🤩 Top 10 Silhouette Tips and Tricks for Beginners

hey guys it's becky with design bundles and today i'm here to share with you my 10 favorite beginner cameo hacks so maybe hacks is too strong of a word but we definitely have some tips and tricks that we're gonna share with you and i really think that at least nine out of ten beginners are going to really enjoy uh the things that we talk about and most of this will be new information for you so i'm really excited because i do teach a lot of beginners whether it's in person or online or through videos and i usually get the same questions and go over the same responses which you know i never mind i love questions from you guys but i figured i'd put together a little video and show you my top favorite like i said we're going through all ten so first and foremost let me say i don't want to hurt anybody's feelings by doing this video okay these are my opinions um i've been doing this for many moons uh but you know surely everybody has their own opinion and that's okay so i'm just throwing that out there to kind of get you all started so first and foremost although i love love love the silhouette machines i am not a huge fan of silhouette vinyl now that doesn't mean that some people don't like it we all started somewhere right but i will say that you really need to experiment with other types of vinyl because sometimes the frustration that you experience as a beginner can be from not using the right materials so now you guys know for my videos i'm a fan of the oracal 651 and i also use or tape for my transfer tape some people will also tell you that you can use contact clear contact paper from either walmart amazon or a dollar store that's fine it's completely up to you but i prefer to use transfer tape because that's what it's designed for and i just didn't have very good luck with the contact paper when i first started so i just believe that if you're starting with the right materials that you'll have an easier time with your first cuts okay so now that does not always go towards all silhouette brand materials they do have some really good materials like i really like their temporary tattoo paper they have some printable foil sheets that work really well so you know just make sure you do your research that's where i'm going with that one but just because it's silhouette brand does not mean that it is going to be the best available out there now number two the same goes for mats now i know that you know a lot of people disagree with me and you know i'm a big fan of cutting without a mat that is because i don't like to buy replacement mats i'm kind of a frugal crafter okay which also led me to experiment with the mats available on amazon and there are quite a few brands to choose from but i just definitely read the reviews make sure you're doing your homework but you can definitely find cutting mats a lot cheaper than what you can get them either straight from solo america or even just the silhouette or america brand at your local retailer or amazon so i just something else to keep in mind you know just make sure you're checking out that alternative number three is going to be the auto blade now if you watched my review of the silhouette cameo 4 my initial cut with the auto blade was really really well okay um but my second and third cuts did not go so well so um you know i hate to be the bearer of bad news but i'm just going to throw it out there that if you're experiencing a lot of problems with your cutting or your settings or anything like that think about switching back to a regular ratchet blade you can get them on amazon sometimes your local retailer will sell them i usually buy them in bulk and they're a lot cheaper than the autoblades so just something to keep in mind because starting with the cameo 3 and now evidently into the cameo 4 there seems to be a group of people that their auto blade works really really well and hey if you fit into that category i am not telling you to do anything different but if number one you are having problems and number two you are a frugal crafter like myself check out the ratchet blade so next is cutting without a mat now we did just do our very first cut without a mat on the cameo four and uh it worked great i have no complaints and that is one of the big benefits to getting a cameo over another brand is that you do have the ability to cut without a mat because you can move your roller back and forth now you may ask why do you want to cut without a mat well it comes back to being frugal because i don't have to buy replacement masks quite as often but also your silhouette can cut really really long transfers so for example if you want to do a big quote for your wall or if you're doing a really tall welcome sign for your front door in those instances as long as you set up your design correctly in silhouette studio your cameo will continue to feed the vinyl out the back and you can cut um i know that i have done 10 feet so we'll have to uh you know do some research and see exactly what the hard limit is but uh you know 10 feet i think is very very generous so i really do love cutting without a mat now speaking of cutting your next tip is to always do a test cut okay now not very many beginners seem to learn about the test cap feature that's not your fault but more of us should tell you about that okay you always need to do a test cut especially when you're first starting out and if you don't know where the test cut is it is on the bottom of your send panel it's just a little button that says test and it's going to cut a square with a triangle on the inside now to know that you've got a successful test cut you need to be able to weed the square and leave the triangle alone okay so as long as you can do that you got good cut settings but doing a test cut may seem like a minor inconvenience and you just want to skip over it don't do it like it will trick you every time as soon as you don't do a test cut something's going to happen with your cut settings okay so i always recommend doing a test cut to save yourself a lot of headache speaking of headaches and cutting i do always recommend using a weeding box especially when you're first starting out now a weeding box is going to be a box that you draw around your design and basically not only is it going to tell you why you're weaving hey my entire design is within this box it's also going to make it easier for you to pull that vinyl up and it speaks to the frugal crafter in me because i get to keep the surrounding vinyl intact so that i can continue to cut without a mat so that is also really exciting now that we're talking about weeding let's jump over and talk about weeding tool now when you got your silhouette you may or may not have gotten the trusty old weeding hook and i'm not saying that people don't enjoy that it just i do not personally enjoy that i use a pair of fine tip tweezers and i just find that they are really beneficial not just for general reading but for getting into those small areas and weeding fine detail another thing that people talk about a lot i haven't personally tried it myself but it's called a pen pen and it is essentially a mechanical pencil with a sewing needle fed into the end of it so that basically you have something to hold on to that has a really sharp needle point and that helps people with weeding too so when you're looking for weeding tweezers um just make sure that you get fine point and they want to be really sharp and the same with the pen pen but try to also make sure you get something that will cap the end because you can actually draw blood with those so you know ask me how i know so definitely very useful but uh potentially dangerous so i'm just throwing that out there don't leave around small children i'm gonna sum that up with that statement okay so now that we've talked about all the tips i have for cutting let's also talk about the fact that you do not need to run out and buy a whole bunch of really expensive projects to work on all right because there's nothing more frustrating about having a project mess up than to know that you spend a lot of money on it so as a beginner i implore you to head to your nearest dollar store and go in there and just look around because i know at my local dollar store i can get wine glasses i can get clear cutting boards if i want to play with htv i can get socks i can also get like the little oven mitts those are really really popular around christmas and for teacher gifts so just go in there and you know set a budget okay budgets are always good even in the dollar store but you know just say okay i want to pick out 10 things and then for 10 plus tax in your area you can have 10 individual projects to test out your materials see what you like what you don't like and maybe try out some new techniques so now that we've talked about all of our projects let's talk about the software now a lot of beginners do not know that there are different additions to silhouette studio now you get the basic free edition with your cameo and for for a lot of people that's all you need that is a-okay i'm not telling you have to upgrade but upgrades are available depending on what you use the software for for example as a beginner you may have or may not have experienced that you cannot open an svg file in the free edition that's okay because most designers have gotten on board and they have started including your dxf files so dxf are the file types that you can open in the free edition of the software but if you just really like svgs or you want to just check out what is the difference between all the different versions of the software then make sure that you check out the comparison chart on the silhouette america website because it will break down each individual benefit for you and let you know what edition of the software that's included in you can also shop around for the best prices because you know crafting is an expensive hobby especially when you're just getting started but i do know that with online retailers you can often upgrade for a fraction of the cost than buying it straight from the silhouette america website and last but not least let me talk to you about my favorite part of silhouette studio and i know that i gush and gush your guests about this all the time but as a new cameo user i want to draw you into the fold and just know that there are two things to keep in mind number one silhouette studio is a very robust designing software in terms of using it for your cutting machine okay now you never have to explore all the additional benefits that it offers but just know when it comes to designing if you ever want to start designing your own cup files you want to design printables any of that silhouette studio is still the software for you so definitely take the time to invest in learning silhouette studio because i think that you will be very pleasantly surprised with everything that it makes available to you like i said you can even do printables you can print straight from your software heck a lot of crafters use silhouette studio and they don't even have cameos so just something to keep in mind you may or may not ever need those additional features like i said especially if you're primarily a cutter but just know that they are there and they're there for you on the reverse aspect of that if you already know another designing software do not feel pressured to use silhouette studio now ultimately you do have to use silhouette studio to communicate and cut with your cameo but that doesn't mean that you can't set up your designs in a different software and then import them as a matter of fact when i cut on my qriket machine that's exactly what i do i design a silhouette studio and then i save and export the svg to use in design space so you can do the same for example maybe you like photoshop maybe you like affinity maybe use an online software anything that you can save into a png jpeg svg format you will be able to to bring those into silhouette studio primarily the svg or dxf right but even images you can bring those in and learn to manipulate those in the software so hopefully i gave you some really great tips um those of course are my favorites and if you have any questions or want to know something about the software or something about your machine i really do love to get questions from you guys and you can just leave them in the comments below because i do personally me personally i come back and visit with you guys and check in and answer the questions so i really appreciate you watching today also especially if you're new make sure you subscribe to the channel because we always have a lot of really cool tutorials and some more tips and tricks to share with you for using your silhouette cameo thanks for watching guys we'll see you next time

Channel: Design Bundles

Views: 111,942

Keywords: Top 10 Silhouette Tips and Tricks for Beginners, silhouette tips and tricks, silhouette studio tips and tricks, Silhouette Tips and Tricks, Silhouette Tips and Tricks for Beginners, silhouette hacks, silhouette tutorial, silhouette for beginners, silhouette, silhouette studio tutorial, how to use silhouette studio, silhouette studio for beginners, silhouette cameo, cameo silhouette, silhouette studio, silhouette cameo 4, cameo 4 silhouette for beginners, Design bundles

Id: wqxMVQxz8Co

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 31 2020