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A lady posted on a group I'm on asking if anyone knew of a source for a Scrabble set using the American Sign Language finger-spelling alphabet. I was pretty sure there wasn't one but I suggested it would be an easy thing for her to make herself. Well, on reflection a couple of days later I thought that if it were that easy, I might as well do it for her as a Christmas present for her and her pupils.
Making good quality Scrabble tiles from scratch was perhaps a little too ambitious, but making labels to stick to existing Scrabble tiles was definitely an option.
This instructable uses an inkjet printer to print the stickers, and a Cricut paper cutter to cut them to exactly the right size to stick to the Scrabble tiles. You'll also need a rotary guillotine (or a metal edge at least a foot long plus a sharp cutting knife - either a scalpel or an exacto knife)
By the way I'm using the old-style plastic tiles that came before the wooden ones in the USA. These are still the current design in Europe and Mexico. (You can find them on eBay fairly often; I bought mine in Mexico which is just a few miles away from where I live)
(This technique should be possible with the wooden tiles but the artwork will have to be created differently to match.)
Making good quality Scrabble tiles from scratch was perhaps a little too ambitious, but making labels to stick to existing Scrabble tiles was definitely an option.
This instructable uses an inkjet printer to print the stickers, and a Cricut paper cutter to cut them to exactly the right size to stick to the Scrabble tiles. You'll also need a rotary guillotine (or a metal edge at least a foot long plus a sharp cutting knife - either a scalpel or an exacto knife)
By the way I'm using the old-style plastic tiles that came before the wooden ones in the USA. These are still the current design in Europe and Mexico. (You can find them on eBay fairly often; I bought mine in Mexico which is just a few miles away from where I live)
(This technique should be possible with the wooden tiles but the artwork will have to be created differently to match.)
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Signing UpStep 1Print the replacement tile tops
First step - print the two attached images. You can use self-adhesive backed paper if you want, but you don't have to. Either way, the paper should be glossy. I used some HP Brochure Paper 180g I had handy (8.5in x 11in paper). Once printed, cut round the yellow area which will give you a rectangle exactly 6in wide, and 11in long.
These images must be printed at 600dpi to be the correct size for the tiles.
Because of the size of the image you will probably get a warning that 'some clipping will occur' - that's OK, it's only a couple of millimeters outside the area that will be cut out to make tiles.
The tile image looks a little pinkish on my screen but as you can see from the photograph of the board, they printed correctly in yellow at just the right shade to match the plastic tiles. If you don't get such a good color match, you might have to tweak the color of the images in your drawing program before you print them.
These images must be printed at 600dpi to be the correct size for the tiles.
Because of the size of the image you will probably get a warning that 'some clipping will occur' - that's OK, it's only a couple of millimeters outside the area that will be cut out to make tiles.
The tile image looks a little pinkish on my screen but as you can see from the photograph of the board, they printed correctly in yellow at just the right shade to match the plastic tiles. If you don't get such a good color match, you might have to tweak the color of the images in your drawing program before you print them.
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Everything is on one side to make it easy to see and learn ASL.
Available on ebay: http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=asl+scrabble+tiles&_sacat=See-All-Categories
G
Rated and featured...
I'ld like to see more Cricut 'ibles here too!
What you say is absolutely true. Correctly marketed, they could probably TRIPLE their sales instead of trying to nickel and dime the "scrap bookers" by making them pay for cartridges with just a handful of shapes on them. Stupid, stupid business plan.
I'm a programmer by trade, and with enough work, could have probably made the Cricut do what I wanted, and I STILL chose not to buy it for this reason. I can't imagine how many sales they'd get if people were able to cut ANYTHING they wanted out of cardboard/paper. Imagine just the home-made packaging you could make? Paper gears/clocks? There's SO MUCH they're shortselling themselves on.
I had the 6in wide model for a day before I wished I had splashed out and bought the full sized one. I like to make paper models (eg models of arcade video games) and being able to cut them automatically would be really cool, but with the small 'personal' model, they're way too small. The larger model is something like $200 on a (very) good day.
The fact that it'll take SVG's makes it a tasty bonus ^_^
I'd like to hear more about this if anyone knows more....
Also: Try to print reversed images on felt, make your scrabble game into a felt board. This might be a good option for training people who are trying to learn Ameslan letters who may have other barriers.
There's also a 'deep cut' blade you need for anything like card stock. However the height of the feed roller is the critical issue. I haven't yet dismantled my machine to see if the roller can be raised by a hardware hack. With a precision piece of engineering like this I'm somewhat nervous about messing it up.
The top of the line model has a printer built in, but that's overkill, and I don't think it's any more accurate at aligning the print and the cut than just printing separately and feeding in to the cutter carefully.