Stitched Flowers Vintage Tags (SVG)

Hello Friends--

What an exciting day! Not only do you get to see the start of the March Release, but there is an SVG (electronic cut file) to go with it. I am not much of a fussy cutter, so an SVG file is very helpful. This tool is used to cut some of the colorable images in our stamp sets. There are directions below for everyone who has never cut an SVG file.

My card sample uses JustRite Papercraft Clear Stamps CR-02018 Stitched Flowers Vintage Tags and the SVG-02018 Stitched Flowers Vintage Tags SVG cut file. This simple card is for my sweet niece's birthday. Hopefully she is not reading my blog today. Everything about this card is pretty basic. The SVG portion may be new to you. I'd like to walk you through it step by step with a few screen shots.

The Stitched Flower Vintage Tag Clear Stamps are regular physical stamps. You do not have to use the SVG files if you choose not to. Later I will show you a project I made without using the SVG files.

Recently my Silhouette® Cameo arrived! I was so eager to start playing with this new toy that I opened it up and plugged it in the very first day. The Silhouette can cut paper, card stock, vinyl, plastic, fabric...the list goes on and on. We visited their booth at CHA and got to make an apron with flocked heat transfer material.

Open SVG Stitched Flowers Vintage Tags file. It comes in two cut sizes. The "exact" cut file is what I used for my sample. It cuts a shape that is the exact size of the stamp. The "offset" file is set to be .07" bigger than the stamped image. This makes a nice mat layer or allows you to stamp and have a thin border around your stamped image.

When you purchase the JustRite SVG files you will be given a link to download your files. You can download the images up to three times. The link is good for one year before it expires. 

TO FOLLOW THE JUSTRITE BLOG HOP:

JustRite Inspiration
Debbie Olson
Margie Higuchi
Heidi Blankenship
Kathy Jones
Marisa Job
Darsie Bruno 
Michele Kovack
Amy Tedder (You are Here)
Kazan Clark
Eva Dobilas
Angela Barkhouse
Kristi Schurr
Sheri Holt

If you are unfamiliar with using an SVG cut file -- please keep reading.

TO START:

Open the Silhouette Studio Software on your computer. I am using the Mac version. There may be some differences, but overall it should look similar.

It will generate a visual of the cutting mat. You select the paper size and orientation. I am using an 8.5"x11" piece of card stock for this demonstration.

"Open" or "place" the SVG cut file in Studio. Both options are found under the "File" menu at the top of the screen. Once the image is open it will appear like the image below. All red lines are cut lines. 

You need to select the image if you decide to make any changes. Keep in mind that the images are only outside lines. To select the image use your mouse to click on the image. There is no fill, so only click on the red lines. A black bounding box will appear once it is selected. It shows the dimensions of image. There is also a green handle at the top. The green handle allows you to rotate the entire grouped image. 

Most of the time I do not stamp the entire set for a specific project. If you are like me you may want to be able to ungroup the set. There are a number of ways to do this. The easiest way that I found was to select the set and use the "ungroup" control at the bottom left of the screen. (It is circled in red in the image below.)

Once the set is ungrouped you may either delete or move the images off to the side. Keep in mind that you may decide to use the other images for a different project. You may "save" your altered file to your "Library". That way you can go back and quickly duplicate a project in the future.

Below I only needed 3 images from the set. I positioned them onto my paper. Be careful to not distort the images. If you accidentally do, use the "undo" option under "Edit" on the top menu. (It is nice that so many of my favorite program options are in this software too. It feels so much like my other programs. I like that familiar feeling while navigation in the software.)

I also suggest cutting multiples of each image until you are confident in your stamping. 

Once you have the file set up to your needs you are ready to "cut". You can quickly tell it to cut by using the icon on the upper left side of the screen. It is under the top bar menu. It is circled in red in the image below. Using that icon will pull up the full menu on the far right side.

You will need to select the paper type you are cutting. There are so many options. This will take some time to find what works best for your paper. After cutting some images I moved my setting to "patterned paper" instead of using the "card stock" option. My card stock is not as thick as craft card stock. So, if you are having trouble try changing the paper setting. "Speed" is another thing to change if your paper rips while cutting. That gives the blade a bit more time to rotate while cutting. Somewhere between 3 & 5 is good for typical card stock.

You also need to set your blade to the recommended setting. Each paper setting has a specific blade setting. If you need to adjust the blade unscrew the clamp. Pull the blade housing out. Use the small circular tool provided with your blade or the circular opening on the far left of the Silhouette Cameo machine near the blade housing clamp. Please be so careful to not touch the blade. It is very sharp! Return the blade once it is clicked into the correct setting.

Load the cutting mat with your paper. The arrow on the mat should point into the Cameo. Align the mat on the far left side at the 1" line. See it marked below.

Make sure that "Load Cutting Mat" is selected then press "ENTER". It will pull the mat in just under the white rollers.

NOW--You are ready to cut! It seems like a lot, but once you have cut a file or two you will be able to navigate the program quickly. Once it is all set press the "Cut" button on the bottom of that Cut Setting menu. It is about two thirds of the way down on that far right menu.

Hope this helps with learning to cut using SVG files. I think that you will enjoy using the SVG files as much as I have.

Happy Stamping!

Amy