Following on from yesterday’s blog post about the Brother Scan N Cut machine, here is a little more information about the “Direct Scan” function which takes your printed or hand drawn images and converts them into cutting files.

The Direct Scan function allows you to automatically crop out any drawn, stamped or printed image that has a solid outer edge.

This would be beneficial if you wish to make custom toppers or sentiments for your designs.

Some of the process is similar to the previous function but in the interest of clarity, I have included all steps in the following run through.

First, turn the machine on and press the Home button.

Next choose the SCAN icon.

From the three icons presenter, choose DIRECT SCAN.

You will then be prompted to load your sticky may with the design that you want to cut. (By the way, sorry the surrounding area went dark at this point but night came as I was working away and the camera just wanted to counterbalance the light from the screen).

The first pass through the machine will scan the image. It will then give you a preview of the scanned area.

Hit OK.

Once you have done that you will get another screen showing you the scanned image plus the cutting line overlaid on top. It is sometime a good idea to isolate an image (as shown) by dragging the handles, especially if you have a number of things on the same piece of card.

You can now choose to add a border around the image, or ignore the direct outline and add just a basic shape around the stamped area, or leave these options deselected if you wish to cut directly on the line. I chose that on this occasion but have done both as you will see in the examples at the end of this post.

Next you go through the same cutting process as with all other options (you can also draw instead and put a border around your stamped image).

I chose cut – and got this …

I used this process in a few of the projects recently highlighted in the project gallery that I published at the start of this week.

Here are a few examples.

The bottle of champagne and the champagne flute were stamped and cut using this feature.

The digi-stamp was first printed then cut (I also added a border before cutting).

So there you have it. Another unique feature of the Brother Scan N Cut machine and I haven’t had to connect it to the PC to achieve any of this.

Would this be a feature that you could use in your creative adventures?

Anyway, thanks for reading and as ever, if I haven’t explained something as thoroughly as I could, please feel free to leave comments or ask questions in the section below.

Tomorrow I’ll give you an example of Fussy Cutting.

See you then.

J :)