Bye bye coordinating dies!

Yes if you have a cricut you can save your money and space and not buy all those coordinating dies! I’ve used a Hero Arts Frames and Messages stamp to show you what cricut can do for you. All the cuts below have been done using cricut – no dies, no scissors! You can use this to create a mat for any of your stamps.

Isn’t it awesome?!?! Okay I agree it may not be perfect but with a little more work you can make it perfect. All you need is a nice crisp image from your stamp, scanner, cricut and SCAL. Here are the steps:

1. Stamp a crisp clear image in black on white cardstock/paper.
2. Scan the image using a scanner and save a jpeg file.
3. Open the image in your SCAL.
4. Use the trace outline feature in SCAL to well trace the outline of your image. You will need to try and test different settings to see which gives the cleanest image. You can preview your image after you change the settings – that helps!
5. Once you have the outline, if it’s a non-outline stamp (something like above or a solid stamp) then delete the other layers and just keep the outermost layer.
6. Make a copy of the image.
7. Now increase the size of the copy (keeping proportions) to give you as big a mat as you want. I generally increase the size by 1/5 inch on width and height. Keeping it a bit larger is more forgiving when you stamp.
8. You can use the original image to see what size works for you.
9. You now have a mat for your stamp!

I agree it’s a lot of work to cut one mat for one stamp but if you’re going to use it often then it’s just one time work.