Tutorial: Silhouette Cameo Print and Cut by Kate!

I created this neat card for the end of the school year. I know, it's a long way off, but it never hurts to prepare things ahead of time.

You wouldn't know it just by looking at it, but this card is a hybrid project. I used a digital image from Pretty Little Studio with my Silhouette Cameo's print and cut feature. It's easy to do once you get the hang of it and the possibilities are endless!

Print and Cut How To

1. Open the image in Silhouette Studio.
   
   
   
    
2. Ensure that the Registration Marks setting is turned on and that your image is contained INSIDE of the red box.
   
   
   
    
3. Print the image to your printer by clicking on the printer icon in the menu bar at the top.
   
   
   
    
4. Click on the Trace option and then click on Select Trace Area.
   
   
   
    
5. Click and drag your mouse over the image area that you want to trace. Next, click on Trace. The image that I am using is quite detailed and Silhouette traces too much of the image when I select Trace Outer Edge (inside of the image, when I only want to create an outline around the outer edge of it), so I am using a different method. If your image is really basic, such as one solid colour, then you may be able to use the Trace Outer Edge Option to get an outline. If your image is detailed, like this one, then proceed to set 6, otherwise use Trace Outer Edge instead and proceed to step 8.
   
   
   
    
6. Click on the Offset icon (next to the Trace icon) and click on the red traced lines to select the traced area. Next, click on Offset and then adjust the size under Offset Distance. I like to use 0.030 in to create a nice outline around the image. Click on Apply. Your image should look something like this one.
   
   
   
    
7. What you have now is 3 layers – think of it like a stack of pancakes, one on top of the other. The layers are made up of the image, the traced inside of the image and the traced outline of the image. We want to get rid of the traced inside of the image because we don’t want our Silhouette or Silhouette Cameo to cut that area, we only want it to cut the outline . Select the inside traced area by clicking on it and then hit Delete on your keyboard. If you delete the wrong layer, don’t worry about it just hit Ctrl + Z (this undoes your last change) and then try again. Sometimes it takes a few tries to click on the correct layer. You should now see the original image with a red outline around it like the one below.
   
   
   
    
8. The last step is to cut your image. Put the printed image onto your cutting mat so that the registration marks are in exactly the same location as they appear on the image of the cutting mat on your screen. Load your cutting mat into your Silhouette and then click on cut. Silhouette will detect the registration marks and then cut perfectly around your printed image! Here is my home made die cut! You can buy the owl seen here for only $0.75 at Pretty Little Studio here! A real bargain, if you ask me!
   
   
   
    
   If you have any questions, comments or you're just plain confused about all of this -- it's a lot to take in... feel free to leave me a comment here.