Tag: silhouette

Blog Party + Vinyl Tutorial + Freebie

It’s Day 3 of our Blog Party! We have another FREEBIE at the end of today’s post so be sure to keep reading…
We have a fantastic vinyl tutorial today by CT member, Mendi. Thank you Mendi for sharing your expertise with all of us!
Here’s what Mendi has to say:
“Today I have an easy step-by-step tutorial sharing how to cut and use vinyl which I used on a simple little card (featuring Lori’s super fun Here & Now collection which she designed for Echo Park).  While vinyl is perfect for so many home decor projects, I  personally adore using it for my cards and scrapbook layouts.  It’s the perfect medium for cutting delicate files that would ordinarily shred cardstock.”

“I started off by planning the basic layout of my card by assembling it visually in my Silhouette software, changing the fill colors to get a feel for what papers I might want to use to cut it out.  I changed a couple things along the way (like my sentiment color since I was sad to discover that my hot pink vinyl was not a good match for my paper).”
“I knew I wanted to cut the teeny-tiny bird legs and beaks out of orange vinyl, but they were all one piece with the branch so to get around that I made a duplicate and used my knife to isolate the birds and cut out part of the branch.  I could have cut it all off, but I decide to leave a portion to help me line up my birds just right during assembly.  The following screen shots show the steps I took to do this, deleting the extras portions I didn’t need.”

“I was now ready to cut my birds from the orange vinyl.  To do this I selected the vinyl cut setting from the menu.  With vinyl you have the option to adhere it to your cutting mat like you would cardstock or to insert it directly into your machine.  Personally I like to use my mat and use up small scraps of vinyl (and not mess with changing settings), but for the purpose of today’s tutorial I thought I would share another option. 

When using your vinyl without a mat you need to make sure to uncheck the box next to “cutting mat” within your cutting settings window.”


“If you’re using a Cameo, depending on the width of your vinyl, you will also most likely need to slide the rollers by following the directions on the inside cover of the machine.”


“Also make sure to change your setting from ‘load cutting mat’ to ‘load media’ and hit enter.”


“Change your blade setting to 2 (or in my case I accidentally took a picture of mine set to 3 which also works if your blade is getting dull).”


“After pulling my full-sized vinyl from the machine, I cut around the image to avoid waste and peeled off and threw away the negative portion of the image.”


“I then cut a small piece of transfer paper that was similar in size and peeled it from the glossy paper backing (if you’re thrifty like me, this can be saved and reused though so make sure to keep the backing it comes on to hold onto for another project).”


“Lay the clear transfer paper over your vinyl image (sticky side down) and rub with the popsicle stick it comes with (or bone folder or stylus).”


“Peel back the transfer paper and your image should now be clinging to the clear transfer paper.  If not you can help it along by rubbing stubborn areas again or sticking a fingernail in there to encourage it.”


“Now you are ready to adhere it to your actual project.  Once again your rub-it with your popsicle stick or stylus (and once again you repeat as necessary or stick a fingernail in between the transfer paper and your vinyl cutout to help it along).” 


“When images are not fragile or easily warped in their shape it’s possible to skip the transfer paper all together, but I personally love the transfer paper because it helps me line it up perfectly every time just the way it was on my computer screen.” 🙂


“I repeated these same steps to cut out the sentiment “love you” on my card.  With the small size I chose, this was even more fragile than the bird legs and would have been nearly impossible to do with any material other than vinyl.  I completed my card with more cute papers from the Here & Now collection.”


To create my card today I used the following cutting files designed by Lori Whitlock:

“For all those new Silhouette owners out there I hope I’ve taught you something new and for everyone else, I hope I’ve managed to inspire you to play with vinyl more and give it a try for your next intricate cutting project!”

If you’re interested in giving vinyl a try we have a super promotion going on right now!

You can BUY ONE GET ONE FREE on all Silhouette vinyl now through August 14! Here are the two deals you can cash in on…

(1)    Silhouette CAMEO®, 2 rolls of vinyl (chalkboard and white) and 1 roll of transfer paper: $269.99
(2)    Buy one get one free deals on all Silhouette vinyl (including transfer paper and stencil vinyl, too)

Be sure to shop using this link: www.silhouetteamerica.com/vinyl and use the coupon code LORI at checkout.

Are you ready for ANOTHER freebie? TODAY ONLY we have another FREE shape for you! This saying from Kolette Hall is perfect for cutting out of vinyl! Just incase you were not aware, Kolette Hall offers her SVG shapes in our online shop along with her Commercial use licenses for her SVG and Silhouette cutting files. Thank you, Kolette for sharing this beautiful FREEBIE today!

EXPIRED

Just a reminder… ALL SVG cutting files and fonts in Lori’s Shop are on sale, use coupon code SUMMER to get 30% OFF your entire order!

Be sure you ENTER TO WIN the Silhouette Cameo that we’re giving away!! The winner will be announced on Monday!

THANK YOU for joining our Blog Party this week! It’s been fun having you here with us! I thoroughly appreciate your support! My goal is to bring outstanding cutting files, paper, fabric, etc. to you! Just knowing that you enjoy working with the things I’m designing keeps me going! Thank you!

Silhouette Tutorial Filling Shapes with Digital Prints by Brigit

Hi everyone Brigit here with another SSDE Tutorial.  I love to fill my shapes with digital paper and then do a print n cut with my Silhouette Cameo.  It does such an awesome job cutting out the pattern filled shapes as you can see in the card below.

For this project I used one of the cards from the Christmas Card Set 2 and Lori’s digital paper collection Sweet Life.  I only used the card and the two front layers, you can delete the other pieces.

If you need help with ungrouping and making compound paths check out my tutorial here.

I do not import my digital paper into SSDE, I have it all organized by designer in a folder on my computer.  You can see in the photo how I have the folder opened onthe right-hand side next to my program.

I just dragged the pattern paper from the folder and dropped it into the shape.

Notice on the card the owl design is to the left and cutoff.

Select the card, go to the Fill Pattern and Advanced Options, click on the Pan Pattern, a circle with crosshairs will appear in the middle of the card, click on it and move the paper around.

I wanted my owl on the opposite side with the white swirls to the right so I clicked on the Horizontally under the Mirror Pattern.

I line up the card fronts so when panning I can see exactly where I’d like the owl to be.  I used the Scale Pattern and enlarged the paper to 110% so the edge of the paper wouldn’t show.  The scale pattern is great to make your pattern paper designs larger or smaller I use it all the time.

Lori has a cute owl and tree cut file that matches this collection in the owls set, I used the eyedropper under the Fill Color and selected colors from the collection so everything would match or you can fill them also with the digital paper.  The sentiment is an element from the Sweet Life collection, to cut that out you need to first do a trace, that will be covered in another tutorial.

All my pieces fit on one 12″ x 12″ piece of cardstock, registration is checked under the Registration Marks and I make sure all my cuts are selected under the Cut Style.  Now I’m ready to do a print n cut.

Other Supplies Used: AC White Textured Cardstock, In the Navy Trendy Twine, Brads

Thanks for stopping by, I hope this tutorial has helped!!  You can visit me at http://www.brigitsscraps.com.

Silhouette Sale and Giveaway

Have you seen all the consumable products that Silhouette offers on their website? I am amazed at everything the Silhouette Machines can do. Be Sure to check out their blog and get a sneak peak of all their new products.

Today until July 30 ALL Silhouette Consumables both new and old are on sale at 40% off, I will take one of each please! Check out the new products released at CHA. Use this link and use coupon code LORI at checkout.

Along with this promotion, Silhouette is also giving away a portrait machine. Would you like to be our lucky winner? To enter follow the steps below. Good luck to you all. We will announce the winner on Monday July 29.


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!

Silhouette Tutorial Bending Text by Traci

Hi everyone!  I’m excited to share a fun and easy tutorial with you today!  These steps will show you how to bend lines of text, either to create a phrase that wraps around an object, or to fit inside a curved shape as I have done on Lori’s adorable hot air balloon.
Here is the card I created with a curved “Thank You” cut out of the band.
First, pull up the shape you want to place your text in and resize it if necessary.
If there are multiple pieces to your shape, ungroup them and move everything to the side except the piece you want the word in.  Zoom in on your shape a bit, and chose the text option on the left tool bar.  As you type your word or phrase, a green box will appear.  Note that there will also be a little circle, with a cross in it, along the green line.
If you place your curser over this circle and click, you are able to drag your word into your shape.  When you hover the word over a line, the letters snap to the shape of the line.  To move your word up into the center of your shape, you will use the grey sliding bar that appears through your letters.  If you place your curser along that bar and slide upwards, your letters will move up.  However, in some cases, the spacing on your letters will also move in and start overlapping.
To prevent this, move your word over to the left so that you can see how much room you will have to increase your character spacing.
Play with the character spacing (found toward the bottom of your text style window) until you like the way the word looks.


Now you should be able to go back to the sliding grey line and move your word up into the center of your shape without the letters bunching up together.  You will notice once you’ve done this however, that your original shape line is now grey (no cut line).  This would be okay if you just wanted to cut out the bent word.

But, for this tutorial, we want to cut out the banner shape for the front of my balloon, so I will need to make this a cut line (red) again.  Highlight your shape and click on the Cut Style icon at the top.  In the Cut Style window, click the button that says “Enable Cut Style”.

Now your entire image is red and will be cut.


This is also a fun technique to use for cutting a phrase to wrap around a circle.  You would just snap your phrase on the outside line of the circle, rather than inside the shape.  I will post another project showing an example of this on my blog today, so I invite you to stop by Artsy Albums to check it out!
Thanks! Traci