Happy Birthday Popup Violin Card

This tutorial on how to create a popup Happy Birthday Card was demonstrated by Julie during the September 8, 2015 MTC/PCS Q&A Webinar. The Violin shape is from the MTC Gallery, and was copied from there, edited a bit, and pasted into Popup Card Studio for inclusion on the Happy Birthday Card. The resulting file can be cut directly from Popup Card Studio to MTC-supported cutters, or exported as SVG for use with other cutters. The individual pieces were also exported as SVG to allow for adding different colored layers. If you do not have Popup Card Studio, and would like to play with the free trial, go here and click on Download at the top of the screen. http://tinyurl.com/111PCS The cutting file in PCS, MTC, SVG, and PVG formats for this card has been posted for a free download here: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/p...

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Closed Caption:

ok this is the card that I needed to
make this week for our son's birthday so
I thought well I'll just show you how I
did it he's a violinist so i did a
pop-up card and pop up card studio but I
started with the violin and make the cut
and this is a very easy project has to
be easy for me to do it and pop up card
studio so i can do it you can do it and
i'll show you how it's pretty simple so
the first thing we'll do is get the vial
and out of the gallery and make the cut
so open make the cut and if we open a
new project and go to the top of the
screen where it says import from gallery
it looks like a tic-tac-toe board icon
up top center of this screen and if you
when you do that if you type in violin
under search terms and descending and
then click on search you'll get three
different violence that show up i just
clicked on the download underneath this
first picture here to get this violin
here now this violin happens to have
lots of layers and it's also locked if
you click on it you notice room doesn't
select anything I can't seem to edit it
but if you go down to the lower right
corner and click on the gold lock icon
it and select unlock all then you'll see
the gray bounding boxes showing each of
the different pieces now you'll also see
on the layers palette on the right side
that all the different pieces of this
design have been placed on their own
layers now that is possible that some
designs might come in all on one layer
but by right-clicking on a layer you can
select
to each its own if there are multiple
pieces and then though each go to their
own layer and make the cut when we're
cutting to a cutter we cut by layers we
can cut everything or we can cut just
certain layers well in this particular
design the first thing I need to do is
resize it and Amy had a question about
resizing so I'll answer that question
right now what I need to do is resize
everything because this violence too
tall for my card actually what I need it
to be is approximately two inches wide
so what I'm going to do with the gold
lock icon is type into and enter and it
resizes the design proportionally you
notice that i have straight arrows
these are the resizing arrows if i drag
out everything is bigger proportional if
i drag the corner if i hit ctrl z undo
it goes backward it was if i click on
this side arrow it distorts it makes it
wider than it was proportionally ctrl-z
undo
same with these arrows it sighs us to
control Z undo because I still want it
to be about two inches wide but i also
want to rotate this image so that it
fits better on my card now to rotate all
we need to do is get the rotation hat
handles click on the design and you
notice that the arrows change from
straight arrows on the corner to round
arrows on the corner
I want to rotate mine maybe I'm gonna
hold ctrl and drag rotated about one
klick which gives me about 15 degrees
now for the pop-up card
I found out that having the bow is kind
of disruptive of my pop ups so i'm not
going to do the bow i'm going to click
on the eye icon for the bow parts on the
right-hand side because i really don't
need those and I don't need a few other
parts of it i don't need the peg box or
the bridge or the tuning pegs least I
don't need him right now I don't need
the inlays on this little tail piece
here i'm gonna zoom in on it by typing
four and three
I don't need the pointed thing that
would be appropriate for a cello but a
violin doesn't usually have that so at
the bottom i'm going to split if icon
from the left to separate those going to
click on this one piece that I don't
need and then click on the smaller of
the two green plus icons in the lower
right corner just send that piece to its
own layer and it'll be moved to the top
and I can hide that piece i don't really
need it now i'm looking at the rest of
it and noticing
oh the pegs don't connect to the neck
and the scroll doesn't connect to the
neck and well I don't know if I really
need that tail piece but i do want the
f-holes but they're all on the same
layer so what I'm going to do is click
on those to select them and i'm going to
use this split again to put everything
on its own layers i'm gonna click the
tailpiece and send it to its own layer
and hide it and the strings i don't
think i need either right now if I
I did cut the strings on my prototype
but the strings did a kind of sliced up
things is I selected a little more than
I wanted to see that I selected this F
whole i'm going to hold shift and click
on it to get rid of that selection and
i'm gonna click on these pieces of the
tuning pegs that I didn't want to select
to send the selection to its own layer
and hide it and let's see what I've got
my lost a little bit of the tuning pegs
here so you see if i can get those back
i'll click on that hold shift and click
on on that tuning peg and send them to
their own lair now I'm gonna hide the
strings and I think I've got pretty much
what I need now I need to figure out how
to connect everything
well one way to do it is just to do a
shadow gonna hide this strings i still
have some of the strings here
left-click and hold the shift see if i
can get this other one
sometimes it's helpful if you can't grab
something is just to hide everything and
then it makes it a little easier to get
what you need
that's why layers are so very helpful i
think that one string is connected to
something else
there it is send it up to the top and
hide it so now all the strings should be
hidden and I'll show that violin again
and i have all the pieces that i would
like to use now
so what I'm going to do is drag around
these pieces
and go to the shadow layer which is the
fourth icon on the right on the bottom
and I'm gonna make a very narrow shadow
around the original but before I do I'm
gonna get me a new layer hair create a
new layer because otherwise I think it's
gonna make a shadow on one of the hidden
layers so now you can see the shadow
that's making here i could make it maybe
a little smaller . 01
I want everything to be connected but I
don't want to lose
look at the shape so I'm going to click
on accept here and now hide everything
and click on the eye and hide all I'm
gonna go find my shadow layer which is
now at the bottom and show it and see
what it looks like here on the outline
when she is still a few lines i didn't
want here
ican ican black that out by clicking the
black blackout box on the bottom you'll
see up here is still have a little bit
of a disconnect that I have an option of
maybe making us sicker shadow or i can
just click on this figure 8 in the upper
left corner click on the eraser tool and
make sure i have inverse eraser selected
gonna set the size to about three
millimeters and i'm going to drag this
eraser it's a little big eraser going to
drag it over that edge to get rid of the
break and that did it pretty well so now
I'd have just what looks like a little
break here i'm going to change this to
one millimeter hold my control key so my
eraser will drag stay
wait and now you see that I got rid of
that little break that was on the pegs
there so now I could take back my fill
out line here and i'll change the color
of this to brown so that i can see my
design
now i do want those f-holes to be
showing where did the f-holes goal
well they might be on this layer maybe I
raised them there they are
ok so I've got the f-holes but i don't
need the pieces of pegs so I'm gonna
send them to their own layer and hide
them and now i think i can select all of
this and join so that the F holes are
where they need to be and i'll send the
selection to the top so i can find it
and change the color back to brown so
now i have what i was looking for here
is a little bit of I lost my definition
between the pegs here it kind of don't
like that
let's see what happens if I move this
layer to the top melt
so that's not the layer i wanted you
look at my original thing here and move
it up go to outline because sometimes
you can see the lines better now it
looks like I just hit that whole section
in there i could just redo this shadow
so that that I don't lose the definition
in between my pegs or what I could do is
just i'll select all of this and break
it and select this little piece right
here controls and shift held down and
clicking will duplicate that so now i
have to and I'm gonna move it up by
holding ctrl key and and moving my arrow
keys and I need to turn that upside down
and maybe flip it move it where you want
and now I want I the pieces that I don't
want and show the pieces that I do want
here we go and join them again
now i'm happy with my design
what I want to do now is selected I'm
going to control C copy and now i'm
going to open a pop-up card studio and
this is where the card is as i made
about album i do is open a new one so i
click on new i'm going to do a 90-degree
opentype project with the width of the
standard a tu sais five-and-a-half
inches wide by four and a quarter inches
tall
and click on create so now i have a
blank canvas so to speak and the first
thing i want to do in this project was
since i have it on my mind I'd kind of
like to paste that that by lynn in here
so I don't forget about it and i'm going
to paste it on the plane of three
quarters of an inch from the back so if
i do that type in the position and i'm
on the back to right click and drag my
mouse towards me so i can see this and
now i'm just going to go to edit and
paste and you'll see that the violin
comes in here that's going to put it off
to this side right here till I need it
at least it's it's ready for me to use
and it copied it directly from make the
cut
ready-to-use so the next thing I'm going
to do is add some text and if you're
gonna before you add the text you want
to put it on the plane where you're
going to be and I knew that plane to be
for the birthday text I need that to be
at two so i just type into you noticed
that the plane moved forward two inches
from the back of the card so this is
where the text birthday is going to go
so i'm using the clare claritin black
font and i'll just click right on my
screen and this is going to be birthday
now the default is just use to uppercase
which is the recommended thing to do
when you're using text in pop-up card
studio that's the default so i'm going
to click on ADD and then go back to the
selection arrow now i miss the letters
are as tall as I would like them to be
I think I want them one-and-a-half
inches tall and then when i press enter
I did not want to wide so I'm going to
undo your country
see I'm gonna undo the lock and just
change them the height to 1.5 and leave
them with the same now it's very
important before we add the text to our
our card that we square off the top and
the bottom where the folds are going to
be and you notice that the r is rounded
here and it's little lower than the rest
of the letters so to fix that going to
click on the cropping tool on the Left
toolbar and i'm going to change the
snapping to the smallest I don't want it
really snapping to 128 of an inch and
i'm going to drag my cropping tool just
barely across the top of the letters and
then just so that i get the bottoms of
each of the letters crops so that
they're nice and square
i'm going to select the arrow and I need
this text centered on my card so I
clicking on the vertical center from
side to side and then i'm going to click
on the arrow right next to it and this
is under a line and distribute to take
it to the bottom plane so now we have
the text on the bottom and just to make
sure that its mind up where it should be
i'm going to go to print preview and you
can see that there's a full line in the
middle and that each of the letters have
full lines at the bottom so the letters
are connected to the bottom of the card
now I need to add the connectors from
the tops of the letters to the back of
the card to do that i press the spacebar
and it automatically changes the plane
to me for me to the bottom side to see
the plane is parallel to the bottom of
the card and it goes automatically to
the tops of those letters that I just
cropped now in order to to draw the tags
I need to make my
snapping go to 18 to manage because it
will make it so much easier to find the
right places to draw i'm going to click
on the desi a straight line tool here
and click on the right to auto quad is
this just kind of automates this whole
process that can zoom in with my roller
on my mouse i'm going to left-click on
the leftmost yellow line on the left
side until I see the red line and the
blue line as his dash so left quick then
i'm going to drag my mouse over to the
right end of my text until I see the
blue line turn dash and the red line on
the back of the car dash and I left
click and now i have connected my text
to the back of the card and what I'll do
is go to file and print preview again
just to make sure that i have my blue
mountain fold line right across the top
of my letters and I have a red valley
fold line for the up for the back of the
card so i got that right sometimes I
don't know if I don't I just redo it
ok the next step is to add the happy so
I'm going to click on the t and i have
to go back to the the back of the card
to get the right plane so I'm gonna hit
the spacebar that takes me to the back
and i'm going to change it to one and a
quarter inch 1.25 and enter so that now
we see that the plane has moved back a
little bit and all the letters that i
will be adding will be added on the top
section
excuse me
now i'm ready to type in happy so I was
clicking my mouse and i'll type in happy
and click on add now again my letters
are the height that I need or the width
that i need so i can change that
over on the right side with them
selected and clicking on this top left
arrow and i'm going to leave the lock
unlocked because i want that height to
be one and a half and enter but i also
want this to be a little skinnier going
to use this straight arrows and then in
pop-up card studio we have the same
options of the arrows as we do in make
the cut like happy to kind of line up
the Y to line up with the H to give room
for this violin over here so before i
put in place i need to crop it again
just like I did before it's easier to
crop with the snapping down on the
lowest setting i'm going to left-click
and drag so now that it's got nice clean
top lines and bottoms and I'm not going
to Center at this time I'm just going to
drop it to the plane which is the top of
the the birthday thing here so I can
kind of right click and move my mouse
button to make sure that it's where I
want if I like it move it over i came to
my left arrow key a little bit and I
leave myself at least a quarter of an
inch i think and that looks pretty good
and now I'm ready to draw the tab from
the top of the happy to the back of the
card so i'm going to click on this space
bar to change to the bottom plane you
notice that it's got edit Sidebottom
over here on the right i'm gonna click
my pen make sure it's on auto quad and
go over to the left
left most edge of the yellow line until
I see the dash blue and the dashed red
lines then left click and then I go to
the back of the card and look for again
that dashed blue line and the dashed red
but the reason i'm having trouble is I
forgot to change my snapping 218 the
minute it will automatically help me
find the exact place so you see now the
red is dashed and the blue is dash to
left-click and sometimes I forget so i
need to remember always change my
snapping when trying to draw these these
connecting lines to the back so I want
to make sure before I move on that my
letters have not gone to high zoom out a
little
see this little white line that shows me
anything above that white line might pop
out of the top of the card when it's
folded so that's kind of my guy that
might my design elements should not go
above that white line let's go to file
and print preview again just to make
sure we've got all of our full line
we've got lines at the bottom of happy
to top so the happy in the back of the
card so I think we're good to go
gonna now move this violin into place if
i press the D key and click on the
violin and will automatically take me to
that a plane of of points75 where I put
this file man and allow me to select it
and just like we did on the letters we
need to crop it so that it has nice
straight edges that will have phone
lines on them so i'm going to go to 128
advantage again click on my cropping
tool and I'm going to crop this so that
i'm going to get a good straight edge
the top of the violin and one at the
bottom and then i'll click on the arrow
and i'm going to drag my violin over
here and click on the line to the bottom
and here I'm gonna need to raise the
z-order my selection that gives it
priority over some of the other shapes
and i'm checking how its lining up with
this so I'm going to move it over just a
little so it doesn't interfere with this
tab and it looks like it's in a good
position so now i'm going to hit the
spacebar again and you notice that the
yellow line show up at the top of the
instrument again i'm going to click on
that auto quad change 218 snapping and
I'd be going to left-click and then
right-click at the back
I mean left-click and now I've got a tab
for my violin i'm going to zoom out a
little bit and I'm gonna smooth my
slider to open and close and it looks
like there's nothing sticking out from
the card you can kind of rotate your
mouse while dragging to get different
views and we'll look at the print
preview again make sure the violin is
where it belongs
so we have a blue mountain fold the red
valley fold and a red valley fold here
so that looks good so I think I'm ready
too
I save this file and get it now if I
want to I can cut straight from this
software or i can export as SVG to cut
from cutters that don't have make the
cut available this software supports all
make the cut machines so the next step
is to go to export and before i render
the project I'd like to export the
project shapes and save them as SVG
because that'll give me the opportunity
if i want to to cut some brown paper to
add to the violin and some other colored
maybe decorative paper to paste over
that front edges of the happy and in
different color for birthday if I want
if I export project shapes that allow me
to do that so I'm going to do that first
so I'm just going to save this as shapes
maybe i'll i'll call this shapes for
change number 22 and then this
automatically exported into in view
which would be where i would use this if
I were cutting to my puzzles view
machine i'm going to go back to pop up
card studio and file export project
rendering and this time I could choose
to the machine if I wanted to cut it to
my zing or my gazelle or some other
colors here but i'm also going to export
this is an SVG so that i can use it with
with my view or my eclipse or my
explorer so i'm going to click on save
as our export as SVG
and will this call this happy birthday
violin to every time I make it's a
little different
i'll save it and this again will open
interviews so it comes into view with
the scorelines red-and-blue cutlines the
card cut lines everything all ready to
go with no other adjustments needed now
I could bring in the also the other
pieces here that if I would like to use
visa i do have to break the groups but
if I would like to bring these pieces
i'll copy and then open my other window
and control V think paste forgot to copy
but I can do print cuts or i can do just
cut i'll show you going to make the cut
how that that works here so i have i
have this card here i'm going to go into
make the cut and i click on the SVG icon
to bring in that different file that we
just and that was number 2 i'm going to
bring in both now this is how you can
bring in if i bring each one of these
and separately I'd have two different
pages what I'm going to do is click on
the shapes hold the control key and then
i'm going to click on the on the card
also you could select all of these they
would all come in on the same page each
one on a different layer and this how I
prefer to work with a project is having
everything on one page but different
layers
so I'm going to click on open and you'll
see that the card itself opened over
here and the shapes opened over here and
i'll change to my migraine that so you
can see these and what I would do with
them so i have my card over here maybe
I'll change my card to yellow and we'll
make it a little bit easier to see the
colors i have this violent if I wanted
to make the violin Brown I wanted to cut
it out of brown I could i can click on
that and send it to its own layer and
then when I'm ready to cut brown on my
my cutter I can't hide these other
layers and just cut that piece out if I
would like these letters happy and what
I probably am NOT going to do a
background that each one of these pieces
could be a separate background but i'm
not going to use as suppose that I
wanted to lay over some pattern paper i
click on the smaller the true plus signs
at the bottom of this spring to send
this to its own layer and maybe I want
this to be purple and then i can select
this is send it to its own layer and
maybe I wanted to be a lighter purple
now this is how we would use the layers
to cut by color we put each different
color on a different layer then when
it's time to cut we hide the layers that
we don't want to cut so I want to cut
this color and we would go to the
cutting screen just to cut that layer
and I hide that you're ready to do this
color to show the layer that I want to
cut
there's only the layers that are showing
maybe cut then I can go and show all by
clicking on the eyeball and selecting
show all and I could cut the brownout
and then lay it over there for having it
ready to fold now another option here
I what I would do if I would like to do
a print and cut is to take this original
file in that we had over here and I'll
turn off the outline so we can see the
colors
I'll show all and I changed it a little
you can move things up layer to the top
to see them get rid of empty layers and
all the layers are here but i think i
need to take the violence to the bottom
now you can see all the pieces here I
really still don't want the bow as I
didn't add that to the design so i can
find the bowl layers those are strings
now if I would like to make a print cut
project out of it right now its many
pieces and i'll show you the outline
lots and lots of pieces if I'm doing a
print that I don't want all the pieces
what I want is one little piece and I
don't want that little piece there I
want to select all of these and click on
this icon that is texture snapshot so
when I click on that I get one single
picture with just the lines and I can
black that out for the strings or I
could leave the strings there to cut
which would give a little decorative
element as well if I don't want the
strings I would hide those also before i
do this texture snapshot that you see
that it's now not going to cut out all
the little pieces it's just going to cut
the lines that i had selected to cut so
that makes it possible for me to do a
print and cut with this cut this out and
all right now just copy it and i'll take
it over to this and control shift he
brings it in and then i can paste that
cut out piece right on my card so now
I'm gonna have a really fancy violin to
put on this pop-up card so that's
basically how i made the card
my son was delighted with it i just put
some stickers on the outside instruments
and such and metallic stickers and it
was very happy with it