Category: SVG

Posted on by — 4 Comments

Love Card FREE SVG Cutting File Download

Valentine's Day Card

Love

February is almost upon us. Looking through all the ideas I have found on cutting files to make, I stumbled upon this lovely little kirigami card. Now, I don’t know where it comes from originally, so it would be wise not to use it commercially. However, this is where I found the image that I based this file on.

EDIT (2/11/19): I have found the original author of this file, Maria Victoria Garrido,  and she has kindly given me permission to keep this post up. Her site is full of very beautiful work and many files that can be adapted for cutting in SVG format. However, her files are for PERSONAL use only. Please be aware and don’t use them for commercial purposes.

Her website is: http://marivi_10.tripod.com/myhomenew.html

Kirigami Love Hearts Card Template

If you cut this out, the pattern above is very useful for scoring the fold lines in the correct places.

I love how detailed the little hearts are. You could definitely use the heart cut outs for other applications, including your own pretty Valentine’s Day card. I cut out the file twice in two different colors so that I could mix and match them. They came out lovely in my opinion.

Tacky or not, I gave one to my husband and informed him that he could write a nice message on it for me for Valentine’s Day. How’s that for an over the top hint?

Assembly Tips

For assembly, you do have to be somewhat delicate so as not to break things as you bend them into place. I used a ruler and hard pointed tip to score the lines where it was supposed to bend. If you are so inclined, you could definitely add them to the cut file and score them with your machine. I don’t have the dual carriage Silhouette and didn’t feel like running it through twice.

You definitely DO want to score this before you attempt to fold it. It is a bit difficult to bend into place even if you score it. I found it useful to weave something small like a knitting needle back and forth through the letters to get them to bend in the correct direction.

And now, the file.

Heart Card Pop Up SVG File

Here are the hearts that attach it. One note, if the paper you cut it out on has a front and a back, you will want to flip a copy of the heart so that you have one facing each direction. I didn’t do this, and have a card with two hearts facing the same way. Oops!

Heart SVG Cutting File

Also check out my other Valentine’s Day cutting files:

Happy Valentine’s Day!
Posted on by — Leave a comment

Fall Leaves – Free Cutting Files SVG

Fall is upon us. Of all the seasons, summer always feels like it disappears the most quickly. I think fall leaves and colors are one of my favorite things about the fall. Hence, I thought I would make some leaf file cutouts.

I haven’t yet tried these out, but think they will be pretty for a fall note-card or perhaps a leaf mobile. Hope you like them and enjoy this transitional time from summer to fall!

FREE FALL LEAVES SVG FILE
CLICK FOR FREE SVG DOWNLOAD
PS – I apologize for the dearth of posts this summer. It has been a whirlwind, but I hope to get settled into a good routine as we enter fall.
Posted on by — Leave a comment

How To Create a Cutting file from a Photo Using Inkscape

I frequently use the freely available program Inkscape to alter and create new cutting files. It can handle more than Silhouette Studio and can also output a DXF file, which is a file format that Silhouette Studio can open and use.
Before and After

 

You can download Inkscape HERE (as of April 2016).
Normally, I would use Inkscape’s handy “Trace Bitmap” feature. This is located under Path->Trace Bitmap. It has lots of options which you can play around with for your image if you like, but I could tell that I wasn’t going to get what I wanted from this particular image.
The Trace Bitmap Function Doesn’t work as well on images with busy backgrounds!
The problem was that my image has a lot going on in the background and is hard to separate out from the foreground.
I’m guessing that there are some Photoshop gurus out there who could probably separate the background and foreground of this image and then use Inkscape’s Trace function. However, I am not one of those gurus and I don’t own Photoshop! Sad, I know. Alternatively, I could have tried to mess around with the image in GIMP (a fairly nice free alternative to Photoshop) – but I wasn’t up for that seemingly overwhelming task. Sometimes the dumb but straight forward way can be quicker anyhow!
Covered in Paths
Now, this method takes some patience, but you can get exactly the image you want and don’t have to hassle with photo editing. The basic idea is to use several circular paths to bend and form into the shape we need. If you have not played around with path nodes before, this may look confusing, but once you start, it is not too difficult.

 

Now for the tutorial. Begin by opening your image up in Inkscape, then do the following:


  1.  Draw a circle using the shape tool shown below and place it over part of your image.
  2.  Change to the arrow tool, click your circle, and select Path->Object to Path. This will ensure that your circle is a path and not just a shape.
  3. Now, go ahead and copy this circle and paste it several times on your image. I needed about 7 blobs (which started as circles) to cover my image. You may need more or less depending on the size and shape of your image.
  4. Now for the fun part! Click on the node tool (Arrow 1 in the image below). Then, click on your shape to start conforming it to your image. If you look closely at Arrow 2 in the image below, you will see a node highlighted in red. If you click a node, you can move it around.
  5. Drag the nodes to spots along the edges of your image. Once the node is on the edge of your image, move the little round “whiskers” (I don’t know what these are really called). These bend the edges of your circle and allow you to match the contour of your image. There are also tools for change the node type from a rounded one to a pointy one (right above Arrow 1). Also, keep in mind you can remove nodes by selecting one and hitting delete and you can add nodes by double clicking where you want one.
  6. Once you have your image covered in OVERLAPING paths, select all the paths (but not the image itself) and click Path -> UNION. This will combine all of your shapes into one, and if you did a good job matching the contours and filling all the space, you should have the image you wanted! You can see our bunny Geronimo loved being turned into a cutting file.

 

Here is the resulting file that I created. Feel free to download it and use it for your own creations.

 

FREE SVG FILE DOWNLOAD

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Christmas Tag Cutting Files

Christmas Tag

Finally! I got around to actually using one of the many wonderful files you can find out there. I found a delightful Christmas Present Tag cutting file and thought it would be nice to have a few on hand to label our gifts.

I found this lovely file over at the Lia Griffith Blog. She has it up for free in both PDF and SVG formats. I don’t have the Designer Edition of Silhouette Studio, so I opened it up in Inkscape and saved it as a DXF file. Then, I opened that file in Silhouette Studio and cut a couple sheets of them out. They did take a loooong time to cut, even after I set it to full speed, but I wasn’t in a hurry and I think it was worth it.

Here are the results. I am happy with the way they turned out, but I know I haven’t gotten my photography skills up to par enough to make them look as good as in the original post! I think the snowman I made the other day would look cute next to one of these little tags on a package too. Check him out if you haven’t!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Merry Christmas Everyone!
Posted on by — 2 Comments

Hand Drawn Stencil Pattern – Free SVG Cutting File Download

Happy October!

Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather and getting in some quality outdoor time before the weather turns colder. I have been having fun drawing new designs.

This is a design I drew by hand and then edited in inkscape. Part of its charm is that it is not perfectly symmetric. I envision it on a card or a wall, or perhaps on a background. Let me know what you make with it, I love seeing other people’s projects!

As always, these are free for personal use only. Thanks!

 

 

FREE SVG DOWNLOAD

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Free Flower SVG Download

I have been working on creating some new cut files lately. I start by doodling around and then work to clean up the images in Inkscape. Anyone have any suggestions for other files I might work on? Also, I am thinking of putting up a tutorial for creating cut files from your own doodles – hopefully coming soon!

Hope you like this flower. Feel free to use it for personal use and have fun crafting!
FREE SVG Download

 

Posted on by — 5 Comments

Awesome Animal Alphabet Cutting File Download

Hello Everyone!

This has been a long time in the making and I am really excited to share it with everyone. It has been a while since my last post with our new baby and a lot of fun summer activities getting in the way. At any rate, I have been plodding away a letter at a time making this file for use in our wonderful playroom (another incomplete project in itself).

FREE SVG FILE DOWNLOAD

My vision is to use these files in different colors of vinyl either in a big row around the room or a cluster. I made a concerted effort to keep each animal one solid piece so that there won’t be any smaller vinyl pieces to mess with. The animals themselves were either made from scratch by me or modified from free clipart I found online. Please let me know if you think I have made an error and modified a file that truly belongs to someone else – I make an effort to keep to freely available clipart for my modifications.

Use this file for personal use only, please. This file is free for now, although it may at some point be listed in my (future) etsy shop. Please download and enjoy!

PS – I will update with pictures of these cut out and placed in our playroom as soon as that event actually happens! – NOW UPDATED WITH PICTURES!!!

Posted on by — 5 Comments

Thank You Sentiment – Free Cutting File SVG Download

I am always looking for a good sentiment to cut out or print on my cards and creations. This is a nice “Thank You” sentiment that I think will be a good one to cut out for the front of a basic card. I’m sure it would also look nice in a more elaborate card, but you probably won’t see one from me for a while.
The original file was a free clipart file I found online. I made a few basic edits and changes and converted it to an SVG.
Hope you enjoy!
FREE SVG DOWNLOAD

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Easter Crosses on a Hill – Free SVG Cutting File Downloads

Still thinking about Easter! I thought some crosses were in order. I was inspired by a similar looking photo and thought I would whip up another cutting file.

 

Free SVG File Download

Hope you like it!

Posted on by — 23 Comments

Easter Egg Cutting Files – Free SVG Download

Well, I know it seems far off yet, but I’m sure Easter will be upon us before we know it. Perhaps because I am hoping for warmer weather and nice spring days, I decided to make some Easter egg cutting files.

I would love to see how you use these in your projects this year!

Free SVG Download