I went through a few iterations of #sticker and #papercraft mostly trying to get the whiskers to come out.

Finally this simplified version worked. It's a reasonably good likeness of my favorite #cat

#scanncut #inkscape

My #art student college child had some notes

1. add the eye highlights

2. "How will the whiskers function on the sticker?" ... "Exaggerate their thickness to make them physically stronger"

3. leave the cat's nose the same color as the fur but cut it as a separate piece of vinyl in a separate layer so texture makes it visible

4. remove the inaccurate and complicated ear fur

This makes the sticker much more manageable, but I still have 6 layers and 4 colors.

Also, even with registration marks I think I'm going to have alignment problems where the white fur patches meat the nose.

But heck, let's try it!

#inkscape #scanncut

Next up for #scanncut + #inkscape is my #map pins project

Every year, the larger family rents a different lakehouse on the same lake. I mounted a large map of the lake on corkboard and made pins to show where we were every year.

The first image represents weeks in ~2015 trying to create a mask to allow me to etch brass (yeah yeah, #pcb -- I couldn't make it work).

Then I spent more days again ~2021 trying to recreate that process in an easier way.

I gave up in 2025. I hadn't made that pin yet and I couldn't face rediscocering the process, let alone executing it (#adhd)

But then came the Scan-n-Cut! With the cutter, making the mask was an absolute breeze.

I didn't take a lot of pics, but here's a result of the #scanncut (w/ #inkscape) #galentines #craft project for the Mrs' upcoming party

(these are actually the reprints of the error ones)

I also took a break and printed some cube....tiles? It's a #3d version of the #math #puzzle pentominoes. The sloppiness here is 100% my poor gluing--the cut blanks were exquisite

#inkscape is still working perfectly with the Brother #scanncut. No real software/format issues which is surprising and pleasant. (Although to re-iterate, text needs to be converted to path. But that's true in (almost?) all vector graphics-processing toolchains)

That said, my particular project is having some hiccups

Workflow: My client/wife wants #Galentines shotglasses. I made a single "blank" and then added alternate designs as layers. But when you load that in the machine all the layers are still obviously there right on top of each other

I messed a little Inkscape's "export only selected layers" but that didn't seem to do what I expected for unclear reasons. In any case, it really makes more sense to have alternate designs spread around a page to view all at once. That makes them easier to view and is how I'll want to print the final job anyway.

#3D #Geometry: The shotglasses are heart-shaped and also have some curvature from top to bottom. There's just no way to wrap a flat piece of vinyl around a positive-curvature item without wrinkles.

I think I've got the design small enough and with gaps in the right places that I can make it work. It also helps a lot to remove the transfer sheet early and just lightly deform only the vinyl itself until it is flat.

I mocked up one shotglass last night as a design review for the client but haven't heard back. Final product is due on Tuesday.

An almost perfectly inane #scanncut project.

However, I

a. verified that #inkscape is an excellent tool for #design the #svg cut path (remember also to convert text to path!)

b. established some basic transfer alignment protocols

c. realized that it might be better to do multiple small areas vs one large area (although I don't regret this one--it came out perfectly and I haven't practiced any registration techniques yet)

I did not expect mounting USB drives in #debian #linux to be the hard part of this project, but

I successfully cut simple, nested and "dashed" objects on the #scanncut using #inkscape only (ie no #brother software other than the cutter itself) ("dashed" meaning I made the line dashed in inkscape and it came out perforated on the device)

As a note to future users (me):

1. Each svg *layer* shows up as a single *object* on the device. Each device-object is effectively already grouped regardless of what the inkscape-object was doing.

2. Perforated more than you think you need.

To reduce variables (#engineer) I created the design right on the #scanncut

next up: extend the workflow to include designing in #inkscape