How can I put 1 shape inside another in SCAL?

[evamar]

Hi, I still don't know a big deal about design and don't know how to do this, hopefully somebody can help me.

I would like to make gift tags with a chocolate heart inside. The idea is to put a chocolate heart in the tag, and a heart is cut in the cover to allow to get the chocolate. I have found a heart that would fit my chocolate hearts, and also have the tag size. Tag 4", folded in the middle, and the cover has a heart cut out to allow for the chocolate heart to be put on the tag.

Problem is that I cannot fix them together and for some reason the heart is cut closer to the start of the page and the tag is cut well below. They look perfectly fine in scal, but when I cut them it simply doesn't work. I guess they need to be merged or something?

Can anybody help, please? I'm attaching a pic and the scal2 file, I'm sure I got you all lost trying to explain myself...

Oh, I use SCAL2.

Many thanks,
Eva

[Sweetness4713]

Bring your heart and your tag closer down on your page.. on your virtual mat... online... just below the dotted lines... Where you place your images on your virtual mat will not be in the exact spot when it cuts.. it's a little bit off... just sit your heart on the tag where you want it to be in SCAL2 when you cut and it will cut the heart out.. Not need to union or anything...

[evamar]

Hi!

Nope, lost in translation I did try that, but problem is that the heart is cut too close to the border of the tag, although in the design preview it's where I want it to be.

I basically need the heart to be almost centered in the first half of the tag (I want some space at the bottom of the tag to write our initials).

I have seen several designs where a figure is cut inside another one, and they are merged so they move together. Maybe that's the problem? Once I put the heart in the tag, I cannot select and group both things as they're in different layers. I would like to fix the position, so when cut, the heart is properly inside the tag.

I thought that the grids match the real ones so that what you put in the virtual matt would match what you get when you cut in the real one... it's too difficult to guess where it's going to cut

My idea is to repeat the tag with the heart and fill in an A4 sheet, so I can get 12 tags per A4 sheet. I have tried using a guillotine and it's a total mess, cannot get the sizes right, so I would like to get everything done in the cricut.

How can I group them... or whatever is called... I don¡'t even know the cricut lingo!

Cheers,
Eva

[Sweetness4713]

To group the heart and the tag just highlight the heart and the tag then go edit/group...

[Sweetness4713]

You can use the exclusion option which is hollow out the tag to have the shape of the heart exactly where you placed it.. just go to path/exclude... First select both parts..

[evamar]

But that is the problem, I cannot select both things, I can only highlight the tag. I was trying to group them before, but I can't once I put the heart inside the tag.

Sorry, where is that Path/exclude thing? Is that in scal2?

Thanks!

[Shelley]

you just drag (way away from your shapes) - a box appears around all your shapes... and then group them --> go to object, then group...

[Shelley]

and make sure that before you cut, it's below the dotted line... where you have it now (from your picture) you will lose part of it if you cut it like that...

[Sweetness4713]

It won't show both parts highlighted .. The highlight will only show on the outside image but trust me.. they are both highlighted.. Try like I suggested and then hit path exclude.. You'll see ...

[evamar]

Hi there, many thanks for your help, I thought that I couldn't select both things... silly me!

Just one more question... is there a way for the cricut to cut only once where the tags meet? The blade still passes twice even though in the virtual mat I can see only one line.

I have been trying the best place to put the images in scal and the page on the mat, and in case of anybody interested in making chocolate heart gift tags, I'm attaching the file. (I know, I know... there is no hole... too difficult for me to calculate the exact place for it in the folding. Will have to punch it... sorry!)

Just to let you know that it's been calculated for an A4 size sheet, which is the standard size in Europe and I guess you can easily get in the USA as well. This way you can get a total of 12 tags per sheet. I really don't know why it works, because in the virtual mat they are all outside the margins, but at least in my cricut they cut okay if I place the sheet as explained below.

I placed the sheet about two milimetres from the bottom green corner and from the 30cm mark at the top as the A4 is slightly under 30cm tall. Also, I put it exactly on the border at the left where the actual counting starts.

I'm using 5 grames choc hearts made by Christian Storz, called finest milk chocolate hearts. People in the UK will know them as they are very used for small favours.

Many thanks for your help. Hopefully I'll be able to getting serious with my cricut, at the moment I'm mainly using other people's designs...

Kind regards,
Eva