Scalloped Ribbon - a quick explanation

I thought I'd do a quick post tonight to give a little more information about designing scalloped ribbon.  I had several people asking for help when they tried to create their own file for the scalloped ribbon on the card I posted yesterday. It is always a good idea to download the file and look at it, even if you don't have the cartridges that I used.  You may see that you can substitute a similar shape from a cartridge that you do own.

(If any of the screen shots are too small for you to read, just click on the image to see a large version)

There are lots of ways to create scalloped edges and borders in Design Studio.  You can work with circles and rectangles but it is faster and easier to use a shape that already has several scallops combined.  I used this rectangle from the Storybook cartridge for my ribbon.

It is important to keep all of the shapes in one group in order to be able to copy and paste and adjust the group as a unit.  Set the slider bar to one inch (the smallest size that you can set on the default size bar).  Then add as many items as you need to come close to your desired final measurement.

Next, click on a line of the second image and use the nudge arrows to move it to the left, aligning the scallops for a perfect overlap.

Continue to select and nudge the shapes until they are all overlapped.  Then check weld while the group is still selected (has the "handles" around it).

If you click on the eye to preview the image it will look like this.  The dark lines are the lines that will cut - the pale lines show some of the original shape sides that will not cut.

It is easier to visualize your final cut if you open a blank page in the file and view the preview from that page (the non-cutting lines will not show).

If you have not checked weld the preview will show in color.  This can be helpful in visualizing your design (and it is also a warning sign that your items are not welded).  I often set up two pages - one with the design welded and one with no welding - so I can experiment with colors in the preview.

There is a scalloped square on the Storybook cartridge but I did not use this because there is a noticeable difference in the height of the scallops at the corners

This LINK will take you to a post where I explained in more detail about overlapping the scallops to form a large square with tiny scallops and a way to avoid the uneven scallops where the corners overlap.

Another way to make a scalloped edge is to start with a strip or border piece such as this one on the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.  I recently posted a scalloped lace square using this image to create the border - here is a LINK to that post.

You can switch to the 12 x 24 mat to give yourself some more room to work on the design.  You will be resizing the design to make it fit a card so you will be able to cut it on the 6 x 12 mat.

 

If you nudge the first three images together you will create enough "breathing space" to add a fourth border piece while the group is selected. You can then proportionately resize it using the lower right handle.  The result was still a larger bump for the scallop than I wanted for my project.

By keeping the piece in one box, you can now copy and paste and rotate the strip to create an evenly aligned row of scallops on each side.  you need to add a rectangle sized to make the ribbon the width you want.

By turning off the weld and adding layers on separate pages you can create a color preview of your design.  Be sure to select your scallop strip and check weld again before cutting!

I hope that this help those of you who were having trouble - please leave a comment or send an email if you need any more help.  If you made the card with the file I shared yesterday, I'd love to see your version.