What makes a good file

When I first bought my Silouette I found all kinds of free cutting files and downloaded all that I liked. I had thousands of files! I seperated them into catagories and sub-catagories. Then I went to cut. My machine would whirl and grind, and take forever to cut. Some files would cut faster and smoother than others, which I couldn't figure out at first. Then I did my homework. It was because of nodes.

These machine would cut from node to node. A node is a connection point of a line segment. If there was a line, lets say 3" tall, this line could be made of 12 quarter (1/4") inch lines and each line is connected by a node. These machines would cut from one end to the next, starting and stopping 12 times. You can make this same 3" line with only 2 nodes. These machines would glide though this line, starting and stopping only twice.

The above W's are another example. The 2 W's are almost exactly alike, but the one on top has less nodes. When you make a file, you need to clean up those nodes. Unfortunately a lot of people do not know how to clean up nodes until they learn. In the meantime they have uploaded all kinds of files that make your machine grind, and whirl, and take forever to cut. That is why I am now deleting all those files that I downloaded earlier. I am going from file to file to see if it is a good file, or one I should throw away. I still download a few free files, but I examine them before I download. Most files I will purchase from designers I know. I have tested their files and know they cut smooth.

Cutter Files

I sell cutter files. I am not sure how to describe what these are if you have never used one. They are files that you send to a printer-like cutter and the you have a diecut to put either on a scrapbook page or a greeting card. If you cut these files out of vinyl you can put on a wall, a vehicle, or a sign. The possibilities are endless. Most of my files that I sell are paper-piecing files. You would cut these files out of different color cardstock and then glue together to make a picture. These are better than stickers because you can match the colors you want. I make these files in the following types: GSD for the Wishblade, Craft Robo, and Quickutz Sillouette; KNK for the Klik-N-Kut; WPC for Funtime users, and AI or IEPS for the mac users. My files can be seen at designsbysky.cuttersmarket.com.

So why am I doing this?

Everyone has a blog, or a myspace, or a whatever. A blog, I thought was an internet diary. I use to keep a diary until my mom found it. Need I say more? So why would I want to pour out my thoughts and feeling for the whole world and my children to read. My kids think I talk about them at work way to often. Can you imagine if I wrote about them for others to see? No this blog of mine will be mostly my cutting blog. I say mostly because who know what I will write about later on down the road.

So much for good intentions

Ok I said I would write a little each day, wellll... didn't work.

A little bit about me: I'm a single mom with 2 beautiful girls, ages 20 & 24. I have worked for Head Start for over 16 years. Not the best paying job, but the rewards are great. My hobbies include reading, flying and scrapbooking. I have been scrapbooking for well over 10 years. I bought a quickutz sillouette last year when taxes came in March. In June I had to have surgery, so while I was at home I started joining cutter groups to learn more about my cutting machine. I learned about Inkscape and started designing my own files. I started with clip art, then coloring books, and now designing my own. I still use clip art and coloring pages, they are the easiest. friends liked my files and requested certain files and so I started selling my files at designsbysky.cuttersmarket.com. I like paper piecing the best, so that is what I make.

What to say

I have been asked to start a blog so the people who buys my files can learn a little about me. So here I am and I have no clue on what I want to say. But I will try to write a little each day. I am not the best speller and my grammer is not at its best, so please excuse me.