the monday cafe: print & cut . . . gotta love it

Before I get into our weekly feature, I just have to give you all a big round of applause! Not only did you meet the goal . . . the next day after the challenge, but you exceeded all expectations! What a phenomenal site! Hmm . . . I wonder what I'd be a givin' away if we hit 1000 Followers? I believe I need to think on that one. You never know what I'll pull out of my hat. ;)

So the winner of the $50 download card is:

Sandra said...

Love my silhouette!!!! Hope for great ideas on your blog - and hope to win the prize ;-)
Greetings from Germany,
Sandra

November 6, 2009 7:26 AM

Yeah! Someone from another country! Exciting! Congratulations Sandra! Just e-mail support@silhouetteamerica.com with your e-mail address and we can get that $50 added to your download account.

Thank you all so much for your support in spreading the word. Just by reading the comments, I can tell there are so many Silhouette enthusiasts out there! It's awesome!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program . . .

[FYI, this is an article that was shared on the QK blog a few months ago and I'm bringing it over here for our little library.]

So how many of you have heard about Silhouette's Print & Cut feature? I’m not exactly sure when this little baby was introduced to the world. What I do know is I went for two years without knowing about it and when I heard about it I was completely ECSTATIC! Really, truly. I was literally floored when I heard what Silhouette could do. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. Of course, that just got me all kinds of excited at the possibilities of making a never-ending embellishment. Seriously. How many times do you hold onto that one accent because you need to save it for just the right thing . . . and if you use it now, you may not have it later for an even better page.

Well, with Print & Cut it’s never-ending, it’s whatever size. How stinkin’ cool is that?!?!

Let me just give you a brief explanation in very basic terms. Take a look at Nichol Magouirk’s use of this monogram letter and word tab on her absolutely amazing page. LOVE it!

When you add the Print & Cut image into your Robo Master document, it will display—in color—with a red cutting line around it. You’ll simply add registration marks to your document, print the document, place it onto the cutting mat, and Silhouette will read the registration marks and know where it needs to be cut.

Again, excitement and overjoy! After working a couple years creating scrapbook products and sending them off to get produced—waiting for this big huge production cycle, you can imagine my absolute delight when I heard I could print and cut ‘twenty’ of my own images—and in a variety of sizes, if needed—in no time at all. I’m sorry, but really, I can hardly contain my enthusiasm! :)

So let’s take a closer, more in-depth look at how to do this.

Here I’ve brought that same “Happy” monogram into a new document. You'll notice how there's a red line around the image. That's the cut line.

To add registration marks, select Edit/Registration Mark Settings (or you can choose File/Document Settings and check Use Registration Marks).

Next, you’ll get this screen. Just click on the Use Registration Marks and you’ll see the little sample document on that screen change to include registration mark placement markers. Just leave the rest of the settings as is and click OK.

Once you click on OK, your document will now look like this:

Select File/Print and send your document to the printer. Here’s how it looks all printed and fancy (I sized it down first).

Note: For my printer I needed to change my document size to 8.26 x 11 because if it was set to the default of 8.26 x 12.5, my printer treated it like a legal size document and printed too close and off the end of the page. I should have gone into my printer controls and created/selected a page size that would accommodate that, but I was too lazy. ;)

You’ll notice on the end that it says “Feed this side first.” That’s the end you put into the Silhouette and then press Enter to load it. Or, if you’re using the original machine, roll your paper. At this point you can go ahead and cut your image like you normally would—making sure Search Registration Marks is checked on this screen:

A couple things to note at this step here. First, if you are using the SD machine, make sure your LCD display says Load w/Carrier and not Load Media. I was unaware of this the first time I used it (I'd accidentally changed it) and of course I had a hard time getting it to work right. If you need to change that setting, just press the right arrow key on the machine until you see that option.

Second, if, by chance, the optic eye is having a hard time finding the registration marks, try positioning the blade so that it is over a registration mark (the corner lines). If that doesn’t work, there may be other factors why it might not be reading it and you can find more information about that here.

Sometimes it may take a few tries and a little patience to make sure it’s all working right for you. But I guarantee, you will LOVE it when you use it!

Once it’s cut, it’ll look just like this:

I know. Oooooooh, ahhhhhhh.... I’m sayin’ it with ya. Normally the Print & Cut images don’t need any bleed—it gives you a precision cut. However, since designing these Print & Cut images was fairly new to me, I decided to throw in a bleed just in case. And as you can see, I didn’t need it!

Using Print & Cut is awesome for cutting a whole bunch of images at one time . . . either a multiple of designs to just have on hand or maybe you’re making 20 cards and want an accent. Or what about cutting several images to take to a crop for your friends? Can you imagine cutting out 30 of one of those monograms by hand for a bunch of cards? No way!

Here’s a few other tips:
* Printing on photo paper or presentation paper can produce better printed results. Presentation paper is like cardstock, only it gives a much richer color. I would use this often to print mock-ups back in the day (okay, it wasn’t that long ago).

* A photo printer will always give you a much richer color result.

* You can find another couple great links for using Print & Cut here and here.

Now, for a couple more samples. Here’s one I made using that gorgeous word tab created by Loni Stevens. Love her stuff! I also used Silhouette to cut my title.

I tried to add more to this page, but every time I did, it just didn’t work. I can tell simplicity is definitely me these days. ;)

Now, how ‘bout this other page by Nichol!

LOVE IT! I love how she added little embellishments to the monogram! Great idea! And the two word tabs? Perfect! And you’ll also have to take note of the other shapes she used, such as the restroom boy and girl (holding hands . . . awwww), the circle background—for which she added little stamps and accents in there. How cute is that? I’m so glad she creates pages and projects for us. :)

Let’s share this other card she did using one of the monograms.

Sooooo cute! You could easily make ten of these to have on hand or to give as a gift.

Thanks so much for making such great examples Nichol! Love ‘em!

One other note, Print & Cuts are indicated with a "P" in a square in the Online Store and there are tons of great images out there. There are also several Print & Cuts on the Portfolio CDs. You can see those here.

If you are new to Silhouette or have forgotten how to download an image, be sure to check out this link here.

Great stuff. Love Print & Cut.

And on another note, I do see the occasional question about how to use "this or that" feature or that you may be having an issue on how to do something. While I will take note of the questions so that they might be addressed at some time in the blog, I can't answer all the questions that may arise.

The best--and fastest--way to have your question answered is to check with our super-de-dooper customer support gurus. They definitely know more than I do . . . and they are quick!

You can contact customer support at support@silhouetteamerica.com. They really are amazing. Also, there are tons of great tutorials on how to use the program that you can find here.

Thanks again for all the support! Where would we be without our amazing Silhouette fans? (I shudder at the thought. lol)