Promised PSP tut.

This is a different way of making a picture into a 3d cutting pattern. I'm using the same guitar image as before but instead of carefully erasing with the eraser tool we're going to use the magic wand.



I find it easier to work with the image in black and white. So open your image, go to image/decrease colour and chose the 2 color option.






You'll get a box pop up with several options, the settings I use are as the pic but I do sometimes play about to see if an image is improved by using different settings. Click ok when you're happy with the image.





Because the image always opens as a background instead of a layer I always duplicate the layer then delete the background. You wont notice anything different as a rule but it is important.



You now need to chose the magic wand from the side task bar. The magic wand works by chosing linked areas of the same colour.

Click anywhere on the white area and it will all be selected. Hit the delete button and it will disappear.

If you look closely at the picture you'll notice that the white area from the guitar has also disappeared. This is because the white frets and the chunk at the bottom had nothing to determine it from the background. This isnt always a bad thing but in this case we need each layer to be clearly marked.

Choose the pen tool from the right task bar and very carefully draw a line along the bottom area and along the edges of the frets. This is going to be your cutting line so it needs to be as accurate as possible.

Once you've drawn the missing lines duplicate the layer a couple of times.

Click the original layer then select the magic wand again and click on the outside of the guitar somewhere on the chequer board. Go to selections and chose invert.

Because we need a solid image we have to colour it in, chose the paintbrush and make sure it's got a large size and colour in. No need to go carefully it wont let you colour outside. If you do find you've coloured over the edges it's because you didnt draw the lines properly. Use the edit undo function and go back and find those missing bits.

Your guitar should look like this now. If you look you will see how large a brush I used and how it didnt go over the edge.

Select your 2nd layer and using the magic wand click on the chequered area by the 7, hold the shift key on your keyboard and select the large area that will also be part of the 2nd layer. Go to selections invert and again hit delete go back to selection and invert again. This is where it looks scarey as the entire 2nd guitar has disappeared and you''' be left with the lil dash lines, dont worry. Go to the paint brush tool again and colour it in.

You will be left with the tiny areas at the base of the strings, go to selection and select none. Using a small sized paint brush carefully colour in.

With most other images we would be using the next of the duplicate layers to work on. However there's no point with this image as the only thing we will be using is the small area where the 7 was. Click on it with the magic wand then go to edit/copy, edit/paste as new layer. If I wanted to add the small rectangular bridge area as I did with the previous cutting pattern it would be easy enough to use the rectangular selection tool and colour in then use the move tool to be able to differentiate it from the layer below.

All you need to do now is move everything into position with the move tool, delete the spare layer and save as a jpg.

Playing with stencils

I've been playing with stencils this week and while taking breaks from all the cutting I've been blog hopping. On Friday Sketchers I found a sketch that seemed to lend itself to a tag topper. So out came my sadly neglected tag stencils from Marianne, Tildas dog stamp, a sizzlet and a scrap in a stack kit from DCWV which I bought months ago intending to make a scrap book of my lil staffie. The scrapbook hasnt happened so I've made her a birthday card ready for Nov 4th. I wont say what hubby called me when he saw it, but it was full of rude words ;o)



Back to decoupage for this one, again a Marianne stencil but this time I had to make a 15cm gatefold with fold backs. I didnt have any card large enough so I joined 2 pieces of cream linen together. The fairy is a Romak design, paper is from a DCWV stack, some red pearly card some gold peeloff borders and a sore finger from all the cutwork.

Couple more Tildas

Not so sure about this one, in theory it should work, layout is from a sketch, colours & themes match but something is wrong or missing. Havent a clue what though so I'll probably cannabalise it and start again. Merry Christmas is .75inc Gill sans font cut on the cricut with a 3 & 9 shadow. Nesties & bug folder with my F&C pencils, sakura for a bit of glitter and the asterisk paper is another Pebbles one.

Back to one of my favourite techniques, dry embossing and a blade. Marianne stencil with new Anitas paper & vellum and a couple of magnolia stamps. This time I stamped on pearlescent white card, not so good for the watercolour pencils but gives a lovely glisten in real life.

Some stamped cards

Stamping isnt my favourite technique, even tho I buy far too many stamps & inks, but after finding Faber & Castell watercolour pencils I think my colouring is improving. They arent exactly cheap but I can really recommend them. www.artifolk.co.uk and Hobbycraft sell them individually for about £1.40 If you're a tilda/sugar nellie/hanglar fan and cant justify a full set at least get the light & medium skin tones and see what you think.


Nesties with papers from Glitterpot. All of the sentiments stamps are from a clear set, either a penny black or hero arts, not sure which but they were bought at Glitterpot.

Sarah Kay stamp from Sirstampalot with DCWV papers. Scalloped card was cut with the cricut & scal.

Again DCWV papers have added a flourish dingbat cut with scal.

Orange paper from DCWV and the green & mauves from a Trimcraft set I regretted buying. Not my favourite card but I was playing with an interactive colour wheel on http://www.colorsontheweb.com/colorwizard.asp#wizard and it suggested purple, orange & green. Most odd as I'd been working with those colours on the last few cards. The bindis are art of craft.

Converting an image into a 3d cutting pattern in psp.

Now I know loads of peeps arent using scal for much more than cutting fonts... tut tut... wicked waste.

So here goes how I use psp to convert a coloured image into a pattern ready for inkscape to trace & SCAL to cut. It isnt the quickest but it's possibly the easiest for people who arent too familiar with psp.

Here's the pic I found online of a guitar.

Open the image in PSP, then go to layers/duplicate

Click on the layer visibility on the layer named background. You'll get a red cross showing as in the pic but you wont notice any difference to the picture.

Chose your magic wand tool, mine is on the side menu bar. Click on the white area around the guitar.

You'll have little flashing dashes to show that you've selected the white areas.

Hit the delete button and all of the white will disappear leaving you with a chequered background.

You now need to make 2 more duplicate layers again. To make it easier to work with I like to name my layers. You do this by right clicking on the layer and chosing rename.

Being totally original I called mine top middle & bottom.

Because this image it too small to have 3 identical images side by side you need to change the canvas size.

DONT resize the image, as that makes the image larger but doesnt give you any room to play.

Select the move tool and use it to move your 3 images so they are all next to each other. You might notice that as you move each layer it highlights where you named each layer. This is an important feature and you need to make sure as you are working on a layer that it's actually highlighting the right one.

Make sure the top layer is highlighted and select the selection tool (the box shaped one)

Use the tool to draw a box around the guitar, (doesnt matter if it goes over the next) and click inside. Those dashed lines will appear around the outside.

Select the paintbrush tool

Colour all the way over the guitar, those dashed lines will stop you colouring over the edge so it's perfectly safe to use a large brush and really go for it.

Now for the time consuming bit, we need to rub out all the areas we dont want to cut.

Select your middle layer and zoom right in so you can clearly see the edge. It doesnt matter if you can only see a small section of the image.

Now choose the eraser tool. and very carefully rub out all the bits you dont want. If you accidentally rub out a bit too much just go to edit then click undo. You can undo as many steps as you want.

Eventually your layer will look like this. Using the same method as before draw around with the selection tool, click inside the box then paint over.

You might find a few areas that need to be erased, dont be afraid to change the size or shape of the brush if it makes it easier for you to get into small areas or create a straight line.

Select your top layer and repeat with the eraser

Final time to draw around with the selection tool, click inside then paint over.

You should have an image like this. As it stands it will waste a load of card when it cuts so I use the move tool to drag the shapes closer together.

If like me you use 2 pieces of different card on 1 mat make sure you leave a decent space in between otherwise you'll be fiddling around to get the card in the right spot.

Now all you need to do is save as a jpg. It will warn you that it needs to flatten the image which is fine.

There are quicker ways to get rid of the waste areas but that's for those who have more of a knowledge of the selection & drawing tools. I will try to do a tut on it but not for a few days at least ;o)

3d guitar cut with SCAL

I used DCWV rockstar paper stack with a 3d guitar cut using SCAL. Each string had to be sewn seperately to the bottom bit then attached before sewing them to the handle. A thin strip of peeloff for the frets & a few bits of waste for the knobs. Surprisingly quick to make although it took a while to create the image in PSP. The scut file should be here, use 2 3"*7 pieces of card and have them side by side on the mat if you want to use 2 different colours the way I have.

SCAL again

Dont mention B&Q or the door, still not here and they are saying September!!

I've been having fun with SCAL (to keep my mind off of B&Q), this time cutting words into the base card.

Unfortunately the base card is a similar cream to the wallpaper so it doesnt really show the cut areas properly. If you want the scut file for the base card & the overlay it's just here and makes a 5 1/2" card. The flower is just a basic shape from paintshop pro and cut with 1cm difference each time. As always, despite having 1000s of brads I didnt have the right colour so had to dip an orange one into some embossing powder. For once I had the sense to use my long handled crocodile clip to hold while embossing so all fingers are burn free ;o)

Usable at last but fuming.

Well as promised a few pics of the playroom. I still have to fit new flooring & curtains and as you might have noticed a door on one of the cupboards......

We only ordered the units a couple of weeks ago, went to fit the doors on Tues only to find one damaged. Over to B&Q on Wed but because I didnt have the receipt with me they would only refund me £1!!!!!!!! The doors had been placed on special Monday £1 each (bl**dy typical). I didnt want a refund though, just a door, not too much to ask.... or was it?

Nope, none in stock.... "I suggest you visit every branch to see if they have any" I spent all of Thurs driving to stores as none of them bothered to answer the phone... none in any of the Bristol shops. Hubby went over this morning to be told "sorry the entire range is discontinued" and it was suggested I chose new doors. Well.... ok.... but the cantilever system (fab btw) is fixed to one and to get it out the worktops would need to be removed, we also have extra side panels which would have to be replaced. All in all the units would need to be totally dismantled, rebuilt & fitted. OK if you've nothing better to do with your time or as it was my best mates hubbies time (cheers Leon). No other suggestion was made to hubby....

I went over, very calmly doing my nut and spoke to the manager... No, replacing all the doors isnt acceptable, I dont mind glazed doors on the top but only if they are the same colour (none of them about either) no, it isnt acceptable for the door to remain missing. The manager then said he should be able to get one from their service team (legal requirement they keep parts in stock for 3 years) but it's not a quick process. Sorry mate, but speak to them and get them to send it to me direct on overnight delivery!!!!! after a bit of forcefulness on my part he agreed within a week and will ring me monday to confirm. Will wait & see if it happens... cant see it myself. B&Q have been nothing but trouble with this project, took 2 trips & a 2 1/2 hr wait just to sort out 1 length of worktop that should have been on the order.... instructions missing from the cantilever.

Would I use B&Q when we replace the kitchen later this year? NO

Other than that I'm really happy with the layout and am finding it works well for me. Still got a bit more sorting, tidying & prettying to do but at the mo I just want to sit back with a cuppa, and yes that is a kettle in the corner ;o)

Playing with SCAL again

Seeing as the playroom isnt totally finished I've been having fun with PSP & SCAL . Couldnt think what to do so I wondered if I could manage an origamic architecture card using a lattice.

Here's what I came up with.

It's quite easy to do once you've got the hang of the principle. Create the letters with a thin black edge, delete the middle and underlay a lattice then create a cutaway section around it all. Once cut all you do is score along the blue dashed lines then sort of squidge and poke it to shape. Then carefully give it crisp creases with a small bone folder. Stick along the top & bottom to the inside of the card. If your not too accurate sticking in place just trim the card slightly but it's important that the score line that goes to the outer edges lines up perfectly with the inside fold of your card.

If you dont want to make your own and with a bit of luck the file should be here. Scut file Makes a 5" sqr card. Feel free to make cards for your own use but please respect my copyright and dont share or sell the file.

Been busy creating a playroom

Eldest son announced he was moving in with his girlfriend in March. It took him over 3 months just to start clearing so like a kind mummy I went in and finished off. Within 2 days I had it all done and fresh wallpaper up, he & hubby didnt know a thing about it ;o) Cabinets & worktop were ordered the day after. It's been 13 days since I started and I'm still waiting for the top cabinets & flooring to be done :o( Not funny having nowhere to play as some stash is up here and some downstairs. Fingers crossed it will be finished this week and I can add a few photos.

I did manage to find time to make an origamic architecture card this morning. My first using SCAL but I did cheat and cut the fold tabs by hand, mainly as I wasnt sure how deep I wanted it.

While the camera was out I took a pic of this one using one of the new scrapmagic templates.

New scrapmagic templates due soon.

Have finally been given permission to show a few of my samples for the new Scrapmagic templates. There is also a wreath & stocking template but like a donut I forgot to photo them before I handed them over. There's no official launch date on Ideal World yet but Hooked On Crafts in Kingswood, Bristol will be having a demo of them later this month.

Sleigh & Candle are using papers from an old DCWV stack. The angel is using penny black & hero arts stamps with ancient page ink. The bell used the last of my favourite black & white paper, again from DCWV, stars embossed with a judikens powder & the letters were cut on the cricut, ariel narrow .6 inch.

More work in progress with SCAL

Here we have a bookcard, made from 2 sheets of 12*12 paper. The template was made in Paintshop Pro, using rectangle & elipses to create the yellow layers. I then used inkscape to add a scallop border. Many swear words & tantrums later (I couldnt get inkscape to do what the tutorial said it should) it looked right on the screen. So everything was sent to SCAL to cut. It looks a bit rough but now I know the template works I can make one with "Best" card and decorate it. I think Tilda may be coming out to play.


This is made from four intricately cut squares and folded a la teabag before being stuck together. When closed it looks like a book but opens out to create a star. I have cut it by hand before but that was hard & long work so I only made 1 as a xmas pressie for a lady at hubbys work and swore I'd never make another. Along comes SCAL and the cricut and I just had to see if it could be done lol. All in all took 5 minutes.

The orginal pattern is one I've had on the pc for years and probably from Marivi Victoria Garrido, an incredibly talented paper cutter & origamic architecture artist I met online at yahoo groups several years ago.