How to Create a Decorative Edge Card in Silhouette Studio

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Do you like making personalized cards to send to your family and friends? I do! And when you own a Silhouette, there’s virtually no end to the creative possibilities. One example is this beautiful decorative edge card that I created in Silhouette Studio. It’s perfect for birthdays, Mother’s Day, thank-you cards, get-well wishes, or just to say “hello”. Want to create one yourself? Let me show you how!

 

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Before We Get Started

This project provides a lot of versatility, especially when it comes to choosing a design. The floral image I used came from a piece of scrapbook paper and was cut with the help of the PixScan mat. You could also use clip art, a Print & Cut design from the Silhouette Design Store, or a scanned image.

When using an embellishment cut via the PixScan mat, the size of the card will be determined by the size of the embellishment (it can’t be reduced or enlarged). If you’re using another type of digital image, the card can be created as a Print & Cut and the size can be increased/decreased relative to the size of the digital image.

What You’ll Need

• Patterned Scrapbook Paper & Coordinating Cardstock
  
• PixScan Mat
• Silhouette Studio
• Adhesive
  
• Silhouette Cameo, Portrait, or Curio

Creating the Embellishment

Note: This tutorial assumes that you are somewhat familiar with the PixScan mat and have already calibrated the software for use with your particular camera. For more information, visit the Silhouette America website or click here.

Project created using the Cameo 3. All screenshots from Silhouette Studio, Version 4.1

Step 1: Capture the image

Place the scrapbook paper on the PixScan mat. Be sure that the mat’s printed borders and registration marks remain completely visible.

Place the PixScan mat on a level surface and take a photo using your smartphone or a digital camera. It doesn’t matter if the image is slightly skewed, but the entire mat should be included in the photo. Send the photo to your computer via email, text, or cloud-sharing service and save the file.

Step 2: Import the image to Silhouette Studio

First, click on the PixScan icon (2^nd from the top) in the toolbar on the right of your screen. When the PixScan panel opens, click on the camera icon then click on “Import PixScan Image from File”.

Navigate to where you have saved the image on your computer and double-click on the image filename. In the panel you will see a message that says “Loading Image” for a few moments until the image is imported.

Step 3: Add Cut Lines

Open the Trace panel and trace the image just as you would any other graphic. Be sure to check the generated cut line(s) to see if there are any stray points that need to be deleted.

Step 4: Cut

Load the PixScan mat into your Silhouette and send the file to be cut. The machine will read the registration marks in the same way as a Print & Cut file. The “Patterned Paper, Medium” setting worked perfectly for this paper, but you may need to perform a Test Cut (using a scrap of the same paper and the standard mat) before cutting the image on the PixScan mat.

Step 5: Save the File

In most cases there is no need to save a PixScan design, but since you’ll need the traced cut lines to create the card base in the next step, it’s a good idea to save the file until your card design is completed.

Creating the Card Base

Step 1: Create a new page

Page Size: 8.5 in x 11 in
Portrait Orientation

Copy the cut file created from the trace and paste it into the new document.

 

Step 2: Create an offset

I want there to be a slight margin between the embellishment and the edge of my card, so I created an offset of the original cut file. With the cut file selected, open the Offset panel and create a 0.05 in offset with rounded corners.

Delete the original cut file or move it into the grey holding area. Check to see if there are any unwanted artifacts in the offset that need to be deleted. If so, select the offset and release the compound path, then delete the unwanted portions.

Step 3: Determine the card dimensions

Here’s where we have to do a little math. The offset created in Step 2 measures approximately 2.8 in x 3.7 in so I decided to make a top-fold 3.5 in x 5 in note card with a 1 in decorative edge across the bottom.

The offset will be welded to a rectangle in order to create the card front.  In order to make sure the finished card is 3.5 in x 5 in, the welded rectangle must be 1 in shorter than the desired finished size, or 2.5 in x 5 in, to accommodate the decorative edge.

Finished Card:
3.5 in x 5 in

Decorative Edge:
1 in

Size of Rectangle Used to Create Card Front:
3.5 in – 1 in = 2.5 in x 5 in

Step 4: Create the card front

To create the card front, first draw the 2.5 in x 5 in rectangle, then draw another rectangle that is the same size as the finished card front (3.5 in x 5 in).

Align the two rectangles at the top and center. In the examples shown, the rectangles are filled with color so you can visualize them better.

Position the offset so that it overlaps the bottom edge of the 2.5 in x 5 in rectangle, and is as close as possible to the bottom of the 3.5 in x 5 in rectangle without extending beyond the border. (Note: Be sure that the offset is positioned according to how you want your embellishment to appear!)

Once you have the offset positioned, move the 3.5 in rectangle off to the side. This will be used as the card back in the next step.

Select both the 2.5 in rectangle and the offset and weld them together.

Three ways to weld:
1. Object>Modify>Weld
2. Right click and choose “Weld”
3. Click on the Weld icon in the Quick Access Toolbar

Step 5: Align the card front and back

Position the two sections so that the bottom of the 3.5 in rectangle (the card back) slightly overlaps the top of the card front.

Step 6: Add score lines

Draw a line that is slightly shorter than the width of the finished card (I drew mine 4.8 in). Change the Line Style to a dashed line. In order to see the lines better, change the Line Weight to 1.0 pt and the Line Color to blue. Position the dashed line in the space where the card front and the card back overlap.

Select all three parts (card front, card back, and score lines) and center-align.

Step 7: Complete the card base

Select the card front and the card back (do not select the score lines!) and weld. Select the welded design and the score lines and group them together. Load a piece of cardstock onto a standard Silhouette mat and send the file to be cut.

Finishing

To finish, adhere the embellishment to the card base and fold along the score lines. Your beautiful card is now complete!

Have you created any cards with your Silhouette? If not, I hope this tutorial will encourage you to give it a try! If you have any questions or would like to share ideas, leave a comment below or come join the Silhouette Crafters by Design Facebook group. I always love seeing what others create!

Until next time,

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