Step 1

The basic design could be any flora drawing you choose or draw, I use my Procreate app on the iPad, did a quick sketch, and decided to make a stylized carnation this time. Save as PNG format.

I am using Silhouette Studio to create the file as usual, but you can use any software that you are familiar with. As far as I know, most of the functions I used here are available in Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator, maybe with a slightly different name.

Sogo ahead merge the sketch PNG onto Silhouette Studio, and proceed with preparing the basic shape

Open the Trace panel, select the "trace area" first

Adjust the trace setting, with "Scale" and "Threshold", until you get a perfect coverage of the yellow highlight, then do a "trace".

You would end up with the original and the trace image on top of each other, select the original "move" to the side, and "delete" it

Depending on your original, deciding whether thickening the outline is necessary or not, I do need to thicken the outline a bit, but I wanted to keep the delicate look of the carnation, so I "offset" it by "0.025" only

Once you are satisfied with the thickness of the outline, go ahead and "move" the original to the side and "delete" it.

"color fill" the new outline and the basic flower is ready.

Now, we are going to get the flower ready for text addition.

So we need to cut the stem.

Before that, I like to keep the stem solid, so we need to fill up the hole in the stem. There are different ways to achieve this.

I choose to use the "Point Editing" function, so, select the function from the side menu, and point to the drawing, the bright red highlight shows the selected point and the section, you can click the "delete" key, keep doing the same thing, until all the points are deleted, you would end up a solid stem.

With the "Knife" tool, go ahead and slice the stem.

Now, you are able to move the top part of the flower and the bottom part of the stem apart.

The flower is ready for your personal message.

Typically script font is the easiest to use because all the letters already overlap as you type them. But you really can choose any type of font you prefer, just to make sure that all the letters need to be connected at the end, and they are thick enough to sustain the cutting.

Here I am showing two examples:

Script Font:

As you can see, all three letters overlap each other a little, you can go ahead and use "weld" to merge all letters together, but if the font is a little too thin, you can use "offset" to thicken the font, then proceed the "welding"

None Script Font:

This font is thick enough and ready to use, but they are not connected, so by adding a rectangle between letters, make sure the rectangle is overlapping with the letter, then select them all and "weld" together.

Adding your font to the flower

1. Select the font you prepare
2. Rotate it 180 degrees, move it over on the stem portion of the flower,
3. and adjust the size (maybe)

and the location of the stem,

and the length of the stem (maybe)

After you are satisfied with the placement, "select" all pieces and "weld' them together

Create the "Backing"

"Select" the final flower,

1. open the "Modify" panel, and use "Release Compound Path", to break the flower into all small individual pieces
2. go ahead and "delete" all the small pieces (except the pieces over the font) on the flower portion,
3. then "select" the flower and the two small pieces remaining on the letter "O", go ahead do "subtract" to cut out the holes for the letter "O"
4. 
   

Go ahead and save the design to SVG format

Making the flower

Upload the SVG file onto XCS, go ahead, and turn on the M1, Air Purifier & Air Assist, with the setting 100/4/1 cut on 1.5mm basswood.

After all the pieces are cut, go ahead and color as you own preferences, and glue them together.