Cutting Acetate with the Silhouette Tutorial by Tya

Hi friends – today I am here to show you a fun technique using acetate! I am a sucker for cute packaging so when I was pondering about what to do my tutorial on for this month I knew I wanted to share this one with you. I decided to do a couple of colorful St. Patrick’s Day Favors to show off this technique. It just wouldn’t be the same if you couldn’t see the Skittles and Gold Coins that these boxes hold, so when you really want to show off what is inside your packaging or if your treats fit a holiday or a theme like my treats do, acetate is the way to go! It may seem basic and easy, but it is so fun to use something other than cardstock and pattern paper when using our digital cutting machines.

I use this brand of acetate (also know as transparency film) for my projects. It cuts beautifully in my Silhouette machine. Apollo Transparency Film

Apollo® Plain Paper Copier Transparency Film, Clear, 8 1/2in.(W) x 11in.(H), 100/Box

Here are the steps to my project –

1- Open up Silhouette program.

2- Find the 2 box cut files and place them in the workspace.

When deciding what boxes to use from Lori’s library – I chose to use 2 of my favorite boxes to use with acetate. I love these boxes because they require no gluing – which can be tricky with acetate because a lot of the adhesives show through so these boxes were perfect. I used the Santa Petal box (minus the “santa” parts) and the No Glue Gable Box.I used some of Lori’s darling Hang Tags well.

Links below

No Glue Gable Box (Silhouette Store)
Santa Petal Box (Lori Whitlock Shop) (Silhouette Store)
5 Hang Tags (Silhouette Store)

3- Since the acetate is fairly thick, I used the textured cardstock settings (Blade Depth 6, Cutting speed 3, Thickness 33. I also checked the Double Cut box to make sure that the cuts are nice and deep and this also helps when you go to fold up the boxes.

So my challenge to you is to go pick up some of this fun medium from your local office supply store and try your hand at this fun technique. Thank you for stopping by!

9 Comments

Very cute! Thanks for sharing!

These turned out super cute Tya–Such a great idea! 🙂

these are so cute! I’ve cut acetate before with my cameo and while it cut great, when I went to fold it the acetate snapped where it was perforated, thus breaking those pieces instead of a nice fold line. Is it just the kind of acetate that does it?

Aubrey- Thank you for stopping by the blog! On these particular cut files , I had no troubles with the acetate at all. The folds were pretty simple so maybe that helped

Hi,
Can I use any brand of transparency film with my Cameo? I found some at Walmart for super cheap! The brand is SchoolSmart Copier TRansparency film. Will this work for making stencils?

pls email me ur reply. just want to ask what type of cutting machine did u use? is dye cutter ok? im planning to put up a small home business for acetate boc making but dont know what kind of machine to use. machine that cuts the lau out for cutting and scores the sides for easy folding without snapping. appreciate your help on this. thnx