I have been having fun exploring the "new" Gypsy. The features that have been added are some that I have been waiting for ever since the launch last year. I designed these stars and a card with a star cutout using the Gypsy and the two exclusive Gypsy cartridges.
I started with this kite shape on the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge.
With a little bit of calculation (yes - math is helpful sometimes!) I determined that I could create a five pointed star by rotating the shape in 72 degree increments (360 degrees divided by 5 points equals 72). Then I aligned the shapes, using the outer edges as a guideline.
For the star shapes, I welded the five kites together. With the Gypsy, I was able to group the five shapes (even though they were at different degrees of rotation) and then quickly copy and paste ("duplicate" in Gypsy lingo) the entire group. This ability to group images that have been individually altered is one of the "missing" capabilities in Design Studio.
Here are the test cut stars - I was thinking of the Fourth of July when I made these but the stars could also be used for Christmas.
I used the "hide contour" function to create this card with the star cutout. In order to make this sort of design you just have to look at shapes and imagine the cuts that would result if the outline line of the design was not cut. This is one of my favorite types of card.
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This screen shot is from Design Studio - the light blue lines are the hidden lines. On the Gypsy, the hidden lines will be gray.
I originally chose this shape to use for the base of the card. It appears to be a rectangle but I noticed it looked a bit odd on the Gypsy screen.
After I cut out the card and put it on my Scor-Pal to score I found out that the shape is definitely a bit off kilter. So I went back to look for a true square or rectangle that I could use to cut the card shape.
I found this square on the Gypsy Font cartridge (I was trying to create something that could be cut by anyone with a Gypsy and the two Gypsy cartridges are preloaded on every Gypsy).
I was able to trim the first card I cut to even up the sides making it just a bit smaller than standard A2 size. When I substituted the square from the Gypsy Font cartridge and cut the card again the size and shape were correct.
To hide a cutting line with the Gypsy, select an image and then tap on the icon that looks like two corners at the lower right of the group of buttons. The button can be selected if there is a purple line showing.
This screen will appear - the image is shown with one of the lines or contours in red. If you want to hide that line, tap "hide" on the right. If you change your mind the button will say "show" when a hidden line is selected and you can tap it to bring the line back. You can use the "prev" and "next" keys to scroll through the lines or click on the top left silver button to select each line in turn and then hide the ones you do not wish to cut.
Another great improvement in this Gypsy update is the ability to name the tabs for the layers and to "turn off " the layer so the images will not show while you are working on another layer. To do this you simply click the little eyeball on the tab to open or shut it. You can drag the tabs back and forth to rearrange the layers (the tab that is being dragged will turn green). The blue tab is the active tab and the pink tabs are the inactive tabs.
To label the tab, put your stylus on the tab without moving it and two choices will pop up - rename or delete. Rename will take you to the keyboard screen to type the tab name.
I have transferred the file back and forth between the computer and the Gypsy using the Gypsy Sync. I believe that the file is correct but one time I needed to redo the grouping and weld for the star cutouts. I am happy to share the file but I would like to ask for someone to test it before I put the file up for general downloading just to be sure that everything is working correctly after the transfers. You can just leave a comment or send me an email or message on Facebook.
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