I'm so excited!! And Merry Christmas everyone :)

I probably won't be posting again before Christmas so I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful, peaceful Christmas and a very happy new year. I hope 2013 is a better year for all of us! I'd particularly like to thank my lovely cyber friends for taking the time to come and visit...and leave comments on my projects. It means so much to me that you take the time to do this...big hugs to you xx

Well, I finally bit the bullet and put my mind to doing a print & cut with a graphic. Probably doesn't sound like much of an achievement for those of you that have been doing them, but I kept putting it off, thinking it would be tedious & frustrating to learn! Nothing could be further from the truth...it was sooo easy once I went through it. I learnt a lot while conquering this...so another learning curve to add to the never ending list lol

Thanks to the lovely Brianna from the MTC forum for all her help...made the process a lot less stressful...waving to you Brianna :) Working with MTC makes cutting soooooo much easier than it was when I first started and was using the software that came with my cutter. MTC is so user friendly and has so many fabulous features. I'm so pleased I found it! LOVE it :)

I made a couple of 3D ornaments as my learning exercise. The file is a Lettering Delights print & cut file...from the new Swell Noel collection. I imported the graphic file into MTC by pixel tracing. When I cut the first lot of ornament pieces I discovered that I needed to re-calibrate Maxx to MTC for this function. I'd done this originally in the KNK program but the settings weren't quite right with MTC. There were white edges showing in some places. After sorting out the offset, the second ornament files cut perfectly :) Thanks also to Sandy McCauley for a brilliant user guide for using Maxx with MTC.

Here's what I'm so excited about lol

And a close up:

The ornament on the left was my first attempt. I coloured the white edges with a marker so it's hard to see where the problem is now. I got a bit carried away with the second ornament...I used fine jewellery wire for the hanger and broke out my little stash of beads to hang on the bottom. There is a tiny silver bell to finish off :)

I love this set of files and will be making more ornaments, in the different shapes, for next Christmas. I'm going to try and start very early so I can get everything made that I want to. The only thing this is missing is a bit of bling lol  I'm waiting for some Glitter Dust to arrive, then everything I lay my hands on will be sprayed :)  Apparently the glitter dust doesn't wet the paper, so it doesn't warp. That's my only complaint with the shimmer mists, so I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Thanks for looking.........have a wonderful day :)