Scan N Cut.....I Missed the Obvious

A thought occurred to me yesterday that perhaps my problem stamps were not really the problem. I wondered if it was the process I was using.

I was stamping, cutting, then coloring. It works well when you have matching dies. I can see the lines clearly for lining up the die with the stamped image, then color using sponge daubers. They are not as precise as markers, but the look works well for large florals, and it's generally faster. I do not enjoy coloring. I tolerate it.

It seemed that the Scan N Cut was confused by some of the detailed stamped images. What would happen if I colored them first?  Originally I was concerned about ruining an image I had taken the time to color, but you can see with the machine before you cut if there is a problem. If there is, you just don't cut.

I got out the same "problem" stamps this morning that had issues yesterday. I stamped two images of each. I colored one, and left the other uncolored. For the uncolored, I used the same color of ink that I used for it yesterday.

These are the cutting lines of the colored image:

Next, the cutting lines of the non-colored image:

If you look closely, two petals would have been cut away, parts of each completely missing.

Next, here are the colored and black & white stamped images of the rose trellis:

The cutting lines of the colored image:

One small part at the bottom would be cut off, but the image would be cut out almost perfect.

Next, the black and white cutting lines:

The rose at the top would be chopped apart, as well as other little bits cut away. It's not horrible, but it's not what I wanted.

I cut only the colored images of both the dogwood and rose trellis. You can see the results look good, and NO TRACING REQUIRED:

There is a way that you can cut both inside and out, which would hopefully get rid of at least some of the inside white sections, but I wanted to resolve one problem at a time. I will play with that technique later.

This was one of those occasions when I seriously felt like doing a face palm for missing what should have been obvious, but since I typically die cut before coloring when I have matching dies, it just didn't occur to me at first. I cut first out of habit.

The information (that fully colored images work better) was probably in the operations manual, which came on a CD. I am one of the few who usually will usually read manuals, but since I have used so many electronic cutters, I thought watching tutorials would just be quicker this time, not to mention a lot more enjoyable.

Lesson learned: Color first before cutting.

Scan N Cut Successes and Failures

Today has been a day of trial and error with this machine. First of all, I intentionally chose stamps that I thought might be problematic, so that I could figure out solutions if possible. I wanted to do this at a time that I wasn't rushed.

I can sometimes tell when a stamped image will be difficult for the Scan N Cut. I chose two stamps that I want to use in the near future, and I stamped them in green. For recent tests, green was more difficult for the Scan N Cut than black ink was. Here is my stamped page prior to cutting:

These are old stamps. Decades old, with no matching dies available. The larger one actually cut well. I was pleasantly surprised. The smaller one was obviously going to cut off parts because the design had gaps in the outer line in a couple of places. It would have chopped off pieces of one of the flowers. I decided to use the acetate trace trick.

I did not have acetate sheets. I did have cheap laminating pouches. I figured they would work. I cut off the top so that each pouch gave me two sheets of plastic for tracing.

There is a video on YouTube about using acetate to get a good cutting line. I don't remember the full process, but I took a piece of the clear plastic, placed it over the stamped image, then used an ultra fine sharpie to do a trace of the outside lines. Tip: the outside of your sharpie line will be what the machine sees. A sharpie line, even the ultra fine point, is thicker than pencil and will leave you with a slight border, unless you draw the line just inside the stamped line. Since I was going for zero border, it did not turn out perfect.

Yes, I held down my trace over the stamped image with washi tape. It worked fine the first time. Those of you who watch the video teaching this technique should pay attention to her instructions about NOT using washi tape! The second time I tried this, I did not have the washi stuck down firmly, and one of the pieces came off inside my machine. It took me at least half an hour, but I did eventually manage to get it out.  I seriously thought I had ruined my new machine.

If I decide to use the acetate trick again, I will NOT be using washi tape!  I would use a full sized piece (9x10.5 inches) of the plastic/acetate, with my stamped image on a much smaller piece of cardstock. With the small stamped cardstock square or rectangle, I would place the larger acetate piece overtop so the edges extend well beyond the cardstock. This way, the Scan N Cut mat would be holding the acetate in place.  When done, you can clean the sharpie trace off the plastic with nail polish remover. (That is something I learned back in my days of creating laminated tutoring games).

You do need to scan with the acetate trace in place, but you remove it before you actually cut.

Both cut well. The bigger dogwood branch scanned and cut well without resorting to the acetate. The small one did well using the trace trick. I did not do a perfect trace on the small one, but it was my first time, and I did kind of rush tracing the image.

After the washi fiasco, I turned off my machine for awhile.  I thought more about what went right vs. what went wrong. Then I had a realization that I had not played with the color vs. black and white settings for scanning. I had stamped in black, so I used the gray scale for scanning the image earlier, and it did not do well. That was when I tried the trace and got the washi stuck in the machine.

Tonight I tried both a black ink and a green ink stamped image, and I used the color setting for the scan. That was much, much better. The grass on the bottom was not going to work well, so I deleted it. The unexpected advantage was that instead of a middle part that would not cut out, I ended up with a U shaped image that cut pretty well.

The black image had a better cut using the color scan than it did the gray scale. However, parts did get cut off. The green ink worked the best in this case. I included an uncut version so you can see the actual stamped image prior to the grass being removed.

Here are two more stamped images that I tried. The truck traced and cut well using the gray scale scan. The owl did not have a usable cutting line using gray scale. At this point, I tried scanning it again using the color scan. The owl this time had great cutting lines.

If the gray scale scan does not work for a black and white image, try using the color scan. The reverse is also true. Sometimes the gray scale works better for a colored ink image. I don't know why, but try both before you give up on a problem stamp.

Heartfelt Creations Lush Lilacs: Scan N Cut vs. Matching Dies

My favorite stamp company is Heartfelt Creations. Recently I had the opportunity to attend a Heartfelt Creations class where they taught us coloring and flower shaping techniques as we made 3 cards using their new Lush Lilacs collection. I bought the Lush Lilac stamps that day, but not the dies. After trying to cut them with my new Scan N Cut, I decided to order the Lush Lilac dies, too.

While I love what the Scan N Cut can do, it fussy cuts some stamps well, but others it needs a thin border. Most of the Lush Lilac stamped images ended up with a border when cut out with the Scan N Cut. I prefer my stamps fussy cut right on the edge. This post is shows a comparison of how close the Scan N Cut was able to cut out the Lush Lilac stamps vs. cutting them out with the Lush Lilac matching dies.

In each of the photos below, the stamped image cut out with the Scan N Cut is on the left, and the stamped image cut out with the matching dies is on the right.

There is a way to trick the machine into cutting images closer by using acetate, but I have not yet tried that technique