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Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Video Tutorial: How to use Weld & Offset to make interesting cards with Silhouette Studio


You may know that a shaped card is made by welding the offsets of an image together but have you ever used the same technique to design the front of the shaped card?


By welding the offset of an image to a basic shape like a square or a rectangle, you can create all kinds of interesting shaped cards. For today's card, I welded rounded rectangles to the offsets and ended up with several new layers that I could then fill with a patterned digital paper.


Once I finished designing the card front and the card base, I print-and-cut the latter. In order to make the card more interesting, I cut the main image out from different colored cardstock and layered them together with glue and foam tape.


To finish the card, I added a sentiment by typing it with the Text Tool and I also rubber-stamped the tree trunk with a woodgrain pattern.


The following video will show you how I designed the front and the base to make today's card. I am still using Silhouette Studio (Designer Edition) version 2.8.16d because I do not like the latest version 3.0.343. No matter what version of Silhouette Studio you are using, you will be able to use today's tutorial to make an interesting card front and shaped card base with your software.

In the video, you may notice that I did not show how I added the sentiment. I deliberately skipped this step because many folks like to rubber-stamp their greetings onto the cards. If you prefer to print the sentiment, just type it in by using the Text Tool and Color Fill the words with black or any color of your choice. Be sure to turn off the cutting lines (Set Cut Style to "No Cut") so that your Silhouette cutter do not attempt to cut the words out during the print-and-cut process.

screen capture from my video tutorial.

I also kept the red outlines on the card so that the different layers remain well-defined. The Line Thickness of each of the red outlines is 0.00pt so they will not be printed and thus not show up on the printed page. If you follow my tutorial to make today's card, please make sure that the red outlines are either set to No Color (i.e. Transparent) or that the Line Thickness is set to 0.00 so that they do not show up when you print the card.

I wanted to keep the video short so I may have gone a little fast while recording. If you miss a step, just hit the Pause or Replay button. If you have any questions, just drop me a line here or you can find me on my Facebook Page.

For those of you who follow this blog via email, you can find the video at the following link:
http://youtu.be/K0tRvZCmzuo




Files used:
Over-Koala-fied Cut It set {This set is included in the Great Gift Giving bundle that is currently on sale. Use the code MayFlowers to get the 40-set bundle for only $31.50 (reg. $170!)}

Over Koala-fied Paper Pack
LD Blankie font
TXT Longhand font


21 comments :

  1. Jin, I love your tutorials and your card is adorable! I am (or was) a subscriber via email but am no longer receiving your posts via email. After doing a little research, I have learned that folks with email providers that use DMARC authentication like Yahoo are no longer getting emails... something about how your email address is set up looks like spam to the email providers... like, if you have your email address as Yahoo but your posts are emailed via Feedblitz then the email providers are kicking them out and the posts don't even go to Spam... they are just rejected. IT took me a week to realize I was no longer getting your posts and I fear I am missing other bloggers but now need to try to remember everything I was subscribed to and add them to my Bloglovin feed. :-( Just wanted to mention it to you in the event you didn't know. Thanks for all the tutorials and freebie reminders!!!

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    1. Aw man, I had no idea! Thanks for letting me know. I'll go research and see what others are doing about this. In the meantime, please add my blog to your Bloglovin feed so that you don't miss any of my posts.

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  2. Same here. I don't receive anymore e-mail updates from you, Jin.

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    1. :( I am so sorry! I had no idea that some folks were not receiving my emails! I'm going to do some research and see if other bloggers are having the same problem and what they are doing about it. Thanks for letting me know.

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  3. can this stuff get any cuter! i love it.. love it love it!... i love your tutorials and i am so glad to still be learning from them :)

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    1. Thanks, Jenny! I hope that you found today's video useful. :)

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  4. You are a genius, and I love watching your work! However, I have not mastered my skills with offset, filling in with paper, welding, etc. The video was way too fast for me! If you ever feel motivated, a screen by screen view is very helpful for us slow learners!

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    1. Hello! :-) I'm sorry that the tutorial was too fast. If you enlarge the video to full screen, it may be easier to see what I was doing. Basically I was just making offsets and welding them to rounded rectangles. Nothing complicated but yet very effective in making interesting layers. Thanks for posting. I'll remember your comment and will try to slow down the next time. :-)

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  5. jin The video is too quick i don't understand what you are doing!! Why didn't you tell us in voice what you are doing..it would make more sense then.. Sorry to be difficult its just that i am an older lady and it takes time to see what you are trying to accomplish!

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    1. Hi Mary! :-) I'm sorry that the video was too fast. Perhaps it may help if you enlarge the screen? By viewing it in Full Screen, you will be able to see exactly what I was doing. Basically I was just making offsets and welding them to rounded rectangles. It's really basic stuff that I am sure you are already an expert of. ;-) Anyway, thanks for letting me know. I will remember your note and will try to slow down next time.

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  6. Hi Jin
    Thanks for great tutorial video.
    Question please, are you using the 3.something version of Silhouette or are
    you still using the 2.something? I have not updated my software yet, I'm not
    sure this ole dog can learn new designing screens:)
    What do you think of the new software?
    Thanks
    Julie

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    1. Hi J! I am still using version 2.8.16d because I do not like the latest version 3.0.343. The Silhouette folks have done a lot of work to the software and fixed many of the bugs in the original version 3 but I still find that ver2 is a lot easier to use. If the next upgrade allows the user to drag-and-drop patterns, I may consider updating my software then.

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  7. All I can say is "WOW"! Loved what you did! The video was a bit fast but I got enough of it to try on my own as I do understand the basics of offset and weld. So glad you are still using v2. I will upgrade when you do.

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  8. Hi, Jin! Thanks for the video but I'm having trouble welding the first rectangle to the first offset. I'm also using version 2. I tried to weld many times but it just didn't work out for me. What am I doing wrong? Please help.

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    1. You may have selected the wrong offset to weld with the rectangle. Here's a trick that I use often to check if I had clicked on the correct shape -->> I copy, and delete the shape. :-) By deleting it, I can see if the shape that disappears is the one that I thought I had selected. If it is the correct shape, I will un-do the action. If the shape that disappears is the wrong shape, I will be able to select the correct shape now and weld it to the rectangle. Once the welding is done, I would do a Paste-in-Front to bring back the shape that I had deleted. Does that make sense?

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  9. Darn it I did the upgrade. I too use to follow you but hadn't gotten any emails for some time now. Just added you to my favorites so your easy to find:)

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  10. I love your tuts, but am I missing something or are you using the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition more than Make the Cut. Did I miss your explanation why?

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    1. I use SSDE (version 2) for print-and-cut and MTC for just about everything else. Even though I can print-and-cut through MTC, I prefer using SSDE (prior to version 3) for that purpose. On the other hand, MTC is superior in tracing and so I use MTC for that. The reason why you see more Silhouette tutorials on my blog is that more folks have asked for Silhouette tutorials than MTC. I haven't received many requests for MTC tutorials but whenever someone has a question about the program, I will try to help. :)

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  11. Hello! Welcome to my blog! I post tutorials that are full of photos and details as well as project suggestions. The latter usually comes with just a few photos. If you check out the TUTORIALS section of this blog, you will find my written and video tutorials. Hope that helps!

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