Carol B contacted me the other day after she inadvertently discovered the Decorative Border function in KNK Studio. She asked me if I was aware of it and I responded that I was. It’s covered in Section 8.9 of the KNK and ACS User Manuals. HOWEVER, there was something about Carol’s file that triggered something I had never thought of before! She had a hearts image selected when she clicked on the Decorative Border function and KNK Studio immediately placed the inner part of the border around her hearts:

That’s when I realized that the border was actually a frame (with a hollow interior), thus you could use it to weld the images to the inside rectangle! And further, it’s REALLY easy to drag that interior rectangle to overlap perfectly and maintain centering with the outside rectangle at the same time. The only thing one needs to remember to do, is change everything to the same color before welding. This is FAR easier and faster than either of the methods I’ve taught in the past and I’m so very happy to have available now. Thanks, Carol! And here’s the video to watch:

Use Decorative Border to Weld to Rectangles

I’m so happy (and relieved) to finally announce the NEW Auto-Tracing video which covers all three versions of auto-tracing in KNK, KNK GE, ACS Design Studio, and Design Master. The version you have is based on the license files at the time of your software purchase. If you’re not sure what you have, not a problem… there’s even a quick separate video in this package to show you how to find out!

In total, there are 15 videos contained in this package for a total of 96 minutes of step-by-step instructions. Unlike my prior videos, I decided to NOT merge these 15 videos into one, so that users could more easily go back to any particular segment to re-watch. While I have the videos separated into folders based on which version of the vectorization they need to watch, I encourage watching all of them because I also show some additional tips on things like editing images both before and after tracing, quick tricks to improve trace lines, and preparing images for paper piecing projects.

Because this video package is almost 70 mb in size, I’m also offering it with the option to be sent on a CD. Here are the links for both product listings:

Auto-Tracing for KNK, ACS, DM: Downloadable

Auto-Tracing for KNK, ACS, DM: CD Version

Credit for today’s post goes to Brenda Josselet who has found a quick way to align nodes horizontally or vertically, thus making editing straight line images much easier. I was so impressed with her discovery that I just had to come up with a name for it that would make it hers forever. So, I’m calling it Josselet’s Jostle It because you do kind of jostle the nodes in the process!

Here’s the video to see how it works. I’ve also added a few more things you may not have thought of before, so hopefully there’s something for everyone in this post. Thanks again, Brenda, for sharing your discovery!

Josselet’s Jostle It

Finally, after 18 months, I’m releasing a new video for sale. Manual Tracing 2 covers how to trace images using the Arc Edit function and I highly recommend you give it a try because it’s ideal for images with lots of curves, but can still be used with straight line portions, too. You’ll end up with fewer nodes than with any other method and I also show a way to make sure symmetrical images are traced perfectly.

More videos are planned for release in the upcoming weeks! For anyone not using Paypal, the videos will also be sold at Scrapbook Die Cutter, as well, in a few days.

Pam Z!

Chris’s posted announcing Pam Z as the winner is under the Comments link below! A hearty congratulations to Pam and a HUGE thank you to everyone who participated! : )

VDBC is celebrating its first anniversary this month! Chris is offering all of my readers a chance to win a membership to her Quarterly Membership Club (either Oct-Dec or Jan-Mar) at www.visualdesignsbychris.com

Its easy to win- just enter a comment on this post TODAY, October 2, and you will be entered in a drawing for one membership. (Scroll to the end of this section and the link to comment is below the three photos. All comments must be approved, so I promise to check off regularly all day long and get them all approved before Chris does her drawing of the winner tomorrow!)

Chris’s Quarterly Membership Club includes 20 plus files offered in GSD KNK WPC AI SVG SCUT
All new original files created freshly during the quarter. Value is $10.00

Winner will be announced tomorrow, Saturday, October 3rd, at this blog. So be sure to post your comment TODAY and then tune in tomorrow to see who won!

For all of you readers who have expressed how much you enjoy this site… please thank Chris! She’s the one who pushed me to get started with this site and answered a jillion questions that I had about the proces. Chris, congratulations on your first year! I wish you continued success and thank you for getting me started blogging! You’re the BEST!!! : )

Lisa B posted to the I Love KNK group asking if there is an easy way to fit your text into another shape… such as I show in the above screen shot. The answer is, “Yes, but you need to use Inkscape.” The process isn’t difficult, but it does require a number of steps as shown in today’s video:

Fitting Text to a Shape

If you do not already have Inkscape, then it’s a free download from Inkscape.org and I believe this will work the same in either the 0.46 version or any of the beta 0.47 versions. The only tricky part I’ve run into is getting the text set to the font I want to use. Inkscape has always had a few quirks with their text function. But you should be able to do what I show in the video and then type what you need for your shape.

Also remember to verify that your original shape from KNK Studio matches the shape in Inkscape. It will also flip vertically during the conversion, so check that. Otherwise, have fun with it and maybe, someday, we’ll be able to do this in KNK Studio automatically!

In the past few months, I’ve become a bit addicted to rhinestone applications using KNK and ACS cutters. I just keep coming up with new ideas for using our software to make patterns and also new information to report on cutting the rhinestone motif rubber and sweeping those beautiful sparkling stones into the holes! But, I also have a long list of topics for my readers here, who tend to be paper crafters.

So, I am going to be posting the latest and greatest on rhinestone applications at the blog owned by Accugraphic. So, if you are enjoying following the rhinestone techniques and free videos, then definitely sign up over at the ACS Site: www.buy-acs.com under Blog at the top of the page and then you’ll also see a link at the top to subscribe.

I also plan to post about Stenciling applications over there, as well. Oh wow… where am I going to find the time? Beats me! But somehow it does get done. So, watch for new updates in both places and if anyone would like to take over and Twitter for me, that would be great!

(Added 9/13)
If you’ve already watched the video below before Sunday, 3pm EDT, then watch it again. Sharon M and Elsie H both contributed information that helped in finding easier ways to do things so I made an entirely new video. Thanks ladies!

(Original Post)
Thanks so Sharon M for today’s blog post. She contacted me this morning asking about the Notes function, which she was using to manually type in various dimensions for a pattern.  I responded that there was a really easy way to add dimensions, using another icon under the Measure Tools, called the Object Dimension, in which you can easily create arrows with measurements by just dragging on the side of a selected object. As always, a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth ten thousand!  Watch and learn how easy it is to add dimensions to your projects in KNK and ACS Studio:

Adding Dimensions to Your Projects

Today’s thank you’s go to Sherri S and to Kaleigh C for ideas on how to find images for auto-tracing in KNK Studio.

Someone at one of the Yahoo groups was looking for football images.  Now normally, I would send them to Picsearch or to Google and then perform the search and click on Images.  But Sherri did it one better… she googled on: Football Silhouette.  The following two screen shots illustrate the difference in what you get:

Search Results on "Football"

Search Results on "Football Silhouette"

Obviously the second search yields much better/easier images for auto-tracing due to the black and white nature of the images and also the simplicity in the detail.

So, I was relating this find to my friend, Kaleigh S, who told me that she enjoys locating free coloring book images and does a similar search, except uses “coloring book” in place of “silhouette”.  Here are the results from that search:

Again, you get black and white images and, even better, different images from the first search. Now, auto-tracing these images will results in double lines, but those are fairly simple to edit out and it’s worth using this “coloring book” search in case the images you originally find are not quite what you are needing for your personal project.

As always, tracing these Internet images does not make them yours to share or sell without the permission of the original designer.  You’ll need to hunt down the Terms of Use or contact the original designer if you want to do more with them.  But for your own personal use,  have fun!

My good friend, Jenn the Hacker, truly outdid herself with this stunning creation that once again shows us that she’s truly an artist.  (Click on the photo for a larger view!)

Jenn, thank you from the bottom of my heart for sending me this beautiful card and giving me the okay to share with everyone. The rhinestones are from Scrapbook Die Cutter and while she chose to glue them onto the cardstock, I’m sure they can also be ironed, just like one would do if applying them to fabric. I’m eager to try that out myself now that I have the inspiration from Jenn to use them in my paper crafting!

If you’d like to see more of Jenn’s creations, her blog is located at:

http://just4funcrafts.blogspot.com/

And she also has a terrific on-line store at:

Just 4 Fun Crafts