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Okay....Am I the only one who graduated high school and still have trouble measuring. I eyeball most of my cards. Just wondering if there are others like me.
I use metric most of the time, because it is ten based, and what I learned at school. I finally had a breakthrough in understand the 8 based inches stuff! LOL!! Getting there with my husband's help!!! ;) I am also very precise - but you know - sometimes the ruler does not jive exactly with the cutter measurments - so that is something to be careful with - and is your cutter edge a perfect square! Sometimes it's the tools!! Not just us!
Ok...I'm having my kids and husband school me on rulers and measurements...I think I'm wasting so much paper on eyeballing. I'm off to use my fiskcars trimmer and try to figure this thing out....
I have a friend that has to measure absolutely everything she does to a card. I don't measure anything & my cards look just as even as hers. I just don't have the patience. Rather spend my time on other parts of the card. But, we're all different.
__________________ Keep what is worth keeping
and with the breath of kindness
blow the rest away.
I measure everything. I place a ruler on my cutting board when cutting strips. By doing this I know that the paper is lined up and down on the board on the exact measurement. I use the Tim Holtz Center Ruler when lining up objects on my projects. I am a perfectionist, so it kills me when I off on a project. I also sew and quilt so I need to make sure everything lines up correctly, especially corners.
I can't cut straight or consistant. Last class I gave I "taught" the ladies to line up the layers to the fold and trim the open edge because that is what I do.
I just got a Dreamcutz which seems very silly, but the lure of cutting a piece on paper in half, really in half, was just too enticing. I thought about the new Creatopia because it seemed more versatile, but I figured I would probably line up the cutters wrong. LOL
Hey I have the same issue as a guy so dont think only girls can't read a ruler. I found a great site that had an image on it that i printed out and put on my wall as a cheat sheet.
Here it is and hopefully it will help.
Thanks
__________________ Stefen B. a.k.a Scrappinguy Stampin Up Demonstrator Nashville, TN
Blog: http://guystampin.com
I measure my card bases, but those are easy - just cut an 8.5x11" sheet in half for two cards. The rest of it, I just cut whatever I feel like and stick my thumbnail in the paper to make a mark of where I think I should cut next. Kind of random. My husband is the engineer; my brain is entirely artistic.
I measure my card bases, but those are easy - just cut an 8.5x11" sheet in half for two cards. The rest of it, I just cut whatever I feel like and stick my thumbnail in the paper to make a mark of where I think I should cut next. Kind of random. My husband is the engineer; my brain is entirely artistic.
I could have written that! Sometimes I do find a pencil instead of my thumbnail though LOL.
I've gotten better with 1/2 and 1/4 inches.. don't even mess with anything else! I know when I frame something, I like to have a 1/4 inch of the other paper showing. The only time I really worry about it is when I am mass producing.. else, I just cut off what I think I need to cut off, etc.
I think the longer you work with it, the better you get. But again, I don't mess with the small increments unless the measurements are given to me in a sketch!
__________________ Kelley- Mom to 2 beautiful boys and a princess! My blog: returning from a deep sleep!
Math has always been easy for me, so I'm a measurer. My fellow stampers laugh at me because I'm all about measuring when I cut cardstock. I have a panic attack when I can't find my ruler.
__________________ Heather Hawkins - Stampin' Up! Demo and new mom. I have the two best jobs ever! stampinheather.blogspot.com
Math has always been easy for me, so I'm a measurer. My fellow stampers laugh at me because I'm all about measuring when I cut cardstock. I have a panic attack when I can't find my ruler.
Heather and Susan, I’m with you!! I’m in the accounting field (over 35 years now) so numbers are my game. I borrowed the mantra from the carpentry field…measure twice, cut once! I’ve noticed that some 8 � x 11 paper isn’t a FULL 11” – I discovered that when trying to cut 5 �” cards and not getting equal sections. So now I check to make sure it is a full 11” before measuring and cutting.
My stamping buddies laugh when I share my layouts…I often go down to 16th” measurements when trying to center panels equally across the card!
I guess us measurement deficient stampers are in the minority I am one of those people that was good at algebra but stunk at geometry. I can't give directions and get lost easily.. I am spatially challenged... I'm just proud that I can do the little bit of measurement I can! I felt like I redeemed myself from my days of suffering through geometry.
__________________ Kelley- Mom to 2 beautiful boys and a princess! My blog: returning from a deep sleep!
Math was never my best subject, but I'm very good with fractions. That's really all it is: halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths. I find that my projects come out much more even when I measure everything. I, too, was good at Algebra, but don't ask me to do a "proof" in Geometry. I still cringe when I hear that word.
I guess us measurement deficient stampers are in the minority I am one of those people that was good at algebra but stunk at geometry. I can't give directions and get lost easily.. I am spatially challenged... I'm just proud that I can do the little bit of measurement I can! I felt like I redeemed myself from my days of suffering through geometry.
Spacially challenged? I like that! The math is not my problem, it is the physically cutting part I screw up. So I am spacially challenged.
I need to echo what scrappinguy said. Not sure what I was doing in grade school when measurements and the like were taught. I found this ruler explanation on a website (url long forgotten) and use it religiously. I really, really need to laminate it ... really.
I just count the little 1/8" boxes of the grid and if you if you use the great .PDFs in this post, then it gets really easy to figure out the measurements.
The grid that makes and centering much easer. They all have a center point and instead of counting tic marks like on a regular ruler, you can just count the number of boxes, again super simple.
I have 6", 12" and the 24" and it's great that they are so affordable.
had to edit to add one last thought - be sure to check your rulers against your paper cutters and other rulers. They may not be the same - I had a ruler that was 1/16" off from my paper trimmer. I now only have rulers that match each other and my trmmers.
I'm glad I am not the only one who has trouble! I am always asking my engineer husband how to measure! He just laughs. My rulers are all marked up from me making marks on the meaurements for different projects! Thanks for that chart, it's great!
I guess I'm odd - I'm a math person (taught it for 15 years) and I measure NOTHING I do, unless it is some kind of assembly line process and I need a bunch with the same measurement.
I am a champ at measuring I just hate to do it or I lose the ruler or whatever. My DD is not so good at measuring so on our cutter she has marks for the halfway to a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11. She just lines it up to the mark and off she goes. She eyeballs the rest usually and it looks fine.
__________________ Barbara SU! Demo with a Blog
Procrastinators of the world unite... tomorrow!
After the zillions of cards I have made I can eyeball with confidence a 1/4 inch, an 1/8th inch and even a 16th... I RARELY measure except for the card bases.. Everthing else is eyeballed, glue to mat, eyeball an edge, cut.. etc.
__________________
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I do both! I measure twice cut once, OH is a carpenter;) but I also eyeball at times, go back and measure and 9.5 out of 10 times I am accurate! but don't stress it, if it is supposed to be perfect you can go to hallmark!
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I thought everyone in the world had the measuring technique down except me. I just couldn't mat a card with measurements. I do measure the base card. I use tick marks at about 1/8"..I just eyeball as I put the piece to be matted up to the next size larger. I have asked my demos how to do mat in a more precise manner, looked it up online, bought what I thought was easy layers, but turned out to be these disks from SU that are horrible to use, etc. There was another thread about six months ago that addressed this same issue, and sooo many stated they just eyeball things.....woohoo...was I happy I wasn't alone! I just always felt I was doing it "WRONG"!! No more!
__________________ All I want is the chance to prove money won't make me happy!
I loved geometry and use math when I need to, (like every day at work and home!). But, for my art projects, I rarely measure. Everything is eye-balled. I only measure if it is for scoring.
I would never dare eye-ball anything. Much to my dismay, even when using a ruler I can't reliably cut straight. I only cut my card base, and then resort to using my nesties to cut layers. At least then I can be sure they are square.
Often the implements we use are as much at fault as we ourselves...I have had a few wonky cutters.....
Things like Nesties help hugely in the quest for getting things straight.....at least your focus layers are cool bananas!
Being in Australia, I use mostly metric which is what I grew up with...but having so many things online from the US.....I have had to really get jiggy with the imperial too!
I am quite terrible in that I love to have everything straight....putting stuff o angles I cannot do....coz I want to straighten them back up...sad, I know!
Good luck with the quest for straightness.
Michelle
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigcheryl
Okay....Am I the only one who graduated high school and still have trouble measuring. I eyeball most of my cards. Just wondering if there are others like me.
I have no trouble with quarter/half/three quarter inch measuring but I get a little confused when you get into eighths and sixteenths. I mostly try to avoid those last two. When I do have to use them, I repeat over and over something to the effect of "two little lines past the half mark" or some variation on that.
I'd love it if someone could make a guillotine paper cutter with the cutting blade in the middle on "0" inches. Would be so much easier than subtracting numbers from 12 or whatever when you are making tiny cuts.
Heather and Susan, I�m with you!! I�m in the accounting field (over 35 years now) so numbers are my game. I borrowed the mantra from the carpentry field�measure twice, cut once! I�ve noticed that some 8 � x 11 paper isn�t a FULL 11� � I discovered that when trying to cut 5 �� cards and not getting equal sections. So now I check to make sure it is a full 11� before measuring and cutting.
My stamping buddies laugh when I share my layouts�I often go down to 16th� measurements when trying to center panels equally across the card!
Karen
Karen,
I can echo exactly what you said! I am married to a carpenter and he drilled into my head the measure twice/cut once mantra years ago.
When I first started cardmaking, I did not measure anything. I thought eyeballing was adequate.
I was not very good at math in school (though I did manage for a large financial institution for 20 yrs! :rolleyes: ). When I started making 3D projects, I *had* to learn my way around a ruler. I also had to re-learn fractions! Now it is second nature.
Now I have this really cool old school wood ruler with all sorts of special markings on it for the boxes I make. If that ever leaves my desk, I panic!
i have to talk myself through it and write it all out in a list format so that i can visualize the layers with the numbers.
I got tired of writing it out so often that I made a chart (hopefully it is atatched). I also included decimal places because we have a copy near our kitchen scale.
BTW ... I use grid paper to help align my layers but generally the more effort I put into getting them straight the more crooked they end up :confused: But at least with my chart I know I cut the layers correctly LOL.
I got tired of writing it out so often that I made a chart (hopefully it is atatched). I also included decimal places because we have a copy near our kitchen scale.
BTW ... I use grid paper to help align my layers but generally the more effort I put into getting them straight the more crooked they end up :confused: But at least with my chart I know I cut the layers correctly LOL.
I do a lot of eye balling myself. I guess I prefer doing other things, like spending more time coloring. I agree that there are definitely times when measuring is a must. I love the quilt cards that were in the challenge the other day. I confess I didn't do it because I didn't want to be so exact.
I can echo exactly what you said! I am married to a carpenter and he drilled into my head the measure twice/cut once mantra years ago.
When I first started cardmaking, I did not measure anything. I thought eyeballing was adequate.
I was not very good at math in school (though I did manage for a large financial institution for 20 yrs! :rolleyes: ). When I started making 3D projects, I *had* to learn my way around a ruler. I also had to re-learn fractions! Now it is second nature.
Now I have this really cool old school wood ruler with all sorts of special markings on it for the boxes I make. If that ever leaves my desk, I panic!
Holly, your measuring really is apparent. Your cards are always crisp, neat, and exact looking. I'd like it if rulers were't necessary. The idea of trying to be exact gives me anxiety.
Measuring
I'm an engineer by training and I have to be precise on all my measurements. I can't do it if I don't measure. 
A cheat sheet for rulers
Don't Touch My Ruler!
