Graduation Card - Grandaughter

Your first grandchild graduating from Hight School and off to College is a BIG event, or at least in our lives.  It deserved a "special" effort card for her.

I Print but  once you find the individual hat, bow, and diploma pieces the dimension effect would be awesome if you are into layering.  

The butterfly background is a download png image of a buttfly collection, the hat I drew by looking at a lot of them online, diploma ditto. who doesn't have a bow somewhere in their stach of images?

I set up my eCAL to "place the image" onto the mat and then drew a rectangle around for cutting.  Printed the design and then cut the rectangle around it on 8x11" cardstock.

I hope this inspires you.

No files to share as all the elements are readily avilable somewhere just waiting for you to put them together as I did.

Congratulations to all parents and grandparents celebrating this special  occasion.

My System
Mac w/ Mountain Lion
Inkscape 0.48
Sizzix eclips with eCAL

Ram Sculpture to Drawing Manual Trace Inkscape

Good Morning!  This is the second in my series on taking photos of my yard sculptures and converting them to drawing using Inkscape Manual Trace.

I'm not going to repeat all I said about HOW I did it as it is all in the post below...Giraffe Sculpture.  Links to some videos and some Seamless pattern sources there.

My Ram stands under  tree in the middle of my "pot garden", not that kind of POT just the area where all the unused planting pots get stored. He is made of cement or concrete.  Had a hard time moving him from the truck into the garden!

I turned him the other way to match the orientation of the Giraffe...not sure why I thought that it was important but it's the way it turned out.

I will eventually put him in context with a pithy saying to use on cards or something.  I need to find the right pattern file or paper to use for the body and the horns.  I prefer to use a pattern file as opposed to rummaging around the craft store looking for just the right one. Seamless patterns are better for me but still looking!

I'm posting files to MediaFire for "cutting" and for P2C.  You'll make your own cutting mat for P2C.

Downloads
RamPS svg
RamPS jpg (this is the photo)
Ram Drawing png

I hope you can use the file and will give Manual Trace a try in Inkscape.  It rakes time but sure is a good feeling to have done it yourself with something you own.

My System

• Mac with Mountain Lion
• Inkscape 0.48
• Sizzix eClips with eCAL

Adding PATTERNS to SCAL3 and eCAL Pattern Library

I wanted to cut my Giraffe (see post below) with a giraffe pattern paper.  I have a seamless pattern for giraffe print.  It used to be you could add patterns to SCAL by dragging into the pattern folder in the app but no more.  I spent the day figuring out how to in the latest version.

Here's how it turned out.

You will need some “seamless” patterns stored on your computer.  I get most of mine from Repper or Pattern Cooler.  I’ll post links at the end.

In order to add an pattern file to your My Patterns Library start with an image on the SCAL/ecal screen.  I’m going to use a square as an example for simplicity sake.  Any image will do as its only purpose here is to get a new pattern into My Pattern Library.

With the object selected go to the Appearance Panel and change Fill from color to Pattern. 

If a pattern fills just click on the pattern icon to bring up the Pattern Library













You see that there are 2 Pattern Library’s, The Pattern Library and My Pattern Library.  







Select My Pattern Library.  I already have quite a few.

In the upper left of this panel are 4 icons, you want to click on the 3rd one, it looks like a piece of paper.  This will take you to your computer directory.  I can't tell you where to look for it so you will navigate to where you have it stored.  Open it.

I view as "images, since most of the names don't tell me anything.  Select the one you want to add to the My Pattern Library.  It does not seem to matter if it is a jpg or a png so long as it is seamless.

CLICK OK, bottom right, and VIOLA it is added to your My Pattern Library and will be available anytime you want to use it.

Resources for Patterns.  You can also upload an image and make it into your own pattern!

Repper Patterns.  This is good but it does cost, but if you are buying paper anyway it is a good deal.  http://repperpatterns.com

Pattern Cooler is free, but a donation would be a great gesture for the convenience.

http://www.patterncooler.com

Design your own.  Lots of entries on Google.

make your own seamless pattern 

My System

• Mac with Mountain Lion
• Inkscape 0.48
• Sizzix eClips with eCAL

Giraffe Sculpture to Drawing - Manual Trace Inkscape

Sitting on my Patio last week looking out over my yard it occurred to me that I have all of these sculptures and I could use them to draw some new  animals similar to the Seal I drew from scratch but a lot easier.

Digging out a the two videos I did in 2010 on Manual Trace I followed my own advice and started  doing a "manual trace".  This Giraffe is the first of the 5 sculptures we bought to entertain our grandchildren. You can see that he is a good size for sitting or climbing on.  Since the two lessons and files did not make it to my newer Blog there are no files for the birdhouse or the hibiscus shown in the videos.  I toyed with the idea of doing them over again for this project, but "age" has made doing videos more of a chore so I will just rely on these for guiding you through the process.

 

A little patience and a review of pushing, pulling and smoothing nodes and you have something you've done yourself.

YouTube Videos
Manual Trace Birdhouse
Manual Trace Hybiscus
 
If you aren't up to doing it yourself I share the svg file for your personal use. Some giraffe print pattern paper can make him even cuter. I also give you the final drawing in png format and the original photo if you want to try it in jpg format.

Download from MediaFire

GiraffePS svg
GiraffePS Drawin final (the picture of the drawing) 
GiraffePS Photo jpg (the photo of the sculpture

I would appreciate you letting me know how you do with the tuts or the files.

My System

• Macintosh w/ Mountain Lion
• Inkscape 0.48
• Sizzix w/ eCal

SEAL Birthday Card

The whole point here was to learn how to do it myself  using Inkscape.  Mother Nature likes basic shapes and almost anything you look at in nature is a variation on circles and  squares.  They evolve into ovals, rectangles, triangles.  The trick is learning how to manipulate the nodes to warp them into shape. There are so many tutorials for "how to draw..." that I cannot list them all here, but a google search will find you many.  Most are for drawing with a pencil but you just use the Inkscape tools instead. I suggest that you start with DragonArt.com for the drawing lesson. Then find some Inkscape tutorials for NODES.


After getting the seal how I wanted him I had to think of what to do with him, a Birthday Card worked for me.  I did it in many different color schemes; bright for kids, subtle for big kids.

I have cut this out on my Sizzix and it works.  I chose to print/cut the words on the light cardstock since it is hard for me to paste little pieces. I do not have a lot of patterned paper and I think those of you with an "eye" can find some to really bling it up.

I hope you can find a use for the card and/or the pieces.

Download from MediaFire

Seal Birthday Card svg
Seal Birthday Card scut3
Seal Birthday Card png

My System

• Macintosh w/ Mountain Lion
• Inkscape 0.48
• Sizzix eClips with eCAL

Irish Coffee - Inkscape

Why not recycle when it is only good for once a year.  I dug this out of my files today and decided to share it again for those of you who celebrate St. Patrick's Day and just have to have an Irish Coffee.

The Inkscape file is in Layers making it easier to convert in SCAL/eCAL or MTC.

I added a shadow layer in eCAL with no problems in case you want to p2c!

Download from MediaFire
Irish CoffeePS - svg
Irish CoffeePS - png

CHEERS!

My System:
Mac w/ Mountain Lion
eCAL w/ Sissix eclips
Inkscape 0.48

Note Card Fish - Inkscape

I needed a new batch of note cards and for some unknown reason fish came to mind.  I don't know why fish are so enticing but they are, so many shapes, so many colors.

This is an Inkscape svg file, in layers if you want to change it up.  There is a pattern layer for the body. The fish will cut in one piece and you cut the pattern piece with your choice of pattern paper, if you want to piece it atop the background.  I just printed the whole thing on matte photo paper and affixed it to a card base.  I think a colored frame would look good but that is the area where your talent comes in 

I'm posting 2 files to download, the svg of course and the jpg to print.

Download from MediaFire

Note Card Fish PS svg

Note Card Printable PS jpg

My design system:

• Macintosh with Mountain Lion
• Inkscape 0.48
• eCAl with Sissix eclips