THE COOLEST THING EVER!!!

[AustinGM]

Thanks to pennsylvaniakate for her hard work in figuring out how to cut a printed graphic with SCAL and Cricut. I tried her method but was having a problem with getting the size just perfect until I realized that the problem is with Inkscape, not really a problem but something that occurs when you are using the trace bitmap command. Anyway, I have tested this and it works like a charm. With this technique, I was able to make my own type "Jolees" dimensional stickers and they turned out amazing.

1. Open up your printed .jpg or .png in a program like Photoshop
2. Turn the graphic black and save. Make sure you note the size of the graphic IE Height and Width You can resize it if you want to, Just make sure you save a copy of the new resized image as well as the blacked out image.
3. Open Inkscape and import the black graphic
4. Change the size to the noted dimensions in the Inkscape H&W box
5. Trace bitmap and then delete the bottom layer
6. Accept the new size that the graphic has become (THIS is where I had the problem because if you notice the size becomes smaller than the orginal was after tracing the bitmap. If you tried to change the parameters again to the orignal size it would not match up.
7. Save the file
8. Open the file in SCAL
9. Input new size from the Inkscape parameters in SCAL H&W
10. Cut the file with Cricut
11. Print your graphic (orginal one) in color
12. When SCAL finishes cutting the file, make sure you press LOAD to return the carriage to the original starting position Do not press UNLOAD
13. Remove the cut piece from the mat being careful not to disturb the paper, this will leave a hole where the printed graphic will be inserted.
14. Place your printed color graphic in the place that you removed the SCAL cut. Remove the paper and leave the printed graphc to be cut.
15. Cut with scal and ta daaaaaaaaaaaaaa. A perfectly cut out color graphic!!!

The cool thing is you can find so many beautiful graphics online for free. One site is http://digifree.blogspot.com/ They have tons of free elements and papers to be used in our scrapbooking projects. I cut out frames from their site and they are stunning and cleanly cut. I am going to try to do this today and attempt a perfect paper piecing. Wish me luck.

[talanhart]

Can you post a picture of what you have done?

[AustinGM]

Ok, here it is. I made this bird from a graphic I found at http://scrapandtubes.blogspot.com/2009/ ... sonal.html This was a free kit from the digi free site I posted about. I decided to cut the bird and this is how it came out. It is almost perfect, the cuts are within a fraction of an inch as you can see by the scan I am posting. I don't have a camera so I scanned all the elements.
You will see the background paper, the original cut and then the replacement paper and then finally the actual bird. I embellished it with rhinestones and glitter for the final but I didn't want to put that on my scanner to post here for fear of scratching the scanner table. I am soooooooooooo excited to be able to do this. I am making my own "Jolees" dimensional stickers from now on. Hopefully this will upload.

[papasue]

Really nice job at explaining the process and the pictures work well too.

I'm gonna have to try this as I do a lot of design in Ink/PSE and I don't "cut" teeny pieces. This should solve my issue.

One question tho. Why did you not print it from Inkscape instead of the original from PSE or something?

I'll let you know if I'm successful!

TKS

[AustinGM]

I printed the image from Microsoft Publisher. I guess it doesn't matter where you print it from but I just usually do it from there. If you want to print it from Photoshop, you could do that also and even change the colors of the graphic if you need something to match a layout. I am glad you understood my tutorial. I tried to be as clear as possible but sometimes it's hard to explain, you either give too much info or not enough. I am busy today making some really cute things. This has opened a whole new world as far as embellishments are concerned. I love the SCAL software and now with this technique, it's even more versitile IMO. I hate to spend the money for the pre-made jolees and others, they are so expensive. I made a beautiful glittered flower using this technique and did layers and it's lovely. I also did a really cute baby carriage with the paper piecing.

[sandyj]

I printed out a cat sitting on the moon graphic on Contact paper (it works with my color laser printer, don't ask me why) and followed your directions. I peeled it off and put it on my store door.

http://www.bandofcats.com/wp-content/up ... art_02.gif

Darned if it didn't cut out almost perfectly. The 'almost' part was me, since I was unable to line up the image and the cut out hole. I lifted the edge of the paper with the cutout and tried slipping the contact paper under it and line up, but it kept sticking down. I'm not sure how you did #14 - can you go into more detail?

Could have used this a few months ago when I was cutting out shaped coupons for my store - nearly lost my mind trying to line this stuff up!

[AustinGM]

Congrats!!!! Isn't this great? I am going nuts making little graphics and having so much fun. The room is full of glitter and rhinestones, having too much fun LOL.

I have a mat that is on it's last legs, it sticks, but not very well so I am able to pretty much lift up the paper off the mat where I need to, and slip my printed color graphic under the hole and when it's in the correct place and lined up perfectly, then I can remove the paper. It takes a little care to make sure the paper on the mat does not move but I make sure that when placing my graphic on the SCAL that it is toward the center of the mat and not at the very top of the Cricut machine. If you place it too far up on SCAL it's a bear to get something under it. I hope this helps. If not maybe I can explain further.

[sandyj]

lol! That's almost exactly what I did - moved the graphic so it cut a few inches from the edge so I would be able to play with it, and used a mat that barely sticks! Guess I just need a little practice - the cat picture cut out pretty closely for a first try.

This is one of those things that makes you smack yourself in the forehead and say 'DUH! Of COURSE that's how you would do it!'

[AustinGM]

I hear ya, a "duh" moment.

I can't take credit for this however, it was one of the members of this forum pennsylvaniakate's post that got me started on this. I was having major problems with the sizing issue and she told me that you just kind of have to wing it. I thought well, maybe I could get it right, there had to be some formula that would make it easy to do and then after tons of wasted paper, it worked! The key is in the second Inksape size, this is the one you have to use to match up with the printed image.

I have done so many cuts today and every one was perfect. I am now wondering if I could elimanate some steps to get this done quicker, but so far, I don't see how. Maybe someone smarter than me will come up with something.

[firstcut]

Austin,
With all the different pieces of different techniques we may finally get to something usable and this seems like a nice piece of the puzzle so thanks for your contribution!
I can't use your technique (or most any of the best ones) because of a bug in the Mac software that prevents successive cuts without unloading, but when I do something similar in CDS where I use a test cut to line things up, I use a hinge technique. I make the test cut on a relatively small piece of card stock and tape it down firmly along one edge to make a hinge, either before or after the initial cut is made. Then instead of having to worry about not moving it or having a too sticky mat, I can just lift it up as much as I need to and count on the tape hinge to keep it in it's position on the mat. When the printed image is lined up correctly beneath the opening and stuck down to the mat, the test cut and tape can be removed. If you carefully plan the size and position of the test cut and hinge, you can reuse it by rotating it out of way about the hinge when you cut the printed piece. Then rotate it back into position to line up the next printout and so on without having to make a new test cut each time.
Kay