So many things to say, not really sure where to start. I feel as if I’m going for a run after a year long hiatus — I’ve missed it, yet it takes somea lot of motivation to get there….and to keep going!
A lot has been happening since my last post in this space ….almost three months ago. Whoops! After moving to a new town, moving again, reprioritizing, and really just realizing I needed to let go of some of the mental stress I had going on, I stepped away.
Distance makes the heart grow fonder, right?
This long deep breath has been so good. So many little changes that have amounted to a lot. The biggest change was simply a moment to get my health – both mentally and physically – back in order and also see what I missed the most.
I’ve taken a break from creating….almost entirely! (Well, except for this baby zapping all my energy!) It’s been hard, but it’s been good. I sound like a bit of a broken record, but I just needed to miss it! I had gotten to a point where I didn’t feel like I was creatively being true to myself. I was constantly feeling behind, due to not giving myself adequate periods of time off during packing and moving from Pittsburgh, living in a temporary apartment, and packing and moving again to our home. I think part of that was to keep me distracted from dealing with all the change and missing so much back in Pittsburgh, so forcing myself to face everything head on has been…you guessed it: hard, but good.
I have so many idea whirling around my head, and we have changes ahead for us as a family, and I truly have missed you all. I’m not going to put crazy pressures on myself to create the most pin-able projects or crafts. I’m not going to stress about perfectly formulated posts and schedules. I want to get back to just sharing some favorites and finds. I want to get back to opening my front door a bit and saying, hey! come see what our crazy little life is like.
As the kids get older, I’m more and more aware of the internet space. I’m not sure exactly what that means, so it’ll be a process, I’m sure.
I could keep going – I mean, really! 3 months to catch up on! But I’ll end it here, with some photos to follow, of course.
announced on instagram a few months ago — surprise!
“Just to show me how much he loves me. They are even pink!”
Thanks for sticking around. I truly have missed you all.
I recently changed web hosts, and in doing so, realized that my email was down for about a month. I’m so sorry if you emailed and had your email message returned. It should be up and running now — please email me again. I’m so sorry! xo
Oh man. Today’s 12 Days of ScanNCut day miiiiight just be my favorite! I probably could have said that almost every day so far, but I tried to really filter that statement! Haha, and since we are day 11 and this one is my favorite and only has one more day to compete with, it might take the cake!
I remember when I first heard that I could cut vinyl with my ScanNCut. Vinyl? Why would I want to cut vinyl? I had no clue about adhesive vinyl, both temporary and permanent. I had no idea I could create fake wallpaper (working on Jonesy’s room right now!), create beautiful labels or add decorations to, well, just about anything. ;)
My sister and I often joke (she is a fellow ScanNCut owner and fan) that if you’re getting frustrated cutting something else, just whip out some adhesive vinyl or heat applied vinyl — they always cut so beautifully! You can get incredible detail too.
Back in Pittsburgh, we had round spice jars with lids that slid on instead of twisting. I knew as we were packing up to move that there was no way we could bring them with — well, we could have, but it was a good time to let them go. ;) My mom found these great square glass containers, so when we moved into our home here, I ordered a bunch of them. I’m definitely still building my spice collection, since purging in Pittsburgh and keeping it pretty trim in our apartment.
But before we end up with Cumin in our waffles instead of Cinnamon…. I needed to get these babies labeled!
I made my mom labels for her spice jars over the last few months. We had a few spelling errors and forgotten spices that we needed to make later. I still owe her a few, but that’s what is so awesome: it’s so easy to keep updating and creating with the ScanNCut and ScanNCut2.
And who doesn’t love pretty labels! I know one of my goals for 2016 is to only keep things that have a home. If something just keeps getting shifted around because it doesn’t have a specific place to call home, it’s probably going to go! Labeling and creating spaces that are beautiful and tidy really motivate me to continue organizing my entire home! Well, and my organizing genius of a mom. :)
When cutting vinyl, you want to only cut through the vinyl sheet, not the backing. I typically have my blade at a depth of 1-2 with a pressure of 0. Be sure to run a test before cutting out all of your labels!
I also whipped up labels for our trash and recycling bins!
And an address label for our front door! See? I told you …..EVERYTHING! haha.
And then of course the spice labels…
….and the real-life behind the scenes of nabbing photos of them!
My little helpers! Harlow helped me transfer all the labels to the jars — I love involving her in projects. I will be finishing these labels and posting a download of the cut file soon. Let me know if there are specific spices that you’d like me to include!
Over three years ago, when I received a prototype , I never thought cutting something this intricate from fabric would ever be possible. I had no idea that three years later, I would be cutting leather and wood veneer — and intricate snowflakes from fabric!
Part of the equation was simply learning how to push the and perfecting our settings. Another part of the equation are 3rd party products that have radically impacted the detail we are able to achieve!
The above snowflake pattern was designed by my friend Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero. She is one of those oh-I-develop-software-and-I-also-am-an-amazing-quilter-and-basically-am-amazing-at-everything people–and she has a heart of gold. I remember during my very first year at the Houston International Quilt Market when I met Jeanie! She was beyond excited about what the could do, but I’ll be honest: I didn’t think it could hold up to her dreams! I was trying to be conservative about the blades and fabric fibers, but little did I know we had just scratched the surface of what this little machine can do! Over the past three years, I have had more fun playing the “can it cut this?” game and learned so much! Thank you for following along and letting me play.
Jeanie and her husband have created a program called Kaleidoscope Kreator. It is a program that allows you to make a kaleidoscope from any image! You can get a free trial if you want to test the waters. She has written a blog post about how to use Kaleidoscope Kreator to make intricate designs for the ScanNCut or ScanNCut2. You can cut these from paper or fabric or whatever else you fancy. She also has a free design of the month that you can download from ScanNCut.com. (I adore December’s design! I cannot wait to create something with it!)
So we’ve got the software piece, and we’ve learned how to make the ScanNCut and work the way we dream about. The last piece of the puzzle is worthy of its name: . I also met the crew at Quilt Market and truly this product is magic. In a nutshell, it turns fabric into more of a paper consistency. It holds the fibers together, removes the stretch (I cut jersey fabric on my now! More on that soon.), and the best part is that it just washes right out when you are done. I know that I’ve only scratched the surface with what is possible with this product! You can read more about this product here.
Amazing, right?
Now do you need software or Terial Magic to cut fabric? Nope! You don’t even need any type of fusible appliqué or anything like that.
I need to make some new videos with the things I’ve learned since I made these, but here are a few that will also help to get you started!
Whoa – my hair was so long! Crazy. If you have specific questions you’d like me to answer in my next fabric cutting videos, just let me know! I’m hoping to film them at the start of the new year. In the meantime, let’s get to today’s question for the giveaway! If you are joining us for the first time today, you can enter to win your very own !
Today’s Comment Entry:
What would be your first fabric project with the ScanNCut2?
or
What new skill would the ScanNCut2 allow you to explore for the first time?
I seriously cannot wait to get a into one of y’all’s hands! Today’s feature is RGB Color Recognition Scanning. I know it’s a mouthful, and for many people it’s not super clear upon hearing those words. The previous ScanNCut could scan color…couldn’t it?
Well yes, it could. But the is able to detect slight color differences and create cut files from those subtle differences. It’s not always an all or nothing difference between the grayscale scan and the RGB scan, but as you begin working with it, you’ll see the amazing detail the RGB scan can capture. Let me go ahead and show you with this gold star example!
I used my snowflake stamp from the Custom Stamp Kit to do a gold foil snowflake on this yellow piece of card stock.
First I scanned using grayscale:
You’ll see it didn’t pick up my snowflake like I want it to.
I went back to my Direct Cut Scan screen and changed my setting to the RGB Color Recognition Mode.
I just wanted to zoom in so you could see the detail it grabbed around the perimeter of the snowflake. I’m in the Direct Cut scanning setting, so I wanted to only cut out around the perimeter of the snowflake. I could have had the pick up even those tiny white spaces inside the snowflake! From this point I put a .04″ edge around the outline as my cut file, and I cut out the snowflake.
Seriously took me a few minutes! And the detail is amazing!
Tomorrow I’ll be back and sharing some of the crazy detail you can cut out with fabric! I have a few tips on doing so, and I’m excited to share them with you, of course.
Today’s comment entry:
What feature or accessory I’ve shared so far excites you most? (links below!)
Happy Tuesday! Are you sick of me yet? Probably. ;) Today I’m back sharing about cutting felt with your ScanNCut or ScanNCut2! I have a lot of people asking about felt, whether I’m at conventions or replying to comments and emails.
When asked if the ScanNCut will cut felt? My answer is always yes.
When asked what type of detail one can get cutting felt with the ScanNCut? My answer is always, it depends.
The word felt covers such a myriad of fibers: wood, bamboo, polyester, rayon, or maybe a blend of all of that. I’m working on a material dictionary for you all, and it will include details about settings, testing, and specific blends and brands of materials. If there is a specific brand of felt you want to see, just let me know!
Today I’ll be sharing how the ScanNCut performs with three different felts: 100% wool, a wool-rayon blend, and a stiff poly craft felt.
A few tips when cutting felt:
Use a Standard Mat with a Fabric Support Sheet. If you are cutting a lot of felt, consider prepping two mats. When one gets too fuzzy, use a baby wipe to remove debris. While that mat dries, use the other mat to continue cutting.
I find that almost all felt cuts better when the cut file is run 2-3 times. Running a few times allows the blade to get through the fibers a bit at a time.
If you are cutting something extremely detailed, consider using Terial Magic. I am obsessed with this product — you’ll see the detail I am able to achieve with fabric in the next few days — as it turns materials with a fiber into almost the feel of paper. Best part? It’s easy to apply and it washes right out! Just be sure to test it first — I tried it on this wool-rayon blend and it worked beautifully. For the snowflakes pictured in this post, I didn’t treat any of the felt.
Oh! And I always use the standard blade, not the deep cut blade. I find I always get a smoother edge using that Standard Blade.
This felt cuts beautifully with the ScanNCut. The fibers are so bonded together it doesn’t warp at all when removing it from the Fabric Support Sheet–nor does it leave many fibers behind.
Settings: blade 7; pressure 5; speed 1. I run the file at least twice.
This felt cuts really well, but you need to be careful when lifting it from the Fabric Support Sheet. Be sure to use your spatula to lift instead of pulling, as the fibers allow for tearing.
Settings: blade 8-9; pressure 5; speed 1. I run this file 2-3 times.
*If you have just a few fibers left to cut through, I often keep the blade depth the same but lower the pressure.
This wool felt isn’t as dense as other wool felts I’ve used. It’s about 2mm thick, and I think the fibers are a bit looser. It still cuts, but I wasn’t able to get as crisp details as I would have liked.
Settings: blade 11; pressure 5; speed 1; I run this file at least 3 times.
I hope you all had an awesome weekend! I’m back today with Day Seven of our 12 Days of ! You better believe I’m not finished with the gold foil. #sorrynotsorry
But today I’ll be sharing the new with you!
Each stamp kit comes with the stamp silicone material and the stamp plate. Design and cut your stamp, place it on the stamp plate, and reuse over and over! I seriously love this new product, and I’ve definitely learned a few things and have some tips to share.
Use the deep cut blade.
Let up on the blade pressure, increase blade length. The following are my preferred settings:
Depth: 6-7
Pressure: -2
Speed: 1
Designs with long cut lines are more difficult. The hello stamp below was difficult to cut due to the long line from the h. It’s possible, just takes patience and tweaking to get the settings right.
I decided to use glue on my stamp design….to apply gold foil, of course. ;) Simple place glue on your stamp, stamp into place and set foil on the glue. You can use a bone folder (or the spatula from your works great!) or run it through a laminator. I’ve become laminator obsessed (yes, in addition to foil obsessed), so of course I ran it through there!
Just be sure to fill the envelope first before running it through the laminator, because it’ll seal the envelope for you.
Happy Sunday! The sun is shining beautifully this morning, and I’m about to walk to church with Jones. I love being able to walk!
Yesterday was Day Five of our Twelve Days of ScanNCut2! I shared with you the new Universal Pen Holder that is now available and compatible with allScanNCut models! Today, I wanted to go a little further and share how I’m using the Universal Pen Holder….
…to draw with glue! And add gold foil of course. I’ve really been trying to reign back my foil use for these 12 Days, and I’m shocked I held out until Day 6! The remaining days might be chalk full of it: just warning you! ;) I cannot stop! It’s fun and it fits the season.
But really, I think gold foil fits any season. Don’t you think? ;)
I digress. Let’s dive in!
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I’m not an expert in the paper crafting world. I’m not really an expert in anything, but I love learning and exploring. When I saw how well the Universal Pen Holder drew with gel pens, I went on a hunt for a gel-glue pen! I found these pens and went to work!
I decided to use the glue as a bond for these foil sheets. You could also use these pens to have your ScanNCut Machine draw the glue down for intricate paper cuts. If it were me, I would edit the file in ScanNCutCanvas to make a glue line just within the cut line. As I’m writing this, I’m realizing that I need to try it! So you can be expecting that…sometime.
But back to all the gold and all the foil. I tried a few different techniques, and I have some works-well and doesn’t-work-so-well ways of doing this.
So first I wrote the word hello and scanned it in to my ScanNCut Machine to create the cut file.
I used one of the built in envelope designs on the ScanNCut2 machine (I love all the new designs!) to cut a cute envelope and then wrote the word with the glue on the front.
Tip: I find that increasing the drawing pressure helps when writing with gel pens! (or gel glue pens, in this case!)
So the first test I used a bone folder to transfer the foil. It worked okay. I found that the glue was inconsistently dry, so it smeared in some places and didn’t stick in others. Totally expected. I think it would work fine with a smaller design.
Happy Saturday! Keeping things super simple this weekend, in hopes that you all are enjoying the weekend with people you love. It’s the first weekend in December! And kind of our last lazy weekend before all the holiday parties start kicking into high gear. Last night Harlow and Andy made these cookies — I’ve already had four for breakfast. That’s okay, right?
You don’t have to answer that.
On to Day Five of our 12 Days of ScanNCut! Whether you have the on your wishlist or you own any model, you need to add the to your wishlist! This thing is flying off of the shelves, and I’m not surprised at all. I’m not a huge scrapbooker or paper crafter, but just like ScanNCut is allowing me to try things like applique, I’m also experimenting more with various pens and paper projects. The is a big reason why!
The Universal Pen Holder allows you to use almost any pen or marker with your ! To get an idea of the circumference maximum, a standard sharpie is just a hair too big. But those gel pens, Faber-Castell pens, Tombow pens…they all work! Tomorrow I’ll be sharing something a little out of the box that I use with my — I can’t wait to share it with you!
Fun tip: for pens that are a little too thin (like the gel pen pictured above), wrap a wide painter’s tape around the pen to allow the to grip it better!
Did you know that on ScanNCutCanvas you can set lines to be Drawing Line and Cutting Lines? Makes it so fun to incorporate both into a project seamlessly. You can download this simple Holly & Berries design at the end of this post. I’m going to make some gift tags with it, I think!
Drawing projects are a great way to use older mats that are losing their stick. I always keep painter’s tape near by for these projects!
So given that I’m new to all the fun pens out there in the world — I have an online handwriting class that I’m going to start soon, I’m so excited! — what are your favorite pens? I’m working on some text for the to write that I’ll be posting for you all very soon!
Happy Friday! Harlow and I saw the Boston Ballet perform the Nutcracker together last night. We had such an incredible time, even though we sat in traffic due to a bad accident on the way into Boston and had to do a crazy shuffle of the Jones due to a late meeting that Andy had. But we did it — really only because of the cool and calm of Rachael. Thank you, Rachael!
So today is Day Four of 12 Days of ScanNCut! I really could talk about so many things today–detail cutting, different materials, using ScanNCutCanvas–but I’m going to talk about the ability to cut items 12″x24″ in size.
The ScanNCut and ScanNCut2 come with the standard 12″x12″ mat. (Each machine and package contains different mats and number of mats, so be sure to check before you purchase!) You can also purchase additional 12″x24″ sized mats in three levels of tackiness: low tack, middle tack, and standard tack. Additionally, you can add 2 Fabric Support Sheets to cover the longer mat as well.
New to the ScanNCut2 comes the ability to scan 12″x24″ mat as well as cut. There are a few caveats, so let me explain:
You can cut using the 12″x24″ mat using any ScanNCut Machine. There are some fun tricks to cutting even larger than this, and I’ll be sharing that with you early in the new year.
The only machine able to also scan the 12″x24″ mat is the ScanNCut2 CM650W. This machine is available for purchase from Brother Dealers.
I shared a few other projects using the 12″x24″ mat here and here!
I made this bow pattern as project for the 12″x24″ mat — it can be scanned in just like any paper pattern you may have! But lucky for you, I have it right here for you to download as well. :)
My original design was full of snowflakes in the loop portion of the bow. In theory…and in my head….it was gorgeous. It’s a lot of trial and error over here.
I’m going to keep playing with it. It might have been how stiff this material is or how large I made some of the snowflakes. Oh well! I removed all and some of the “snowflake lace” in the patterns above, so choose and download whichever you choose!
For this bow, I used a new-to-me material. I don’t think it’s super new in general, but some of the colors might be. My mom found it and sent it to me! It’s called Kraft-Tex, and it is a fabricy-leatherlike-paper. It’s weird. It’s awesome. And it cuts beauuuutifully. This is the first I’ve played with it, but of course when I saw how well it cut, my mind has begun going crazy with ideas! It apparently can be softened to more of a leather feel, but I haven’t attempted that yet.
My cut settings: blade, 7; pressure, 2; speed, 1.
Happy Weekend! I’ll be back over the weekend for days five and six!
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