Category: Tutorial

Silhouette Knife Tutorial

Hi friends!  I’m excited to share a sweet card and tutorial with you today!
I recently went on vacation and had my son’s fiancé stay at my house with my dogs.  I decided to make a thank you card for her, and wanted the dogs on the card to resemble my pups.  I love Lori’s cute dog cutting file, but one of my dogs has a shorter tail, and one has shorter ears…so here is what I did to fix this.
1. First I pulled up the dog shape I wanted to use.  I resized and ungrouped all of the pieces and slid the shapes that I didn’t want to use right away, over to the side.
2.  Next, I highlighted my dog and duplicated the shape.  Since one of my dogs is smaller, I resized one, and flipped her around so that they weren’t facing the same way.
3.   Before I cut my shapes, I zoomed in on them so that I could see the cut lines better.
4.  I used the knife tool along the left hand tool bar.   I clicked on the line to start my cut…and then clicked on the line where I wanted my cut to end (notice the first dog’s tail).
5.  I did the same step for cutting the second dog’s ears to make them shorter.
Once the cut line was created, I used the ‘move tool’ (top arrow) and then clicked on the pieces to move them off to the slide.
6.  The photo below shows where I have used the knife tool to cut one dog’s tail and the other dog’s ears to make them look like my adorable pups 🙂
7.  Since I don’t want my dogs’ tail and ears to be square, I used the “edit point” (second arrow with dots) tool to round these areas out.  If you click this tool, you can pull your points around into the shape you want.
8.  This shot shows how one of the ears has been rounded.
9.  Here is the final way my sweet dogs looked before I cut them out…
And here is the card I created with my new shapes.
Lori Whitlock cutting files used on this project:
Thanks for visiting Lori’s site today!  Please pop over to my blog at Artsy Albums to say hello!

Silhouette Tutorial Subtract Feature by Corri

Hi everyone!  I have a quick tutorial for you today with a couple of examples of how to use the subtract feature in Silhouette Studio.

In my first example, I used the subtract feature to cut down this ticket border for the ice cream card I did a couple of weeks ago.

To trim down the border, use the rectangle tool to draw a rectangle around the tickets you want to delete.

Then click on the modify menu along the top and select subtract. 

To separate the two layers, right click and pull down to release compound path.

Now you have two layers.  I cut them in different colors and stamped my sentiment on the top layer.

For my second example, I made a simple cut out card using one of the hearts from Lori’s 11 hearts set.

I created a rectangle that was 5.25″h x 4″ and placed the heart along the edge.  Select both objects and go to the modify menu and click on subtract.

I created another rectangle at 5.375 x 4.125 to adhere behind the heart.

I cut one of these banner labels for my sentiment.

I embellished my simple card with some gem stickers, a button and some burlap string.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  You can see more of my projects on my blog.

Silhouette Tutorial Welding Shapes by Christine

If there is one thing that I love about digital die cuts, it’s that you can have fun manipulating them to make something very different than they might have been intended for.  I took one of Lori’s 4×6 Life Card files and made a mini album from it.  I only used one of the shapes but using the directions that I am going to give you, it will be very possible to make a mini book with different shaped pages.
Here is the file that I used.  Once I had my shape on my mat, I actually resized it to a 3×4 size for a mini, mini album, but you can create it in any size that you would like.
Here are some pictures of my finished mini book.  I used Lori Whitlock’s Here & Now for Echo Park paper and embellishment collection to create my mini book.  I’ll have more up close pictures of my mini on my blog if you want to pop on over there.
So now for the tutorial.  How do you take a 4×6 Life card and make it into this ticket shaped accordion mini album?  Let me show you!
Pick the shape that you want to use.  I picked the ticket stye.  Ungroup the file and delete the shapes that you don’t want to use for this project.  Replicate your shape so that you have a row of three.
Move each shape to the left so that they are just barely overlapping.  You don’t want to go too far because it will distort the shape.  You will know when you weld the shapes together you will know if you put them close enough because the middle lines will disappear.
If you move over too much or not enough, just click the undo button and try again.
Tip:  Hold down the shift key while you are drawing your line, to get a perfect straight line.
This step can be done whether you have the basic or Designer Edition of the Silhouette Software.
Sorry, the above direction should say, Copy one of the perforated lines and paste it on the end of the welded shape where you just erased the line.  Draw a short angled line, select it and mirror left under the replicate feature.
Cut out as many of these groupings to make your mini book long or short.
Try this technique with basic shapes or more complicated shapes.  You never know what you can make until you try.
To create the mats for the individual pages of my mini book, I took one of the original shapes and used the inside offset feature.  Those I cut out separately from matching paper.
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial today.  If you have any questions please feel free to visit my blog and leave your question in the comment section.  Thanks!!
Supplies used:
Here & Now paper and embellishment collection by Lori Whitlock for Echo Park

Silhouette Tutorial by Mendi Creating Decorative Photo Mats + SALE

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful 4th of July! It’s always been one of my favorite holidays! First off, let’s start this holiday right by having a 30% OFF SALE in the SVG shop. Now through July 7, you can take 30% OFF your entire order!! So, it’s time to stock up on all those cutting files you’ve been wanting to get! Simply use coupon code: JULY at checkout. SHOP HERE

I feel privileged to be able to share a festive layout and video tutorial today using fun papers from Pebbles Let Freedom Ring collection and a number of cutting files designed by Lori.
As I state below in my video, I have a bit of a confession… I created this 8×8 layout for my Mother-in-law as part of her Christmas gift last year and saved it until now to share. The only trouble is I didn’t know then that it would be my turn to create a tutorial so I’ve tried my best to pull from my project a few of my favorite tips and tricks that I’m hoping will still manage to teach a few of you something new. 😉
To create my layout I used the following cutting files designed by Lori Whitlock:
2 Borders (Silhouette Store only)
Dot Star (Silhouette Store only)

Also, remember the Silhouette Promotion this week:

If you do upgrade your software (or buy a machine+software) using code: LORI you can earn this free SVG file. Just send me a your order number to info@loriwhitlock.com.
And, we’re still taking entries for this fantastic GIVEAWAY!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Working With Silhouette Files Tutorial by Brigit

Hi Everyone, I have a couple of helpful hints today, things I do in Silhouette Studio Desiger Edition to help me prepare my files before I cut them out.  I’ll be using Lori’s 2 boxes on a 12 x 12 file and one of the cards from the belly band set.

The flag on the box is from the patriotic icon set, I resized both of these to make a smaller treat box.  The ungrouped box measures 10.170w x 5.840h and the flag pieces ungrouped measures, stars – 1.580w x 1.060, stripes – 3.015w x 1.905h and the flag box – 3.015w x 1.905h.

When I added the card the pieces are bigger than the mat, so I select all and ungroup.  Notice the score lines, they are ungrouped also, so I click and drag around the card and score lines to select, go to the modify window and select make compound path (or group), you can also right click and select make compound path. You are going to do the same thing to the belly band so it’s easier to have the modify window open so you can select make compound path or group again.

I like to fill with the color or pattern paper I’m going to use and arrange my project to see how it will look.

Here is a picture of the flag, I ungrouped but it also ungrouped the stars. If you go to move it and this happens just go to edit and undo move, then click and drag and select over the stars and box and make a compound path.

Here’s a picture of the make compound path and group, they both will cut the stars out, but I like to see exactly how it will look with the make compound path.

There are two boxes with this file, so I ungrouped and deleted the other box then resized, (I also did another ungroup and make compound path on this box so I would see the lines when resized and fit the flag.)

I group my pieces together by color or pattern paper.  Keeping your groups to the left side, moving to the mat to cut, then to the right side helps you keep track of what’s been cut.

For this project though I did a print-n- cut on two 12 x 12 pieces of white textured cardstock, (American Crafts 80lb), I arranged and grouped the pieces together.  I then selected my group and go to the line color window and select none.  Now print-n- cut. Next, move those shapes to the right and place the next group on your mat and finish cutting those out.

I used Echo Park’s 4th of July Mini Theme digital paper, Stars & Stripes Trendy Twine and Jaded Blossom’s Celebrate America stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope these tips help, I have a couple more project photos on my blog.

Hopefully this is a helpful tutorial. Thank you for dropping by!