Happy Spring and welcome to another edition of Sisters, Paper Scissors. This month it is all about combining elements from the Printably Kit with technology to create paper and digital layouts.
I used elements from the PNG version of the October 2015 Printably Kit and used my Silhouette Design Studio software to convert them to cut files.
Here's how it all came together.
Once you have opened the Silhouette Studio program on your computer, click on File-> Open and select the PNG file that you will be using for your project.
Go to the top right of your screen (see image)and click on the Open Trace Window button (circled in red).
Click on Select Trace Area. Then select and highlight the cutting file with your mouse. The red box is just there to show that you have to select the entire image.
Once highlighted your screen should look like the above image.
Select Low Pass Filter in the right pop up window. Adjust the Threshold slider until image is fully yellow but you can still see the original lines. For me the Threshold that seems to work is usually between 48 and 50 percent.
Next click on Trace Outer Edge. Notice the red outline lines that are now on the image. What is important to note is that if you click on only Trace anything that was highlighted in yellow in the step above will be traced and have red cut lines.
The next thing that I did was to click on Image -> Select All, then once selected click on Object -> Group. You have now grouped the main image with the outline trace of it. You need to do this if you want to resize the full image. If you do not group it then your outline and your printed image will be separate and when you go to resize they will not move together. Hope that makes sense.(see image below).
Of course if you are just interested in the outline shape of a PNG file then you don't have to do the group step. Select the original image and move it away from the red outline. You can then delete the orginal file. (not shown here)
So continuing from the group step above , since I am using the Print and Cut feature click on the Registration Marks button on the main menu and select the Style for your Silhouette. Then go to Cut Settings and select Cut Edge making sure that your red cutlines are not outside of the registration marks. Then from the main menu select the Print button and send to your printer. Once printed load into your Silhouette machine and cut.
Printed Image
Cut Image
Once I had all my elements cut I then assembled my layout. Here are a couple close up shots of the elements on my layout. The journal cards were also converted and cut using the same method. The only thing I did different was that I had to create a border around the journal cards and then grouped that with the original journal card image so that I had an outline for my cut lines.
The tags below were also cut using PNG files from the March kit and my Silhouette. I used them at the Tapas party to label dishes as gluten free. So as you can see there are lots of possibilities with the Printably Kits.
Now off you go to see what technology that can fit in the palm of your hand that Francine used with the PNG files to create her layout.
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