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Let’s Explore v4 – Designing with shapes

In October of 2018, I put up a vinyl skeleton on our front door. After Halloween, my kids & husband asked me to leave it up because they thought it would be fun to decorate all year long.
They tell me the ideas that they would like to accessorize the skeleton with and I cut and apply it from vinyl.

Silhouette_Secrets_skeleton

While I was cutting the eggs for the door, I had 3 shapes from the Silhouette Design Store but I wanted a fourth egg with a different design.

With the Silhouette software and the tools in it, you can create pretty much anything you can imagine.

Part 1 – Drawing the Egg

Let’s start with the egg shape.

Now, the easiest way would be to use the Flexi-shapes with the v4.2 software. But, we will discuss both ways.

Drawing with Flexi-shapes

Flexi-shapes are a newly released feature with the v4.2 software and are available if you have the Designer Edition Plus or Business Edition upgrade.

The Flexi-shape option is in the toolbar on the left side of the v4 software.

Flexi shapes copy

Check out all these shapes!

Flexi shapes 2 copy

Click on the oval shape and then click and drag the mouse on the design mat.

Egg flexishape copy

To adjust the shape after the original drawing, grab one of the white circles and move it. The shape will adjust as these points are moved.

Once the shape is to your liking, right click on it and choose Convert to Path.

Convert to Path copy

Now, that is one way to get an oval shape.

Using the Drawing Tools to create shapes

For those that do not have v4.2 or the Designer Edition Plus or Business Edition upgrade, let’s use the drawing tools and draw an egg shape.

Since the egg is wide at the bottom than at the top, I am going to use 2 shapes.
First, on the left toolbar, select the Draw Ellipse tool.

Draw Ellipse tool copy

Hold down the Shift key and drag the mouse to draw a perfect circle.

Choose the Draw Ellipse tool again and draw an oval.

Draw Oval copy

Select both the circle and the oval, using the Transform Panel – Align Tab to align the horizontal centers.

Align Oval copy

Then right click and choose Weld.

Weld copy

Next, double click on the welded shape and this will bring up the edit points. By deleting a few edit points we can change the shape of this design.

Delete Edit points copy

Alter the edit points to achieve the desired effect.

Delete Edit points2 copy.jpg

Still not the exact shape or as symmetrical as you’d like? Take it one step farther.

Alignment for knife copy

Open the Page Setup – Panel Grid Options.
Move the oval shape so that the top bounding box is centered on one of the grid lines.
Click on the Knife Tool on the left tool bar.
Make sure the Solid option is selected in the Quick Access Toolbar at the top left.

Knife tool copy

Hold down the Shift key and draw a line from the top to the bottom on the grid line with the bounding box.

Select the right side of the oval and delete it.

Open the Replicate Panel. Select the left side of the oval and choose Mirror Right.

Replicate Panel copy

Select the right side and press the left arrow key 1 time. This will move the design slightly so it is overlapping the left side of the oval.

Select both sides, right click and choose Weld.
The weld option can also be found under the Modify Panel on the right side too.

Weld2 copy

Now you have a symmetrical shape.

This can be done with all kinds of designs. You can create and draw anything in the software by breaking it down into basic shapes or using the Flexi-shapes.

How about a heart? Draw your own with 2 circles & a square and then edit using the same techniques listed above or use the Flexi-shape if available.

Heart shape copy

Or a flower?
Draw an oval and use the Advanced Replicate Panel to replicate and rotate the oval.
I chose 8 copies and 30 degrees for the rotation.

Flower copy

In the next blog post, we will take a look at how to create shapes to decorate the egg.
Part II – Decorating the Egg Shape

Eggs photo

What will you use the software to draw and experiment with today?

Feel free to post your comments and questions below or on my Facebook group at Silhouette Secrets with EllyMae.

Enjoy!

SS_Signature copySS Logo snip it

**This post may contain affiliate links. What that means is that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher but I may get compensated for sharing.

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