How to make an SVG file with any coloring page!

If you are a parent you are probably asked to provide “on-demand” coloring pages for you brood on a daily basis. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet you can find any character they would like with a quick Google search. So I thought to myself today “Hmmmm, I wonder if I could take these free coloring pages and convert then to SVG files so I can cut them with my Cricut using SCAL software.” And guess what? I can, and I’ll show you how to do it too! Also if you want a layered “Hello Kitty SVG file you can grab one at Candice’s blog, but I just needed a simple outline so I had to make mine myself.)

I wanted to make name badges for my kids backpacks for the first day of school so I asked them who they wanted on their badges. Lila wanted “Hello Kitty”

Maizy wanted “Ariel”

And Jack wanted “Spidy”

Note: If you have Cricut markers you can save yourself a lot of time, aggravation and paper. I’ll explain when we get there. By now you know me, I like my aggravation:-)

Step 1 Find a coloring page. Type “free__________coloring page” in a search engine and choose from millions of images.

Step 2 Right Click on the image and “save as” and save it somewhere you can find it like the desktop.

Step 3 (only do this if you need to remove unwanted elements from the page such as extra characters like in Ariel or the rest of Spiderman’s body.) Open up you image editing software (I use Paint Shop Pro but Photoshop will work too, if you don’t have either try GIMP software, it’s free, it’s good I hear although I’ve never used it) Use you selection tool remove anything you do not want in the image. I like the Lasso tool but use whatever, you can even take away stray marks with the eraser tool. Save the image.

Step 4 open Inkscape (also a freebie) and select the “Arrow” in the upper left colum of tools. Click on your image. Click on the Path menu (top center of workspace) then click “Trace bitmap”. A window will open, click update and you will see your image in the window. Click OK and close the window. Now you will see your image with resizing arrows in a box around it. Click path, the “Object to path”. Now Save it and make sure it is saved as an SVG file. Such as Ariel.svg

Step 5 Open SCAL and under file click “import SVG” choose your file and it will appear on the SCAL/Cricut cutting mat. Resize and hit “Cut”.

That’s all there is to it! Now about the markers. Some cartoons are very detailed and the Cricut can cut them but it’s a pain to glue and stick tiny little cut out features, So I reccomend using a marker before you cut. For example on the mermaid  (I freehand drew it but it would look much better had I done it with a cricut marker) put the marker in the blade holder in the cricut and click “cut”. Take out the marker and put back the blade. Under the Properties box in SCAL change the style to blackout then press “cut.” You will have a perfectly drawn and cut image. Wish I thought of that first!

Finished Badges lamenated with eyelets and string.

To finish I used chalk to color hello kitty, colored pencils and metallic watercolors to color ariel and a sharpie to fill in the web on spidy. I used a 3-M gloss laminating sheet to laminate them and added eyelets with my Crop-A-Dial and string. This is the most impressed my children have ever been with my crafting! Happy Dance! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and happy cutting!