How to Use Contour & Slice To Create You Own Shaped Card Inserts

  

This bundle was a daily freebie from Creative Fabrica - Free 11/9 Only

If you downloaded this bundle while it was free, you will find it only came with the white parts as svg.  Those background colors?  They are not included.  [Not that I would evey pay $30 for this bundle, but if I did, I'd be REALLY annoyed...  but that's the great thing about these daily freebies, we find which designers create products that work best for our style of crafting. ]  For those of us who downloaded this, or similar designs, here's how to create your own solid backgrounds, in those shapes.  It's not that hard, I promise.  :-)

First you'll want to upload the svg.  then on the top right, click on that lock and make certain it is CLOSED.  You may need to click it twice to close it.  You want the size ratio locked before you resize.

For a roughly 5x7 card, you want to resize this to 10 inches wide.

I found this particular design to be a difficult cut at 5x7, I definitely would not go smaller. [It may be time I change my blade. ] The deer and tree designs cut much better for me.  

Once resized, duplicate the design. Then on the second copy, choose "cotour"

On the bottom right, choose "hide all contours"

That will give you a solid version of the card shape. You could just use this, but it adds a lot of unnecessary bulk.  You really only want half of this piece.  So create a score line, 5 inches tall.  Select the score line, and the solid card, and align center.

That shows you the center of the card.

Next create a square or rectangle shape, to slice.  

Line your shape up just to the right of your score line, select  the two shapes - JUST the two shapes, not the score line - and slice.

Now you have the original svg, and a solid shape to glue to the inside, to show through.

I added a score line to the original svg, used align to center it, and attached it.

Then I layered my new shape on top, clicked on the lock to UNLOCK the size ratio, and sized it just marginally smaller than the original card, so my insert is just a hair smaller.

I did this for each of the designs I wanted to cut - but this particular santa face design, and the poinsettia, have not cut well for me.  I can make them work, play with settings, maybe change my blade, be certain to not used a textured paper...  but I don't love them enough to fuss too much.  

The deer designs cut much better, not nearly as many tiny details.