Printing In a Square - Perfect; Cutting The Same - Just Didn't Work

I was so excited I figured out how to print in a square! I hand drew a design for my Dallas calling card that is a window and I wanted my information nicely typed as the back of my calling card. Well let me tell you, easier said than done!!! Let me take you through the process and maybe you will need to print something in a square in the future and you will be able to do because you read this.

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Well I am going to Dallas for the Provocraft sponsored Swarm and I can't wait. As you know you need a calling card to trade with others that identifies you, with your name, MB name, email and blog address. All of you that are followers know that I love window cards and it has almost become my signature so I decided to make a window calling card! The Gypsy design was easy but yikes it is not easy to get your print in a square!  I sent Okie a private message asking how to do as I remember she was the one that taught us to print in a circle and Okie sent me the instructions to that stating that she had never designed an object that printed like I needed.

Below is the design for the back of my calling card on my Gypsy, you can see how the cut will fit nicely.

I changed my column width so that it would accommodate my 3x3" square. I used only 3 columns as you can see and adjusted each width differently to accommodate the letter height. Admittedly I played with this a lot to make sure that I not only would fit within the 3x3" square but I also need to allow for the center to be cut to hold the integrity of the design. Next time I will design the back then the card to fit it, not the other way around! teehee

Now to get the sides to print you must click on format cells.

Then you will click on Alignment.

Then you will adjust your test for a + or - 90 degrees depending on the direction of your text.

After the design was complete on one of the blocks I did copy past until I had 6 on a page. I then printed the pages on card stock and decided this is will be the next hurdle that I need to jump through. The printer I have had to use a sheet feed for the card stock so there is a little variance on each sheet. So after I get my first pages aligned perfect for the cut on the Gypsy I will group the 6 together and just adjust the paper on the mat for that precise fit. And I will pray a lot too!

I measure so so carefully and then remeasured and adjusted my Gypsy design.

I tweaked each little square to match the screen mat and the paper mat.

And I cut. If you look closely it did not line up at all! But I kept trying page after page and for some reason I could not get this straight in my mind. The design is perfect. The printing is perfect. But my mind still can not get the two together.

I did not give up and kept trying.

And after 2 stacks this high and 4 hours of my life gone to the trash can I decided to print on the back of my calling cards.

I have to share that before I posted this I shared it with Pam at The Bug Bytes. She figured it out... I should have cut my design first from the Gypsy then adjusted the paper end  to accommodate the cut. I explained that I am not that astute with Excel and she said that I should use Photo Shop to put it exactly where I want the square I made on the page.... Well the bad news is that I don't have Photo Shop yet so I guess I will be printing on the back of my cards, and that will be OK.

So what do you think???

This is a little sneak peek of my calling card.... Do you like it? Don't you love the window? Is it OK with just the printing on the back, in you opinion?

And which should I do; glitter or glossy accents? These last 3 photos were taken with my phone so the quality is not that good and the color is more vibrant in person. I am really anxious for your opinion.

Thank you for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed working through this project with me and learned something new that you can use. And thank you also for your sweet words of encouragement. Your comments inspire me to continue sharing with you. Have a blessed day.