Cutting Stamped Images using Silhouette PixScan Mat

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I'm always looking for ways to make crafting a little easier on my hands.   I haven't been doing much crafting for the past month or so but am hoping to do more now that I have the new We R Memories Keepers Precision Press and a Silhouette Portrait with PixScan Mat.

I love using my Cricut with the co-ordinating CTMH Stamp Sets and Cartridges but really struggle with the acrylic blocks and fussy cutting.

I'll be posting about the Precision Press soon but did post my FB Live Video on YouTube.  I tried to cover as much as possible about it (don't mind the flipping around at the beginning, I almost lost my wifi connection as I started recording) and tried out a few different types of stamps to see how it worked.

I used the Press to stamp out a bunch of images last weekend to test with the Silhouette Portrait and PixScan mat.  I decided to buy the smaller Portrait instead of a Cameo since I already had a larger machine.  I also upgraded the Silhouette Studio software to the Designer Edition since I have so many SVG files already.

I'd watched a bunch of YouTube videos while I was waiting for my machine to arrive so the software wasn't too difficult to figure out.  I'm used to the Cricut adjusting the settings for blade, speed and pressure so it will take some playing around with the Silhouette to get the best cuts.  But overall the cuts were pretty good once I adjusted my blade.

 After I uploaded my photo of the PixScan Mat and imported it into the software I selected Trace and highlighted the stamped images.

Then I turned off the high pass filter and bumped up the threshold until I had a nice solid line around the outside of each stamped image.

Here it shows the red outline which is the cut line after tracing.  

Then I created a border around them using the offset feature set at .04 so it would look similar to using metal dies with stamped images

Then I selected release compound path so I could see both the offset and original trace lines.

Then I removed the inner cut lines and deleted them so I was left with the stamped image with a border around it. 

Then I grouped the images so I wouldn't accidentally move any of the cut lines before sending to my Silhouette.

Here's a close up of my screen before cutting....

...and my stamped images after cutting. 

Love how it turned out and am looking forward to cutting more stamped images without scissors! 

I've bumped my blade up a notch since cutting these and didn't get any fuzzy edges on the other projects that I'm making for the holidays.   I think I may even end up using this little machine more than I first thought.  It is so convenient to have it sit under my desk in my office and then I can leave my Cricut in my craftroom with the bulk of my stamps and supplies.