DIY Project Archives - LinkedGo Vinyl

Mylar Stencil Guide – Which Mylar Sheets Should I Use?

March 17, 2021

by linkedgovinyl with No Comment Business Cutting Tools DIY Project

Sign making has became popular over the past few years. Mainly due to the popularity of hobby vinyl cutting machines, such as the Cricut models, and the Silhouette models. – LinkedGo Mylar Stencil will be happy

I feel overwhelmed with all of the differences between LinkedGo Mylar Stencil Sheets, what thickness you should use with each one of them.

Many of these crafters that are creating signs end up using Mylar stencil and adhesive or heat transfer vinyl. A lot of these crafters are beginner sign makers and are intimidated by paint and wood working. While this isn’t the “wrong” way to create a sign, in my opinion, it isn’t the way to achieve the highest quality signs. However, there is no right or wrong way. It all comes down to user preference.

Blank mylar can be used for cutting your own stencils and for may different uses. This material has great properties:

This extremely tough and hard to rip material.
It is flexible so that it can be rolled and will conform to curved surfaces.
Dimensionally stable so that it does not stretch and will keep its shape.
It is translucent so that you can see contrast through it allowing perfect placement for stencils.
Paint does not like to stick to it so it is easy to clean.

What do you need LinkedGo Mylar Stencil Sheets？

Before I got the Mylar Stencil sheets, I have never understood why there are different thickness of sheets, if you don’t know what stencil sheets does like me, this is a interesting thing for you to know.

LinkedGo proud to offer the highest quality stencil material available, authentic Mylar sheets. 4 mil, 6 mil, 10 mil Mylar sheets in 12″ x 12″ size sheets. We know how tough it can be to find the right material that will be the same consistent quality you expect. You’re guaranteed to receive authentic Mylar at the desired thickness every time you order with no exceptions. Our material is incredibly durable yet flexible enough for a variety of applications.

4 Mil Mylar Stencil Sheets

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Blank-Stencil-Sheets-4mil-300x300.jpg

4 mil Mylar : All of the mylars make great stencils. We recommend 4 mil for DIY stencils as they cut easily and still make an effective stencil for most uses. 4 mil cuts easily with a scalpel knife. We also recommend 4 mil for electric cutters like Cricuts and Silhouettes.

From interior decorating to logos and crests, to face painting, to small industrial projects, it’s as easy as drawing your design on, cutting, and painting on any surface you like!

This mylar is a glossy material specifically engineered for easy cutting with a pen or exacto knife. With a material this thin, any design you come up with will produce crisp lines that pop right out off of your surface. We recommend brushing or rolling your paint on with this material for optimum line definition.

Great for arts and crafts, custom lettering, signs, designs, and more. Make sure your stencil is cut with adequate bracing, and leave room on the edges for excess paint. Easy to clean? You bet. Just add a little soap and water or paint remover to the stencil material and watch as the paint comes right off.

6 Mil Mylar Stencil Sheets

It has both flexibility and durability. It will conform to rounded surfaces easily. light and easily attached to vertical surfaces with our repositionable adhesive spray, cut with a firm manual knife or gyro cutter. Our experience is that consumer grade electric cutters like a Cricut do not cut this material consistently We recommend 6 mil for repeat 2 cuts. Ideal for various diy projects: drawing & drafting, art journals, kids craft, home decor, painting wall, wood, fabric signs.

Change pressure to 330 and number of passes to 2. Fine cut blade and standard grip mat. Works like a charm! Once you edit the settings they will remain as your default settings anytime you choose

10 Mil Mylar Stencil Sheets

10 mil mylar makes a great stencil. the material is very durable but still is flexible enough to conform to curved surfaces and light enough to use easily on vertical surfaces. It also allows a very high degree of detail.

However it is more difficult to cut. Most consumer grade electric cutters cannot cut this material, ( the new Cricut Maker is the exception.) If cutting by hand, we recommend a heated stencil cutting tool.

This material is light enough for applying to vertical and horizontal surfaces. (Use our Repositionable Spray to attach to a wall while stenciling.) Great for arts and crafts, custom lettering, signs, designs, and more. Make sure your stencil is cut with adequate bracing, and leave room on the edges for excess paint.

FAQ – Common Questions

WHAT IS MYLAR MADE OF AND WHAT ARE ITS PROPERTIES?
Mylar is a polyester film (or PET) that is used for a variety of industrial applications. It can handle temperatures of -10F to 300F and has a resistance to most chemicals. We can provide a full spec sheet upon request.

CAN THESE STENCIL BLANKS BE USED IN A LASER CUTTER?
Of course! This is the exact material we use for our stencils here at Stencil Revolution. We’ve tried a variety of materials and found that Mylar is by far the best performing and best looking stencil material available. There is little to no discoloration from cuts and the material reacts great with the laser resulting in minimal melt. This helps us create precision cut stencils that our customers love.

WHAT ABOUT HAND CUTTING AND DIY PROJECTS?
With a sharp Xacto knife you can cut this material no problem. You can also draw on it before hand with a marker to trace your design.

IS IT WASHABLE?
Yes with soap and water it can be wash very easily. That is the beauty of this material, since it is resistant to most chemicals it can handle a variety of paints and cleaners.

HOW DURABLE IS MYLAR? HOW FLEXIBLE IS IT?
Without a knife or pair of scissors you aren’t cutting these blank mylar sheets. With a sharp blade it can be cut fairly easy but you will need to replace blades quite often to get a smooth cut. It’s also very flexible for bending around different surfaces such as a glass or bottles for etching.

WHAT ABOUT ADHESIVE BACKED, ACETATE, MAGNETIC STENCIL MATERIAL?
We’re not big fans of adhesive backed since it’s only a one time use. This really defeats the purpose of a good stencil. A great alternative is to just use an adhesive spray which can be removed after use. For customers who need to apply the stencil to metal quickly, there are adhesive back magnets which can be attached at each corner of the stencil. Then acetate is just a low quality material we refuse to work with.

DIY Project: How to Make Pipe Cleaner Flowers

February 18, 2021

by linkedgovinyl with No Comment DIY Project

Pipe cleaners are one thing that every craft box should have. They are colorful, versatile, inexpensive, and very fun to play with. in other words, if you have a kid or kiddos in the house, you’re sure to hear “I’M BORED!” in about 3, 2, 1… If you’re looking for some easy ways to keep bored kiddos (or adult-sized kiddos!) entertained, all you need are some easy craft ideas that can be completed using simple, craft supplies. One of my personal favorite art supply is pipe cleaners (also called chenille stems)!

Supplies:

Pipe Cleaners – hot pink, red, deep orange, yellow, kelly green, emerald green, turquoise, purple, lavender
Wire cutters (or a pair of kid scissors but those will only be used for cutting wire, as cutting wire dulls the blade over time)

Optional:

Hot glue gun
Hot glue sticks
Mini toys, dolls, etc. (to play with the furniture!)
Glass bottles (to display your lovely flowers!)
Elmer’s glue
Fun add-ons like google eyes or plastic beads

How to Make Pipe Cleaner Flowers

First, we’ll start with the basics: creating the stem. Take a green pipe cleaner and about 3-4” from the bottom, bend it and create a small loop. Pinch the loop at the end to create the tip of the leaf, then use your finger to pull apart and widen the leaf. Twist and then about an inch up, create another leaf.

Now you have a stem ready to attach to a flower! You can create several at once in different shades of green (with different sized or a different number of leaves) to be ready to attach to your flowers or create one at a time. You are ready to start creating pipe cleaner flowers! We’ll start with the easiest to the most difficult.

Hyacinth

Simply take a blue or purple pipe cleaner and attach it to the tip of a green stem, wrapping a coil down the stem. Try to wrap it so that there isn’t any green showing. You can create a bouquet of these simple flowers in no time！

Rose Craft

To create a pipe cleaner rose, take a chenille stem in any color and create a small, ½” loop at the end–this will be the base of your flower. Continue creating a coil around the base, making sure that the circle is a little wider each time (as if you are creating a coiled cup or bowl shape). Thread the stem through the coiled flower shape and then back down. Twist to secure. Cut a small 1” piece of yellow chenille stem and shape it into a “V.” Loop it through the green pipe cleaner in the center of the flower. Twist to secure.

Pipe Cleaner 5-Petal Flowers

Start with any color pipe cleaner and create a small, ½” loop. Create a second loop and twist to look like a figure 8. Continue adding petals by creating a loop and twisting to secure as you go until you have 5 petals.

Loop the remaining pipe cleaner end into a coil. This will be the underside of your flower. Press your thumb into the other side of the flower and fold the petals up a bit to round out the shape. Attach the stem to the coil on the other side.

Pipe Cleaner 6-Petal Flower

Take a lavender pipe cleaner and create three medium-sized loops. Twist after each loop to secure. You should have about a 1.5” stem left after–point that down away from the loops. Create two of these shapes.

Twist the two shapes together at their stems. Open up the petals. Create the center with a 6” piece of yellow pipe cleaner. However, Create a simple coil and leave about ½” stem on the end. Stick that into the center of the flower and twist to secure. Attach the green stem to the purple stem of the flower by wrapping it around a few times.

Tulip Craft

Take four red pipe cleaners and cut them into thirds (about 4” lengths). You should have twelve 4” pieces. Fold each of the pieces in half. Moreover, These will be your petals. Line them up, six on either side of your stem (the folded half should be pointed up, the two ends pointed down and even with the tip of the stem).

Gather the petals so that they are centered around the stem. Take a 6” pipe cleaner and twist it around the base where the ends and the stem meet. Wrap the coil around tightly to secure the petals to the stem. Fold the petals upward toward the tip of the stem, where the coil started. Press the petals around the coil to form a tulip shape.

Pipe Cleaner Daffodil Flowers

Take three yellow pipe cleaners and fold them each in half. Twist two together to make an “X”, then add the third to make a six-pointed star/snowflake. Start at the end of one of the arms and roll into a circle. Repeat for each of the six arms. You may need to adjust them a bit, fold each of the petals over the other so they overlap as you go around the flower.

To create the center of the daffodil, cut an orange pipe cleaner in half and coil it around your finger or a pencil. Smash down the coil so it is a bit flattened. Attach the end by looping it through the center of the daffodil. You can also use a hot glue gun to affix. Let an adult do this step, as the hot glue can burn little kiddos fingers. Older kids can use the glue gun with adult supervision. Attach the stem to the base of the flower by looping the stem through the back of one of the coils. Twist to secure.

In conclusion, Store them in recycled coffee cans, or a plastic caddy from the dollar store. You can create your own art station that is simple, easy to clean, inexpensive and supplies hours of fun throughout the week! Have fun and enjoy!

Pipe Cleaner Art: Doll Furniture

Dragons Craft for Kids

Pipe Cleaner Flower Ring Craft for Kids

Tall Spiders Craft for Kids

Feathered Birds Craft for Kids

Pipe Cleaner Dragons Craft for Kids

February 18, 2021

by linkedgovinyl with No Comment DIY Project

Ready to make some Pipe Cleaner Dragons?

I adapted this idea from a pipe cleaner dragons bookmark on Danielle’s Place. My 8 year old and I made his together, but I did the whole thing for the younger boys (age 3 and 6). Too much detailed cutting and use of the glue gun for them – but the finished result is such a cute (and cheap!) toy. If you’re crafty and don’t mind making several, I think these would make awesome party favors for a dragon or castle themed birthday party!

To make them, you will need:

Pipe cleaners – You’ll need 4 for each dragon.
Craft foam
Craft sticks – one will make two dragons
Googly eyes
Hot glue gun
Scissors

Step 1: Cut a small section from the end of a craft stick. Round off the end with scissors like this.

Step 2: To make the head, fold the end of a pipe cleaner around in a circle. Then wrap it the other way a few times to give the head some depth. Leave the end for the neck.

Step 3: Take a second pipe cleaner and wrap it tightly around the neck, starting just under the head. Then wrap around the body.

Step 4: Tuck a third pipe cleaner under the others and keep wrapping. When I got to the end of the body I added a little hot glue to the craft stick to keep the pipe cleaner in place. Leave the end hanging to be the tail.

Step 5: Add craft foam horns and tail, and glue on googly eyes. Cut four pieces for the legs and glue them to the body.

Step 6: Add foam feet and wings, and you’re done!

We love crafting with pipe cleaners because they are so versatile and such a frugal craft material!

Be sure to check out our Pipe Cleaner Crafts

How to Make Pipe Cleaner Flowers

Pipe Cleaner Art: Doll Furniture

February 18, 2021

by linkedgovinyl with No Comment DIY Project

If you’re a parent of small children, chances are that you already have a bunch in your home. Young children can better develop their fine motor skills by twisting and bending them, and older children can get creative with how they build and create with them. Pipe Cleaner Doll Furniture craft is best suited for children ages seven through 10. The best thing about growing these flowers is that they only require a few materials from your craft drawer.

Using craft pipe cleaners to create furniture for your toys and dolls can be so fun! Here are a few ideas, from easiest to hardest. Kids may need an adults help, but I would also encourage them to just try to come up with designs of their own!

Pipe Cleaner Doll Furniture

To create a table, start with the red pipe cleaner and make a tight coil. Add an orange chenille stem to the end by twisting the ends together and continuing the coil. Secure the two pieces together with smaller 1” pieces of scrap pipe cleaners as you go. Continue with all of the colors of the rainbow until you have a table about 3” in diameter.

Take two halves of a lavender pipe cleaner and create a V shape. Thread them through the underside of the table and twist to secure. Coil the ends and arrange until the legs are the same length. It may take a little while to get the balance correct–try spacing the legs out as evenly as possible.

Pipe Cleaner Playpen

To create a baby’s crib (or playpen) start by creating a cube shape. You will need to use several pipe cleaners to complete the shape, it’s ok to just connect a new one as you go until the shape is complete.

Once you have the basic cube, take a different color (in this case, turquoise) and attaching it to the bottom of the cube. Wrap it around the top of the cube (coiling around about 2-3 times) and then wrap around the bottom again. Complete this step until you have the bars or railing around the entire crib/playpen. To create the base, simply thread a few pipe cleaners back and forth from one end to the other to create a tight-knit surface.

Pipe Cleaner Rocking Chair

To create a rocking chair, start with two halves of a yellow pipe cleaner, rounded in a slight arch shape and curled on either end. Take two 3” pieces and attach to create a square shape. This will be the base of the rocking chair. Take two 6” pieces and attach to either side on the back of the chair, coiling the ends. This will be the sides of the back of the chair. Take two more 3” pieces and connect those two pieces together. This will be the back to the chair.

Make a seat by creating a pink square. Attach the front of the pink seat to the base of the chair with two 2” pieces of yellow chenille stem. Weave a pink pipe cleaner back and forth to create the seat, much like you did with the base of the crib/playpen.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on easy pipe cleaner Doll Furniture for adults and kids! There are so many things you can make! I like to just lay out a rainbow of arts and crafts pipe cleaners for my kids to go through. Often, we’ll take tv/computer/phone breaks and it’s one of the first things they’ll go to. It helps to keep the pipe cleaners out on a craft table, maybe with some kid scissors, googly eyes, glue, pom poms and plastic beads.

How to Make Pipe Cleaner Flowers

Dragons Craft for Kids

Pipe Cleaner Flower Ring Craft for Kids

Tall Spiders Craft for Kids

Feathered Birds Craft for Kids

Pipe Cleaner Flower Ring Craft for Kids

February 17, 2021

by linkedgovinyl with No Comment DIY Project

As I was reading new post here, what caught my eye was this Pipe Cleaner flower ring ! It was given to her by a fan. I knew I had to try this since I have so many pipe cleaners laying around. So I was in search for a tutorial! I came across the Martha Stewart Wedding site! It shows a video of how to! Such an easy project and FUN! I made a picture tutorial in case you wanted to see it step-by-step

Colourful Pipe Cleaner Flower Ring

You need 1 pipe cleaner for the stem and 6 pipe cleaners of your desired color for the flower

Bunch all 6 pipe cleaners together, then twist 5-7 times in the middle

This part will be your ring part

Put the part you just twisted under the finger you want to wear it on (I like wearing my rings on this finger)

Then twist

The scatter like this

Take each end and curl here (this is so the ends doesn’t “poke” you)

Then curl all the way to the ring part
Repeat to all

Now take your “petals” and fix and arrange to your desired look

It should look something like this =) You are done with the flower part!

Now to add the stem…
Put the middle of the pipe cleaner “stem” under the flower
Then twist to secure it

Just like earlier steps, roll the stem leaves
Pinch at end to give a leaf look
Ta-Da! you are done! Wasn’t that easy?!?!

My son made a Valentine one for his teacher! She was suprised something so cute came out of pipe cleaners! Hehe!

DIY Project: How to Make Pipe Cleaner Flowers

Free Printable Mandala Coloring Calendar 2021

December 10, 2020

by linkedgovinyl with No Comment Business DIY Project

Hello, friends! Are you searching for a 2021 calendar to use as early as now? I totally get it. Just like you, I always print my calendars for the upcoming year way early because I love the whole excitement of having my goals written down ahead of time. It makes me feel confident and more aligned with my dreams. Do you feel the same way?

This free printable 2021 calendar will become your most favorite organizing tool! Plan your schedule, organize events, manage your goals, keep track of activities, and more!

There just seems to be something about calendars that gets people excited. Maybe it’s all of the possibilities that a fresh new calendar represents. Maybe we’re drawn to the order and organization aspect of it all. Or maybe we just like free stuff! 😉

GET YOUR FREE PRINTABLE MANDALA COLORING CALENDAR 2021

Mandala Coloring Book for Christmas Calendar for Year 2021 Enjoy this Amazing Coloring Book Xmas Calendar with your family! Print it out for friends, family, your kids and color it!

The calendar comes with the size 8.5 x 11 inches or Letter size format. Christmas ornament mandala in monogram easy to coloring for kids and adults. Sunday starts calendar .

Product includes:

12 calendar pages for each month in PDF & JPEG
PDF in 1 comprehensive file for all 12 pages
12 individual pages in JPEG 300dpi (high resolution)

How to Use These Calendar Pages

Personally, I like having a couple of different calendars on the go!

Since we manage several home-based businesses, I find it easier to have three designated calendars for each business rather than a very cluttered individual one.

Other ways to use calendar pages include:

Family calendar
Child care
Teacher or student calendar
Blogging schedule
Social media content planner
Work calendar
Monthly goals
Home improvement
Budgeting
Fitness

If you have a project on the go, consider printing one of these free printable calendar pages for the month – or the entire year – to plan out how you’ll get it done!

Heat Transfer vs. Sublimation Printing| T-Shirt Printing & More

November 17, 2020

by linkedgovinyl with No Comment DIY Project

Heat Transfer and Sublimation Printing ? which is best ?

You must have heard of different printing methods used in the garment decoration industry, are you having trouble deciding between heat transfer and sublimation printing? In this here, LinkedGo-Vinyl will be going over the differences between these types of printing methods and which one is the right choice for your business.

The truth is: both are great; each method comes with its benefits and drawbacks! However, the right method for you or your business depends on your needs and what you intend to create.

First, let’s go over what they are.

What is Heat Transfer Printing?

It is a two-step method where you print a design onto a transfer paper, transfers printed designs to shirts and other garments when heat is applied. You then transfer the printed design onto an adhesive paper using a heat press. Finally, you peel away the adhesive sheet from the transfer sheet and then press the design onto the garment. After pressing the design onto the garment and peeling away the paper, you have a design that’s transferred onto the garment.

Pattern design source: Free Sublimation Phoenix Bird Fire Flames Vector Design Files

EPS — 1 files
SVG — 1 files
AI — 1 files
JPG — black background, 1 files, High resolution 300 dpi

How About Sublimation Paper

Like heat transfer printing, you’re printing the design onto regular copy paper or sublimation paper and then using heat via the heat press to transfer the design onto a substrate.

Pattern design source: Cartoon Fox with Feather Graphics Craft Design

EPS — 1 files
PNG — 1 files
JPG — black background, 1 files, High resolution 300 dpi

The difference lies in the science behind sublimation.

Sublimation not only works on polyester fabrics – it also works on a wide variety of hard surfaces with a poly-coating. This opens up an entirely new world of items you can customize – coasters, jewelry, mugs, puzzles and much more.

When you heat the printed design during sublimation, the toner on the transfer paper goes from a solid to a gas and then embeds itself into the fabric. When it cools, it goes back to being a solid and becomes a permanent part of the material. Sublimation doesn’t add an extra layer to the top of the fabric, unlike heat transfer printing. And you won’t feel the difference between the printed image and the rest of the material.

Now let’s discuss what to consider when choosing between sublimation and heat transfer printing.

Durability and Feel

Sublimation uses a process where the ink becomes part of the fabric rather than adding a layer on top. This results in a transfer that is unmatched in both durability and feel. Most sublimated designs will last as long as the actual fabric. You’re not going to see any cracking after washes, and the image is less likely to fade.

This printing process results in a garment decoration that is matchless in both feel and durability.

On the other hand, heat transfer paper adds a layer on top of the garment. This additional layer can be physically felt and is less durable than sublimation and can become faded and cracked over time with numerous wash cycles.

Variety

With sublimation printing, the types of substrates you can transfer images onto is limited. This is because sublimation can only adhere to polyester coated materials. Even if you use a polyester blend, you’re not going to get as much vibrancy in your design compared to 100% polyester. Because sublimation adds no extra layer on top of the fabric, the material also needs to be white or very light-colored for your transfer to show.

On the other hand, with heat transfer paper, you can decorate on light and dark-colored cotton, polyester and cotton-poly blends.

While heat transfer paper may be the clear winner on the types of fabrics (material and color) that you can decorate, remember that sublimation can also be used on a wide range of hard and soft surface substrates. For the most part, heat transfer paper cannot.

Color Quality

Sublimation allows you to print full colors. This can be very helpful when sublimating a photo or doing a job for a customer that requires a specific color, such as printing a company logo.

You can also achieve sharp, vibrant designs using the heat transfer method if you’re printing your design using a white toner transfer printer, so you can achieve full-color vibrant designs with either method.

Weeding

Sublimation printing is naturally self-weeding. That is because only the ink is transferred to the garment, thus resulting in a printing, pressing, and peeling process that is easy and fast.

Apart from the use of “two-step” laser transfer papers, printing with heat transfer papers are not self-weeding. With heat transfer paper, a transfer layer carries the print to the garment, and unless you want a noticeable background the shape of the paper on your T-shirt, you will have to trim around the image with scissors or a cutting plotter.

On transfer papers for light-colored garments, the transfer layer is clear and mostly invisible, and trimming is optional. However, if you don’t trim it, you will be able physically feel the transfer layer even where the image is not present. On “one-step” transfer papers for darks, unprinted areas will show a white background, so trimming is essential.

LinkedGo-Vinyl Think:

Both sublimation and heat transfer printing is a great way to decorate apparel; both printing technologies are affordable and beneficial and can be used to decorate fabric with steps that are easy to follow.

The right method for you ultimately depends on your needs or what you’re looking to create, so the choice is absolutely yours.

Hopefully this blog has helped you further your path to T-shirt and garment decoration! If you still have questions, do not hesitate to reach out to our Customer Success Team who are more than happy to help you find the best solution.

Free Printable Christmas Snowman Coloring Page

July 8, 2020

by linkedgovinyl with No Comment Cutting Tools DIY Project

A snowman is a quintessential winter Christmas icon. He’s also a favorite of many children. So much so that children all over the world recognize the snowman as a universal sign of the season.

Christmas will be here before you know it, and that means that it’s time for some fun and FREE printable Christmas coloring pages! These Christmas coloring sheets are perfect for both kids and adults – there’s something for every skill level and interest here!

DOWNLOAD THE COLORING PAGES!

Click the image above to download your Pintable Christmas Snowman Coloring Page

As wonderful as the Holiday season is, it can also be a bit crazy! It’s nice to take a some time to sit down and just relax. Coloring and doodling are such fun and simple way to relax and unwind. So grab a hot mug of coffee or tea and a cozy blanket and get ready to color the stress away!

Free Printable Snowman Coloring Pages

Click the image above to download your Printable Christmas Snowman Coloring Page

Give your little kids some winter-themed activities that will develop their fine motor skills with these wonderful winter coloring pages. As an added bonus, a few of the pages include a bit of winter tracing practice as well!

He’s the perfect character for a fun set of winter printable coloring pages. You’re not going to want to miss our free printable snowman coloring pages!

Did you know that snowmen date all the way back to the middle ages? Now that’s a fun fact to share with your preschoolers as they color these cute snowmen. Coloring is a fun activity for children of all ages.

Print these free snowman coloring pages, plan your most epic snowman, then go out and build it! Alternatively, stay in where it’s warm and make the perfect snowman on paper with this fun winter themed activity.

Looking for more insight & inspiration?

Here are the most popular LinkedGvinyl Craft Tool from Amzon store. You’re definitely not going to want to miss these!

Free Printable Easter Egg Activity Sheets

July 7, 2020

by linkedgovinyl with No Comment DIY Project

Grab this free printable Easter egg tracing worksheet for a fun indoor coloring activity for the kids. You’re definitely going to want to check them out!

We love Easter time at my house. Celebrating Spring, Jesus, and new life just calls for celebrations!

You’re not going to want to miss this pack of Printable Easter Activity Sheets! It’s filled with zero-prep Easter themed fine motor activities perfect for your preschooler or kindergartner. It includes:

Easter egg tracing pages
Cutting pages with Easter friends
Easter baskets filled with goodies
Cutting and pasting practice

You can get your kids ready for Easter and egg hunts with this printable Easter egg tracing worksheet!

It’s a perfect activity for preschoolers and kindergarteners to practice shapes and tracing. And it will get everyone excited for all the Easter egg activities!

You can also use this worksheet to teach colors, patterns, and shapes. Younger kids can also color it for a fun indoor activity.

Are you ready to practice lots of important early learning skills with your little kids? You’ll for sure be glad that you did!

Easter Egg Activity Sheets

There are four eggs on a sheet. Trace straight lines, zig zags, circles, and more with this simple Easter egg worksheet. It’s perfect for little hands who are practicing holding a pencil in their hands. You can even cut out the eggs around the edge, to practice scissor skills. Then do a mini paper egg hunt or hang your pictures around the house for some easy Easter decor! Preschool learners can also practice:

Concentration
Pencil Grip
Pencil Control
Hand Eye Coordination

Easter Buddies Cutting

To complete these activity pages, your preschooler must cut along the dotted lines to get to each of the Easter buddies. For added fun, children can get creative coloring the buddies at the end.

Cutting also helps develop hand eye coordination because the child must hold the paper with one hand while cutting with the other hand. This makes it necessary to track the movement with their eyes.

Easter Kids Tracing

Preschoolers must trace the lines to help each of the Easter kids find the surprise waiting for them at the end. Tracing is a great way to help early learners build visual/spatial skills. These skills will later help them to develop strong math and reading skills.

Easter Basket Cut & Paste

Children will cut and paste to make an Easter basket filled with goodies. In this way they will be able to practice cutting and all the fine motor skills associated with that activity as well as practice pasting skills.

Preview(opens in a new tab)

When completing these Easter activity pages with your children, keep in mind that learning to paste objects not only has practical applications for preschoolers, but also helps children to develop spatial skills as they arrange the objects in the provided space of the basket.

When you’re stuck indoors due to sickness or poor weather, print this worksheet out and you have an easy Easter activity for the kids! They can trace the different shape lines, make patterns on their Easter eggs, and color everything in. It’s a simple craft activity for all ages!

How To Export SVG For The Web From Adobe Illustrator

July 1, 2020

by linkedgovinyl with No Comment Business DIY Project

Something I used to struggle with was exporting SVG from Adobe Illustrator. Our designers make these great comps for us to code up. But what’s the best way to take their vector files and convert them into an optimized SVG on the web?

This is exactly what you will learn today.

Creating SVG in Adobe Illustrator

When you create a graphic in Illustrator—which is intended for SVG export—you need to perform some steps and considerations required to make the final output properly optimized for web. Let’s explore them now.

Set the Correct Color Space

Illustrator — as most vector illustration software — was originally designed for print production, and therefore its color space is set to CMYK by default. RGB is much more appropriate for web and screen use, and has a wider gamut (range of colors) than CMYK. So, when you create new document, make sure the color mode is set to RGB – as you can see in the image below.

Give your drawing a proper structure

An SVG file is not like a regular bitmap image — a grid of pixels. It’s a text document that has a specific structure.

Like an HTML document, you can select and manipulate individual elements separately. To do this, you’ll need to use their names as a reference. I’ve found it’s always much easier to create these labels during visual editing in Illustrator, rather than later.

For that reason, it’s important to give a meaningful name to each graphic element as you make it. Here is what you need to know when you create a graphic in Illustrator:

Layers and Layers Groups names are used as IDs for SVG groups
Symbols names are used as IDs for SVG symbols
Graphic Styles names are used as CSS classes

In the images below, you can see in action how names from an Adobe Illustrator file reflect to the exported SVG

Simplify your shapes whenever possible

The shapes in an SVG drawing are described with coordinate points. The more points a drawing has, the larger the file size and more difficult it is to edit and maintain. Creating small, efficient files makes your life easier later.

To solve this issues, you need to use the fewest possible number of points to create the shapes you need. This can be achieved in several ways.

Use Primary SVG shapes instead of SVG paths whenever possible

Using simple elements like line, rect, and circle has some significant advantages.

Firstly, simple shapes are much more readable for humans – it’s self-evident that a circle is a circle when we see it in our SVG code, but the code for a path can be anything until we see it render.

Secondly, simple shapes almost always produce smaller file sizes and less code, which make them easier for maintain and edit. You can also control them more easily with their direct attributes such as x, y, cx, cy, instead of point coordinates as it is with paths.

To see what I mean, in the image below you can see a simple circular shape defined once as a SVG circle element and once as a SVG path. Though they render identically, it’s clear that the SVG shape is smaller and more versatile. Be aware that some graphics editors – Fireworks’s SVG export extension was an example – automatically convert SVG shapes to paths when you export. Obviously, try hard to avoid this.

Simplify your paths

A path is nothing more than an array of coordinate points. To simplify a path means to cut out some of its points, which will lead to less path data and smaller file size. To do so you can use Object > Path > Simplify… command or Warp Tool. In both cases, the main point is to reduce the path’s points maximally without loosing the quality of visual appearance.

In the images below, you can see how Illustrator’s simplify process reduces path points from 32 to 23 — which is about 25% — and how this reflects to the code. The path data is decreased while the visual quality still remains at a good level.

Decide whether to convert text to paths

In SVG graphics, text is a standalone element and as such it is searchable, accessible, and easily re-editable. This is a valuable quality for text to have. However, if you want to guarantee your text looks exactly the way you designed it everywhere, your end-user will need to have access to the correct fonts. This means choosing a common fonts — which limits your creativity — or providing a web font.

If precise text rendering is more important than editability — for example, in a logo — you can convert it into paths by using Type > Create Outlines command or by setting this option in the export panel as you’ll see later on.

Bear in mind that convert a lot of text to paths, the file size can increase drastically – so think carefully before converting.

Use ‘SVG filters’ in preference to Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop Filter Effects

Illustrator offers a set of SVG Filters that are applied live in the browser (Effect > SVG Filters). While Illustrator or Photoshop Effects are always permanently ‘baked into’ your raster images embedded inside the SVG, SVG filters can be changed or removed at any time with a few keystrokes.

You can also create re-usable filters and/or edit them via Apply SVG Filter dialog.

Fit artboard to drawing

If you want your SVG to be displayed predictably, it’s good habit to always to trim your artboard to the drawing before. The artboard dimensions are the dimensions of the exported SVG viewport, and any white space in the artboard will be generated as white space inside the viewport.

Depending on situation you can use Object > Artboards > Fit to Artwork Bounds or Object > Artboards > Fit to Selected Art command.

Left star will be exported with the surrounding white space
Right star will be exported with its proper dimensions.

Exporting SVG in Adobe Illustrator

When your graphic is ready for production, select File > Export > Export As… command, then select SVG as option for the file type and hit Export button. You should see the following panel:

Let’s explore the options presented in more detail.

Styling

There are three way to style your SVG and they are presented in the first dropdown list.

The first is to use internal CSS (i.e. a block), which is generally considered the best option following the Separation of Concerns principle.</p>
The second method is to use inline CSS styles (i.e. ).
And the third method is to use SVG presentation attributes .

In the image below, you can see the difference between these three options.

Font

If you want to convert your text to outlines, here you can instruct Illustrator to do so. If you want to preserve your text editability, then select SVG option. Outlined text gives you complete visual control of your typography, but at a significant cost – file sizes blow out and text loses editability and searchability.

Note: SVG fonts will be removed from SVG 2 and is considered as a deprecated feature with support being removed from browsers.

Images

If you are using a raster graphic (like a JPG) in your SVG, you have two options. Choosing link means the raster graphic will live in its own file somewhere else. Choosing embed will make it part of the SVG. There’s no real performance difference either way since the file still has to be loaded. But linking keeps your SVG and non SVG components separate and easier to read. This one is personal preference. I like to embed it unless it’s a raster graphic I’m reusing elsewhere.

As a general rule, you’ll avoid many future headaches if you can simply avoid using pixel-based graphics in your SVGs whenever you can.

Object IDs

Generally the best option is to select Layer Names, because this will give you meaningful names for your individual SVG elements. Minimal uses random letter-numbers, and Unique uses large random combination of characters.

Decimal

As you can see from the graphic below, the path with 5 decimal places if far larger than the same path with 1 decimal – yet visually identical.

Keep in mind that If you make the number smaller, you’re removing precision of your vectors. If you make the number bigger, you’re adding precision but also adding to the file size.

Minify

Check this option only if you’re exporting a final version of your graphic for production and you are sure that the file won’t be edited anymore.

Responsive

It might make logical sense to turn this on. But we actually want to leave it off. If we check this box, our SVG won’t have any width or height on it. Until we add a width and height with CSS, our SVGs won’t know what to do. In a lot of cases, they will fill as much space as possible. By turning off responsive, we are adding a width and height to the base SVG. Luckily, if we also define a width and height in our CSS, it will override what is defined in the SVG itself.

However, you may want to further optimize your file with some specialized tool, such as SVGO or its web GUI-fied version SVGOMG.

Be aware that you do need to be careful when using these tools. They can easily break your document functionality. My advice is to use manual optimization whenever it’s possible and use automated optimization tool only if it’s necessary and with caution.

Conclusion

Now that you have your SVGs optimized and ready for use on the web, you’re all set to use them. Unlike other image files, there’s a couple different ways to get your vectors onto your page. I gave a talk at Connect.

Keen to learn the ins and outs of developing your own plugins, either to improve your workflow or the workflow of others? Check out WHAT IS SVG?