Posted by ">Meghan on 16th November 2009

Awesome Die Cuts to use with Sure Cuts A Lot (and how to make them!)

As I have found out, it is very easy to make .SVG files to use with Sure Cuts A Lot. A .SVG file means that the file is a vector image, which is an image that can be zoomed in or zoomed out and it wont distort, or get blurry at all. This format is what Sure Cuts a Lot uses and there are millions of .SVG files out there for you to use! I will help you find some, and show you how to convert a .JPG, or .PNG image file to an .SVG to the best of my ability.

A great website to use is Openclipart.org which is a directory of images that people have submitted with free licenses to use wherever you want. This website is good for finding images that you may not be able to find on scrapbooking websites. Just by using the search bar in the top right part of the screen, I typed in “leaf” and found this image:

bay leaf png

Now, the website gives you the option of downloading a .png file (which I have posted here) or a .SVG file which you can use in Sure Cuts a Lot. Here is the link to the bay leaf image page in case you couldn’t find it. I chose this image because it appealed to me and I think it would look great as an edging around a wedding photo or on the edge of a page.

Ok, so now you want to know how to convert a regular image into one that can be used in Sure Cuts A Lot. It’s a bit more complicated, but not by much.

The best website that I have used is Vector Magic and you get a free trial which is sufficient for this example. If you are satisfied with your result, you can buy “credits” to do more custom images or pay 7.95 a month to do unlimited ones. You will have to sign up for a free account though, but it’s very easy and fairly quick.

Right now, I’ll walk you through making your first vector image.

This is the first thing you will see, start by clicking that button and it will prompt you for an image. I am using this .png file of a green cat. Click the cat here to get the larger image to save.

step one

You will then upload the picture that you want, and you’ll see this. On the left, is the old image and on the right is the newly vectorized image. For this kitty, it’s important to leave it on medium quality setting for the smoothest outline, however if you would like a more realistic edge to the cat, press the high quality button and you will see what I mean.

step two

Now, all that is left to do is download it, by pressing the big Download Result button with the green arrow on it:

Press “Enable Download” if it appears and then choose the Download .SVG Button as seen below:

step four

You will now save the file to wherever you save your scrapbooking images and then use Sure Cuts A Lot to cut that little kitty out! Please play around with the Vector Magic utility, there are so many variations you can do of your image. If you want more pictures to covert into Vectors for Sure Cuts A Lot, just check out my post where I post a bunch of cute .png files that I found.