Trace and cut for beginners

Ok so you have bought a Silhouette & you are wanting a specific design & you can't find what you are wanting in the Silhouette store OR like me you just want to know how to get the most out of your machine after all that's what it's designed to do right?

Well here are some basic step by step instructions on "HOW TO TRACE"...

First off you Google an image that you are wanting, in this instance I went to google and typed "Valentine png" in the search bar, I then clicked on "IMAGES" but that give you a whole bunch of coloured images which the Silhouette can trace but to start with I always prefer to find black & white line drawings as it is usually alot easier.  So once you have clicked on "IMAGES" then click on tools & then on "TYPE", you will notice a drop down menu opens up, then click on "LINE DRAWING".

You will then end up with the images below.

I chose the 6th picture for this example, being the black heart with the flourishes/swirls in it.  Click on the image and save it.  (If an image has a watermark, it means you need to purchase the image, alternatively look for something else that is free)

Now open the saved image in your Silhouette software & click on the icon on the top right hand side that has a yellow square with a blue butterfly in it.

Now you will see the TRACE window open up on the right hand side as per the image below.  Click on the top line that is hightlighted in blue in the picture that says "SELECT TRACE AREA", now you will move your mouse over the "Heart" image & you will notice the pointer of your mouse is a "+" sign.  

Now starting in the top left hand corner drag & highlight the entire image of the heart until it is covered with a lowlighted square/rectangle, once you are sure you have covered the entire area release the square/rectangle you just dragged over the image. 

Once you release the image it will have this yellow line around the image, but when tracing it is ideal to rather get a complete yellow image of the black area, so on the right hand side where the "TRACE" window is, you will notice that the "HIGH PASS FILTER" is ticked, so in this instance you need to "UNTICK" the High pass filter.

Once you have unticked the High pass filter you will notice that the image changes yellow.  Some areas look a bit rough, and you can try use the "THRESHOLD" slider & adjust that slightly, but in this instance, I am pretty happy just as it is.

Now click on the "TRACE" button that is highlighed on the right hand side.

Once you have clicked on the Trace button you will be left with the heart & a fine red line around the image.  If you now click on the black heart and drag it off into the grey area, you will notice a red trace of the heart being left behind, that is now a cut line and you can go ahead and size it to the size you want & send to the Silhoutte machine to cut it out.

I trust you enjoyed this tutorial on how to trace, until next time have fun.  I would love to see what you have designed so feel free to share it with me.

xoxo

Liane

SILHOUETTE NOT CUTTING

Gosh the weeks just fly by, I can't believe it is Wednesday again.

I had a stunning card lesson planned for this week, but have decided to push it out for now as we had a lot of ladies battling with their machines not cutting or tearing the paper ect...

So this week it gives me great pleasure to welcome Melissa Viscount from none other than Silhouette School.  Melissa is a fulltime blogger and has been referred to as a SILHOUETTE GURU time and time again.

I approached Melissa and requested that she allows me to make reference to her lesson why your Silhouette would not be cutting (or not cutting completely) and she graciously accepted.

So without any more delays, here are 11 reasons why you could be having problems with your Silhouette not giving you the desired cut.

11 REASONS YOUR SILHOUETTE IS NOT CUTTING (OR NOT CUTTING COMPLETELY)

http://www.silhouetteschoolblog.com/search?q=blade+not+cutting

Hope this will solve your problems, but if not feel free to message me and I will try my best to help solve your problem.

Thank you once again Melissa for sharing one of your many many amazing lessons.

xoxo

Liane

JUST A FEW OF MY DOUBLE PAGE KITS AVAILABLE

January has been a busy month for me having released 4 new double page kits:

These kits are available at Beautiful Scrapbooks.

Stock is limited so be sure to secure yours today.

Call 011 425-4817 to order yours or email ada@beautifulscrapbooks.co.za

Today is the day 2 learn something new R235.00

Nope Not today R243.00

Summer loving R338.20

XOXO R282.70

A few other kits that we have limited stock left of :

Coffee & Friend R282.00

Cherish Family Memories R374.50

Get away R217.00

PRINT & CUT

Have you seen an image that you just want to print & then cut out without having to pick up scissors & fussy cut...well with the Silhouette Print & Cut feature, you can do just that in a few easy steps:

Step 1:-  

Open up your Silhouette programe & go to the icon along the top right that is highlighted in blue (if you hold your mouse over it a pop up window will open & it will read "Open the design page settings window".

In this window on the right hand side it will say "Automatic Cameo", if you click on the down arrow, a pop up window will open and then find "A4" & select this.

You will now notice that your page size will change to the image below.  You can choose either "Portrait" or "Landscape" by selecting either or as per the highlight blue "Portrait" setting on the right, as in my case below.

Step 2:-

Now go to the icon in the top right hand side that is a "rectangle with 4 black right angles in the corner", if you hold your mouse over it it will tell you "Open the registration marks window"

Once the "Registration marks" window opens up, click on the down arrow by the "Style" which will initially be "OFF", change that to "Type 1, cameo, portrait, curio" if it's one of those machines that you have.

You will now notice that your page will change as per the picture below.  You will notice that on your screen you have a black square in the top left hand side and a right angle black marking in the top right & bottom left.  You will also notice a low lighted grid area that runs along the top and in the bottom left hand corner.  The images that you want to print & cut must not overlap this grid area or the red line line that is shown below otherwise you could end up with your images not cutting correctly.

Step 3:-

Find the images that you would like to cut on your computer or in your library and size them to the size you want.

You will see that I have not gone over the red line or in the grid area.

NOTE:- If your images DON'T have cut lines around them, you will need to trace the images and create cut lines.  I will be covering "Tracing" in a few weeks time, in the mean time you can download the file with trace lines by clicking on the link below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1706yb3qjc1qqm5/Back%20to%20School%20Owl.studio3?dl=0

Step 4:-

Now click on the printer icon in the top left hand corner or go to "File > print" & print your design on the printer that you have linked to your Silhouette Machine.  With my printer I need to make sure that it will print "Borderless" otherwise the "right angle black line" in the bottom left hand corner doesn't print properly and this will cause an issue with your Silhouette machine when it needs to read the registration marks.

 Step 5:-

Now that it has printed, I have stuck the printed sheet to my cutting mat.  You need to make sure that if your software is set to potrait you need to stick it on the mat the same way, otherwise you will end up with errors and it won't cut properly or at all.

Now load the mat into your machine & then send to Silhouette, change your blade settings according to what material you are cutting.

You will notice your machine will read the black square in the top left hand corner as well as the 2 right angles in the top right & bottom left hand corner, only then will it start cutting the files.

 Step 6:- 

Once your machine has finished cutting the files, you can now remove the cut images from your cutting mat using a spatula, being careful not to tear your cut files.

Now you are ready to turn this into a Scrapbooking masterpiece.

The images I used for this sample I found online at:-

http://www.clipartkid.com/by-pengam-primary-school-for-more-information-please-contact-us-doBM9l-clipart/

To purchase additional files that will match the free images I used click on the link below:- 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/107926540/on-sale-owl-clip-art-owls-clip-art?ga_search_query=back+to+school+owls&ref=shop_items_search_1

Until next week

xoxo

Liane

Surf & Sand

Surf & Sand...

I just love this photo of my eldest daughter Shannon that was taken on the beach in Knysna last December and I decided to play around a little bit by myself after I did a class with Patricia Basson a few weeks ago, and Patricia opened up a whole new world of scrapping for me.

For a while now, I had lost my passion for my hobby and so I decided that I needed time for me and what I used to find so much joy in and that is when I started playing around to create this layout.

In this layout I used Blue Fern Sea Cottage patterned paper and then made my own flowers etc using my favorite designer of all times Silhouette cutting files...you ask who well Teresa Collins of course.  I just love her designs and her and couldn't wait to use her cutting files on this layout.

Now the colours didn't match so I changed the colours of the print and cut file to match my paper and this is made very easy by simply using the paint bucket icon.

Now I think I need to go play some more...don't you.

Gosh...has it been that long

Wow, I can't believe it has been that long since I last posted on my blog.

To be honest, I can't give an exact reason but lets just say "LIFE HAPPENED"...

Let me start by posting pictures of my upcoming class tomorrow at Beautiful Scrapbooks.  It's not too late to book but be sure to call 011 425-4817.

We will be doing 1 off the page project which consists of a Canvas and 2 single page layouts.

Both the Canvas and the double page layouts have techniques on them.  

We will be playing with water colour paint to create our background on the canvas.

Snippets of my canvas using water colour paint, texture paste, die cuts, chipboard, flowers and more.

I loved playing with the water colour, its my new favorite and if you join us I am sure I can convert you.

This is the 1st single page layout we will be playing with.  We will be using texture paste in a few different ways to create an eye catching background.

We will also use chipboard and All-purpose inks to colour the chipboard. 

2nd Single page that we will be doing tomorrow. This layout is using the new Fabscraps Fairy range.  

Yes, yes ... I know ... fussy cutting...but the end result is amazing.  

This layout also goes to show that you can use the beautiful paper we have to create our own embellishments.

Time flies....

Good morning all, on this freezing morning in Benoni.  -4 ouch, we are so not used to this weather I cant wait for Summer to shows it head.

I decided to post a few layouts that I have done this year to warm us all up and to get those creative minds going, hoping that this will warm us all up.

Beach layout using My Minds Eye paper created for a class at Trodat SA

Using the same layout above, I created another layout using Bobunny Happy Tails Collection and Celebr8 Chipboard

Single page layout created using a sketch of my beautiful daughter Tyler.  This page is jam packed with Prima flowers

My absolute favorite designer Teresa Collins.  I just love her papers, this layout was created for a good friends wedding photos, which were added later.