Do you have a Silhouette or other form of digital die cutting? Do you like to use digital cut files on your projects? I have some tips and tricks for you today to change things up a bit!

Many of you have seen this layout, created using the Marakkesh May kit. I used my Silhouette with the May exclusive cut files to create the mask for the texture or molding paste that is applied to the layout and to cut the filigree archway that is characteristic of Marakkesh. Digital cut files are great as they are but you can bring so much more life to them with a small tweak here and there.

You can see what I did to create the archway from the screen shot of Silhouette Studio. I enlarged the file rather big thus providing with with just the cut that I wanted. I then centered the cut lines on the paper size I wanted and hit cut! Easy. No file manipulation that is difficulty, just enlargement. You can do that!!

This next trick is super easy too! I used the shape on the left to create a mask for applying texture paste to my layout. I just wanted the little “innards” of the shape. In order to get that I put various size shapes on the mat and clicked on “release compound path”. This enabled me to delete the outer cut layers leaving the little floraly innards. I selected all “bits” and clicked on “Make Compound Path” to keep everything together.

You see the stencil that I cut from that same screen and viola!

It’s easy! No great skills necessary! Just a little bit of thinking out of the box! Or the cut lines as the case might be!

Thanks for stopping in today!