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...]
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...]
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...]
Frugal Friday: make an easy Christmas tree shape
I'm betting we ALL need to save some cash this time of year. In today's Frugal Friday tip, I'm going to teach you to make your own Christmas tree. That means you don't have to buy one. It just takes a few simple steps. Once you begin to understand … [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...]
Frugal Friday: Making the most of expensive HTV and vinyl material
As I told you in my first Frugal Friday tip, I hate to throw away scraps of expensive or beautiful material. I like to try to find ways to reuse the bits and pieces whenever I can. That’s certainly the case with any patterned adhesive vinyl or HTV. … [Read more...]
Knockout designs made easy
For my first project in my Spiritwear series, I want to teach you how to create a knockout design. This is a fun way to combine a school mascot with the team name or another phrase.I promise it will be easier than any other knockout method you've … [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...]
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...]
Pancakes and Donuts: the key to understanding the difference between a grouping and a compound path
To truly understand using and creating designs in Silhouette Studio software, you need to have a good understanding of Groupings and Compound Paths -- how they are the same, how they are different and how they respond differently to modifications. … [Read more...]
Announcing my new Craftsy class!
It's here! I'm officially announcing the launch of my Craftsy class. If you've never heard of Craftsy, it's a website where you can purchase and view video classes on all kinds of crafts. You can get classes in 2 different ways:Purchase a … [Read more...]
Breaking a solid shape into pieces with the magic of Divide
Let's talk about a common design question. Say you have a design that's a single piece, but you want to cut it from several different colors or materials. You want to break it apart into multiple pieces, like this--What about using the knife tool? … [Read more...]