better get on with this

Hi guys
apologies for not blogging much, but lets give you a quick run down of what I have been up to.
Firstly, I have been card making, shed loads, unfortunately, as daughter has them to bag , she hasnt taken photos just yet, so one day there's just going to be @250 photos appear on my page.........
Having loads of paper kits, I decided it was time to start using them, sigh, and lets put it this way about 100 of the cards are from My Paper Stash's Alice in Wonderland collection.  I really cant complain about the amount of material there was in those books, but it was getting pretty hard going, being creative in different ways.. not to mention the fact that last week, and I swear I had done all the sheets, I found another 10 sheets............... so those need to be done. But having said that, I do really like the cards I made with it.
Secondly, I have an E-craft by Craftwell, and a Cameo by Silhouette. 2 totally different machines, with different capabilities and different file systems. So I needed to figure out how to do the same things on both machines, and in the end, and to my eternal joy, I ended up with a software program called Make The Cut. So there has been a steep learning curve, and hours spent watching the tutorials. So Make The Cut, MTC, is a software package that can send the same design to the E-craft and the Cameo, from one program. So why am I burbling on about this program?
The reason is if you have an E-craft, and you are browsing the web, and you come across this fabulous image cut file, only its in .gsd format (intended to be cut on a craft robo or Cameo) then you cant use that file! You can NOT cut that design on your E-craft, as E-craft only uses .svg cut files. So you sit there disappointed, and try to figure out a way to get that file so you can use it, only you cant. there is no stand alone program that can take that .gsd and make it so you can cut it on your E-craft. Or rather the Wasnt!
MTC can take the .gsd file and cut it on your E-craft! It can take an .svg and cut it on the Cameo. It can take a .wpc file and cut it, .ai or .eps files. The only files it cant and WONT (quite deliberately)  take are .studio and Provocraft (Cricut) files. This is due to the proprietary software that Silhouette and Provocraft use, and their licencing restrictions. Okay interesting but not an absolute necessity you say, Sorry but I disagree. Why? Because I have NEVER known a company like this one! This company MTC have a forum, yes same as everyone else does, has a manual, same as everyone else does, has a wish list, same as everyone else does, but theirs is a visible wishlist, not hidden away so you have no idea how many people have asked for exactly the same thing as you, but also has a webinar every tuesday night, USA time, that you can join in, and learn.
This is NOT something you are paying extra for. This is available to either watch live, and its generally about 2 hrs, or you can watch a few days later when it gets posted to a hosting site. And its INCREDIBLE! you actually get the programmers, the blokes who wrote the software, showing you how it works. Its live so if there was something you didnt understand, or you had a query about what they did you can ask questions. The customer support is second to NONE!
Oh by the way if your interested then theres a link-----------------> at the top. Yes its a program you pay for........BUT its also a program that you can do nearly anything on. There's thousands of free files available,   I can use nearly all of them on machines that the designs werent intended for, not to mention MTC's own file format, which comes with the program, and there's a good couple of thousand free cut files in there as well.
Now dont get me wrong. I forked out for the Silhouette Designer Edition so I could cut .svg's from Craft Artist Professional 2 on my Cameo, even though I have the E-craft which cuts .svg's, because the machines are different, and cut differently. Now I consider buying the SDE a waste of money!
Why? Because the MTC program slows the E-craft down, and enables me to make finer cuts! My E-craft can be a bit aggressive  and want to move too quickly for my papers and designs sometimes, so slowing it down means I am not wasting as much paper and time, and my frustration levels are Waaaaaaaayyyyy lower! Sometimes I havent got the energy to shift from one machine to the other, and clear one away while I run the other one, (space is limited in here you know!) so I can use which ever machine is out and available.  I dont have to panic or stress as now they cut perfectly, and I have learnt shed loads which has enabled me to do some designing of my own, which brings me onto my third reason for not blogging........
I have been doing loads of work for Kraftyhands, on tv next week, Man About Town CD. Boy does this fill a hole! So lets see what the reason were for the delays in blogging..........I wanted a statement piece, and boy was it a doozy of an idea! I needed to figure out how to do it...........
Let me say first: This was cut on my E-craft! Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy! The idea and instructions came from one of the webinars for MTC.

 Now due to a printer failure, still in warranty, and currently waiting for UPS to deliver the new one at some point today, (so I am curtain twitching,) I had to piece together 2 sheets of A4 to be able to cut the finished sample out, so when I post the finished sample next week, that one was cut on the Cameo, because of joining 2 pieces of card together to make a 12x12, but as you can see the E-craft dealt with it brilliantly, If it hadnt been for the join I would have used the E-craft, but hey-ho!
So more samples next week, as the boys have shows on Thursday at 12pm and 3 pm, but seriously if you have any type of cutting machine, except Cricut, you might want to consider the advantages of being able to use ANY design ( apart from .studio and cricut files) on your machine...........it opens up a world of possibilities!

Right off to disconnect this naff old Epson printer, an EXTREME emergency back up only printer, and make sure everything is ready for my new baby to slot straight into the spot vacated by the broken touch screen one.Then I can get back to printing in A3+ size! and back to "shakin' that tree Boss!"
Hope to catch you next week,

hugs, and thank you for stopping by,

Lou