Machine keeps pausing in the same place

[Gigi]

Shoshi -

You don't ever have to apologize for not replying in what seems to you a timely manner. I know you will when you are up to it and that's fine. I appreciate that you keep us all in the loop and let us know what helps and what doesn't and what you are still struggling with. We appreciate the feedback as the hardest thing for me is to try to help someone and never hear anything back. So we don't know at times if we have been of help or not - and if a solution was found if that is the issue. So I so appreciate that you give feedback. Thank YOU!

Your shutter cards are lovely and I am glad you tried the origin cutting. I promise you - the more you do it, the easier it will get. I would say the majority of us cut origin for normal cutting -it's just easier. You will get there.

I think you are getting in your head too much trying to figure out it all out before you try it - like mentioning doing smaller pieces of paper. Try to think of each project/cut in relation to the paper you are cutting and not the mat.

Let's talk about the small pieces of paper. Let's say you have a triangular shaped paper for ease in explaining. It's 3-4 " in the middle and tapers down to nothing on the ends. And you have a 2" circle to cut out. If you set the origin on the outer edge of the triangle, the circle will cut into the mat because you wont have enough paper. But if you set it more toward the middle of the paper and at the bottom of it, you can envision the 2" circle fitting in that space. Here is an example - it's rough but maybe it will make sense. Chances are your paper scraps will be squares and rectangles, but I made them triangle shaped to try to make a point. Not sure it helps! I may have just confused you more!

circle example.png

I am working on a birthday card for my five year old grandson and it's all Lego blocks - 3 dimensional. That's easy to design because it's all easy shapes . I am NO artist. But I share that because I will share what the file looks like and the card when I am done to try to explain more about the origin cutting and how easy it made this project for me. (will be gluing for a few days now!!) LOL

Keep playing and experimenting and you will get there- I promise. I can remember things that I really struggled with and some things just didn't click in my head until I did them a few times and then the light bulb made sense. Once you get there, it will be smooth sailing. And you can always cut WYSIWYG if that is your comfort level - just sharing what could be easier in the long run!

Hope you feel better. Take care.

[Shoshi]

Gigi, that's awesome! I love your example. I think with practice (and maybe a few blips along the way) I shall get it in the end!

I finished designing the cutting pieces for the shutter card last night. I need to do a test cut to make sure it all works, because I've altered it a little, to make the window a bit larger. Working out the exact measurement of the "curtains" was the hardest bit, so that there wasn't a hole in the middle when they closed - you would see this through the window on the front of the card. I must say Inkscape is fabulous - it's such a powerful program and although I still have a lot to learn, I feel comfortable with it. I've had a look at the designing side of SCAL and probably because it's unfamiliar, I don't find it so good. I shall probably use it mostly just for mat layouts and the actual cutting. I know what you mean about light bulb moments. In the early days I simply hated Inkscape and found it far too difficult to understand, but with some help from people on the UK forum I soon found my feet.

That's what I love about forums - you get such good teaching and help from those who are more experienced, until you suddenly find you are in the position to help others. This was my experience with the stoma forum. My original surgery was postponed twice and ended up being a whole month later than first planned. When I first learnt that I was going to have an ileostomy I signed up to the forum. Originally the whole idea totally freaked me out, but by the time I actually had it done, the wonderful folks on the forum had demystified the whole thing and their general chat also persuaded me that once you'd got through the learning curve, it didn't need to affect your life that much and you could continue to do what you did before. Any time you had a problem there was someone on hand with real-life experience of how to deal with it. I shall be forever grateful to them for that! After what seemed quite a short while, I found myself giving help and advice to newbies. There's absolutely nothing like it! So I like to think of Gigi as a beginner, getting lots of help from those more experienced, and now she's the expert and helping others!!!

I do think it's important to report back on progress and give feedback - it seems a bit rude to accept someone's help and then say nothing! Also, I think keeping the dialogue going is good because other people in the community can benefit as well.

I was feeling tons better yesterday and more or less OK again today. We are going to the cinema this p.m to see the new "David Copperfield" movie. I'm no good at getting up in the mornings but after lunch I'm always a lot better and can usually achieve stuff for the rest of the day.

Once I've tested the shutter card pieces, I can upload the design here if anyone would be interested. It's a fun interactive card. I like cards that give the recipient a pleasant surprise. However, my hubby gave me a card once, that when you opened it, spring-loaded butterflies burst out of it. It gave me such a fright that I nearly had heart failure!! I prefer gentler surprises!

Your Lego card sounds amazing. I would love to see the process, not just because as you say it will help me visualise the whole "origin" business, but because it sounds so intriguing! I look forward to seeing some photos of the finished result as well. Your grandson is going to love it, I am sure.

Have a great day, Gigi, and many thanks again!

Shoshi x

[Gigi]

I think you are right about Inkscape vs SCAL. There was definitely a time when you could only do basic designing in SCAL, but Brandon has made a LOT of improvements to the program over the years. Again, with time, try some of the basic things and then play with the effects. It is capable of a lot. From what I understand , there is also a lot of info on the SCAL forum and there are tons of videos on YouTube. You might want to try out a few new things as you get more comfortable, but use what gives you the best results!!

Trust me, the Lego card is basic design 101~ LOL - just shapes with dots on top - but I am doubling all of the dots for dimension and covering them with glaze so they are shiny like blocks!! Pretty basic but fun. I also made a template for each sized block so I can lay it on top of the block and place the dots in the same place each time - just makes it easier!!

You are welcome. You have a great day too and enjoy the movie!

[Shoshi]

Hi Gigi, I'll definitely hae a look at the SCAL forum. I'm not averse to learning some new skills!

Your Lego card sounds really fun. It doesn't sound all that basic to me! Years ago when our nephews were little, we used to call it Sore Footo because you didn't risk going about in bare feet in their house - too many Lego blocks to tread on and they are very hard!!!

I'm afraid the film was awful. At least my hubby got something out of it, but if I'd been on my own I'd have walked out. It was a complete travesty of a favourite work of classic English literature and the first thing I did when we got home was to put on a decent version (made in the 1990s, I think) which I found on Youtube, so I feel that the record has been set straight in my mind! Another thing that made it awful was that the only wheelchair places in that part of the cinema were right at the front - far too close to the screen, and I cannot sit with my head tipped back like that for more than a few seconds without pain. So a total waste of time and effort all round! Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Shoshi x

[Gigi]

Sorry to hear the movie was a disappointment, and in addition, that it was so uncomfortable. Ugh - those front row seats are terrible. You would think they would have better accommodations. What a disappointment. I love how you came home and created a new, better memory though. Good for you.

I was chuckling about the Legos on the floor. I have memories of those and Barbie doll shoes!! OUCH! Those are painful in the middle of the night on bare feet!! Some experiences many of us share no matter where we are or how old!

I finished the front of the card today - just have to put it all together and take some photos. It really is basic - just rectangles and squares and circles! Cutting out all of the circles and doubling them up on the "legos" so they had dimension seemed to take forever - the gluing was much more tedious than the cutting. Now if I could just get the Silver Bullet to put my projects together!

[Shoshi]

Lol Gigi at the Barbie doll shoes! That wasn't a problem with my hubby's family - all boys till now. We've got a great-niece now as well.

I made some stencils on the Cougar a few years ago - lots of circles. I cut them from acetate (not a good material I'm afraid) and I had awful problems with the small circles being lifted by the blade and being carried along, preventing it from cutting more circles. That was a nightmare. I've since discovered that the material they make polywallets out of is better for stencils - it's much softer and doesn't blunt the blade so much, and also it's more robust in use as a stencil. I've had some acetate ones crack and split. I haven't tried the new stuff yet. Have you had problems cutting your small circles for the Lego with the Silver Bullet? Do they stay stuck down on the mat?

I told my hubby I wasn't going to a film at that cinema again if the only seats were at the front. Last time we went, they were at the back, and that was great. It's a multiplex so it depends which screen is showing the film you want. I always have to use earplugs at the cinema because they have the sound much too loud for comfort, and to be so close to the screen as well made it twice as bad on the sensory input level, not to mention it being a pain in the neck!

Feeling rather tired today and it's also really cold so I'm resting and trying to keep warm with a kitty on my lap.

Shoshi x

[Gigi]

Cutting circles - not a problem for me as long as the material was WELL BRAYERED to the mat and the mat was sticky enough. And I cut them out of cardstock - several hundred of them! LOL. I have a little greeting tag that I printed and foiled and it will be added and all places on a green card base - I think! Hope to finish tonight. Then have to work on a sympathy card.

lego card front.jpg

I cut acetate all of the time without a problem. It depends on the quality of the product. Since acetate is mainly plastic (as far as I know) it heats up the blade and wears them down. But I don't cut a lot (like every day) on acetate - but love it for print and cut and foiling - adds such a fun look to cards. I find more and more we have to be aware of what materials are made of as that does affect the quality of the cut - depending.

Glad you are resting today - no more movies for awhile!

[Shoshi]

Wow Gigi, that Lego is FANTASTIC!! It looks soooo realistic, I can almost feel my feet wincing from the memory of it haha! You've done a terrific job with it - the Glossy Accents and the little white highlights are a fabulous finishing touch. You should patent this design with Lego and get them to use it on their packaging! I am really impressed. I can see that you must have cut literally hundreds of little circles. What a labour of love. Do show the finished card and the tag once they are completed.

Interesting what you said about acetate. I didn't know there were different qualities. I haven't had a great deal of success with it on the machine. Certainly the softer plastic (can't remember what it's called) that the polywallets are made of is better for cutting and holds up better for stencils. There's a load of stencils I want to design and cut - so useful in mixed media work and for inking, embossing etc. etc. I have quite a few that I've bought but they can be expensive. I saw someone online ages ago who made stencils out of Tyvek - not transparent, of course, but it apparently cuts like butter and is extremely hard wearing. You can't tear that stuff. (It's also tremendous fun when you melt it!)

No time to be in the studio today. I had a hospital appointment and it is now going ahead that I shall be having further surgery. I don't know when, because I got lost in the system after my CT scan last summer and I never heard anything - I put it down to long waiting lists for a while but early this month I phoned up. I'm glad I did because otherwise nothing would ever have happened. They fixed an appointment for me asap and this was today. He tells me his surgical waiting list is 9 months and I said that was ridiculous, because it would be taking me up to almost 2 years from my original referral to him by my regular surgeon here in our home town. He said to register a complaint with the hospital and request an earlier operation because this long delay was the hospital's fault. The complaints office was closed - humph. NOT impressed, so I picked up one of their leaflets and emailed them once I got home. The NHS at its worst. In our own hospital I have had nothing but praise for them and wish I could have this upcoming surgery here, but it has to be done in the neighbouring city unfortunately. It's going to be pretty major - he wants to do a tummy tuck because of all the excess flesh on my belly as a result of the fairly extreme weight loss I managed to achieve over several years. The area around the stoma is very unstable and is beginning to cause problems with the hernia which has already been repaired twice. He said if it was left, the problem would just get worse, so it needs to be sorted. I should certainly like this to happen by the summer but I'm not holding my breath...

One funny thing - he said that the operation would involve me losing my belly button! I said he would be turning me into an alien. He said he has lots of aliens amongst his patients. Everyone knows aliens don't have belly buttons, because they aren't born, they hatch out of pods lol!! I'm not worried about that - my abdomen is such a mess anyway after all my surgeries and I haven't worn a bikini for years. I look on my scars as well-earned battle trophies and am not ashamed of them - they are like a journal of past victories. What are a few more, and the loss of my belly button? It will be a bit weird to be without one, though. And I might even end up with a flat stomach. Every girl's dream!

Shoshi x

[Gigi]

I am so sorry to hear of all of your health concerns. That has to be so frustrating. They always say we need to be our own advocates and this is a perfect example. Good for you for staying on top of things. I hope you can get things rescheduled and be on the road to recovery in no time. Take care of yourself.

Thank you for your kind words about the card front. It is a labor of love, but those darned circles! LOL Having a template to place them really helped - so glad I thought to do that! I definitely will post the finished card soon - I just need an hour to finish it!

[Gigi]

Shoshi -

I know I still have to post the finished card but I promised you I would show you the virtual mat for this card and try to explain why it is the way it is. I could have cleaned it up, but I left it kind of raw so you could see that there is a lot of leeway and you can do whatever works for you and have it work. It's all about telling the machine what you want to do and how! (well it's almost that simple!)

The design of the card front is on one layer and it could be a cut file, but I chose not to make it that way. I wanted to have an idea of how to lay out the "bricks" so that was sort of my map of how to assemble the bricks.

So you can see I have purple rectangle bricks and green square bricks. When I wanted to cut out the Lego bricks, I closed all of the layers except for the rectangles and squares and made as many as I needed for each color. I did one color at a time. So right now, this would have been a perfect set up for the yellow bricks because there were three rectangles and two squares. I closed everything else and cut origin so they cut in the right hand bottom of the paper. Then I closed those and opened the little circle dots and cut enough so I would have 16 for each brick and 8 for each square (I doubled them up for height on the brick). I just duplicated them until I had the right number and cut. So even tho there is a lot all over the mat, I used them each as a component and used one shape at a time. Make sense??

virtual mat layout for Lego card.png

The white rectangle and square WITH the circles that have "templates" above them, were just that - templates. I cut ONE of EACH of them. Then after I had all of the rectangles and squares glued down for the card front, I took the corresponding template and placed it on top of the rectangle and square and glued the first layer of the circles. That way they had the perfect placement on each brick and they were all the same. It made it so easy. Once I had the first layer of circles down, I just glued the second layer on top - I didn't need the template at that point - just had to put one circle on top of another. And then when they were all dry I put the glossy accents over all so they would shine like bricks!

I did add a greeting tag but guess I forgot to open that up and show you. I can screen shot that if it will help. My point in all of this was to show you how simple this card really was because I broke it down by the elements. It was as simple as cutting the correct number of rectangles, squares and little circles out of each color and putting it together. And with origin cutting and just choosing the shapes I needed, it was easy.

Hope this makes a little sense. LMK if it doesn't or if I can explain it differently.

[Shoshi]

Gigi, that's brilliant! Following your reasoning through, it makes perfect sense. It must have taken you ages to work it out and set it all out. The result is amazing!

Sorry to be so long being in touch - I haven't done any cutting until tonight, and have been busy doing other things.

Tonight I finished making a template for the shutter card. I've altered the measurements slightly from the design on the YouTube video because I wanted a bigger hole in the middle. It was a nightmare to get it right and I had to cut some of the pieces more than once before I got it right. This was just an exercise really, and I cut it all from white cardstock just to make sure it would work. It was also VERY good practice in familiarising myself with the "origin" cutting - and yaaayyy!!!! I think I've got it at last! You were absolutely right - actually doing it, it started to make sense. I think what had been confusing me is that it doesn't really matter where you put the design on the virtual mat in SCAL. I ended up with a rather curiously shaped long piece of card with a rectangular hole cut out of it towards the bottom, and I arranged 3 pieces on the virtual mat so that they would be around that hole, then I put the real mat in the machine with the card at the bottom right corner, set the origin and it cut perfectly! This has shown me that using this method, you can actually cut from odd bits and pieces of card, and there's going to be a lot less waste. I'll try and attach the png of the finished template.

I'm really fed up. I finished my hubby's Valentine card and tonight I had another look at it, and the mechanism really isn't working well. I had adapted the design a bit because on an earlier attempt, I'd made a mistake and thought I could fudge it - for most of the cards, this worked fine, but I think the cardstock I used for that bit of the mechanism on my hubby's card was slighty thinner, and it's not working properly. Unfortunately we are out all day tomorrow and I'm not going to have time to make the whole thing again. I think I'm just going to have to give it to him as is, and show him how to open and close it with additional tweaking - not brilliant but I can't think what else to do!!

I had an email back from the complaints department at the hospital and they said they took all complaints very seriously and would look into it, but it is all going to take time, and I'm not likely to hear back from them for about 6 weeks. I replied and reiterated that I didn't think it was fair that I should be put on the end of a 9 month waiting list for surgery when I had already been kept waiting for so long because of a breakdown in the hospital's systems. I am in their hands and we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully I'll have it done in the summer. Whenever it happens, it's going to be pretty major and I shall be out of action for quite a while, but I am sure it will be worthwhile in the end.

Since I was last on here, I've bought some brush pens and have been practising some brush calligraphy (very badly - need lots of practice!) and also colouring with them. I've resurrected some floral designs I did ages ago - I've got prints of the originals so I could colour them how I wanted, and I also did a fun little "crazy patchwork" design of some of Kaffe Fasset's knitting designs. These are on my blog as of today, to save me attaching them here, if you want to see what I've been up to. I've had quite a few rest days over the past week and took advantage with a lap tray on the recliner to do some very sedentary art work!!
https://shoshiplatypus.com/woyww-558-fun-with-tombows/
(This was my post for the weekly blog hop I'm on, where we share what's on our workdesk - basically we are all really nosey and can't resist having a good snoop round other people's creative spaces!!)

I think I'd better go to bed! We've gor an earlier start than I'm happy with tomorrow, in order to get to the other side of the county to meet up with friends for the day. My internal clock is way out and I could happily stay up till 4 or 5 a.m. but then find it incredibly difficult to get going in the mornings! It's a very common symptom of ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I shall probably sleep in the car tomorrow.

Shoshi x

Shutter Card Template with Instructions.png

[Gigi]

I love the template you made for the shutter card. That looks wonderful. I know what you mean about things not going together as well as you hope. I made a twist and fold card for my older grandson and it was a real struggle to get it to fold. Once I did it was fine, but I had never made one like that! Good for us to learn new things - right?

I looked at your blog - your coloring is great. That is one of the many things on my list as well. So many things I want to do and improve my skills, but there is never enough time because my to do list gets longer and longer. Can't seem to focus on just one or two things - I want to learn it all! LOL

I am glad you are seeing how with origin cutting you definitely can use up scraps for all sorts of smaller projects/cuts. Love the way that works out. I always feel good when I can use up something from my scrap pile! Would love to see the card when you have it finished.

Have fun with your coloring and calligraphy - you are doing a great job. I find that all very restful. Really need to make it a priority for me as I could use some stress relieving projects in my life!

I wish you the best with all of your struggles with the hospital. I am so sorry you have to go through all that you do. Please take good care.

[Shoshi]

Thank you Gigi - so glad you like what I've done so far. I feel as if I've made a major breakthrough with the "origin" cutting! The thing that went wrong with my hubby's card is that I cut the "proscenium" part (the piece inside the gate-fold card, with the hole in front of the curtains) much shorter than it should be, because I decorated the back piece by mistake. I thought I could get away with the proscenium just being big enough to cover the curtains, but it tightens the whole thing up too much, causing too much friction when you open and close the card. With the other ones I made, I used thicker cardstock for the curtains and they held up. You have to score and fold underneath the 1/2 inch at the sides of the curtains and stick them onto the insides of the card openings (hope this is making sense! - the video makes things clearer) and with the cardstock not being thick enough, they are bending and getting stuck. I'm going to have to give it to him as is, and it will have to be permanently open, I think. It's a real shame. It was working OK when I first made it and I was very disappointed to find it not working very well at all last night. We've been out all day today so there's no time to do anything about it. Oh well, you can't win them all, I suppose. I really wanted this to work for him, because he was very intrigued with the first shutter card I made and found the mechanism fascinating.

Several years ago I made a mechanical card for him with a pop-up in the middle and that was a huge success. I most of the elements on the machine. He'd been out in his boat in the river and had fallen in (it was a good thing there was someone on the bank to help him out because that river is very dangerous and has claimed several lives) - the only thing he lost was one of his wellies! (In case you don't know what that is, Wellington boots - rubber boots, named after the famous Duke of Wellington). The card front had a lever that you worked, and there were 3 layers of waves, one static and the other two moving, and a boat going up and down with him in it. When you opened the card, there was a big water splash pop-up, with a strip of acetate with the wellie on it, coming out of the splash! I'll hop over and see if it's on my Flickr page...

Yay! It's there! https://www.flickr.com/photos/12780076@N05/albums/72157657602381568

Lots of my other work too. It needs some serious updating though.

Colouring is so relaxing. I'm quite keen to get an adult colouring book soon. I've done free downloads off the Internet in the past. I like to do lots of shading and making them interesting. I also do Zentangle drawing which is very relaxing as you get in the zone - lots of repetitive little strokes that make up complex patterns. Unfortunately all 8 years' worth of photos were deleted by Blogger somehow on my old blog and I started to replace them, but people said they still couldn't see them, so last year I gave it up as a bad job and moved over to Wordpress instead. I had quite a lot of my Zentangle pieces on the old blog. I think some of them are on my Flickr page but I haven't been on there much lately and I can't remember what's there! (yes - Zentangles are there too.)

Last night I painted quite a few pieces of cheap card with gesso, in readiness for more colouring. I did some in white, and the rest I mixed black and white gesso to make quite a nice shade of grey. I'm quite drawn to that colour scheme at the moment and am keen to explore it further, and see how it reacts with the colours of my new pens. Once I get the backgrounds done, I can draw and paint at my leisure, in the comfort of the recliner!

I know EXACTLY what you mean about wanting to do everything! I'm very much a jack of all trades and master of none! I think life would be too boring if you only did one thing, but the trouble is, there's never enough time or energy to do all the things you want to do properly! My cooking takes up quite a lot of time and I really enjoy that, but the trouble is, the art work always ends up at the bottom of the heap. I'm always wanting to try new things, and the result is an ever growing collection of UFOs (UnFinished Objects lol!) which threaten to take over the whole house! My mum got really exasperated with me when I was just embarking on my adult life and didn't know what to do, and she said "It's high time you settled down and got your teeth into something concrete" OUCH!!! Hahaha! I don't think much has changed since those days! I've always been a bit of a butterfly brain.

I wish we lived on the same side of the Atlantic so that we could get together and sort ourselves out!!! If we failed at that (most likely) at least we could have a nice cup of tea.

Shoshi x