Design Space Hack For Odd Shaped Blanks

We have got a GREAT Design Space hack for you here that will help you whenever you are working with odd-shaped blanks like the keychains we have here. It can be so tricky to get the sizing and placement just right but our simple hack will help you work around that easily.

Design Space Hack For Odd Shaped Blanks

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Step-by-step Instructions:

Take a nice photo of the key fob using your smartphone and send it to your computer. Some tips: be sure to have good contrasting background to really make your item stand out and make it easier to remove the background. Try not to get any shadows on your image while you take the photo. If your hands are casting shadows, try moving further away from the item you are photographing and then zoom in. Finally, make sure your phone is right over the top of the object – don’t angle it.
Send the photo to your computer. From there, open it up. Click where it says “markup” and grab the “magic wand”. Drag the magic wand to select the background and delete it. By doing this process, the photo will convert into PNG.
Open Design Space and upload the photo. Once the photo is uploaded, choose “complex” for the image type and make sure to save it as a “print and cut” image.
The first thing to do in the canvas is change the size of the image to the actual size of the keychain. (NOTE: Make sure to measure the height of the actual keychain.)
Open a text box and type in your chosen text. You can change it to whatever font you’d like. Work with the text spacing and size until you are happy with it, using the keychain shape for visualization purposes. You can increase or decrease the letter spacing and line spacing as needed.
You may also want to ungroup your text so you can manipulate the letters even more for better placement.
Now go ahead and click “make it” then continue and make sure you are connected to your machine. Make sure to set the material to “premium vinyl” and place the vinyl on your cutting mat. Then load the mat into the machine and let it cut.
Note: This is a great project for using up some of your small scraps of vinyl!
Once cutting is done, unload the mat from the machine and burnish the vinyl to the mat. Weed away the excess vinyl. Don’t forget about the centers of any letters as well. Apply transfer tape. Burnish again.
Once you have removed the mat from the vinyl, burnish a little again at the back, We like to trim away any excess material because the space we’re placing our text into is quite small. This helps with proper placement. Remove the paper backing from your vinyl design.
Grab the keychain and clean it with alcohol to take any dust and oil off, and then go ahead and apply the vinyl. Once you have put the vinyl down on the keychain, give it a little burnishing to make sure it will stick nicely then peel it off.
The last thing you need to do is add the piece of round hardware (called the jump ring) that came with the keychain, Using a pair of pliers, pull each end of the ring apart to open it and then insert the other end into the tiny hole in the keychain. Close tightly.