Having a new mat can help immensely when you’re doing more detailed projects because it helps the paper adheres to the mat well. That way the blade is able to cut some of those tight curves and details of your project without them bending or lifting.
I love putting a new blade in to my Inspiration. I love how clean my cuts are and how easily it cuts through a number of different papers without needing to cut at a high pressure. It also does a great job cutting the more intricate designs that I’ve created.
I think each and every one of us deserves a chance to take a break and revamp our day. I know that as we are busy creating our latest projects, it’s easy to forget all the work the Inspiration is doing too. When you take a break from crafting, remember that the Inspiration could use a break too. The best thing to do is just shut everything down when it’s not in use. That way when you’re ready to start working on your project, the Inspiration will be too!
If you’re like me, regardless of what’s ahead of you, you like a challenge. It’s an opportunity to learn something new and exceed your expectations of yourself. When I mastered using my Creative Cutter I felt the exact same way. It’s a feeling of accomplishment because there are so many new and exciting things to learn. There can also be challenges, but they are easy to overcome with a little practice and determination. Here are some suggestions when you are cutting paper and the start and stop points are not matching up correctly.
Have you ever wondered what the arrow buttons are for on the top of your Inspiration? These buttons make it easier for you to align the starting position of your blade over the top of your desired starting position on your paper.
Have you started cutting your most recent project and found that your cuts aren’t as clean as you remember them being in the past? It’s certainly easy to forget how long you’ve been using the same blade. Here are some ways to help you determine if you need to change out your blade.
As an Inspiration user you always have access to the latest updates for the Inspiration. These updates provide you with not just fixes but also upgraded features to make your Inspiration the best it can possibly be all for absolutely free. If only the same principle applied to all our purchases! I would love to have someone give me free upgrades to my house, my car, or even just my vacuum!
There are a lot of communities out there excited to share their cutting files they’ve created using their Creative Cutters. It’s always fun to get new cutting files. It’s kind of like getting a small present!
There are so many products out there that we as Inspiration users are excited to try and cut. From time to time you may find that you have better luck with one product over another as far as how easy they are to cut through and the results you will get in the end. With a bit of experience you’ll find that by varying pressure, speed, and blade length you can get great cuts out of almost any material. Most of this comes with practice and patience as you find what settings work best for you.
Have you ever had trouble getting your computer to recognise your Creative Cutter? While there can be a lot of variables as to the reason that this happens, a good place to start is looking at your power source. Since the power source that the Inspiration is plugged in to will vary from household to household, it is wise to take in to consideration what kind of an area you live in. Are you prone to power outages or power surges?
A dull blade can cause your paper to shred or cut inconsistently. Over time, you’ll find that cutting certain materials will make the blade dull more quickly. So it is always wise to keep extra blades on had so that you can change them out as frequently as you will need to.
For all of you card makers that are using the Inspiration to cut your welded salutations and embellishments. It can be pretty easy to get discouraged with the quality of the cuts depending on the font selection that you use. One of the reasons for this is because of the amount of detail and generally the size of the words that go on such a small pallet like a card.
Today I picked up my mat and looked at all the scratch marks, titles, and images that I’ve cut at one time or another. As a seasoned Inspiration user, I know that it’s normal to see all the things I’ve cut on my mat. In fact, it would be almost impossible to avoid it from happening since the blade lightly scores the mat as it cuts your images.
I know that we all love the sing, song sound that the Inspiration makes. I’ve heard it referred to in a number of ways from famous Star Wars characters, to a music box. Regardless, we all love that sound. It means that our Inspiration is merrily making the cut to complete our project. What do you do when the Inspiration makes a noise of a different sort?
There’s nothing like the smell of a new Inspiration mat. It reminds me of my first Pretty Pony. Those are such great childhood memories for me. For those of you lucky enough to have the Inspiration a new Inspiration mat can have some pretty good memories too! Just think of all those beautiful projects you’ve been creating using your Inspiration.
I think a sign of a product that’s well loved is a lot of use. Take for example my car, it’s older and the paint job isn’t as lustrous as it was when I bought it new 9 years ago, but it’s dependable and I really love it. So even though it has a few dings, and it makes funny noises from time to time, I still love my dependable car. It’s kind of like that with my Inspiration too. I use my supply of wet wipes to clean it up, and make it pretty when friends come over to create projects with me, but there’s some spots that just don’t clean up as easily as they used to. I think that’s a good thing though, because it means I’m creating projects and my Inspiration is getting used!
A DXF file (or Drawing Exchange Files) is a vector file (remember that “Vector” refers to the cuttable lines in your design) that has become a popular file type because there are so many different programs that can open them. The great thing about these files is because they are “vector” files you can open them up in your software and cut them right away without having to use Auto-Trace or Manual Vectorization.
It’s not always easy to determine the reasoning behind computer glitches and temporary software errors. Even though we appreciate the advantages that technology gives to us, it’s also very hard when they don’t perform properly at all times.
As you probably already know we are in the process of getting ready to release our Wall Décor CD along with our new line of vinyl. If you haven’t checked out our awesome array of new colors, you’re missing out! Alynne, was just as excited as we are about the new vinyl and is already getting started with her 12x24 mat to sweeten up the walls in her home and office.
There are a number of different designing programs out there. Many of you, like Norma, are using some of these programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw and are excited to see if these files are compatible with your Inspiration Studio software.
I’ve saved almost every paper that I have cut at one time or another in my media settings. Saving these settings takes the guess work out of which pressure and blade length you need to use so that next time you cut that paper, the settings are already configured for you. With time you will probably find that you don’t need certain settings anymore or have found better settings to use. You may find that your situation is a lot like Angie’s and you just needed to eliminate some of those saved media selections.
Nothing can be more frustrating than having a computer crash. We keep so much on our computers from treasured pictures, to personal and financial information. It can be a pretty overwhelming situation to lose all of your saved data. If you’re like Julie, than a lot of you are questioning how to even back up your cutting files. A lot of time and effort goes in to creating those images and it’s important that all that hard work doesn’t go down the drain in the event of a computer failure.
Scraps, scraps and more scraps!! That’s what we all have in our drawers and boxes throughout our craftrooms, right? I wouldn’t be surprised if those boxes are even in the living room and dining room too! If you’re like me, you can’t bear to throw those scraps away because you know that you might need that smallest piece of paper for a later project. Alison has the right idea here when it comes to scraps. Paper can get pretty expensive and with times like this we want to really make our dollars stretch.
Getting your pressure settings just right is a trial and error process until you become better acquainted with your Inspiration. I remember when I started out; it just seemed that I couldn’t master the settings that would work best to cut through my favorite papers. Too much pressure was making my paper lift and throw in to the mix that my blade was extended out too far—the result was disastrous. My cardstock would be ruined and on top of that working on a deadline for a project can be pretty frustrating. I can really relate to Jenny and the problem that she describes because I too have experienced the same issue.