The Cutting Cafe's Blog

PARTY HATS - TOP HATS AND A GIVEAWAY

Hello friends......

I often get the question as to what kind of adhesive do I use on my projects - mainly like bags and boxes....WELL recently I became one of the STICKY GIRLS from Tombow - it is a group of crafters that are STUCK on using the awesome adhesives from Tombow. They have one in particular that I am in love with...the new XTREME Permanent Adhesive by Tombow..........

BOY OH BOY this stuff is AWESOME.........

It sticks and bonds together like NOTHING ELSE.

I used it to bond together these two hat projects:

PARTY HAT TEMPLATE:

TOP HAT SET:

This Adhesive worked wonders on these two projects.....now they are tightly bonded together and ready to wear - WITHOUT THE WORRY OF FALLING APART.

Tombow and I would like to giveaway 1 pack to two lucky people for you to try for yourself. All you have to do is leave me a comment and I will draw two names on the 8th of July (next Tuesday). 

So don't forget to leave a comment - us crafters need to STICK TOGETHER..........:)

GETTING THE RIGHT SIZE INTENDED USING THE CRICUT EXPLORE TIP

BE SURE TO VIEW A NEW VIDEO ON IMPORTING CAFE FILES INTO THE CRICUT EXPLORE BY CLICKING HERE

UPDATE - AUGUST 1ST 2014

STARTING AUGUST 1ST ALL NEWLY RELEASED SETS WILL ALREADY HAVE THE MEASUREMENTS INCLUDED IN THE SET - YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO DO THE STEPS BELOW

For some reason when you go to import a cutting file into your Cricut Explore it doesn't come in as the size intended so for today's tip, I will show you how to get the right sizing for when you import the Cafe files into the Cricut Explore.

YOU WILL NEED TO DO THESE PROCEDURES BEFORE IMPORTING INTO THE CRICUT EXPLORE

I WILL USE THE 2013 NUMBER SHAPED CARD FOR THIS TUTORIAL - to follow along, click on the ADD TO CART button to get the file for free:

1. First extract the file (normally by just right clicking on the set AND then clicking EXTRACT ALL):

2. Double click on the svg folder:

3. This cutting set has 3 files:

4. You will need to Double click on each image-file one at a time. After you double click it will open up the image in INTERNET EXPLORE or if you have INKSCAPE it will open up in there.

Do the following if it opens in INTERNET EXPLORE:

Double click on the image (I did the first one that read FOLD.SVG) WHICH came up large in INTERNET EXPLORE ...... then right click on the screen - image and then click VIEW SOURCE:

5.  Look down on line 3 or 4 and you will see the WIDTH AND HEIGHT of the entire page - this image should state: width="5.275in" height="7.97667in

CLICK IMAGE TO SEE LARGER: - I have highlighted in blue

WRITE THIS DOWN....this is the intended size for that image or the set of images on that page.

6. You will need to do this FOR EACH image - so for all three in this tutorial sample. THIS IS ESPECIALLY important for the images that have SEVERAL images on one page - like the SINGLE NUMBERS image has 4 numbers on it:

7. After you have written down all of the sizes for all 3 of the image files you are ready to import these into your Cricut Explorer.

8. Import them one at a time - after you import the first image DO NOT UNGROUP - change the sizing first and then you can ungroup.

9. Follow the same procedure as number 8 above - importing each image by itself and changing the size BEFORE YOU UNGROUP.

10. Now that all of the files are on the mat (THEY MAY BE VERY LARGE WITH LOTS ON THE MAT) but at least they will all be the same size) you can then UNGROUP, change line colors resize as a whole smaller or larger and then cut.

11.  You may run into a problem where some of the files WON'T UNGROUP - most of the older files will not ungroup from the Cutting Cafe, this wasn't an issue before because some cutters have an erase function that the Cricut Explore doesn't - you will probably have to use the CONTOUR function for this.

12. Another problem that I have noticed on a few files is that if there is a folded card on one image sheet with a few other images, sometimes all of the other images are sized to work with each other while the folded piece isn't - those you will have to enlarge to match up with the others.

IF YOU HAVE INKSCAPE installed on your computer, after you double click on the image it might open up in INKSCAPE:

1. If you look on the third section down on the picture above you will see the measurements, but these measurements are in px so you will need to click on the drop menu and CHANGE TO in (for inches) - see red circle below: 

 

This will give you the measurements in inches.........do this for each image, WRITE THE MEASUREMENTS DOWN and then follow the same procedures starting at number 7 above.

If you have any questions or run into any problems, please email me at [email protected]

Thank you

Regina

PRINTING JUST ONE IMAGE

Have you ever just wanted to print JUST ONE IMAGE off of one of the PDF SHEETS from our PRINTABLE SETS?

Well it is very easy to do. Follow the steps below:

Open up the pdf file with the image on it that you want to print out. For this example I opened up the Sending you a pocket full of wishes

Click on EDIT:

Then you will get a drop-down menu - click on TAKE A SNAPSHOT

Your cursor will then turn into a small t or cross like image.

Then MANUALLY starting from one edge of the image you want to print, draw an imaginary box around the image....- IT WILL HIGHLIGHT THE IMAGE.

Another box will come up telling you THE SELECTED AREA HAS BEEN COPIED - CLICK OK (see above)

If you DO NOT GET the box that comes up stating THE SELECTED AREA HAS BEEN COPIED then - right click on your mouse on the image you drew a box around and another box should come up with an option to copy.

BEFORE you print make sure you have the paper that you want the image to print on in your printer.

PLEASE NOTE: this image will print DIRECTLY IN THE MIDDLE of the paper, so to save paper, cut out a piece of paper that is almost double the size of the image you want to print and tape it to the middle of some scrap paper.

I just used some cheap typing paper and added cardstock to the middle of it with tape on all sides.

INSERT your paper in your printer (make sure you have it faced up or down depending on how your printer works)

Then hit print:

EASY PEASY....now just take the printed image off of the paper. Also depending on what type of tape you used to apply your cardstock, you may be able to reuse the typing paper.

By the way, I use a HP printer - model (HP PHOTOSMART 7520)

And here is a finished project using one of the images:

TIP OF THE DAY - PDF TO JPEG CONVERTER

Hello all, todays TIP OF THE DAY is how to:

CONVERT a PDF to JPEG

Many of the older printable sets here at the Cafe are only in PDF format, so this convertor will come in handy for those of you that may want to do print and cuts using your Cameo's or other cutting machines that don't support PDF format or if you just perfer to work with JPEG instead of PDF.

This free online convertor isn't 100% perfect, BUT IT COMES PRETTY CLOSE.

The link to the converter is: http://pdf2jpg.net/

The converter is very easy to use.

If the pdf you want to use is in a zip folder - unzip the folder.

CLICK ON THE BROWSE:

Then find the pdf you want to convert...click on it (you then might have to hit open)

Then enter the JPEG QUALITY you want...GOOD OR EXCELLENT

Then hit Convert PDF to JPEG

After it is done converting, over to the right you can either VIEW OR DOWNLOAD or save as a ZIP FILE.

To convert another PDF click on the tab at the very bottom of the page to the left:

I hope this tip will help you.

BE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR BLOG FOR MORE: TIPS, WEEKLY INSPIRATIONAL PROJECTS, GIVEAWAYS & CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHTS.

 

TIP OF THE DAY....PRINTING JUST ONE IMAGE

Every wanted to just print one image off of the PDF? Well here is the simplest way to do that.

Open up the PDF FILE that contains the image you want to print out.

Draw an imaginary box around the image you want by clicking the:
(edit - take a snapshot)

You will then get a box that comes up stating THE SELECTED AREA HAS BEEN COPIED, if this doesn't come up, right click and just click PRINT....

This will print just that image (the size intended).....BUT it will print it in the middle of the page.

To save paper, you can always just tape a small piece of paper to the middle of the page and then print on that piece.