
The only truly official tutorials are those packaged with the program, which you can find in the Help menu > Tutorials. At this writing more than 95% are made by Inkscape users, and scattered hither and yon across the internet. This will combine all of your shapes into one, and if you did a good job matching the contours and filling all the space, you should have the image you wanted! You can see our bunny Geronimo loved being turned into a cutting file.The Inkscape community has produced a vast volume of tutorials over the years.
Once you have your image covered in OVERLAPING paths, select all the paths (but not the image itself) and click Path -> UNION. Also, keep in mind you can remove nodes by selecting one and hitting delete and you can add nodes by double clicking where you want one. There are also tools for change the node type from a rounded one to a pointy one (right above Arrow 1). These bend the edges of your circle and allow you to match the contour of your image. Once the node is on the edge of your image, move the little round “whiskers” (I don’t know what these are really called). Drag the nodes to spots along the edges of your image. If you click a node, you can move it around. If you look closely at Arrow 2 in the image below, you will see a node highlighted in red. Then, click on your shape to start conforming it to your image. Now for the fun part! Click on the node tool (Arrow 1 in the image below). You may need more or less depending on the size and shape of your image. I needed about 7 blobs (which started as circles) to cover my image.
Now, go ahead and copy this circle and paste it several times on your image.This will ensure that your circle is a path and not just a shape. Change to the arrow tool, click your circle, and select Path->Object to Path.Draw a circle using the shape tool shown below and place it over part of your image.