In this tutorial, I’m going to share how I created what’s called an “Off the Edge” die cut card with my Silhouette machine. This can add an interesting element to any card design and is fun to create.
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I recently attended the Card Maker Success Challenge hosted by Brandi Mahon of Stamp Me Some Love and was so inspired by her card ideas. I took the card ideas she was sharing and modified them to be used with my Silhouette software and machine. If you are looking for card making inspiration, I recommend you check out her monthly Card Maker’s Success Subscription.
Supplies Used:
- Silhouette cutting machine – Silhouette Cameo 5 – any model will work
- Silhouette Autoblade
- Silhouette Cutting mat
- Alcohol Ink Digital Background by Sarah Hurley
- Koala Glossy Photo Paper
- A printer – Canon TS9521C is what I have
- Hello by Diva Watts Designs HERE
- Oracal 651 Black
- White Recollections Cardstock for cut out and card base
- Scrapbook tape runner
- Double sided foam tape
- Paper trimmer
- Optional designs: Happy Birthday design by Erica Digital Designs, a Thank You design by Erica Digital Designs, and a Thank You design by Dresden Carrie.
Creating an Off-the-Edge Die Cut Card with Silhouette
The Background
First, I opened up an Alcohol Ink Background by Sarah Hurley and printed that as a full letter size page for my card backgrounds. I printed this onto Koala Glossy Photo Paper and it turned out awesome!
I have a Canon TS9521C that is a borderless printer, but you can do the same even without a borderless printer.
Then, I will use a paper trimmer to cut the page down to the size I need for my cards front. But, I won’t know the size until I have the other pieces cut out, so I just set this aside.
Designing in Silhouette Studio
Drawing the Card Pieces
Next, in the Silhouette software, using the Drawing Tools on the left side, draw out a rectangle and then scale it to 4.25″ x 5.5″ or whatever card size you are wanting. Unlock the lock to be able to change the height and width of the rectangle individually. Type the number and press Enter to set the dimension. Find more on the Scale Tools HERE.
Select the rectangle and then choose Align Left in the Alignment tools. With only 1 object selected it will align it to the left side of the page. This will help us in just a minute with our design.
Choosing a Sentiment
Next, open the sentiment design you want to use or with the Text Tool and type out the sentiment you want. If you type out the text, make sure to weld any overlapping pieces.
I used Hello by Diva Watts Designs found HERE for this card design.
Scale the hello down to fit within the card base and use the green dot at the top to rotate it to the desired angle. Or you can use the Rotate Panel and rotate to 45 degrees and adjust from there.
Editing the Card Front
Next, open the Page Setup Panel – Tab 2 and check the Show Grid and Snap to Grid boxes.
This is going to allow us to adjust the rectangle and maintain straight lines.
Double click on the red line of the rectangle to bring up the Edit Points. Drag the top left edit point (gray dot) down.
Grab the top right edit point and drag it down, so the top of the rectangle is angled as desired to run through the middle of the sentiment.
With the Snap to Grid tool activated, it snaps the edit points to specific locations and easily allows the design to be manipulated and maintain the straight lines of the card edges.
Once the edges are how we want, Show Grid and Snap to Grid can be toggled off on the Page Setup Panel – Tab 2 again. I find the grid lines distracting when designing, but they can easily be turned back on if needed.
Create a Copy for Future Templates
Make a copy of the card base and you can use it for future cards as a starting point.
Select both the card base and the sentiment and Align the Center in Silhouette. Depending on the design, center aligned may not look centered to the eye. Use the arrow keys to adjust if needed in small increments any direction.
Adding an Offset
Next, click on the sentiment to select it and open the Offset Panel on the right side. Click Offset and adjust the distance of the Offset as desired, then click Apply or press Enter. The distance of the offset will all depend on the sentiment and the size you are using. There is no magic number.
The offset should overlap the angled rectangle securely and not have too many tiny bits to be cut out.
Welding the Offset to the Card Front
After clicking on Apply, the offset will be selected. Hold the Shift key down and click on the angled rectangle so that both are selected, then right click and choose Weld.
This now combines the angled rectangle and the offset into 1 cut and creates the off-the-edge design. If there are any tiny bits like what the red arrow points to above, those are not needed in the design. Move the sentiment off of the design.
Then right click on the design and choose Release Compound path. Click off of it to deselect and click back on the little bit, press delete. When all the pieces you want are deleted, select the entire design again, right click and choose Make Compound Path.
Use the drag select method to select all the pieces at the same time. Left click the mouse and hold it down in the top left corner above the design and drag it all the way through the design to the bottom right corner. Anything that the selection box touches, should be selected.
Cutting the Card Pieces & Assembly
Now you have your pieces for the Off-the-Edge card design designed and ready to cut in Silhouette.
I cut the sentiments from Oracal 651 Black vinyl and applied it to the off-the-edge piece that I cut from white cardstock. I reused a piece of transfer tape to apply it and was careful that it didn’t stick to the cardstock too much. You could also cut from cardstock and glue to the front, but adhesive vinyl makes it a bit quicker to assemble and the glossy sentiment made it pop with the photo paper background too!
Then I took the printed sheet of the alcohol background paper and cut it to 4.25″ x approximately 3.5″ with my paper trimmer. This size depends on how far the left side of the off-the-edge cut comes down. I used a Scrapbook tape runner to adhered the alcohol background to the front of a card base at the top.
You can either buy ready made card bases or make your own. In this card tutorial HERE at 32:30, I show how I cut my own card bases from a letter size sheet of paper.
Then used foam tape to add the off-the-edge cut piece to the front of the card at the bottom.
Off-the-Edge Die Cut Cards with Silhouette
Once you have the basics of the card creation down, you can modify it for different sentiments. Save the angled rectangle as a template for future card cuts.
I also created this with a Happy Birthday design by Erica Digital Designs, a Thank You design by Erica Digital Designs, and a Thank You design by Dresden Carrie.
The first card will take the longest to design, but then you will have all the steps and if you save the files, you can easily open in the future and get to cutting.
You will also notice that a couple of mine got a bit close to the edge and really did go off-the-edge. For these I can just snip that part off before placing in the envelope, but in the future I’ll adjust the design a bit smaller so the offset doesn’t go outside the bounds. Something like that is easily corrected in the software when it happens to you.
Save this for future reference by pinning the image below.
Enjoy !
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