Author Archives: leslie

More Cricut Hacks (aka eff you ProvoCrap)

Way back in 2009 or even further back I picked up a copy of Make the Cut a fabulous software that let me control my Cricut craft cutter. I was able to cut anything I wanted and items of my own designs. Awesome.

Well that was fun, until Provocraft decided they didn’t want third party software controlling their machines. Then sued the makers of Make the Cut. Make the Cut was tied up in court for years. Googling the company shows several lawsuits. Eventually the software was locked down and the code needed to make the software able to work with the cricut was locked out. If you upgraded your copy of make the cut past MTC 4.1.0 it can’t be hacked to work. You also need to install the pccplugin which you have hopefully saved on a thumb drive somewhere.

Make the Cut is now abandonware. The developer has allowed the site to come and go it is currently up and you can download the software, though there are reports in the forum that the new serial numbers no longer work. The forum and site are up now, I was unable to get any assistance from the owner for getting my reg key. I used their automated system and it did not work. I also have not received an answer via their support ticket system. According to several users on the forum, the user has not responded to anything on the forum for over 5 years at this point (writing this 12/2020).

If you have access to the computer you had Make the Cut installed on you can use these instructions to attempt to retrieve the registration code. I was able to successfully reboot my nearly dead old laptop and pull the code out. Then I emailed it to myself AND saved the MTC4.1.0 installer, pccplugin, and reg code to thumb drive. This will get stored in a safe place and I’ll also back these files up to the cloud. And you should to.

I’ll update my old posts about MTC. Apparently now you need to use Sure Cuts a Lot, but I do not think it can be hacked to work with the crapcut. Again I salute Provocrap with a middle finger salute. We should be able to use the Crapcut with any software in the same manner we use a printer.

Use these links at your own risk:

  • https://archive.org/details/MakeTheCutVersion4.1.0
  • https://diydata.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/cricut-cutter-with-usb-it-can-be-done/
  • https://www.dllme.com/dll/files/pccplugin_dll.html

An no I will NOT send you copies of this stuff. I’ve provided the links, follow them.

Please read the comment section of t his post closely for the information you are looking for. Other readers have posted info.

Seriously READ the comments section.

The info in this post pertains to the ORIGINAL CRAPCUT NOT THE NEW EXPRESSIONS 2. Don’t even ask. It won’t work. Provocrap has blocked ANY outside software from working with the crapcut. Why? Because they suck.

If you bought an expressions 2? Sell your machine on eBay and get one of the machines listed on the MTC website.

Google make the cut 4.1.0 look for a page on TUMBLR. You will need to download MTC 4.1.0 and install it. After that download and run the plugin installer. These are items 1 and 2 on the tumblr page. (No I will not post a link to it, you can work google.)

You will also need to purchase MTC from MTC. You need the serial number to use the software. Don’ be a cheap ()&%^&$^&*% asshole. Seriously. The software is $80, or 2 carts at full price or 4 carts on sale. BUY THE DAMN SOFTWARE. What you just downloaded is NOT THE FULL SOFTWARE, you need the serial number. SO BUY IT. /rant

 When you plug it into your computer it WILL NOT CUT IF you don’t have a cart in the machine. For it to cut, plug in a cart, any cart, it doesn’t matter.

So for those of you who have been coming here for my cricut hack post and then noticed… I never updated about it again… Well, I was very disappointed to find out that ProvoCrap sued the creator of Makes the Cut. Sigh. ProvoCrap forced them to disable the use of cricut on their machine. Apparently ProvoCrap hasn’t noticed that many other companies, like you know, Sony, Apple, Nintendo, Atari etc did a little thing called “software licensing” where they forced companies to BUY a license to manufacture add ons for their products. Everyone wins. The company that sells the machine gets money and the company that sells the software makes money and most of all the consumer gets innovative products. ProvoCrap fails to see that.

Now if my Mom hadn’t bought me my cricut as a gift (shortly after her heart surgery) I’d shelve or sell the damn thing and buy a machine that isn’t crippled by it’s manufacturer and allows me as an artist to create my own designs without fear of being sued or threatened with lawsuits or “damage to my machine.” There are no issues with 3rd party content damaging machines, what a ludicris idea! Unless of course, provocraft has installed somethign on the machine to damage it IF I dare use 3rd party content. That being said I’ve been using Makes the Cut with no issue, and I will continue to do so.

Here’s the meat of my post: If you have a cricut, hack it. Screw provocraft. Seriously if you do buy a cricut, buy Makes the Cut and hack MTC so it works and don’t buy another damn cart again. It can be done. And it’s not hard. I am not posting publically how you can do this, as provocrap now sends a cease and desist to everyone who DOES leave the information out there. So, feel free to google the makes the cut hack, and for god’s sake don’t update your cricut firmware. Or do and then sue provocrap for embedding disabling software on your product.

As for blades: You can buy Roland brand cutter blades on ebay for about $2 to $3 a blade- which is a lot cheaper than buying the provocrap blades. Also, provocrap can’t sue Roland, they made these blades long before provocrap started to make the cricut. Maybe Roland should sue cricut for copyright violation. Also, good luck with provocrap shutting down the Chinese vendors of those blades.

Mats not sticky anymore? Start off by washing them with warm soapy water and then letting them dry. That will remove some of the fibers sticking to it. You can also buy a glue remover and glue system. This seems tedious, and I attempted to buy a bottle of it from a seller on etsy only to be screwed out of my money. It’s a spray glue system which of course smells bad. However, this company has a good reputation.

The best resticking option that I’ve seen so far, and has rave reviews actually uses one of my favorite glues- Zig 2 way. I usually buy the pen tip but it comes in a big mammoth pen now and the suggestion is that you wipe off the large pieces of lint with a wipe, let that dry, apply the ZIG, let that dry and then cut away. You can find this ZIG all over the place but here’s an eBay search. Zig glue is awesome.

I’d like to see a holder made for the cricut that holds a regular exacto blade. It wouldn’t be hard- a dowel seated inside another dowel so it can rotate, the interior dowel would swivel inside the housing and have a channel cut into it to hold the blade, a set screw would hold the exacto in place, and another screw on the top would adjust the blade pressure. (Someone get on making that and send me one.)

Here’s a picture for provocrap:

Finger for provocraft

Automatic Drawings: For Sale Edition

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I decided to put some of the automatic drawings on my Etsy and Artfire accounts. I'll be putting more up soon. Most fo the images I've loaded up thus far have not had their videos released onto YouTube yet. So if you thought it would be neat to see one of these in person, now is your chance. All are matted with a nice white beveled 8×10 mat, with a 5×7 inch window. Ready to frame or hang in a krystalphane bag. The colors are more vibrant in person than on screen or the camera can capture. They are priced to move at $20 with $5 shipping here in the US. (Hint hint- it might be a perfect gift for yourself for the holidays.)

Check out my Etsy here:

(Apparently I can't embed the Etsy mini here. Poop)

Check out my Artfire here:

Here's a gratuitous automatic drawing video:

 

Journaling to Improve My Mood

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Last night as I lay in my bed wishing I could fall asleep I realized these little automatic drawings not only reflect my mood but improve it. I can come home after a long day, sit down with my pen, journal, and watercolors and feel much better by journaling it out via automatic drawing. Looking back I've turned to the automatic drawings at difficult times in my life. These drawings pepper my journals and sometimes fill sketchbooks with their flowing lines.

At one point  I had a lot of rules for the automatic drawings. At one point they were only done in Sharpie and in one long continuous line like colors could not touch sides; those were just a few. Eventually I felt that the rules restricted my ability to explore the subconscious and conscious themes that came up in these drawings, so I dumped the rules.

 

 

Trying Something New with Something Old

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For this automatic drawing I created a mottled field of color with my watercolors. I dried it out and then drew on top of the washy colors. I then added more color on top of the drawing to draw out some of the fun colors that were already present, it also helped to add emphasis to the drawing.

 

This is somethign I'll be trying out again and again. The watercolors added a really nice feel to the paper, a tactile sensation I really enjoyed. Also drawing on the color was fun too. Adding the darker colors of watercolor to various areas really allowed me to focus in on some of those neat bleeding effects.

Also take note that the sycophantic followers have thumbed down  the video. Awesomesauce.

Show it (and me) some love.

Time to Relax

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After a long cold day at the DayJob sucking down hot tea and coffee trying to stay warm, and awake, I came home and was unable to sleep. My buddy let me take a goofy picture o him and I decided I had to paint him from the photo. It's not the greatest image of him ever but it was relaxing to paint that night.

 

Technique Tuesday: Ink Wash

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Ink Wash is an incredibly old skool technique that I learned in High School. It was taught to us in Art 1 as a way to learn about value and tone, as well as their relationship. We used film canisters (retro) and India ink, which is waterproof once dried. The idea behind it is that you start with 3 to 5 levels of light to dark watered down ink. You apply it with a brush to capture the value of the image you are trying to capture. You add additional layers of watered down ink to achieve your dark darks. At the end you'd use a crow quill pen to add in details, or if you were "that good" you'd get a liner brush and use a light hand to add those final details.

In college I had a friend who did the most amazing ink washes in blue higgens waterproof ink. Amazing stuff. Since then I've sketched in black, red, blue, blue-black and a variety of other colors. Traditional is with black so that's what I've shown in my video.

I use Noodler's Black ink for this, but you can use any ink brand you want.  The vials I use are from GouletPens.com. I used my syringe that I referenced in my last post about fountain pens to measure the ink.

Anyway, watch the video, try ink wash, it's an easy and fun technique.

 

My Automatic Drawings

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I've been making what I call "automatic drawings" since the late '90s. The idea is that I put a pen to paper and move it around in ways that come to me, subconciously without deep thought. Think of it as a drawing style similar to stream of conciousness writing. I've noticed that during different parts of my life different images and symbols arise from the depths of my mind. When I was younger the images were raw, emotional and largely symbolic of my life at that time. The symbols and the images have changed but the process is roughly the same.