Good morning and Happy Monday!
I have been looking at my stats on different svg files I have posted. I have found that my bow easy template has been downloaded over 1,000 times!!! I never imagined it would become that popular! So, I figured some may need some help in learning to use this great tool. I did a search and found this great video.
Have a blessed day!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Product Review... The Ultimate Crafter's Companion
Here is a tool for you to take a close look at. It is an all in one paper crafting card making tool.
The Ultimate Crafters Companion. Everything you will ever need for your card making and paper craft projects in one handy and portable carry case. It builds on the features of the award winning Top Score and Enveloper tools and is designed to take your crafting onto the next level by providing an array of crafting utilities at your finger tips. Perfect for creating professional looking cards in a variety of imaginative styles: Pop out; K-card; embossed and classic. It was also designed to create boxes; trim paper; make envelopes; make bows; and even store your projects in progress. Also included is a video Tutorial DVD with Sara. Constructed of durable plastic with a double-hinge system that allows this unit to lie completely flat giving you approximately 14 by 23 inches of work surface. Everything stores quickly and easily inside so you can fold-n-go or fold-n-store in a hurry.
You get an envelope maker template, box templates, card templates, embossing templates, bow maker, measuring and cutting tools. Plus they have an awesome instructional DVD and booklet with step by step instructions which are easy to follow. The DVD has many projects to make. I could spend hours playing with this tool. It comes in a hard plastic case which is pretty sturdy and light weight. You can take your card making crafts with you. This tool is extremely portable. It is not limited to card making. There are tutorials and projects for creating exploding boxes and mini scrapbooks.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Free Ladybug SVG file
Good morning...
I am back with another freebie svg file of a lady bug I made using the new MTC software. Enjoy!!
Click Here To Download
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
New Make The Cut Beta Version Just Released!!!
Andy at Make The Cut has done it again. I mean he has really out done himself on his newest release. It is still in beta but works perfectly and if all goes well will become the official new version.
Download Now The trial version or purchase. On sale now for a limited time for $58.36
==========================================================
Pixel Trace (Trace Raster)
The big enhancment is with the Trace Raster tool (now called Pixel Trace). The tracing has been completly redone from the ground up. You will now get cleaner, more precise traces -- We believe this new tracing interface is the best around and am sure you will think so as well.
* You can now paste from the clipboard as well as import from a file or TWAIN source.
* You can preview the trace with the original image in the background.
* When importing an image, it takes in to account the image's DPI (great for TWAIN imports).
* And many, many more features!
If you don't know what nodes are, or what they are for, you can skip this part!
Welding, Boolean Joining and Shadowing creates output that are made of many nodes, otherwise called "Flat Paths". These paths (shapes) take a long time to cut. The only way you could remove unneeded nodes was to use the Smooth & Simplify tool. This is tough to do sometimes. So, we came up with a new method called Auto-Simplify. Auto-Simplify (shortcut is CTRL+G) will automatically remove these unneeded nodes. We also added an Auto-Auto-Simplify... which is on by default. This will simplify all welds and Boolean Joins automatically.
Object Import Menu
The Custom Shapes tab has been removed. I know this is probably going to be a shock to most people, but it needed to go. Imagine having to add an icon for each supported format. Make The Cut! would have tons of icons as time goes on. Instead, we added an Object Import menu. You can now import from the File>>Import menu as well as the Toolbar at the top. The new icon is the Sprocket/Gear.
The "Personal Library" has been moved to the "Basic Shapes" as a new tab entitled "Your Shapes"
New Import/Export File Formats
You can now import:
•Vector PDF files
•SCUT/SCUT2 files (Version 2.012 and older -- this is experimental and will be worked on)
You can now export:
•Vector PDF files
•EPS Files
•AI Files
•Alpha PNG Raster Files
We also added in Inkscape clipboard formats. Now you can copy and paste between Inkscape and Make The Cut!
Bézier Warp/Text On Path/Object On Path, Vertical Text
Here is something fun! You can create some great new effects with this tool. I won't get in to it too much since this is more-or-less a fun thing to learn on your own. You can also do vertical text in 2.3.0.
Here is the new Bezier Warp tool:
And Much Much more!
There are so many new things here and there that listing them all would take a while. So I will leave it up to all of you to find the rest of it!
Get Your Copy Now
Download Now The trial version or purchase. On sale now for a limited time for $58.36
==========================================================
Pixel Trace (Trace Raster)
The big enhancment is with the Trace Raster tool (now called Pixel Trace). The tracing has been completly redone from the ground up. You will now get cleaner, more precise traces -- We believe this new tracing interface is the best around and am sure you will think so as well.
* You can now paste from the clipboard as well as import from a file or TWAIN source.
* You can preview the trace with the original image in the background.
* When importing an image, it takes in to account the image's DPI (great for TWAIN imports).
* And many, many more features!
Auto-Simplify
If you don't know what nodes are, or what they are for, you can skip this part!
Welding, Boolean Joining and Shadowing creates output that are made of many nodes, otherwise called "Flat Paths". These paths (shapes) take a long time to cut. The only way you could remove unneeded nodes was to use the Smooth & Simplify tool. This is tough to do sometimes. So, we came up with a new method called Auto-Simplify. Auto-Simplify (shortcut is CTRL+G) will automatically remove these unneeded nodes. We also added an Auto-Auto-Simplify... which is on by default. This will simplify all welds and Boolean Joins automatically.
Object Import Menu
The Custom Shapes tab has been removed. I know this is probably going to be a shock to most people, but it needed to go. Imagine having to add an icon for each supported format. Make The Cut! would have tons of icons as time goes on. Instead, we added an Object Import menu. You can now import from the File>>Import menu as well as the Toolbar at the top. The new icon is the Sprocket/Gear.
The "Personal Library" has been moved to the "Basic Shapes" as a new tab entitled "Your Shapes"
New Import/Export File Formats
You can now import:
•Vector PDF files
•SCUT/SCUT2 files (Version 2.012 and older -- this is experimental and will be worked on)
You can now export:
•Vector PDF files
•EPS Files
•AI Files
•Alpha PNG Raster Files
We also added in Inkscape clipboard formats. Now you can copy and paste between Inkscape and Make The Cut!
Bézier Warp/Text On Path/Object On Path, Vertical Text
Here is something fun! You can create some great new effects with this tool. I won't get in to it too much since this is more-or-less a fun thing to learn on your own. You can also do vertical text in 2.3.0.
Here is the new Bezier Warp tool:
And Much Much more!
There are so many new things here and there that listing them all would take a while. So I will leave it up to all of you to find the rest of it!
Get Your Copy Now
Monday, June 7, 2010
Some Paper Flower Tutorials
Good morning everyone.
I started a new project for my future sister n law who is expecting and her shower is this Sunday. I am making her a Baby Mini book for her baby's first year. As I was planning her book, I wanted some neat and easy paper flowers to make. So, I set out on the net hunting some tutorials and decided to share my finds with my readers.
There are so many more but this should be enough to wet your flower appitite. Enjoy and get crafting!!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Where Do Your Customers Come From?
Good morning. I found this great article in the forums on ETSY this morning. Have you ever wondered how your customers found you??? Keep on reading.....
Jewelry maker Sassy Belle Wares solved a problem that we all have. Where Do our BUYERS come from? Yeah we can track visits on Google Analytics, but knowing where out actual buyers came from is a mystery.
So here is the simple solution using Pay Pal:
SassyBelleWares says:
When I was going through the checkout process, I noticed something in the PayPal part that I had never seen before. There was a one question survey asking how I found Flapper Doodle. I always wonder how buyers have found my shop, SassyBelleWares, so I was almost as excited about this question as I was about my new notecards! Yeah, I know about Google Analytics but that makes my head spin so I was thrilled to find there was a simpler way to get an answer to, “How did you find my shop?”! Of course, getting an answer is dependent on the customer answering the question, but I figured it can’t hurt to try.
So off to PayPal I went to figure out how I could get this question into my checkout process. I found the answer almost immediately and was shocked at how easy it was to implement the one question survey! I realized I couldn’t be the only one who did not know this was an option. After all, this was the first time I had seen it at checkout and I have done lots of shopping on Etsy! Thank you Eloise and Ramona for making me want to buy your notecards thus stumbling upon this helpful feature! In return I will share my discovery with everyone!
The quick and easy steps to add the one question survey:
1) Login to your PayPal account
2) Under “my account” click “profile”
3) Under “selling preferences” click “custom payment pages”, then click “options” and go to “merchant service options”
4) Check “add a customer service survey” and fill in the blanks*
5) Make sure you click “SAVE” before you exit
* I used “How did you find SassyBelleWares” for my question. I thought using my shop name rather than just “us” or “me” might help them remember my shop better for next time. You can ask any question you would like and add any answers for the customers to choose from. For the five answer choices, I used:
-friend/family
-google search
-yahoo search
-facebook
-Etsy
Hope this information is helpful to you!
Here is the link to the guest article on Handmade Spark for all the easy to follow screen shots:
http://www.handmadespark.com/blog/ever-wonder-how-customers-find-your-etsy-shop/
Jewelry maker Sassy Belle Wares solved a problem that we all have. Where Do our BUYERS come from? Yeah we can track visits on Google Analytics, but knowing where out actual buyers came from is a mystery.
So here is the simple solution using Pay Pal:
SassyBelleWares says:
When I was going through the checkout process, I noticed something in the PayPal part that I had never seen before. There was a one question survey asking how I found Flapper Doodle. I always wonder how buyers have found my shop, SassyBelleWares, so I was almost as excited about this question as I was about my new notecards! Yeah, I know about Google Analytics but that makes my head spin so I was thrilled to find there was a simpler way to get an answer to, “How did you find my shop?”! Of course, getting an answer is dependent on the customer answering the question, but I figured it can’t hurt to try.
So off to PayPal I went to figure out how I could get this question into my checkout process. I found the answer almost immediately and was shocked at how easy it was to implement the one question survey! I realized I couldn’t be the only one who did not know this was an option. After all, this was the first time I had seen it at checkout and I have done lots of shopping on Etsy! Thank you Eloise and Ramona for making me want to buy your notecards thus stumbling upon this helpful feature! In return I will share my discovery with everyone!
The quick and easy steps to add the one question survey:
1) Login to your PayPal account
2) Under “my account” click “profile”
3) Under “selling preferences” click “custom payment pages”, then click “options” and go to “merchant service options”
4) Check “add a customer service survey” and fill in the blanks*
5) Make sure you click “SAVE” before you exit
* I used “How did you find SassyBelleWares” for my question. I thought using my shop name rather than just “us” or “me” might help them remember my shop better for next time. You can ask any question you would like and add any answers for the customers to choose from. For the five answer choices, I used:
-friend/family
-google search
-yahoo search
-Etsy
Hope this information is helpful to you!
Here is the link to the guest article on Handmade Spark for all the easy to follow screen shots:
http://www.handmadespark.com/blog/ever-wonder-how-customers-find-your-etsy-shop/
Thursday, June 3, 2010
June Sizzling Giveaway
This incredible. As I hop around blogs I am finding all kinds of goodies. This one is worth over $100!!!!
So hop over to All Scrapbook Steals - The Blog
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Great Blog Candy I found
Good afternoon everyone....
I was just browsing around some blogs that I follow and I came across this awesome blog candy. So, you want to hop over to Bev Rochester's Blog and sign up to win!