Year of the Rabbit - Inkscape

I'm not sharing files today since I did not make this so this is a "learning how to fish" post.

I saw the design on google and downloaded it as a .jpg and converted it in Inkscape.  Easy Peasy.  Here is the link to clip art files for Year of the Rabbit.

Find the graphic and more HERE

Gung Hay Fat Choy means "Best wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year".

This is a cuttable/printable graphic to help you and yours celebrate the Chinese New Year.  It is a really big thing here in San Francisco.

Steps to Success

All you need to do is capture/download the graphic as you find it on the search.  Depending on your system set up it will be either a .png or a .jpg.

Import the graphic into your favorite cutting program i.e. SCAL, MTC, or Inkscape.

Do a "trace" on it to convert it to something that will cut on your cutter.

Deleting Nodes

The end result in Inkscape 0.48 had way too many nodes to cut smoothly so I did  a path/simplify to get rid of some of them but it distorted too badly.  LOVE UNDO!

I am an SCAL user with the newest version 2.038 and have found that simplify in SCAL does a much better job reducing nodes without distortion.  I don't have MTC so can't attest to it doing a better job.  But you do want to try and reduce the nodes however works for you. 

Obviously if you are just going to print it nodes don't matter.

It will also be fun to use for those Easter decorations.  For an Easter egg

 just drag the image down a bit to make an egg shape and in a bit to form an egg shape. This one has a white mat and the design is "cut" into a purple egg shape.  In Inkscape I did a path/difference to get the effect.

I'd sure like to know if you completed this task and learned something about "how to fish".

However you choose to use them I want to wish you all:

 Best wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year.