Make the Cut (MTC)

The Conical Warp Tool in MTC is a great tool for anyone who wants to make cute cupcake, mug, or cup wrappers.  Besides making wrappers, the conical warp tool is perfect to help warp imagery or words so they can be curved around a round object perfectly.

To use the Conical Warp Tool to make a cupcake wrapper follow these directions:

1. Start by importing .svg or image file that have enough width to wrap a cupcake.
2. Select image
3. Click on the Conical Warp Tool in the bottom menu (looks like an arch)
4. If your imagery or file is very tall, chances are you will want to click "Trim Bottom Overhang".  The other default settings in the Conical Warp Tool are designed to fit a cupcake wrapper.  Keep as is.

One of the lesser known features available in MTC is the ability to change colors and textures of imagery.  This comes in handy when you need imagery to match a specific project you are doing.  The following video explains the process:

Most people who use MTC and cutting files are very aware of how wonderful vector files are.  They are completely re-sizeable without any loss of quality.  Sometimes, however a crafter, especially one who blogs needs a raster file.  A raster file is not re-sizeable.  They are typically the files you see on the web.  They are .jpg, .png, and .gif formats  for the most part.  As a crafter, you may have created something that you do not want people to easily copy and reproduce.  MTC has the perfect solution.

To create a raster image from MTC do the following:

1. Once you have created a file the way you want it to look in MTC, select all layers
   
2. Right mouse click and choose Export> Selection to Raster File
   
3. A dialog window opens that allows you to choose file type (.jpg doesn't support transparency and while .png does support transparency you can choose to have a background behind your image if you prefer in your dialog box)
   
4. Dialog box allows you to choose drop shadow and other elements (for example you can add a watermark to help brand your image
   

The preferred file format in MTC is .svg.  Importing and using .svg files in MTC couldn't be easier.  MTC is fully integrated with your LD Library.  You can access your LD Library and all the LD inventory in three ways:

• The art icon button in the top menu
  
• Under the File menu, choose Import>From Lettering Delights
  
• Under the View menu, click on Lettering Delights
  

Make The Cut software is fully integrated into LD.  You have access to LD's entire library of images as well as being able to access your own purchases easily.  

To access products in MTC, simply do one of the following:

• click on the art icon in the top menu
• go to File>Import>From LetteringDelights
• go to View>LetteringDelights
  

A thin Font is a single-line font. A person can put a pen, crayon, or a number of tools right into the "claw" of a cutting machine rather than a blade and use the machine to "draw" instead of "cut". When you do that with a regular font (.ttf or .otf) the machine traces the outline of the font so rather than having a single line, you get a double line.

When you use a font (.ttf or .otf file) on your computer, it will typically look something like this example (unless it is an outlined version of a font):

When using MTC there is no need to change software to print out other elements for your crafting.  Simple print right from MTC.  This feature is especially helpful when you are doing print and cut projects but many crafters just need to print a simple sentiment for a card or a tag.

The Print command is available under the File menu.  Clicking on it will open a dialog window that is typical to any print dialog window you've seen when you've printed from any other program on your computer.  

The following video shows how you can type a sentiment and print it right in MTC.

You can weld any two shapes in MTC but the most common use for welding is to weld words.  No one wants to cut out and place every letter of a word and learning how to weld the individual letters makes it easy to avoid that.

Under the Cherry Tree has an excellent tutorial explaining how to weld and join: