Cutting Glitter Fun Foam and Stiff Felt

Cutting Glitter Fun Foam and Stiff Felt

Postby jonesusthree » January 10th, 2015, 6:10 am

Good Morning, can anyone tell me what the best settings are to cut these mediums? This will be my very fist cut. But I have no idea where I should start!!! Trying to cut text out of both glitter fun foam (non adhesive back) and stiff felt. Any help would be great appreciated!!! Tia also I ordered the must have it all pkg do I have several blades to choose from too;) Thx again
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Re: Cutting Glitter Fun Foam and Stiff Felt

Postby MeFlick » January 10th, 2015, 9:03 am

Welcome to the SB family and the forum. I see you just got your machine and that you note that you are trying to use it to make your first cut with Glitter Fun Foam and Stiff felt. Both are very ambitious project materials to start with. While I know that we all want to jump in feet first - I would highly recommend that you first learn to "crawl and then walk" with your machine before you jump into the deep end without a life preserver! ;) I say this both from experience of myself and all other owners who have come before you! ;)

Have you played around with your machine and "learned" it from the beginning. Are you comfortable with setting your blade height, blade depth, figuring out how much speed and pressure you need with basic materials like paper and regular card stock, etc.? Can you easily and quickly cut and deal with the settings and such needed for basic projects and materials like that? You need to be comfortable with those things before moving on to more advanced projects. If not, you will find yourself frustrated and hating your machine fairly quickly! This is true even if you have previously used other cutters (and maybe even more so if you have used other cutters! ;) )

Second, cutting "glitter" anything is not really recommended - especially if the glitter will flake off. If that happens you risk getting it down into your machine and possibly causing problems. That said - some people still have assumed the risk and cut glitter card stock or paper I know ;) - and if you are going to try it - most have recommended that you put the glitter side down on the mat to help try and "contain" the glitter somewhat. Also note - that glitter anything will quickly dull your blades at best. If I were attempting to cut "fun foam" - I would again start with basic fun foam before moving onto glitter foam. Also, "fun foam" comes in varying thicknesses as well as "density" - so how thick (deep) and how dense it is will impact what settings on blade selection, height, depth, pressure, speed, etc. and you will probably need to use multi cuts and even then, it may not cut all the way through but cut enough to "pop it out". Same things on felt, whether or not you can cut it and cut it well depends a lot on the "features" of the felt material you are choosing to use - again starting with its thickness and density. You will also want to make sure that your media is "stuck" down good to your mat - so you may need to ensure that you have an "extra sticky" mat to work with and may want to help it stick by using painter's tape to assure good adhesion.

Learn to use the test button and scraps of material to figure out what settings that you need and even then, be willing to sacrifice some material when you are learning a new medium to cut.

Finally, you will be told that there are no "best settings" for cutting any media - that it varies from machine to machine - user to user - environment to environment - day to day - and while this is true - you can try to find some "starting points". I believe Penny Duncan has a document with some "starting points" for various media but I am not sure where it is - perhaps someone can point you to it but I don't know if it includes this type of media or not. You can also do a search here on the forum for "felt" and "fun foam" and see the prior discussions that may have been had in regards to those mediums.

Good luck. I look forward to hearing about your successes and projects as you learn to work with this great machine!
Go Vols!
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Re: Cutting Glitter Fun Foam and Stiff Felt

Postby Gigi » January 10th, 2015, 11:22 am

Wow Melanie - great answers to all and thank you for the long response.

In regards to Penny's chart, it is referenced in the FAQ of the Learning Center. Please take the time to really go through the learning center and I will just second ALL that Melanie said. Start with simple card stock and the pen tool - learn where the machine will cut and how. Get comfortable with the basics before moving on. It will save a lot of frustration on your part. We all understand wanting to do it all - we have been there. But it's like learning anything. You start with the basics and then work your way up to the more complex things. Melanie said it all beautifully.
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Re: Cutting Glitter Fun Foam and Stiff Felt

Postby Elizabeth » January 10th, 2015, 3:05 pm

Congrats on your new machine! Great advice from Melanie and Gigi. Taking it slow and starting small are the keys to success.
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
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Re: Cutting Glitter Fun Foam and Stiff Felt

Postby jonesusthree » January 11th, 2015, 6:23 am

Thank you so much again for all the knowledge and kindness!!! I decided to heed to your advice and step away. Today I will start with plain old cardstock. I gotta learn to walk before I crawl;)
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Re: Cutting Glitter Fun Foam and Stiff Felt

Postby MeFlick » January 11th, 2015, 10:21 am

Good to hear - feel free to post here if you have issues/problems/concerns or need help of any kind. Be sure to review the learning center information as you progress as what might not "stick" the first time - will another time. There is a lot to learn and absorb to get you up and running with these machines but they are great once you get comfortable with them and that just takes a little time and effort!
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Re: Cutting Glitter Fun Foam and Stiff Felt

Postby jonesusthree » January 11th, 2015, 11:27 am

thanks again!!! Were VOLS Fans too!!! Husbands family is from JohnsonCity !!!
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Re: Cutting Glitter Fun Foam and Stiff Felt

Postby MeFlick » January 11th, 2015, 5:21 pm

jonesusthree wrote:thanks again!!! Were VOLS Fans too!!! Husbands family is from JohnsonCity !!!
Always good to have more Vol fans around. Been a rough few years with football but hopefully on the way back now. Basketball - well we will have to wait and see! ;) "Jones" is quickly becoming a favorite surname in Volunteer land! ;) You can always claim him as a cousin! I am in Knoxville area.
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