It’s important to keep your mats in pristine condition so that they not only last longer, but ensure good, clean cuts when using your Inspiration. Always remember to keep them covered with the clear protective sheet when not in use and stored on a flat hard surface. You’ll be amazed at how long your mats will last with a little TLC.
Not only is the Inspiration capable of cutting out your amazing projects. It has the ability to draw and journal your images as well. In fact, check out our Single Stroke Designs in our image library for some great designs to use with your favorite gel pens and markers!
Clearance bins are a great way to vamp up your paper supply. The only problem with purchasing discounted or clearance items is that generally what paper supply is left—well that’s all that’s left! So you really have to make sure that when you’re creating projects you don’t ruin what limited supply you have of a certain style or type of paper. We use a lot of paper at Pazzles when we’re designing and creating projects for the Craft Room! Test cutting on more inexpensive paper is a great way to ensure your creations layer, fold, cut and line up just right. So what happens if you’ve got your last sheet on the mat and you’ve either made a mistake in the design or you’re just not ready to cut out the project yet?
Using the export feature for JPEGs and BMPs is a great way to review your own creations without opening the file in the Pazzles software. Creating pictures from your files also allows you to share pictures of your designs with others and create printable designs which have many uses. We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words, and creating pictures from your cutting files is easy in the Pazzles software!
Often times I’m asked the purpose of the cutting strip and what function it serves for the Inspiration. The reason that the Inspiration has a cutting strip is to ensure that the blade doesn’t come in contact with the base of the Inspiration and which can leave cuts and grooves on your machine and damage your blade as well. When dealing with different crafting adhesives, vinyl, sticky backed papers there can start to be a buildup of adhesive residue on your cutting strip. A great way to remove the buildup is wiping it off with a wet wipe. If you find that the tape that is holding down your cut strip is peeling away due to years of use, you may want to consider getting a replacement strip.
The internet has allowed us to cross oceans, literally in a matter of seconds with the help of technology. Today there are so many wonderful ways to keep in touch with family and friends and of course, crafting friends we meet online via email and Skype! The internet has proven to be very helpful when it comes to communicating with others who have the same hobbies as we do, like scrapbooking! Forums and even abandoned threads are still a great resource to help answer questions that you may have about your Inspiration and the software. Regardless of what level you are at learning and using your Inspiration, someone out there just like you probably had the same questions and posted to an online forum.
The blade holder is the most important part of the Inspiration. Hard to believe that such a small tool plays such a significant role in the cutting capabilities of the Inspiration. Not only is it important to keep the blade sharp, but it’s also important to keep the blade holder clean from cutting fiber and debris from your paper crafting projects. You will always want to make sure that if the blade holder is not secured in the blade carriage of the Inspiration that you have it stored in a safe location where it won’t get lost or more importantly damaged.
One of the most exciting parts of creating your projects is actually cutting them out and assembling them. It’s pretty amazing to see your creations come to life and look even better than you expected. I’ve made projects that required me to test cut my images several times, especially while creating dimensional projects, so that the assembly was perfect. Since every material that you cut will require a different combination of both pressure and blade length you may find in some cases that you may need to cut your image multiple times to ensure a good clean cut. Here is a technique to save on paper and learn what settings work the best for you.
Coffee just seems to call my name on slow mornings. After that first cup, you feel reset and ready to conquer your day! If only our Inspiration and the software had a way to reset itself. Well guess what, it does! Here are some instructions for you to try when you feel like your Inspiration Studio software might need a quick pick me up!
We know how valuable your time is and it’s important that when you finally sit down and start using your cutter you have everything you need. I often refer to crafting like cooking; you have to have all the ingredients to make a masterpiece soufflé! Crafting is no exception to that rule. So it’s important you not only have the idea in mind, but the pieces to help create it. Your images whether you create them or download them from our library are important components to create all those amazing projects.
It’s obvious in the electronic world how quickly the latest and greatest goes to yesterdays has been and forgotten. It seems like cell phones and lap tops are outdated before you even get them out of the box. However, that still doesn’t stop the drive to want to purchase the newest products that are available. When it comes to technology we all like to take advantage of anything that can help simplify or enhance our daily lives, especially when it comes to our hobbies and the things we love doing the most.
If you haven’t checked out www.Pazzles.com lately, you’ll have to go take a look. We wanted to make our website more user friendly, as well as help potential customers navigate our sight to get a better idea as to what our wonderful products are all about. In this change we shuffled around a few things, one of them being the location of the Inspiration Updates.
There are a lot of different die cutting machines available on the market today. There’s no doubt that you’ll agree that none can compare to what you can do with the Inspiration’s powerful cutting and all the added capabilities you get from our added tools. Top that off with unbeatable software and it’s easy to see that that no other machine can rightfully compare to the Inspiration and its capabilities. When it crafting we think that you should have plenty of options so that your creativity is never limited but we also know that it is important to keep things simple and easy.
Whether you’ve been a scrapbooker for a while or you’re new to paper crafting. The one thing that we all have in common is the desire to mingle with other crafters to share ideas, projects and learn the latest and greatest techniques. I can’t think of a better place to do all that than the Craft Room. I think before too long you’ll find yourself calling each other friends, not just fellow crafters with a thing or two in common. I know that a lot of you have coordinated events locally, and some that have even traveled across the U.S. to scrapbook together.
The biggest benefit to being an Inspiration owner is the ability to create and design within the software and not being restricted to costly cartridges with a limited amount of images. With the Inspiration Studio software you can create limitlessly. That means that whatever you can imagine, you can create! For those of you that are just getting started learning your new software or like the idea of cutting pre-made designs then you’ll want to check out our Image Library here in the Craft Room as well as our image CD’s that you can purchase in our online store.
I hope you were able read the blog posted by Amanda last week and took a tour of the Craft Room. It was nice to see the many amenities that are offered there for our Craft Room members. I hope you’re taking advantages of the forums, videos, workshops as well as all the awesome images in our image library. You can never get too much of a good thing, and when it comes to your membership, there’s a lot to take advantage of! The Craft Room is also a great place to visit with other Inspiration users who use their machines on a consistent basis and can offer input to shortcuts, cutting different materials, and what pressure settings they use with their Inspirations. Take advantage of the resources that are available to you to help make the learning process easier and more enjoyable. Even if you don’t have friends to craft with locally, here in the Craft Room everyone is a friend!
The Basic Function tool bar plays an import part to the software as it holds the Type, Special Effects, Draw, the Image Gallery as well as the Auto Trace, WYSIWYG, and the Cut Project ability. I hear from a few Inspiration users a week who call up in a panic wondering what they did wrong and why the tool bar isn’t on their screen. Right away people think that they’ve done something wrong or that they will be unable to bring the tool bar back up again but this is actually an easy fix.
I love visiting the local craft stores. Although I may not go with the intent to purchase a specific supply, it never fails that I find a paper product that I love. There are so many different kinds of papers. Some papers are made with different materials that can range from linen, paper and even have more plastic components. Depending on the paper and what's it made of will depend on what settings will work best for you.
Having different versions of software available to purchase can sometimes be confusing. We understand that, and I hope that by reading these blogs that it clarifies things for you. Since there are so many versions I’m sure a few of you are wondering what happens to the older versions of software, and if you should continue to hang on to all the different versions you’ve purchased.
We are all busy people, and in the hustle of trying to raise families, run a household, jobs and crafting. It’s comforting to know that there are things that help make life just a bit easier. It’s amazing how the simple conveniences in general help make things run more smoothly and help to eliminate added stress to our already busy lives. Crafting is no exception! Pazzles always has your best interest at heart and when we launch new products; our customers are our only focus. Everything we do is to help make life easier for you, and make your crafting experience more enjoyable.
Have you ever been so busy with daily projects, chores and household duties you never take a minute to sit down and take a break? The Inspiration in a lot of ways can be like that too. Sometimes just simply unplugging the USB cable or turning the cutter off is just the thing it needs for a quick break so it continue to keep working hard for you.
It is so easy to get caught up in the fact that the Inspiration cuts that we forget about all of the other fabulous capabilities that the Inspiration offers. You can use the distressing, embossing, engraving, and needle pierce tools as well as the pen tool. The pen tool is a great accessory to go along with your cutter since it can add the picture perfect journaling or drawings to any project.
Spring is almost here which means for some of us, that means Spring cleaning. That’s the time that we start to go through our Craftroom’s and attempt to organize the clutter, and toss some of the supplies we don’t use, or if you’re like me, it’s an excuse to go buy more! However, it can sometimes mean that you’ve thrown away something you actually needed. Maybe you’ve even accidentally thrown out some CD’s or worse the software and now you need to install on a new computer.
With two different versions of software available for your Inspiration there can be some confusion during the installation process. It can be a challenge as to which version of software you need to have installed on your computer, or how the installation process works in general.