Test Cut for Redfish Etching

Well, my dad bought SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot) for me at the end of November. Why, you might ask?!! Because I had been doing some glass etching. He asked me how hard it would be for my Cricut to cut a detailed fish with scales & all. So I told him that if I had SCAL it would be no problem. That I could cut any image that I can copy & paste from the internet or on any image that is on my computer.

With Christmas & all I really did not have time to work on it. And the times that I did try were very unsuccessful & frustrating. I was beginning to think that I had made a mistake in getting this program. You had to use inkscape (a free program) to clean up the images & I just was not able to figure it all out. I posted a picture of the fish on the SCAL MB, asking for help. DogCarbon was nice enough to try,Thanks, but the file was not exactly what I was looking for.

I decided yesterday morning to sit down & try to figure it out. To make the .svg file I imported the original picture into Inkscape.  Then I went into Path > Trace Bitmap.  When there all I did was change the Edge Detection to .450.  That's it, nothing else.  Then I Imported it into SCAL and made a few little changes there. You will see the little (very little) changes in the .scut2 file & the .svg file).  Oh yeah, SCAL made some updates on 1/2/09 that makes it easier & less dependent on inkscape!!!

Well, after all of that - sorry it was so long. Here is a pic of my sample cut. I am proud of myself.
I cut it out of white cardstock an placed it over a dark piece of cardstock. When etched, the white parts will be clear class & the dark areas will be etched. When I get a pane of glass I will do the etching & post that pic then. This particular image will fit on an 8x10 picture frame glass. It can be sized up or down, but to size any smaller would loose some of the detail. It was hard to weed out at this size. I would love to try it a little bigger. It would also be nice to try it on t-shirts too. Yeah that's right - forgot to mention that I also got a Yudu for Christmas. I have done the Freezer Paper Technique on T-shirts & would love to see the contrast between the two ways to do this.
HERE is the .svg file.
HERE is the .scut2 file.
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori