Hello there!  It’s Mendi here today with a patriotic layout using Pebbles beautiful Americana collection.

This has to be one of my all time favorite collections of Pebbles.  I just love the color palette and all of the great patterns and embellishments!

I thought it would be really fun to take one of the flower print patterned papers from the collection and cut them out to form a floral border on my page.

To hand cut all the flowers would take quite a bit of time and patience so I chose to pull out my Silhouette PixScan mat which allows you to take a photo of what you want to cut out and then find the outline of the printed shapes.  I decided it might be easier to explain my process with a video for this particular tutorial which is also available to watch at YouTube.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oUDf4WTaFU?rel=0]
I won’t go into all the details here, but I will say that I started by clicking on the PixScan Icon within the newest Silhouette software (third icon from the top right) and then I clicked on the “import from file” button on the far right.  From there I clicked on “Camera Calibration” and loaded “Show Test Calibration Card” which I printed out using a standard printer.  This test is made up of a series of small dots.  I then took a photo of the test paper with my camera, trying to physically crop in as close as possible with my lens.  It also helps for this photo to be as bright as possible so I decided to then edit it for brightness and contrast (making sure not to play with the sizing).

I then cut down my floral patterned paper to 12″ x 6″ and adhered it to the top right-hand corner of my mat.  From there I took another photo of my entire mat with the paper, making sure all the registration marks were showing in my photo.  You can then edit your photo for brightness if you wish, but it is very important to not play with the dimensions because the two photos must be identical in that respect or it will not properly load your photo of the patterned paper.  The last step in this sequence is to “import PixScan Image from File” (or scanner).

From there you can use the trace features to find the outlines of your patterned paper that is now on the screen within the Silhouette software.  By using the PixScan photo it already knows to look for the registration marks when you go to cut.

One last thing that I struggled with at first is it is extremely important to use the loading mark on your machine by placing your mat just to the right of that guideline.  If you fail to do this (like I did for several tries) it won’t be able to find the registration marks to proceed with the cuts.  Here is a peek at what my paper looked like after cutting out.  Pretty wonderful, right?

Look at all these lovely flowers I had in just a few minutes time!  Oh the possibilities… I can’t wait to turn more of my favorite papers into embellishments on my upcoming projects!  I hope I’ve inspire you to look at your patterned papers with a fresh eye.  🙂

Here’s one last look at how I arranged them on my layout.  I love that I have plenty left and ready for upcoming projects.  🙂

Supplies:
AMERICANA CARDSTOCK SHAPE DIE-CUTS
AMERICANA WHITE GLITTER FOAM THICKERS ALPHA STICKERS
AMERICANA LIBERTY DOUBLE-SIDED CARDSTOCK
AMERICANA JUSTICE DOUBLE-SIDED CARDSTOCK
AMERICANA DIMENSIONAL PINWHEELS
AMERICAN CRAFTS DIY SHOP WOODEN BUTTONS