Thursday, September 01, 2016

Hungry JPEG September Bundle and making stickers from images

I was not going to get this bundle since I already have all the fonts, but there were some great watercolor images I could definitely use, "and" I know that once the bundle expires, you can't get the benefit from Commercial License & Lifetime Download Guarantee you get when you purchase the bundle.  I managed to save 10% by tweeting as is offered on the site, so the cost was only $26.10.  I pay with paypal an have payment come directly from checking account.  Note if you use a credit card you may have VAT added since this company is in the UK, check before payment to avoid that complication.  And did I mention, their "excellent" customer service/response, no matter when I write them an email, I get a quick and very nice response from them.

 As I have explained in the past, these images are huge and can be used for posters, etc, really high quality.  Here is how I get, process and use these images.  As most of you know, I am loving making stickers to use on cards and things, so my processes are geared to that.

1.   I download the parts of the bundle to my computer.  They come in separate zip files, then I open that zip file, and use the extract routine built into Windows, but I change the "extract to file" to a file I created called "September Bundle" on an external 200 gig SD card and when extracted to that file, I delete the zip file.  Remember, with their lifetime download service, you can always get the original package downloaded again any time you want/need.

2.  I find that it is easier for me to reduce the size of the images by 50% --does not cause as many crash issues when I use in Silhouette Studio if I do this, could be limitations of my laptop and not the software, but I find the reduced sizes work best for me.  I have a "free" downloaded program called IRFANVIEW that works very well for me, you may have other software that easily does this.  I create a file under each section of my bundle called 50% and that is where I store the reduced size files.
IRFANVIEW download is here.  for Windows 64 bit version, other versions are available  Here is a video of how I use the batch processor to easily and quickly accomplish this task.




3.  Using images in Silhouette Studio for print and cut/stickers
Now that I have the images reduced by 50%, I am ready to "play" with them.  Here is a video that shows how I bring them into the Silhouette Studio software using the "library" function and then how I can trace the image, remove the unwanted white background (even though it won't print), it impedes the ability to squeeze a lot of images on a label sheet for stickers.  And lastly, I show how to get more bang for buck when using the image modification tool to get several different looks for each image.


Well that's it for this posting, I might do another follow on one where I do the print and cut on my full label sticker sheets, then maybe some cards, etc that I make with the stickers.  There are so many great things in this September Bundle, something for everyone.  Wish I had a little one to make these cute dress up characters





Remember, all this and a whole lot more in the September Bundle here.

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