For the next couple creative learning sparks, I'm doing something a little different. I'm revisiting some of my favorite "crowd-sourced" threads from Twitter and preserving the wonderful responses here so that they're not lost.
This week, I'm revisiting a thread where I asked "Does anyone have any favorite creative uses of small craft cutters (like the cricut or silhouette)? Cutting copper tape traces to make interesting paper circuits is on my list, what’s on yours?"
Here were some of the wonderful responses people shared:
@MrReuland shared the idea of creating shapes for shadow scenes and shared a great tip about how you can export .svg files (a good file format for craft cutters) from Scratch.
@lectrifyit described how they originally used their Cricut to cut PCB (printed circuit board stencils) which made me curious about the process of making PCBs.
@morrill_rob shared some lovely examples of using a craft cutter to cut student's code-generated designs out of a heat transfer material so that it can be pressed onto clothing (robmorrill.com/materials). And sent a link to a great youtube video that dives into this process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlN8ckfg1Iw
@keithbraafladt shared a cool template for making your own zoetropes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c5nh6kg7gI_XF02l5NU41V988rY7EX1A/view
@Sarah_Vitak continued the discussion around cutting heat-transfers and showed a nice example of how you can transfer those designs to a mug.
@Carlitosi71 shows you can use the cut and score features to create cut-out houses that have folding windows and doors.
@linderkong shares a whole list of fun ideas, I want to try all of them!
@Instructables shared this project: https://www.instructables.com/Gucci-Inspired-Handbag-From-Paper-Bags/ and I was wowed by the fabrication and crafting techniques that this author used.
@ceciliahilway makes incredible chipboard creations and shared that they use a craft cutter to cut some of those pieces.
Finally, @npkeith shared a great use case for stencils: use them with stainless steel and creating custom etchings! I also wondered if you could take the same idea and apply it to the process of anodizing aluminum which I've explored here in the past.
