Martha Stewart Crafts cake cartridges- Using borders to make decorative backgrounds

Happy Monday (and for those of you who are mathematically inclined - Happy Pi Day!).  I have been doing a series on the Martha Stewart Crafts Cake Art cartridges for Scrappy-Go-Lucky.  Today I posted some information about the Seasonal Cake Art cartridge and also showed a full page background made by using the borders on the cartridge.  To see the full post and download the file for the bow edged background above, please visit the Scrappy-Go-Lucky blog at THIS POST.

If you want to know how to make your own page backgrounds, here are a few tips...

It is best to start with the border that is planned at about 2 x 9 inches as shown by the selected feature key above.  This will be the closest to the size you need for your page background.

You will then need to make the border the size that will fit within the "cuttable zone" on your mat.  Be sure to do the shadow version of the border first or you may run out of room.  Be careful to line the edges up properly - the shadow is not like most shadows - the sides of the two layers will be flush.

 
Once you have copied and pasted the border section and have arranged the four sides you will need to add a "filler" in the center to create a solid page.

Check to make sure that everything is welded correctly by doing a preview and looking at it from a blank page in the file.  If you get a preview that looks like this you will need to "burp" the design.  This means you will take one of the border sections and "copy-delete-paste" it back into the design.  By adding an outer border edge after the center, the welds will be corrected (you need to work from the inside out).

You can turn off the welding to do previews in color and make decisions about the colors for your design.  Just be sure to weld the group together again before you attempt to cut!

 

You should also save the edges of the pages you cut so you can use these reverse borders on some pages.  

By carefully planning one of these cuts with Design Studio or the Gypsy, you will save paper and have some beautiful coordinated backgrounds for your projects.  Best of all, you will save money since you don't need to purchase expensive single background sheets.

To see more photos and download the file be sure to click over to the Scrappy-Go-Lucky blog HERE.  Once you get started making these you will find that it is easy and fun to do.  Best of all, you can make exactly what you want for a special occasion...so have fun with it!