Cutting stenciled phrases

[ravenwife]

I just purchased a Cricut Expression in the hopes of using it to make steciled phrases for sign making. So far I have not had any luck, and contemplating buying Sure Cuts A Lot. My concern is cutting the letters,when cutting O,D,P Q etc, I loose the outline of the letter due to the fact that the letters are all cut in one piece, and there is no seperation that will keep them intact. Can I use Sure Cuts A Lot to make a break in the letter so that the shape of the letter is intact after cutting. I do not want to be limited to using the stencil font. I know there is an answer out there for me somewhere, and am hoping this is the place to find it.
Thanks, Susan

[HeatherM]

If the goal is to get the centers connected to the frame outside, then I don't think that it is possible in SCAL. It would be fairly easy in Inkscape (a free program) though. You would then import the files into SCAL to cut.

[kendraT]

Would anyone be able to explain how to do that in inkscape?

I would really appreciate it

Kendra

[firstcut]

I just posted links on my blog yesterday about this very thing. The 2nd link gives instructions for Inkscape.

[Silvertip]

Did you know that you can use any true type font in Sure Cuts Alot. May be you could find a different font that would close things up better. Also what are you trying to cut on and what size. If you send it to me maybe I can help you out. Inkscape is a great program but it can be very overwhelming and takes some time to learn.