Who doesn’t like free? If you’re raising your hand, you can stop reading now and go drive your expensive sports car to the mall to buy whatever you want. Since that’s not most of us, I’ll keep writing the post.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click the link and purchase something, I may receive a small commission. Your price for the product is the same. This helps me to be able to keep my business going and provide more tutorials.
You probably already know that the Silhouette Design Store has a new Free Design of the Week every Tuesday. But did you know there are other free designs as well, along with discounted ones? Let me show you how to find the deals.
Look at the very top of the SDS for the section labeled “Deals.” Click on that to find these categories: Free Designs, Daily Deals, Weekly Steals and Last-Chance.
Free Designs
Free with Purchase
When you click this, the first thing you’ll likely see are the designs called Free With Purchase.
What that means is that if you purchase another specific design, this one is free. Read that carefully — the design you purchase has to be a specific one, not just any one. Typically, it’s any other design by that artist. Click on the design to bring up the detailed info on it, and you’ll see what the criteria is.
Silhouette E-books
There are several E-books that are always free in the SDS.
Check back periodically for new ones.
Always free
The SDS has some designs that are always free. There’s at least one of each type of design: regular cut, print and cut, 3d, craft font, premium font, printable pattern, sketch and rhinestone.
Daily Deals
Daily Deals change every 24 hours. They are 30% off, 40% off on Fridays. When there’s a big sale, such as 50% off all designs, you won’t find any Daily Deals.
Weekly Steals
Weekly Steals are designs that are 50% off. The designs in this sale change every Tuesday.
Last-Chance
Last-Chance Designs are those that will soon be removed from the SDS and are usually 75% off. You’ll still be able to use and download those designs in the future — they just won’t be available for others to purchase them. Think of it like getting a shirt on clearance at Target. You can keep it for as long as you like, but once they are sold out other folks won’t be able to buy the same one.
With a Premium or Diamond subscription (more on that below), Last-Chance designs are always free. Today I found 125 Last-Chance designs, so that’s pretty good deal.
Other ways to save
Besides those 4 categories, there are also other ways to save in the Silhouette Design Store.
Sales
There’s a sale in the Silhouette Design Store almost all the time – definitely once a month at the minimum. For example, in late August there’s a Back to School sale where all education-related images are on sale. Sometimes it’s the images of a specific designer. The sale is usually 25% off, but often between Black Friday and Christmas or for other special reasons it’s 50%. And if you have an upper level subscription, the discount you get once you’ve spent all your credits still applies.
You can keep up to date on what’s on sale by signing up for the Silhouette newsletter on their website. You’ll find out about sales on products as well.
Other discounts
Sometimes designs are discounted but aren’t specifically in a sale or deal. How do you find those?
First, select Designs>All Designs from the menu.
Then go into the filters and sort by Price: Low to High.
Subscriptions
This involves committing to spend a set amount of money each month for a number of months. In return, you get massive discounts on the prices of images. Here’s the catch — subscription credits don’t last forever — they expire. You can find the subscription types here. Since this is a big topic that can be confusing, I have a entire post on it here.
Credit Boosts
Credit Boosts are a type of hybrid between pay-as-you-go and a subscription. You don’t get as large of a discount as you do with a subscription, but the credits never expire. Here’s how it works.
• You choose the level of credits you want to purchase — $30, $50, $75 or $100.
• The higher level you choose, the lower percentage you pay. For instance, you can purchase $30 of credits for $20, so you save 33%. If you purchase a higher level like $100, you pay more ($50) but you’re saving 50% of what you would spend if you did a pay-as-you-go option.
• You are getting a discount because you pay up front. Since you’ve in that way committed to spending at least $30 in the SDS, you get a cheaper price per design.
• These credits are added onto your account and they never expire. So if you have $30 in credits and purchase 1 design, .99 is deducted from your credit balance. But since you got the $30 in credits by only paying in $20, you effectually get that design for .67. (Trust me — I did the math).
Bundles
A bundle is a set of designs or fonts grouped together for a bulk discount. It might be something like similar type fonts, designs by a particular designer, 3d flowers, etc. For example, there’s currently a bundle of handwritten fonts in the SDS. Purchased separately, you’d pay about $72. But the bundle price is $25. If the bundle includes items you already own, that is deducted from the sale price.
Keep an eye out for the Early Bird bundles. They are an extra 25% off for the first 24 hours.
Projects (also called Ready, Set, Make)
This is a different type of bundle. It’s a set of designs used for a specific project and includes instructions to complete the project. It’s typically, but not always, cheaper than buying all the designs separately. As with the regular bundles, if you already own one or more of the designs, that’s taken off the price.
To find the Projects, look in the dark gray menu bar at the top of the SDS.
Now go save some money!
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