The latest release of the Silhouette Studio software (4.3) adds a feature to create your own custom color palette in the Fill panel. This can really speed up your designing process. Since I ALWAYS recommend working with filled shapes, it's nice to be … [Read more...]
Drawing filled shapes or text: 2 ways to select attributes beforehand
I don't know about you, but I always work with filled shapes. Unfilled shapes are harder to move around, you can't easily see front to back order, and you don't know if you have groupings or compound paths (which makes a HUGE difference when you use … [Read more...]
Cutting Checklist
This post is part of my Checklists series. Each post in the series is a set of brief reminders to help you remember the sequence of steps to use as you work on a project. With each checklist, I provide links to more information about the topics. … [Read more...]
How to more easily visualize your design and finished project
Today I want to share with you some tips on how you can better visualize the outcome of a design. You can use these methods to get a more realistic preview your project, create mockups, or to predict the outcome before you use any Modify options. … [Read more...]
Photo crop in Silhouette Studio: how and why to do it
I’ve been working on a gift for some dear friends who moved away and are now returning to our home turf. I’m creating the design in Silhouette Studio and saving it as a JPEG so that I can get it printed professionally on a coffee mug. Today, I want … [Read more...]
Point Editing: taming all those little black dots (Lesson 7)
Here we are in our final lesson on Point Editing. If you need to start at the beginning of this series, go here. In today’s lesson I’m going to give you a few tips on working with points on text, show you how to edit points to help when you’re … [Read more...]
Point Editing: taming all those little black dots (Lesson 6 Part 1)
Today we're digging even deeper into the world of Point Editing in Silhouette Studio. We're going to look at the concept of breaking and joining paths. We'll talk about when you need to use these techniques, plus what open shapes are and how to close … [Read more...]
Pattern fill pizzazz: 7 ways to put your own graphic into any shape (misc. info)
We've learned the 7 different ways to put a raster image into any shape, but we aren't done yet. (To start with lesson #1 in this series, go here.) There are some critical tidbits of info you'll need to know in order to use these methods successfully … [Read more...]
Pattern fill pizzazz: 7 ways to put your own graphic into any shape (method #7)
Today we're continuing our series on using raster images as fill patterns. If you haven't read about the other methods, start here. In this last method, we're going to talk about using the Modify panel in conjunction with a printable pattern. (But … [Read more...]
Pattern fill pizzazz: 7 ways to put your own graphic into any shape (method #6)
Today we're continuing our series on ways to add your own raster image as a fill pattern. If you haven't read about Methods #1-5, you'll definitely want to do that first. You can start with Method #1 here. Today, I'm going to show you a quick way to … [Read more...]
Pattern fill pizzazz: 7 ways to put your own graphic into any shape (method #5)
I hope you're learning a lot in this series about adding your own raster images as fill patterns on shapes. If you haven't read about Methods #1-4, then you'll want to start here. Here in Method #5, I'm going to show you how to drag and drop an image … [Read more...]
Pattern fill pizzazz: 7 ways to put your own graphic into any shape (method #4)
Today's lesson is #4 in a series about how to add your own raster images to use as patterns to fill any shape. This method is actually a combination of 2 other methods we’ve already learned. You’re going to use file import to add the image to your … [Read more...]
Pattern fill pizzazz: 7 ways to put your own graphic into any shape (method #3)
So far in this series on adding your own pattern fill to a shape, I've shown you 2 ways to save raster images into your regular library folders and use them from there. You'll want to make sure you've practiced those, because I'm going to refer to … [Read more...]
Pattern fill pizzazz: 7 ways to put your own graphic into any shape (method #2)
In this series, we're talking about 7 different ways to use your own raster images as a fill pattern for your shapes. In our first lesson, we talked about using drag and drop to copy an image you saved on your computer into the Silhouette library. … [Read more...]
Pattern fill pizzazz: 7 ways to put your own graphic into any shape (method #1)
When I’m designing projects in Silhouette Studio, I never work with unfilled shapes. Filling a shape with a color makes it easier to grab it with the mouse, helps me see front to back order, and tells me immediately if a design is a grouping or … [Read more...]