Did you ever go into a store and come out with only the thing you went in to buy? Nope, me neither. I was at Ikea over the weekend for some curtains and happened upon this lantern on clearance: Such a cool industrial farmhouse look. I remember … [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...]
Cut Doctor: Lesson 24 — Dealing with difficulties after the cut
We've made it to the end of our series. Your cuts should be all healed now! But today's visit is a follow up appointment where we go over things like post-operative complications. Specifically, we're going to talk about problems with weeding and … [Read more...]
Cut Doctor: Lesson 21 — Problems with the mat or material during the cut
We're delving deep into the body of the cut job here in our troubleshooting portion of the Cut Doctor series. Our topic this time is reasons why your mat or material might act up during a cut. For example, the material lifts from the mat, vinyl gets … [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. Note: This post may … [Read more...]
10 Fun Stocking Stuffers to make with your Silhouette
Is your Christmas shopping done? For once, I got a big chunk of mine done early. But I love to give homemade gifts too, especially as stocking stuffers. Let’s face it – custom is always a good idea! And if it’s also inexpensive, that’s even … [Read more...]
Cut Doctor: Lesson 9 — Line Segment Overcut
You know that CPR can literally save a life. Penicillin and other antibiotics revolutionized medicine and saved countless thousands of lives in the past century. In today’s appointment with the Cut Doctor, you are going to learn about Line Segment … [Read more...]
Frugal Friday: quick wedding table numbers
Today's Frugal Friday tip is another project for a wedding. I did this one recently for a young friend using leftovers from projects I made for my own daughter's wedding. It's frugal because it doesn't require many materials and took us little … [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...]
Wedding welcome sign
I’ve been helping one of my daughter’s friends make some items for her wedding lately. She was struggling to figure out a cost-effective way to make a Welcome to our Wedding sign. We liked the idea of a plain black canvas with white letters. The main … [Read more...]
Cutting Without the Mat Checklist
This post is part of my Checklists series. Each post in the series is a set of brief reminders to guide you while you work on a project. The Cutting Without the Mat Checklist helps you remember each step to take when you are cutting something like … [Read more...]
Successful Beginner Projects: #10 – Vinyl Wall Quote
Are you ready for your final beginner project? If you haven’t gone through the Software Basics series and the other Successful Beginner Projects yet, I recommend you do those first because we will build on the skills already taught. In this project, … [Read more...]
Silhouette Summit 2018: Upcoming New Products and Software Features
Every year in May, Silhouette America holds a summit in Hawaii to announce new products and software features coming in the next year (nope, I didn't get to go). There are some VERY exciting things coming down the pike. Here’s a preview of the … [Read more...]
Successful Beginner Projects: #9 Baby stroller vinyl layering decal
Today’s project is another one using vinyl layering. We're going to learn about doing our vinyl layering before we put the vinyl on our project. I’ll also teach you about cutting 2 colors in the same pass, some new weeding techniques, and another way … [Read more...]
Successful Beginner Projects: #8 Snowflake decal with vinyl layering
In today’s beginner project, I want to teach you about simple vinyl layering and show you a new application technique. We’re also going to learn a bit about working with small designs. Let’s get going! To start with project #1 in this series, go … [Read more...]