Hello Janet here again with ideas for quick, custom, batch-made cards designed in the Silhouette Studio® software.
One of the fastest methods, for making a batch of cards, is to print from the Silhouette software onto pre-made card blanks. I took some baubles by my daughter and quickly turned them into a set of Christmas cards. The watercoloured baubles were refined in the Silhouette software and sentiments from the Silhouette Design Store were added. Then several copies of each were printed out. Here is a short tutorial to show you how to make them for yourself. This method uses the images without saving them as patterns in the library. To see how to import your own patterns see my tutorial on Using Custom Patterns as Backgrounds and Fills.
What You'll Need
Card Blanks with matching Envelopes
Watercolour Images
Colour Printer (that will print on card)
Matt Silver Metallic Card
Adhesive
Black Pen
STEP 1: Create and Import Images
Scan or photograph your images (easier if the images are captured separately). Open all the files in one tab in the Silhouette software by copying or merging the files.
These bauble images were hand-painted by my daughter with watercolour paints. A similar look could be achieved using other media such as blended inks, watercolour pencils or watered down acrylics.
STEP 2: Remove the Background
Using the shape drawing tool, draw a circle around one of the images whilst holding down the shift key on the keyboard. Adjust the size of the circle until most of the bauble fits within the circle (a little white showing around the edges in places helps retain a handmade appearance). Copy the circle to use again.
Open the Modify Panel. Select both the circle and the image and click on Intersect.
Paste the circle twice and repeat the Intersect function on the other images.
STEP 3: Add Sentiments
Open the sentiment files in the same tab, or type your own using the Text tool. I used a selection of phrases from the Silhouette Design Store by Skyla design. Fill the words with the colour of your choice and change the line colour to clear. Position and resize the phrases.
(Optional) If you plan to overlap the baubles on a card, you can make the baubles more transparent by adjusting the transparency slider in the Fill panel.
STEP 4: Design Cap and Hanging Loop
It is easy to design a cap in the software. Draw a rectangle, select it and then click on 'Edit Points'. Click and drag the upper points towards the centre of the rectangle to make a trapizoid shape (guess who swallowed the geometry book today).
Draw an oval, and then make an internal offset, select both and make into a compound path (right mouse click, select Make Compound Path).
Overlap the loop onto the cap and weld the two together (right mouse click, select Weld).
Resize it to fit one bauble and then duplicate it by the number of cards and cut from metallic card.
Measure a card blank and make the page size the same as the open blank.
Draw a rectangle/square equal to the size of the card front and place it where the font should print. Locate and resize the bauble leaving room to draw a hanging thread (alternatively, draw a line for the thread at this point).
STEP 6: Print Cards
You made need to reorientate the page size and card front if your card size exceeds the size capability of your printer.
Change the Print Page Set (File > Print Page Setup) to match the size of your open card. This will probably require that you make a custom setting.
Hint: Print just one card to start with and fine tune the placement of the bauble if necessary.
Once that is correct you are ready to print multiple copies. Change out the baubles and phrases to print some variations and you'll have a stack of cards in no time.
All that remains is to draw on the strings and to write your custom-made cards.
Bye for now,
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