Category: Tutorial

Silhouette Tutorial: Sketch Pens

Have you used the Silhouette pens yet?  Well I have and have found that they are so fun to use and very versatile.   Today I have a few simple examples of how you can use the pens and then a tutorial to show exactly how easy it is to create with your own set of pens.
Lori has a bunch of fun Life Cards in her shop and I so I want to show you how you can embellish or journal on these cut files with the Silhouette pens.  My first example is a 3×4 Life Card that has a speech bubble cut into it.  I simply typed a title in the space of the bubble using Lori Whitlock’s cursive sketch font.  I’ll explain the steps on how to draw and cut your shapes below.
My second example uses the same Life Card but this time I am demonstrating how you can use the pen to do your journaling.  No need to do print and cut.  Just use your Silhouette pens. Lori has plenty of fonts to use for your journaling and the pens come in many colors so you’ll really be able to personalize your cards perfectly.
My third example is part of my tutorial.  When cut in it’s original shape, the hearts are actually cut out.  In my version I show you how you can draw the hearts instead of cutting them.  This simple technique will extend the capabilities of your digital cut files tremendously.
I’ve put together some screen shots to show you exactly what you will do to duplicate the card above.

1.  Here is what my original Life Card looks like.  I ungrouped it from the three other cards that came with it and left it the same 3 x 4 size.

2.The first thing that you will want to do is to make sure all of the pieces in the shape are ungrouped.  For this particular file, the hearts and the card shape have been combined into a compound shape because the hearts are normally cut outs.  So before you ungroup the piece, you will first need to, click the image, then go to the top menu and select Image and then Release Compound Shape.  You will then see your shape look like the picture above.  The hearts are there, they are just underneath the card piece.  (Note:  Not all files will require you to release a compound shape.  If your shape is not a compound shape, then you can just ungroup, and move to step 4)
3.  Then select all, CTRL-A, and ungroup, CTRL-U.
4.  Now we are going to go to the Cut Style menu.  This will make it easier for you to see all of the pieces of the file.  As you can see, when the Cut Style menu is open, the lines that will be cut are outlined in dark pink.  Changing the options on each of the cut lines, is how we are going to create using the Silhouette pens.
5.  The first thing we want to do is to select the outside line of the card.  When it is selected, click on the option No Cut.  This will mean that when we replace the blade with the Silhouette pen, that outline will be ignored, or Not Cut.  The pen will only “cut” or draw the hearts.  Do not change the option for the hearts at this time.
6.  Now it is time to draw the hearts.  When you click the Silhouette Cut Settings button, your view of the card will change back and you will only see the card piece again.  Don’t worry, the hearts are still there.
7.  Place your paper on your mat and load it into your machine.  Replace the blade with your selected color of Silhouette pen in the blade holder.  Make sure to close the blade holder by turning the blue piece.  Go to the menu on the screen and change the Silhouette settings to the Preset, Silhouette Sketch Pen.  Then click cut.
When it is done, do NOT unload the mat from the machine.
8.  Now we are going to cut the card out.  Go back to the Cut Style menu.  We want to cut the outside line and not cut the hearts this time.  The easiest way to do this is to Select All, CTRL-A, and then click No Cut.
9.  Then click the outside line of the card, and change that to Cut.
10.  Then go back to your Silhouette Cut Settings.  Take the Silhouette pen out of the blade holder and replace it with the blade.  Lock into place.  On the Cut Settings menu, select the Pre Set setting that corresponds to the type of material that you are cutting.  I was using white cardstock so I chose the Cardstock setting.  When ready, click cut.  Unload machine and take off your Life Card.
Here is one more example of the heart Life Card.  To do this, I selected certain hearts each time I sent it through the Silhouette machine to “cut/draw” and each time I switched out the color of pens to create the rainbow effect.
Lori Whitlock supplies:
Life Cards  (Silhouette Store)
Here & Now 6×6 paper pad by Lori Whitlock for Echo Park
Other Supplies:
White Cardstock
Silhouette Pens- original colors

Silhouette Tutorial Print & Cut by Mendi

I’m excited to be back today to share a Silhouette video tutorial with all of you!
Today’s card and video shares several little tricks and tips, but my primary focus was to share how to take one of Lori’s many versatile shapes and to personalize it to create your own customized “print & cut” file.  The creative possibilities using this basic idea are endless which is really exciting!
I decided for my card it would be fun to make a chalkboard themed speech bubble to match the feel of Lori’s “Here & Now” collection using one of her everyday shapes, sentiments and digital paper files.
To create my project I used the following cutting files designed by Lori:
Patriotic Icons (Ice Cream Cone)
Heart Flowers (Pom Pom–Silhouette Store Only)

The chalkboard paper I used can be purchased at Jessica Sprague here:

Silhouette Tutorial by Brigit: Polygon Tool

Hi everyone, Brigit here, Today I have a tutorial using the polygon tool to create cutouts from the acorn box to make this luminary.  It’s a fun and easy project that looks so pretty when done!

Import the acorn and resize it to 15.5″w with aspect ratio checked. Now ungroup, you can move the other pieces off the mat, (the hole on the lid ungroups also so make sure you group it together again with the lid before you move.)

On the first panel zoom in close, select the Polygon tool, click in one corner then the second, third, forth and back to the first to form your shape like I did here in blue, don’t worry about being precise.

If you double click on the shape you will see 4 dots in the corners, click on them and you can easily adjust the lines if need be.

Now select the shape you just created, go to the offset window and select internal offset, I used a .250 offset distance.  Delete your original shape, you just want the internal one.

Continue and repeat the same steps with the next 5 panels.  After you finish the last one, select the whole acorn including the shapes you just made, go to the modify window and select Make, you can do this after each one if you don’t want to worry about moving it but I just use the undo if that happens.  This is how it looks filled.

With the knife tool I cut leaving just enough to folder over at the top and some off the side flap, you don’t have to be exact, leave more you can trim with a scissor if you have too.  Tip, when I was cutting the flaps after the third one from the left I lost one of the bottom lines, so I ctrl z (undo) selected the whole shape again, and used make a compound path.  I could continue cutting the other flaps without losing the cut line.

The last thing you need to do is make the vellum pieces so use the polygon tool again and draw inside the score marks on one of the panels, you’ll need 6 of them.

Here’s how the body of the luminary looks with the vellum pieces.  Make sure you glue the vellum on first and then fold over the top flaps before you assemble.  Follow Lori’s video here for the instructions on putting the rest of the acorn together.

To decorate I used the flowers from the 3D Flower Set 5 and the leaf that came with the acorn.  I embossed the vellum and rubbed a little distress ink over. Paper is from Echo Park’s Reflections Fall Collection designed by Lori, it’s so beautiful, love the stickers and chipboard pieces too!  Finished with some Thanksgiving Orange Truffle Trendy Twine, a cute little button and sentiment from the paper collection.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, you can visit me at http://www.brigitsscraps.com

Creating Titles Using the Flip and Weld Features with Traci

Please welcome Traci to the blog today sharing this adorable layout with us.

Happy Thursday Lori fans!

I’m so glad to be here sharing a tutorial with you today!  This one is pretty easy, but I often forget that I can do this so I thought I would share a creative way to have fun with your titles. 

I’ve been saving a photo of my son for just the right layout idea.  I wanted to focus on the photo, but have a really nice element in the title or embellishment.  I decided to use a few of Lori’s wonderful files to create a really neat title for this picture.  Plus, fall is my favorite time of year, and it will be here before we know it!

1.  First, pull up Lori’s wonderful fall designs…the autumn leaves title, and the fall flourish.

 2. Next, move the title off to the side so you can focus on the flourish. Size the flourish to 6″ in the ‘scale’ window and click Lock Aspect Ratio and apply.

3.  Click on the ‘duplicate’ icon and then ‘duplicate right’.

4.  Both of the shapes are facing the same way…which will look a bit funny under the title, so highlight the left shape, right click, and flip
horizontally.

5.  Next, move the left shape over just enough to overlap the right one slightly.  Highlight both shapes, and then right click and hit weld.


6. Now, right click and flip vertically so the image is upside down.   This allows for a straighter line across the top of the shape for adding the title.

Next move the “autumn leaves” title back over onto the mat.  Ungroup both words by highlighting the whole title, right click and hit ungroup.

7.  To add an internal offset on top of the full title, first duplicate the title and temporarily move one off to the side. 

8.  Next, line up your title and flourish pieces so that they overlap slightly.

9.  Right click and hit weld to connect your border and title pieces all together.  Cut this piece out.

10.  To cut a smaller, overlapping title to cover the ‘autumn leaves’ portion,  highlight those pieces and click on the offset icon, and then ‘internal offset’. Zoom into the shapes to make sure that you can pull away the correct portion, and move the outer pieces off the mat. Finally, cut the internal offset portion in a different color.

And here is my final layout!
In addition to Lori’s flourish and title pieces, I also used the brand new paper and embellishments she designed for Echo Park, Reflections Fall.
Thanks so much for letting me share! Please stop by my blog at Artsy Albums to say hello!
Traci

Cropping in Silhouette Studio by Corri

Hi everyone!  I have a simple tutorial for you today using a new tool I recently discovered in Silhouette Studio.  It’s the crop feature and it’s super easy to do but very useful.  I used it to make a quick and easy name tag for my daughter’s backpack.

First, open this tag and border on your mat. I resized the tag to 5″w. Make a duplicate of your tag.

Line the the border up on top of your tag.

Select both items and then go to the Modify menu in the upper left of your screen.

 

Click on Crop.

It trims your border to fit perfectly along the edge of your tag.

I typed  Olivia using Lori’s Happy Font and embellished my tag with this butterfly and a sticker from the

Here and Now Collection that Lori designed for Echo Park.

 

I laminated it to make it more durable….so it was a little hard to photograph but it turned out very cute! I will be using the crop feature a lot.  It’s perfect for trim border for cards that have an unusual shape.  I also think it would be cute to trim a grass border to fit perfectly along the edge of an Easter egg.