SAVING PAPER IN EXPLORE

Hello, everyone. Thank you, Sheila, for having me come visit once again. I hope everyone felt the love yesterday.

I just want to share a quick Explore “cheat” using the Attach feature. For those with the Explore, you already know that we use Attach when we want to have text written on an image, for instance, a name on a tag or a card panel. Well, I needed to cut 20 hearts which were the top layer of Valentines for my grandson's kindergarten class.

I created the heart with the writing in Design Space. Yet when I hit Go to write and cut, the most I could get on an 8 ½ x 11 sheet were two hearts as shown here. A huge amount of card stock waste. 

Back to the drawing board – actually, the canvas. I put an 8 ½ x 11 canvas on my screen in landscape mode and found I could actually fit four hearts on that page if I moved them close together. And here's where Attach came in. Once I had all four hearts in place on my screen, I did a Select All, then Attach, and when I hit Go, they came on my virtual mat exactly as I wanted them. Using Attach kept the placement and saved me from wasting any card stock.

 

The finished product, just FYI.

Attach will also let you cut all layers of an image on the same mat without using the Sync feature. Just place an 11.5 x 11.5 canvas on your screen. (I made mine a peachy color so it's easier to see.) Now place the layers in various places on that canvas, like so. (This is a butterfly from I don't remember where, but it's not important right now.)

At this point you'll want to place your card stock on your Explore mat (the one that gets fed into the machine) exactly as shown on your screen. Use the grid to determine the size you need for each color. (Great use of scraps!) This is important, because when you Select All and hit Attach, which is your next step, everything turns one color. This is what you would see on your screen after Select All and Attach and this is how it will cut. The Explore has no idea you put different colors down. 

 Hope this is helpful in saving some paper and time. Thanks for stopping by today. Spring is coming!