I had a great question recently from a Silhouette user. She was wondering how to make a regular image into a stencil. This is a common question, and it's easier than you might think. Let's look at a few different ways to do stencils, from easiest to … [Read more...]
How’d They Do That? Half in, Half Out Logo
I'm one of those folks who looks at signs not only for the information on them, but to check out the fonts and graphics. This past weekend I was in an airport and saw a sign with the logo for Colorado Mountain College. It looks like this:The … [Read more...]
First Steps in Acrylic Etching: Curio
One of the coolest things about a Curio machine is that it can etch materials. Initially, it was created to etch metal. Some super innovative folks have been finding other materials to etch. In particular, my friend Cindy Pope uses it to etch leather … [Read more...]
Simple Subtract: An intro to the Modify panel
Recently I was making a birthday gift for my sister. I had an idea in my head from a sign I saw at Hobby Lobby. It's a pretty common graphic right now -- a rooster standing on a pig standing on a cow. Sometimes they have words on each animal like … [Read more...]
How to clean a heat press
I freely admit that although I'm a very organized person, I'm not necessarily a neat one. As my creative juices get going I sometimes rush through projects to get to the end result. Or I take so long in the designing portion (which I find more fun), … [Read more...]
Making a shape into a card
This year I found myself needing a Father's Day card and having only about 15 minutes to make it. (Ya, don't ask). I had bought my husband some golf head covers and a pass to his favorite golf course, so I wanted -- you guessed it -- a golf-themed … [Read more...]
Planning and executing large projects: Phase 2 — Designing with the Layer tool
This is the second lesson in my series on how to do very large projects using your Silhouette machine. You can find Phase 1 on setting up the file here. In today's lesson, I'll show you how I added my design elements and used the Layer feature … [Read more...]
Planning and executing large projects: Phase 1 — Planning and Set-up
I've been working on a VERY large project lately -- a forest of trees and animals for the children's wing at our church. We're going up 10 feet on the wall and it's 45 feet wide. Plus we're working around the entrance doors. How do you do something … [Read more...]
How’d they do that? Shattered technique
Have you ever seen a design and wondered, "How did they do that?" That happens to me all the time, and I usually don't rest until I've figured it out. If you can understand the techniques someone used, you can use on other designs. Today in our How'd … [Read more...]
Flawed design from the Silhouette Design Store: how to get the corrected version
Last week I shared several ways to alter a design to fit your project, and I used the Silhouette Design Store's free weekly design as a sample. I pointed out several problems with a design and showed how to fix them. You can find that post here. I … [Read more...]
Modifying this week’s Free Design to fit your project (and fixing some mistakes in it)
This week's Free Design in the Silhouette Design Store is a great one to teach you some concepts about how to modify a design to fit your project. It also is a teaching tool for how to fix messed up designs. I want to point out the mistakes and show … [Read more...]
How to use a roll feeder
I'm currently working on a HUGE vinyl project for my church. We're creating a forest scene with animals on a wall 45 feet long and 10 feet high. This is the perfect time to use a roll feeder, since the pieces are really large. What is a roll … [Read more...]
Cutting paper to match a precut chipboard shape
I've shared with you recently a couple of things I made for a baby shower -- some table decorations in which I used a custom plaid pattern I created. There's one more thing I want to share. I bought some large chipboard letters, cut patterned paper … [Read more...]
Adding a multi-color design element into a school mascot
My son's girlfriend coaches high school soccer. Of course, that means I just HAVE to make her some spirit swag. But I didn't want just any old design. I wanted to find a way to incorporate soccer. I love the final result, so thought it would be good … [Read more...]
How to create a custom plaid pattern
Recently, I was helping with the decorations for a baby shower. The organizers wanted a sports theme with an emphasis on University of Tennessee. If you know that school at all, it's main color is a rather bright orange. The trick was to find … [Read more...]