Valentine Project - Print & Cut Iron-on

I tried using the Square 1 printable iron-on fabric for the first time a few days ago.  It was very easy to work with and there are all sorts of ways you could use this product for practical and decorative purposes.  Above you can see some of the images that I cut out with my Silhouette Cameo after printing the page in my regular inkjet printer.

I'll post the finished project tomorrow, but I wanted to show you how easy it is to bring any graphic that you own (I have hundreds of digital scrap kits!) into the Silhouette software and make a cutting file for it.

If you are bringing an image in from the Creative Memories StoryBook program (no longer available to purchase but if you own it you can still use it) or the Panstoria Artisan program (this is the program I now use), you will need to export the image into a file on your computer that you can access easily.  Right click and choose "Save selection" - "Export to image file" from the drop down menu.

There is an additional screen where you acknowledge the copyright and agree not to violate it.

If you already have some digital scrap supplies in a file you can just drag them in to the Silhouette Studio from an open folder or choose "open" from the file menu and browse to the image.  Be sure to change the drop down menu to "all files"

The images tend to come in at very large sizes but you can quickly adjust them to a better size using the scale tools.  Once you have added the image to the mat, you need to trace it to add cut lines.

Choose "Select Trace Area" from the top of  the trace menu and draw a blue box around the shape.  Then uncheck the "High Pass Filter" box and adjust the Threshold until there is a solid yellow line around the edges of the image.  Since you are going to do a print and cut, the interior details do not matter.

Just choose "Trace Outer Edge" and a cut line in the shape of the image will be created.  I have separated the shape and the cut line for this screen shot.  You will want to "group" them so the cut lines stay with the image as you set up the mat for cutting.

I repeated this process for each image I brought in to the program and filled the mat as neatly and as fully as I could (I didn't want to waste any of the material).

Use the "Cut Style" menu to set the file to cut on the edges of the printed images.  When you choose the cut setting, the screen will gray and the bold red lines will show exactly where the cuts will be made.  Sometimes I do an interior offset of the shape to create a slightly smaller proportioned cut shape.

Here is the fabric with the images and registration marks after I printed the file on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of the Iron-on Printable Fabric.

Here you can see all of the cut shapes on the mat after I cut the file with the Cameo.  I removed the excess material, but I have a tip for using the leftovers - stop by tomorrow to see.

The cut shapes were nearly perfectly aligned with the printed images.  Once these are ironed on to fabric any slight variation in the cutting line is not noticeable.

Are you wondering what I made with all of these?  Tomorrow I'll show you part two!

There have been several requests for more photos of our new cat so I have a few to share...

She likes the heated floor and the rug in our sunroom - especially in this cold weather...

Such a pretty little face...

She can be a bit grumpy if you try to get her to leave her special spot.

Look at this great new feeding dish we found for her at Tuesday Morning for only $5!

Thank you for all of the kind comments about my Dad yesterday.  He was a very special man.

Quite a few people have asked if I sell my files.  I was planning to set up a store just about the time Dad's health deteriorated and those plans were put aside with our crazy year.  I hope to have the store ready sometime in the next few weeks.  Thanks also for the lovely compliments on the Valentine card and the encouragement to move forward with these plans. I have something special planned for next month - if you have been reading my blog for a long time you might have an idea about what will be happening...

One final note - Happy Birthday Kelly!!!

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Princesses with Square1 Masterpiece

When my little neighbors turned four, I wanted to make them something special.  They are rather fascinated by princesses and frequently wear special dress-up clothes to play princesses.

This also includes dressing all of the princess dolls.  Belle and Ariel seem to be particular favorites but this can change from day to day.

I have been exploring the possibilities of the Square1 Masterpiece inkjet printable adhesive fabric and I realized that it would be perfect for my project.  This is a great alternative to vinyl and safer for children since it contains no PVC like regular vinyl.  The material is also much easier to work with as it has less of a tendency to cling to itself and get tangled.

I own some digital kits of Disney princess images and backgrounds that I bought several years ago when they were available from Creative Memories.  First I used one of the backgrounds and adapted it from a square shape to an 8 x 10 rectangle to fit the 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of printable fabric.  I added the names at the bottom of each sparkly oval.  I printed these from my digital scrapbooking program (I did not make this a Silhouette print and cut so I could use the area that would be taken up by the registration marks and make the backgrounds as large as possible).

If you look closely at this photo you can see the woven texture of the Square1 Masterpiece printable material.

I brought the images into my Silhouette Studio software and created print and cut files.  The size of the princess images was determined by the available space on the background sheet.  I was able to test the images with the software to see how they would look on the background before cutting.

I needed a set of princesses for each girl, so I added two more princess images to the fourth and fifth sheets of printable fabric, along with a photo of each of the girls.

I used one more sheet of fabric to allow me to print extra images of the girls and some smaller princesses as well.  All four of these sheets were done as print and cut files with my Cameo.

The repositionable fabric photos of the girls blend in with the background nicely.

The backgrounds were trimmed with a regular paper cutter to remove the unprinted edges.

The wall decorations adhere easily to the wall next to the two beds and can be moved to another wall if they rearrange the room.  The repositionable adhesive Square1 Masterpiece material allows the images to be placed on the walls over and over again.

When the girls want a change, they can take off their photos and add whichever princess is their favorite of the day.

I made each girl an identical set of princess images so they could both choose the same princess without having to share the image and take turns placing it on their wall sign.

The girls needed a place to keep their extra images when they aren't in use on the wall signs.  I created small albums from office supply store plastic report folders and used some glitter Square1 Masterpiece material to add their names and a few stars to the front of each book.  I'll show how I made the books in another post.  The glitter material is amazing and you'll be seeing more projects made with it soon.

The twins loved their wall photos and the little books with all of the spare images.  I haven't checked lately to see how they are holding up to four year old wear and tear - I'll let you know!

Square1 Masterpiece has so many possible uses.  I am sure you can think of lots of ways to make some special projects for gifts or everyday. 

The company is launching a new program for people who want to earn some money with their crafts called the Creative Consultant Program.  You can see all of the details and the contents of the kits that are offered at Square1 Masterpiece.  This is not a direct sales party plan but rather a way for you to purchase product at a discount of 15-30 % and create items to sell at local fairs and shows.  Cara Miller will be providing a training program to help the Creative Consultants "Learn and Earn" as they develop projects for sale using the Square1 Masterpiece  materials.

Please be sure to let me know if you have any questions about the products or the Creative Consultant Program and I will do my best to help.

We made a quick trip to New Jersey last weekend to visit my sister and brother-in-law.  They are planning to move to Virginia to be closer to their grandchildren so this may be the last trip to their house. This photo was taken at sunrise from a third floor window - they have a fantastic view of New York City!  My sister and I had another adventure on Saturday morning - have any guesses about where we went?

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This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase a product using the link I may receive a commission. I only participate in affiliate programs for products that I use or can recommend without reservation.