I had a lot of fun with my Janome 500E and Artistic Digitizer last month making Christmas ornaments for gifts. If you haven’t heard about Janome’s Artistic Digitizer software, you can learn more about it by contacting your local Janome dealer and by doing a search on Janome Life where we have done many posts about this software. The software was recently updated and you can learn more about those enhancements by clicking here.
It was the first time I’d made ITH (in the hoop) projects and I was thrilled at how well they turned out. The combination of the Janome 500E (the precursor to the current Janome 550E) and the Artistic Digitizer software made it so easy to create these ornaments.
Since “that year” is now behind us I think it’s safe to share how I altered a purchased embroidery design to “commemorate” 2020.
I had a machine embroidery ornament design that I’d bought of a gingerbread man wearing a mask (very COVID-19 chic!) and I wanted to change the colour of the mask and I wanted to put “2020” on the design. (I thought the original green colour was very Christmas-y but my son thought it should be the typical blue colour that most of us are sporting).
Here’s what the original ornament looked like:
To make the changes in this design, I first opened the original design in the Artistic Digitizer software.
Changing the colour of the mask to blue was easy. I clicked on the mask and then chose the colour I wanted from the Colour palette on the right side of the screen. There are different options for selecting or changing colours but this is the one that I find the easiest.
You can choose what brand of thread you want in the top drop down menu.
I chose the Madeira polyneon. (Did you know that Janome Canada is the distributor of Madeira threads in Canada? Check with your local Janome dealer to see what selection they carry).
After clicking on the desired colour, you can see that the mask is now the standard blue shade we’ve become so used to seeing.
Next, I wanted to put “2020” somewhere on the design. I decided to delete the top button and place it there, so I selected the button and deleted it.
I then used the Text feature to add “2020”.
I clicked on the capital “T” on the left hand menu and chose the font I liked from the drop down menu.
I then typed in “2020” in the Text box in the top left side of the pop-up menu and adjusted the font size until it was the size I wanted. I moved it into place.
Note: If you want to change existing text in a design, you’ll need to select it and then click on the Text tool to choose the new font and size. You can only do this in DRAW files – not in JEF files.
I selected the same red colour for “2020” as the other buttons in the design.
I then had the new design I wanted with the blue mask and “2020” on the ornament.
I saved it as a DRAW file first and then saved it as a JEF file so I could import it to my Janome 500E using a USB stick.
All that was left was to stitch out the ornament and this was the final result.
I was quite pleased by the changes I’d made in this design and thrilled that it was so easy to do using the Janome Artistic Digitizer software.
Happy creating from Kim Jamieson-Hirst of Chatterbox Quilts, a Janome Canada Artisan in Calgary, Alberta.
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