my husband or a little longer for myself. It feels great on sore shoulders or a pounding head.

New (to me) Adobe Software

As a side note of sorts, I just last month got a subscription to the latest Adobe software. If you look at this tutorial that I made, you will see why I have been having so much fun with it! Mainly, I had wanted to be able to use Adobe Illustrator to work with SVG’s and thought Photoshop would be a nice bonus. However, it includes access to a large number of programs AND a large number of apps. Now, I can’t stop playing with images on my phone.

If you can manage to accumulate a large number of $1 no rush credits on Amazon and also happen to have academic status, you can get a year’s subscription without paying an arm and a leg. I really had no intention of plugging Adobe just now, but I really haven’t been able to stop playing with it since I signed up!

Adobe Creative Cloud Student and Teacher Edition Prepaid Membership 12 Month – Validation Required

And, without further ado, my little tutorial. I am sure I missed a fair number of details, so feel free to ask if there is something not clear.

DIY Bed Buddy Tutorial

Also, I did go into a lot more detail in my original DIY Bed Buddy post if you need a more in depth look at things.

Well, that is certainly all I have for today. Please, share your projects with me if you make a version of this or something similar. I would love to see how your DIY Bed Buddy turns out!

Posted on February 23, 2017April 17, 2018 by kabram — 12 Comments

Free Spanish Tile Inspired SVG Stencil Cutting Files

Happy National Tile Day!

Did you know that it was National Tile Day? Neither did I, until I was browsing around for inspiration. Apparently, today is the very first annual celebration of this newly designated National Tile Day. Tiles! Well, I really love tiles. In fact, making tile coasters is something that I have been doing for a while. Using travertine tiles and some cork, they can really come out quite beautifully. Just recently, I made a set for each of the households in our family for Christmas using vinyl and my Silhouette Cameo. Take a look:

While you can order these in bulk or pick them up at the hardware store, here is an Amazon link to tiles similar to the ones I used.

Anyhow, I thought I would find some beautiful images of tiles and make some new stencil svg cutting files. And so, I did just that. Here is the image I found for inspiration and tracing the free svg stencils.

Aren’t these tile gorgeous? While I have linked the picture to the photo’s origin, if you would like to instead use the free svg stencil files that I have made, just hang on. In due time, I will most definitely be making some new tile coasters with these designs. Color choice is going to be difficult though! Whenever I enact this fabulous plan, I will be sharing it here with you.

Here are the free SVG and PNG file downloads. Enjoy, and happy national tile day!

UPDATE: At the time I made these, I hadn’t yet used them, but here they are in action. Grab a set of coasters from my etsy shop if you are so inclined too!

Posted on February 18, 2017 by kabram — Leave a comment

Why I finally bought the Designer Edition of Silhouette Studio

SVG – it is all about the svgs!

First, lets drive straight to the point. While the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition of the Silhouette software has lots of extra features, the feature that was most alluring to me was the support for the SVG file type.

What does SVG mean? Well, I can tell you! Scalable Vector Graphics, or SVG files are fabulous and awesome in so many ways. Basically, instead of recording pixels of a picture, this format saves points and directions. The combination of a point and a directions is called a vector (sorry for the technical jargon, but I was a mathematics major!). So, this format saves a bunch of vectors instead of pixels.

And, why would we care about this? Because it makes the files SCALABLE. That means that you can make them any size you like and every detail will be the same. Unlike a jpg file, which has a set resolution, SVG files do not lose anything when you make them gigantic. Click the image if you want to read more about these awesome files.

SVG Files and Silhouette Studio

Moving on, we now know that SVG files are awesome, but why do we care about Silhouette Studio Designer Edition and its ability to use them?

Firstly, we care because there are millions of free and cheap SVG files out there for us to use. Free files are awesome.

Secondly, we care because it is easy to make and save our own files in the SVG format. I use Inkscape, a free software, to create and edit files. Inkscape is free and has tons of features. While it can save in DXF and other formats, it defaults to saving in SVG format because this seems to be the predominant file type for vector graphics.

Thirdly, we care because the basic edition of Silhouette Studio is horrible at importing files! Having tried to get away with the free version for years, I can truly say that it is terrible when trying to import DXF files. It can do it, but the results are never pretty.

Why I chose not to buy Designer Edition for several years.

Considering all its fun features, why would I still refuse to purchase it? I went without it for at least 3 years with my Silhouette Cameo. Obviously, I didn’t want to shell out the $50 for it. Feeling as though my technical savvy should allow me a way out, I stubbornly refused to buy Silhouette Studio Designer Edition.

Can you avoid buying DE and still make your own files? Yes.

Can you avoid buying DE and still get a lot out of your machine? Yes.

Can you avoid buying DE and still be efficient? No, not really.

Workarounds exist for almost anything you would want to do which requires DE. The main task that I needed to achieve was using SVG files that I found online with my Silhouette Cameo. For this purpose, I learned how to use Inkscape to edit SVG files and export them as DXF files, a file type that the basic edition of Silhouette Studio IS able to import. This method worked for me. I felt as though I had gotten around buying the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition and didn’t have any need for it. Why bother getting it when I could simply open the files I needed in Inkscape and then save them as DXF? Well, now I know why.

My Tipping Point

What finally tipped me over the edge was working and struggling with a file I needed to cut out. Opening this particular file in Inkscape, it looked very nice. There weren’t very many points. It was a nice clean file. Now, all I needed was to cut it out. Saving it as a DXF file is easy in Inkscape. There are a few different options, but nothing too bad. I saved it and opened it in Silhouette Studio. The software cringed, and spun, and stuttered.

Finally, it opened and had my shape with what appeared to be millions of points. Trying to work with it, I told the software to simplify the shape. It obligingly rearranged the points for me. Still millions of points in the file. I thought I would just ignore this and cut it out. Wrong. However the DXF format or the Silhouette software had mangled my file cause it to be a gigantic file size that kept getting lost when I tried sending it to cut.

Frustrated, I started looking for deals on DE. Finding a pretty good deal, I took the plunge and got a code to upgrade. I upgraded the software – it didn’t even need to download anything. Those sneaky people, I thought, they include everything in the original download but it is sitting there locked away! Well, I tried it out anyway.

Returning to the saga of my cut file, I pulled the original SVG file open easily in my shiny new Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software. It looked just as simple and beautiful as it had in Inkscape. Crossing my fingers, I sent it to the machine and it cut it out within seconds. Clean, simple, easy. Everything I had wanted. Why, I thought, had I wasted so much time with my workarounds?

Silhouette Designer Edition Features

Features abound in the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition. Take a look at this article on the Silhouette School Blog if you want a more in depth look at some of these features.

Sketch Pen Options
Rhinestone Features
Shadows
Eraser Tool Options
Shear Tool
Select By Color or Line Color
Ruler and Grid Improvements
Nesting objects (for optimizing your materials)
Transfer Properties from one object to another
Easily fill shapes with photos
Import SVG files

These are the most notable changes you will see when you upgrade. One notable feature that is still missing from the software is the ability EXPORT SVG files. Having researched this a little, it seems that it was a feature in previous iterations of the Designer Edition software but has been removed. Presumably, they want people to keep their files in their own proprietary format. This is disappointing to me.

However, I am still glad that I purchased it. Once you have made an investment in the machine, it is worth the small percentage of that investment to also invest in the Designer Edition of the software. As of today, I am seeing it on Amazon for as low as $25 and I know there are other sales and deals on it from time to time as well.

Unexpected benefits of Design Edition

Unexpectedly, once I unlocked the Designer Edition, the whole software package seemed to run more quickly and smoothly. While I don’t know if this is intentional or just a byproduct of the way they designed the unlocking mechanism, it is a bonus. I truly feel like the Designer Edition is what should be included with the machine and since it isn’t, you should just chalk it up to part of the cost of the machine. Basically, I recommend pretending that it did come with the machine!

For me, the improvements to the program’s performance were most notable when editing the nodes of a path. Previously, when I tried to edit nodes in Silhouette Studio my machine churned and protested and it was incredibly, painfully slow. Now, it will comply with my desires. This alone has saved me a lot of time. In addition, the ability to import SVG files cleanly gives my files fewer nodes and the cut out swiftly.

Problems with DXF import

Additionally, I was never satisfied with using the DXF format for importing my files to Silhouette Studio. Inkscape is capable of outputting files in this format, and while it works, it doesn’t work well. Somehow, during the process of the conversion, seemingly millions of new points are added. Let me show you a comparison.

On the left, the relatively simple SVG import. On the right, the unnecessarily complicated DXF import.

Above is a file I designed in Inkscape. You can download it here if you are interested. While the image on the left may have a few unnecessary nodes, it has a manageable number of nodes. On the right is what Silhouette Studio gave me when I imported the DXF version. The number of nodes is so high you can’t even see them distinctly. When sending these files to cut out on your machine, each node is communicated to your machine. Now, you should be able to see why the SVG version is so superior. It will take a fraction of the time to send it over and cut it out. In terms of time savings, the benefits were immediately obvious.

Why I stopped providing free DXF files

As you can see, the DXF files were simply not doing the job. They were unwieldy and a time sink. Finally, I decided to give up on them. Not wanting others to lose time or have trouble with one of these files, I have also removed them from this site. In the unlikely case that you should want the DXF version of one of my files, please download the SVG and Inkscape. You can then open the SVG file and convert it in Inkscape. However, your results will likely be similar to mine.

Conclusion

After all these considerations, I am very glad I finally got the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition. Probably, I should have gotten it sooner. If you use free SVG files from online or create your own, it is well worth the time savings you will reap. Your time is valuable and don’t forget it!

Posted on February 11, 2017March 19, 2017 by kabram — Leave a comment

How To Make Button Art – Fun and Easy!

Fun With Buttons

Do you have a lot of buttons? Well, I have at least a modest amount stowed away in a small jar. I feel like it is a collection that will increase over the years. Perhaps someday, I will be a little old lady with a hoard of buttons. At any rate, I was definitely happy to find a bag of pink and green buttons for $0.99 at the thrift store. I love thrift stores. They have loads of potential. At any point, you could round the corner and find the best deal you have ever seen. Granted, it is probably going to be an awesome deal on something you probably don’t need, but it will still be awesome. See how pretty my bargain buttons are?

Wonderfully, the buttons I found on this particular occasion were perfect for my next project because pink and green are the colors of the playroomI have been working so diligently at the past year or so. Buttons, buttons, and more buttons!! Sitting around in my craft room waiting for some love were white letters to decorate for the playroom – I had picked them up at JoAnn Fabric at some point, on a big sale of course.

Consequently, here are the letters I started with, the link will take you to Amazon but know that they do exist at the craft store if you have a coupon burning a hole in your pocket!

Now for the fun part. While I used the lighted cardboard letter shown above, you really could use almost anything. And I mean almost anything. As long as it can take the heat of hot glue, you can probably cover it in buttons.

How to Make Your own Button Creations

What could you use? Other forms of letters like wood ones, paper ones, plastic, your own cardboard shapes, canvas, paper you will frame, vases, decor items, candles, and the list goes on. Have you decorated anything with buttons?

Materials I used:

Buttons – I got mine at the thrift store for $0.99, yay!
Lighted Cardboard Letter, or whatever object you would like to decorate. Mine probably cost around $5 with a coupon or sale. (I used this one: American Crafts Letter Kit, E)
Hot Glue Gun (I already had one)
Scrap paper or covering for your workstation

Time: about 30 minutes for this letter.

Total Cost: About $6 for my materials, but could be more or less depending on what you decorate and what supplies you have on hand.

Tips:

First of all, layout at least a few buttons ahead of where you are so that you can arrange them how you like.
I put the glue on the project, not on the button. I don’t know which would be best though. Any hot glue gun experts?
While my buttons do not overlap because I wanted to ensure that the lights would have enough room, if you don’t have this constraint, you don’t have to stick to one dimension! Overlap those buttons, place some on top or in between to add more dimension.
Choose your colors wisely. I picked a pink and green theme (to go with an existing room theme). You can use any button if you want an eclectic look, or go with only one or two colors in different shades. While it doesn’t matter what you go with, just put a little thought into it before you start.
Now you have fun and don’t be shy! Just start gluing. Don’t be afraid, the buttons can’t hurt you. 🙂

Do you have any tips for button art? I would love to here them or see any of your projects or creations. Here is some more inspiration from pinterest. I LOVE the button animals!

Posted on February 5, 2017February 8, 2017 by kabram — Leave a comment

How to Make and Use a Freezer Paper Stencil

Hello Kitty.

Initially, I was very negative about Hello Kitty. I’m not sure why, but I think it has to do with my knee-jerk negative reaction toward anything popular. However, I have come to terms with the fact that my 1 and 3-year-old little girls are all about Hello Kitty. They love it. My one-year-old will say “kitty cat” repeatedly whenever she glimpses something with the Hello Kitty brand on it. Yep, branded characters work.

Well, enough of that. My girls love Hello Kitty, so we made a Hello Kitty dress together. I happened upon a very nice 4T dress at the thrift store. I love thrift stores. It is 100% cotton, long sleeved for winter, pink, and only $2. Oh, and it has pockets. Dresses with pockets are the best thing ever. It was a great deal, and it made the perfect base for this project. Since I knew the item didn’t cost me much, it allowed me to go forward without fear of ruining something valuable.

If you have a cutting machine like the Silhouette Cameo and you don’t have freezer paper, you are missing out on some great projects. I don’t have the latest version of the machine, but it is still going strong. You can buy freezer paper in most grocery stores. It should be near the other rolls of waxed paper, parchment paper, etc. It has a paper side, and a glossy plastic coated side. The reason it is so neat for crafting is that the plastic melts slightly when heated and makes a temporary bond with fabric. That is to say, you can use your iron to make your stencils stay put! If you can’t find it at your grocery store or prefer to buy online, Amazon sells it here.

Next, I searched for an appropriately simple little image for the dress. This is the one I found.

hellokitty — Hello Kitty File Picture
Click image for Free SVG File Download

Once you find the image you want to use, open it up in Silhouette Studio or in Inkscape. I actually did this in both programs, because even with the Designer Edition of Silhouette Studio, it won’t let me export SVG files. Boo! But it does let you open them…

Anyhow, once you open the image, you need to trace it. Here are the two variations I use most often. There are tutorials on both of these if you search the web, but feel free to ask in the comments if you need help with this.

In Inkscape, use the “Trace Bitmap” dialogue to create an svg file from your image.

In Silhouette Studio, use the Trace function to select your image and create your cut file.

Once your image is traced, you should have a cutting file like the one above. It looks the same as the image, but it is made of lines that scale and is a file your machine can cut out.

And finally, how to actually use your stencil and create your image! These are roughly the steps I took.

Prepare your image for cutting (described above).
Cut a piece of freezer paper down to the size of your cutting mat. I placed mine with the coated side upward. If your mat is especially sticky, you may want to place it the opposite way. The important thing here is that your design will be right side up when the coated side of the paper is placed on the fabric. If your image has text (like mine) this is especially important. Hopefully you will not have to cut yours out twice like I did to get it right!
Cut out your design and carefully remove it from the mat.
Place the pieces of the design that you DON’T want painted onto your fabric. They will keep the paint off these spots and help form the design. Iron them in place with a medium hot iron, it only took a few seconds for me. Also, it may help to do one piece at a time. If you have text, don’t forget the insides of letters like ‘o’.
Once your design is in place, make sure all the edges that you don’t want painted are covered and place it in a good spot for painting. I used a big box and several plastic bags for this.
Paint! My knowledge of fabric paint is fairly limited. However, I spotted these fabric spray paints on sale at the craft store and thought I would try them out. They seem to have worked fairly well if you account for my impatience between coats. I knew I ought to follow the directions of using light coats and waiting 5 minutes between them. I knew it, but I didn’t follow it. I think this is the main culprit for the slight seepage of paint I got around Hello Kitty’s bow.
Once paint is dry (or at least mostly dry!), peel away the freezer paper and admire. The paint I used said it would be ready to use in 30 minutes, but not safe to wash for at least 72 hours.

Here is the final result, and my cute little model. She loves it, of course.

Looking good, just a minor blur by the bow – my impatience is at fault.

All done.

Have fun making cute clothes! If you want to make a cute valentine’s item, check out some of my Valentine’s Day cutting files. I think they would probably make cute shirts!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Posted on January 30, 2017February 12, 2019 by kabram — 4 Comments

Love Card FREE SVG Cutting File Download

Love

February is almost upon us. Looking through all the ideas I have found on cutting files to make, I stumbled upon this lovely little kirigami card. Now, I don’t know where it comes from originally, so it would be wise not to use it commercially. However, this is where I found the image that I based this file on.

EDIT (2/11/19): I have found the original author of this file, Maria Victoria Garrido, and she has kindly given me permission to keep this post up. Her site is full of very beautiful work and many files that can be adapted for cutting in SVG format. However, her files are for PERSONAL use only. Please be aware and don’t use them for commercial purposes.

Her website is: http://marivi_10.tripod.com/myhomenew.html

If you cut this out, the pattern above is very useful for scoring the fold lines in the correct places.

I love how detailed the little hearts are. You could definitely use the heart cut outs for other applications, including your own pretty Valentine’s Day card. I cut out the file twice in two different colors so that I could mix and match them. They came out lovely in my opinion.

Tacky or not, I gave one to my husband and informed him that he could write a nice message on it for me for Valentine’s Day. How’s that for an over the top hint?

Assembly Tips

For assembly, you do have to be somewhat delicate so as not to break things as you bend them into place. I used a ruler and hard pointed tip to score the lines where it was supposed to bend. If you are so inclined, you could definitely add them to the cut file and score them with your machine. I don’t have the dual carriage Silhouette and didn’t feel like running it through twice.

You definitely DO want to score this before you attempt to fold it. It is a bit difficult to bend into place even if you score it. I found it useful to weave something small like a knitting needle back and forth through the letters to get them to bend in the correct direction.

And now, the file.

Here are the hearts that attach it. One note, if the paper you cut it out on has a front and a back, you will want to flip a copy of the heart so that you have one facing each direction. I didn’t do this, and have a card with two hearts facing the same way. Oops!

Also check out my other Valentine’s Day cutting files:

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted on January 25, 2017January 25, 2017 by kabram — Leave a comment

Knit Bow-Knot Baby Scarf

Sad story. Alright, it isn’t a truly sad or tragic story by any means, but I was still sad. A pretty little baby scarf I had made was missing for a couple weeks; it finally made an appearance in one of our vehicles.

I was thrilled to see it again, until I took a closer look. Apparently, we must have capable little visitors of the rodent variety who are able to enter the vehicle and wreak havoc on the unsuspecting scarves that live inside.

The old scarf was really pretty. I don’t recall where I got the yarn, but it had a beautiful gradient going for it. The new yarn I used is a lot busier, but it still is very soft and has some nice colors to it. My one-year-old is sold though. All I have to do is tell her it looks really pretty on her and then it is the best thing ever and she needs to wear it all the time!

What I love about this pattern is that the ends “hook” together and it stays in place even on your wiggly toddlers. I think I need to make one for myself. The adult version of the pattern calls it a tuck-in or bow-know scarf. The ends do look like a bow and link together. I have found it to be very useful. Practicality is probably my very favorite style.

The pattern I used is posted here by Liesl. There is also an adult version I saw referenced in the comments here, but I haven’t tried it myself yet. Have fun knitting and enjoy January.

Posted on September 10, 2016August 26, 2022 by kabram — Leave a comment

Fall Leaves – Free Cutting Files SVG

Fall is upon us. Of all the seasons, summer always feels like it disappears the most quickly. I think fall leaves and colors are one of my favorite things about the fall. Hence, I thought I would make some leaf file cutouts.

I haven’t yet tried these out, but think they will be pretty for a fall note-card or perhaps a leaf mobile. Hope you like them and enjoy this transitional time from summer to fall!

FREE SVG DOWNLOAD

PS – I apologize for the dearth of posts this summer. It has been a whirlwind, but I hope to get settled into a good routine as we enter fall.

Posted on April 11, 2016January 20, 2017 by kabram — Leave a comment

How To Create a Cutting file from a Photo Using Inkscape

I frequently use the freely available program Inkscape to alter and create new cutting files. It can handle more than Silhouette Studio and can also output a DXF file, which is a file format that Silhouette Studio can open and use.

Before and After

You can download Inkscape HERE (as of April 2016).

Normally, I would use Inkscape’s handy “Trace Bitmap” feature. This is located under Path->Trace Bitmap. It has lots of options which you can play around with for your image if you like, but I could tell that I wasn’t going to get what I wanted from this particular image.

The Trace Bitmap Function Doesn’t work as well on images with busy backgrounds!

The problem was that my image has a lot going on in the background and is hard to separate out from the foreground.

I’m guessing that there are some Photoshop gurus out there who could probably separate the background and foreground of this image and then use Inkscape’s Trace function. However, I am not one of those gurus and I don’t own Photoshop! Sad, I know. Alternatively, I could have tried to mess around with the image in GIMP (a fairly nice free alternative to Photoshop) – but I wasn’t up for that seemingly overwhelming task. Sometimes the dumb but straight forward way can be quicker anyhow!

Covered in Paths

Now, this method takes some patience, but you can get exactly the image you want and don’t have to hassle with photo editing. The basic idea is to use several circular paths to bend and form into the shape we need. If you have not played around with path nodes before, this may look confusing, but once you start, it is not too difficult.

Now for the tutorial. Begin by opening your image up in Inkscape, then do the following:

Draw a circle using the shape tool shown below and place it over part of your image.
Change to the arrow tool, click your circle, and select Path->Object to Path. This will ensure that your circle is a path and not just a shape.
Now, go ahead and copy this circle and paste it several times on your image. I needed about 7 blobs (which started as circles) to cover my image. You may need more or less depending on the size and shape of your image.
Now for the fun part! Click on the node tool (Arrow 1 in the image below). Then, click on your shape to start conforming it to your image. If you look closely at Arrow 2 in the image below, you will see a node highlighted in red. If you click a node, you can move it around.
Drag the nodes to spots along the edges of your image. Once the node is on the edge of your image, move the little round “whiskers” (I don’t know what these are really called). These bend the edges of your circle and allow you to match the contour of your image. There are also tools for change the node type from a rounded one to a pointy one (right above Arrow 1). Also, keep in mind you can remove nodes by selecting one and hitting delete and you can add nodes by double clicking where you want one.
Once you have your image covered in OVERLAPING paths, select all the paths (but not the image itself) and click Path -> UNION. This will combine all of your shapes into one, and if you did a good job matching the contours and filling all the space, you should have the image you wanted! You can see our bunny Geronimo loved being turned into a cutting file.

Here is the resulting file that I created. Feel free to download it and use it for your own creations.

FREE SVG FILE DOWNLOAD