Cutting Shapes Tutorial

So, at the advise of my lovely CT members I decided to share this tutorial I wrote for one of them to help explain how to cut a shape into different sections and scrap with it. I hope someone can find it useful. If you have specific questions you can leave a comment here or email me at missy@scrapsbymissy.com. Thank you!

First, open a 12x12 300dpi document. Select or draw the shape you want to work with, make sure it’s rasterized.

 

Next, select the rectangle draw tool. Draw a small line all the way across your shape. Doesn’t matter what color, we’re only using this as a cutting tool. Make it as thick or thin as you’d like. Rasterize it.

 

Ctl+click on the line thumbnail in the layers pallet. The marching ants will start all around your line.

 

Select the shape layer and click delete. Voila! You’ve made your first cut! Now select the line layer and move it to another spot, the marching ants will remain so no need to repeat the previous step. Then select your shape layer and delete again.

You can move your line vertical and do some that way as well J Do this for as many cutouts you want. When you’re done delete the line layer. Duplicate the shape as many times as you have cutouts, plus one for backup. For example, I have 6 total cutouts in this shape so I copied my shape 7 times. I like to make an extra copy and hide that layer in case I make a mistake. For each shape layer, select one shape using your Rectangular Marquee Tool. Go to select->inverse then delete. Do this for each different piece of your shape. This will delete the surrounding shapes leaving only the one you selected on the layer. Make sure you keep track of which parts you’ve done, don’t want to accidentally delete one twice. Once done add and clip your pages and/or photos to your layers and you’re ready to go! You can get really fancy and warp your shapes if your software permits. Here’s the page I made while doing this tutorial.