How to cut out your photos and save ink in Design Space

There was a video recently done by the talented Melody Lane and it showed how to cut shapes out of your photos in Design Space.  It was a brilliant idea and I kept thinking that surely there was a way to do this but print out only the shape you want cut in order to save ink.  After lots of trial and error, I FOUND IT!  It does take quite a few steps so some may not want to bother with the extra steps but I am on a self-imposed crafting budget and this will help save on toner on my laser printer. Please be patient with my explanations as I am definitely no teacher but here goes:

Upload your picture using the basic upload feature of DS.  Select a shape from the cartridge library that will fit just a bit over your picture and in the layers panel make the color of it white.  I used a rectangle-the first one that showed up in images that I had.  Select a shape from the cartridge library that you want cut out of the photo and in the layers panel make it white.  I used a heart from Seasonal Soirees. Place your image to be sliced (heart) on top of the basic shape (rectangle) Slice your image (heart) from the basic shape (rectangle) and move the heart to the side.  Position the basic shape (rectangle) over the picture so that the cut out shape is where you want it on the photo (your white basic shape needs to be on top).  Be sure that your basic shape covers the entire photo --I did that before I sliced the heart out.  Using your mouse, drag the blue box around the picture with the sliced white rectangle on top and click attach.  Take your sliced image (heart) and using the corner dots resize it just a fraction smaller--I had to do this because I had difficulty getting it EXACTLY in the same spot it was sliced from.  It's strange to  note that even though I used the corner resizing dot, the heart did not resize uniformly but it wasn't off enough to bother me.  Make sure the sliced image (heart) is on the scissors in the layers panel.  Then, for now, click the eye on the sliced image (heart) to hide it. At this point there were times when my layers panel showed it had two photos (same pic) to print but ignore that...only one will print)

Click the "GO" spot at the top and print the image (which will be the picture with the basic shape on top--the white rectangle which will show as print in the layers panel).  The photo image will have the sliced image (white heart) cut out. In other words all that will print is your cut out image (the heart).

After it prints, you will then be on the Cut Preview Screen.  X out of that and you will be back at the main cut screen.  Click the "eye" on the sliced image (white heart) and it will appear.  Bring it to the front of the images using the "arrange" icon at the top and position it in the spot where it was cut from. You should see a white rectangle, a sliver of the printed image and the white heart.  Using your mouse, draw the blue box around the images and click attach.   At this point, click on the eye of the photo in the layers panel to hide it (saves on processing time).  In the layers panel BE SURE THE HEART IS ON THE SCISSORS NOT THE PRINT  ( think it automatically reverts back to print during the attach process).   You will then see a white rectangle (print) a sliver of background mat and the white heart with a black outline (meaning cut).  Click the green go button.  On the Mat Preview page, click on the print and continue.

When your printer pulls up the page, click "Cancel" instead of print (my printer screen showed a blank..strange).

You will then be on the cut preview screen (only the heart with black outline and the rectangle will show).

Place your previously printed heart picture on your mat and load it into the machine.  Hit the cut button on the Explore.  First the heart will cut and then the rectangle.  There may be a way to not cut the rectangle but honestly at this point I couldn't figure out how and I was happy with the process as
is. It's just a little bit of paper waste but I recycle all my trash paper.  Once during this experiment, it did a double cut on the heart.  Not sure how I did that but it worked and I was happy.

So...to make a very long story short...it can be done.  Just takes some time so everybody needs to decide what's most valuable to them...time or ink/toner.  Once I do this process a few more times, I'll probably like it more and more.  I did get a lot of shockwave/plug in errors which I just "x" out of and eventually the screens move.  I think it's because of the limitations of my laptop.