One of my subscribers asked if I would make a video to show how she can create unique titles for scrapboooking and card making. Making titles is one of the many ways people use their die-cutting machines so they can save money on expensive lettering and embellishments so I decided to include this in today's lesson.

She mentioned a title that was available for free from Miss Kate Cuttables on July 9 as an example and I used it in my video. If you would like to purchase the file I used, you can find it here. Check the site regularly for gorgeous free cutting files.

The idea was not to recreate that file, but to give people ideas on how they can assemble their own interesting titles.

I covered choosing fonts, downloading fonts, installing fonts, loading fonts into SCAL without installing them, changing a font, changing the colour, creating a mat for the words and more.

The 2nd part of the lesson covers tracing. I went over what types of images are good for tracing, saving files to your computer and finding them again, using the Trace function in SCAL, setting options depending on the type of file you are tracing and some of the things you can do with your image after tracing.

Remember that SCAL can be used with just about any cutting system. The list of cutters that SCAL can cut to directly is extensive. If your cutter is not specifically included, you can still use SCAL to create designs and then export them in SVG format, which most cutters can cut -- I have not yet come across a system that could not cut SVG files (although one system requires you to pay to upgrade to be able to use SVG files).

Although the first part of this lesson covers exporting files for use in Cricut Design Space, the concepts I cover can be used for any cutting system.

I have found, and others are confirming, that SCAL actually gives them much better cuts with their Silhouette Cameo than Silhouette Studio. Some have even given up certain projects because they could not get the Cameo to cut the design properly. They have tried the design again with SCAL and found that now their design cuts beautifully in their Cameo.

I hope you enjoy this week's lesson. Please help me by subscribing to my channel. Thanks so much for your support!!!

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Here is this week's video.

You can create so many designs by just learning the design basics, like using the back minus front command to remove parts you don't want from a shape. The back minus front command removes the areas where the object underneath overlaps the object on top.

This tutorial teaches you how to create a quarter circle from a circle, using the guidelines to help you determine the centre of the circle.

To learn everything you need to know about Sure Cuts a Lot, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

I post weekly lessons every Thursday so you want to be sure you receive notifications of all my videos.

In this Sure Cuts a Lot lesson, I cover creating custom mat sizes, text tools, welding, pages, layers, cut line types and creating a shadow layer.

You can purchase or upgrade your version of SCAL by clicking here

It is super easy to create basic designs in Sure Cuts a Lot. In this tutorial, I show you how you can use rectangles and circles to create this label. These methods can be used to create so much -- you just need to look at the design you want to create and think about the basic shapes you would use.

As promised, SCAL Lesson 1 is up and you can watch the video here.

It covers the following:

• refer to CraftEdge’s tutorials for installing, activating and setting up drivers (if you are a Windows user)
• general look around the screen
• panels
  • Document panel
  • Position & Size panel
  • Fill & Stroke panel
    • changing colours
    • matching colours using eye dropper
  • Style panel
  • Text panel
• setting up your mat
  • displaying the grid
  • portrait vs landscape orientation
• view modes (outline versus filled objects)
  • View menu
  • Show Outlines Only checkbox in Document panel
• setting up your Cameo
• determining which cutter is selected if you use multiple cutters
• describe shape handles and what they do (see image below)
  • basic handles
    • Free Move
    • Vertical Move
    • Horizontal Move
    • Stretch
    • Stretch Vertical
    • Stretch Horizontal
    • Rotate
  • advanced handles
• cutting an image with your Silhouette cameo
• SVG files
• importing
• exporting

If you need help with SCAL (Sure Cuts a Lot), join my Facebook group.

You can purchase SCAL right here.

In this SCAL4 Pro tutorial, I teach you how to use the weeding lines function and how to cut by colour.

Yesterday I promised that I would post a tutorial on how to access the special glyphs in the Samantha font, which you can still get on sale.

The easiest way of all is to use SCAL4 (Sure Cuts a Lot) because the font viewer displays all of the available characters and all you need to do is click the characters you want.

This capability is available in the Mac and PC versions of the software. For more information on Sure Cuts a Lot, join us in my Facebook group.

If you do not have SCAL, there are other ways you can access the special characters. If you have Illustrator or CorelDRAW, this video shows you how you can access them very easily.

If you have none of these software programs, you will need to follow the procedures described in the FAQ on Laura Worthington's site (under How do I?).

This procedure only works with fonts that have been coded to be compatible with character map. The latest version of the Samantha font has been coded by Laura Worthington to be compatible with character map. If you have an older version (you will know this if the procedure doesn't work), contact the designer, Laura Worthington, and ask her to send you the updated version of the font. You will have to provide proof of purchase.

The latest version of SCAL4 (4.0.13) has a built-in text knockout function and this is the easiest way to achieve this effect yet.

The video below shows you how easy this is.

Someone in my SCAL group was asking how this is done.

The video below explains the process.

If you want to learn how to use your die cutting software, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Would you like the convenience of simply typing a letter in your cutting software instead of having to open an SVG file to get the split Regal letter you want?

Now you can. I have taken all the letters I spent many hours on cleaning up, smoothing edges and splitting for you and have put them in the form of a font, plus you get to bonus cuts -- the split Regal awareness ribbon and my split flourish.

You can get the Split Regal Monogram font here.

This video explains how you can use it in Silhouette Studio, SCAL and Cricut Design Space:

In this SCAL tutorial, I teach you some cool tips for creating a compound path in SCAL, welding text to frames and I use the rhinestone feature for a fun effect.

If you have a KNK Maxx, you will be very interested in know that you can use SCAL3 with your KNK. SCAL3 for Mac is the only Mac program I have been able to find that works with my KNK Maxx cutter.

Note that the Mac and Windows versions work so watch the video for instructions on setting this up.