Ole-Talk

Paper & Ink | Dress up a Printable

Looking for a quick, easy card to make, then dress up a basic printable. The card on the right is from one of Francine's Printably kits. I added rub ons, ribbon, a sentiment and voilà...a beautiful birthday card.

How do you use printables?

Sisters Paper Scissors | Scrapbooking with the Silhouette and Printably Kits

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.

Sisters, Paper, Scissors | Fun Projects Using Jan's Printably Kit

Hello, and welcome to Sisters, Paper, Scissors!

As you know my sister and I have been doing monthly blog projects in tandem for a few years now. We started out focusing on only scrapbooking with the Sister Sketch project. Last year we switched it up a bit with Sisters Take on Pinterest, where we each tackled a project we'd pinned.

This year we're combining it all into one whole shebang called Sisters, Paper, Scissors. We'll be mixing up paper crafts, scrapbooking and other crafts all year long, on the last Friday of every month. Make sure to bookmark our blogs, or add us to your blog reader so you don't miss out any of the fun!

Fun Projects Using January's Printably Kit

To start the year of we decided to go the printable route. Francine has been using printables for some time now and I always admired what she would do with them. Then she started her Printably monthly kits and took things to a whole other level. This year I was determined to put all the beautiful elements that I receive each month to use starting with January's kit.

I received this beautiful frame from my wonderful bestie Marny for my birthday this month and I when I saw this poster in the kit I knew the frame would just be perfect to display it.

Here it is displayed on my bookshelf

For the past few years I have been choosing a word to guide me through the year. I used Susannah Conway's workshop to help me find it and these printables from the kit are just the perfect way to keep my word constantly in my mind. 

I made a little mini book with some of the 3x5 cards so that I can keep my word with me and refer to it whenever I need to refocus.

This framed version made with one of the 4x6 cards will be displayed in my office. I decorated a frame from my stash with washi tape and colorful letters to match.

Each kit comes with a calendar for that month.  Some colorful paper, ribbon, and washi tape from my stash and I have this clipboard that I can use each month.

I have also finally joined the planner party and was inspired by this post by Francine to make pretty dividers for my planner. I used dividers from various past kits but this one from the January kit was perfect for the Daily Docket and Blog Planning sections of my planner.
I also used the tabs in the bonus kit content. Did I not mention that you also get bonus stuff later in the month! 

The kit also comes with greeting cards and I have decided that each month I will print them so that I have a readily available stash of "just because" cards to give to family and friends.

It was such fun coming up with different ways to use the elements from this kit. I can't wait to see what the next kit will inspire me to do.

Now off you go to see Francine's wonderful creations.