Creating textures for MTC from LD paper packs (revisited)

With all the cute paper packs at Lettering Delights (that match colors in the the graphics), I had been using this method to convert them to a usable file in MTC. But thanks to a comment by a reader (thank you cfine!) I have been doing it a different way on some of the papers. This does not produce a seamless texture. My method uses her idea but is a bit different.

This method does involve using PhotoShop Elements (PSE), but the other one did as well. You may be able to do this in other graphics programs (maybe Paint, or PSP).

Open the file in PSE. For this tutorial I am using the harlequin file from the Lettering Delights At Home Paper Pack.

Now go to Image-Resize-Image size. Change the numbers to get a usable result. I like to stay below 528x 528 pixels for MTC (even lower is better) but it is a compromise between your image quality and how much you will tax your system resource with the larger files. If I only have one texture, I will use close to 528. If I have more textures in a project, I tend to lower the pixel number. For this I chose 520 pixels, 4 inches and 130 dpi. Most of my projects are 4-5 inches or less, so this is the perfect compromise for me. You can alter to suit your needs.

I save it as a png and include the information (size and pixels).

For use in my project, I right click to bring up the menu for textures.

And navigate to where my texture is saved and open it.

Before applying the texture, I will re-size it using the scale option so that the texture is just a little bit larger than the shape. The mat that I am filling is 4.7559 x 3.6235. I enlarge the texture (using the slider and arrow keys) until it is 4.76" square.

Here is what my mat looks like after applying this texture.

I am now ready to cut! Do you notice more Lettering Delights sets in there? I totally mixed-and-matched this project. The Chinese Character is from DoodleBat DB KanjiWords A-G, the bamboo is from the Asia SVG (part of the new Cut Its Simple Shapes), and the paper is on sale! Stay tuned for a post of the card itself - I am getting ready to cut it now.

Speaking of sales, you did read my last post about all the 0.50 sale items at Lettering Delights? Try doing a search for Paper Packs, and start about halfway through - you will see gobs and gobs of sets on sale! Check them out - now you can easily use them within MTC! (image is linked)