Sublimate on Cotton Using White Glitter HTV

Sublimation is great for colorful designs that would otherwise require a lot of cutting and layering - but it's not great on cotton or darks.  

There are a few work-arounds to sublimate on cotton - my favorite being using white glitter heat transfer vinyl!  This Silhouette tutorial will take you from start to finish so you can get a vibrant and sparkly sublimation  design on any fabric in just a few steps. 

Silhouette Circle Monogram Tutorial (Your Font Choice!)

I've been asked more than once how to make a circle monogram in Silhouette Studio.  Sure, you can buy a circle monogram font...or you can make your own using the font of your choice.  There are about 10 steps involved here so just bare with me...I promise it's pretty easy just breaking it down!

How to (Easily) Make Wavy Text in Silhouette Studio

Tired of plain old boring straight text?  Perhaps sometime you want to wrap text around a circle as we showed you how to do here or make it wavy like a roller coaster.  If so, you're in the right spot. 

Making wavy text is pretty simple to do actually.  The most complicated part is getting the wave shape - but we even have a work around for that, if you'd like!

Layering HTV Without the Bulk (Beginner Silhouette Tutorial)

So one color heat transfer vinyl isn't doing it for you and now you want to layer multiple colors of HTV? You've come to the right spot!

This beginner Silhouette tutorial will walk you through how to layer HTV in the current version of the Silhouette Studio software (V4).  It builds on Heat Transfer Vinyl 101 and multi-color HTV so be sure you're up to speed on them before you continue here, because this Silhouette tutorial on HTV will assume you know the basics.

Trick to Cutting Thin Fonts on Silhouette (Without Tearing)

It's not uncommon for Silhouette beginners, especially, to have trouble cutting thin fonts on vinyl.

When a font is very thin the Silhouette CAMEO blade passes by the same area twice and can cause the vinyl to pull up or tear while cutting.  But, with just a small tweak in Silhouette Studio you can pretty much cut any font no matter how small, intricate or thin - and even script fonts!

Silhouette Studio Offset Tool: Why Are Pointed Corners Square?

If you're using the offset tool and wondering why sometimes the offset isn't giving you pointed corners on shapes like stars or hearts, it's not just you. 

For some reason the offset squares off pointed corners instead of making an accurate offset- but there is an easy workaround. 

Cutting and Transferring HTV With No Transfer Sheet (Silhouette Tutorial)

Everything you thought you knew about cutting and transferring heat transfer vinyl goes out the window when you're working with HTV that does not have a transfer sheet.  Most of the time HTV comes with a transfer sheet, but if you're working with specialty or patterned HTV like I was recently with this hunting camo it may not come with a plastic transfer sheet.

The vinyl I was using had a plastic sheet with it, but it was on the back side of the HTV...not covering the front as it usually is if you buy Siser Easyweed.  This presented a few challenges....and so I had to find a few workarounds to deal.

Silhouette Tutorial: Modifying Fonts to Eliminate the Annoying 'Middles' (ie A, B, D)

I cannot be the only one who is driven bonkers by the annoying middle part of certain letters..not naming any names A a B b D d e g O o P p Q q R.  Actually, I know I'm not the only one who is often frustrated by the tedious task of weeding these letters - I have gotten several emails about how to work around them or fix them or avoid them totally.

 The middle part of the letters is called the counter. 

While that little part may be small, it's necessary on most all Silhouette projects (stencils, cards, signs, apparel) that aren't print and cut.  If you're making a stencil they're definitely essential because without the counters letters look oddly shaped.

I have come up with a little work around to make your life a whole lot easier.

How to Remove Heat Transfer Vinyl Mistakes

So...you made an ooops and now you want to remove heat transfer vinyl from a shirt or other fabric. While it's not meant to be removed, there is a way to remove HTV if necessary.

There are several ways to remove heat transfer vinyl mistakes, but in this tutorial I'm going to share the trick using something you might already have around the house!

How to Draw a Perfect Circle, Square or Straight Line in Silhouette Studio (Updated Tutorial)

Silhouette Studio has a couple of drawing options - circles, squares, rectangles, and lines. Flex shapes were introduced V4.2 given even more options for built-in shapes!  But how do you make any of these shapes perfectly symmetrical?

Just because you can click on the 'Draw an Eclipse' Tool doesn't mean you'll get a perfectly round circle.  But I have a cool trick that will guarantee you get a perfectly symmetrical shape every.single.time.

Problems Detecting Registration Marks on Silhouette...and How to Fix It!

And the number one question to Silhouette School is:  Why won't my Silhouette detect the registration marks for a print and cut?

Well, my friends there are a few different reasons and a few different ways to fix this problem.  Some of them are honestly just silly and others are more time consuming than anything else. 

Converting Silhouette Studio Files to PDFs

Did you know it's easy and fast to convert Silhouette Studio files to PDF format?

You can do Save as a PDF from Silhouette Studio two different ways depending on the software version and upgrade you have.

Silhouette Pixscan Hack Avoids Sticker Paper Waste And Tracing

If you're like me you save every scrap of material you cut...and it probably makes you crazy that Silhouette print and cut registration marks result in so much wasted space!

This is a sponsored post, but all opinions are my own.

I'm happy to tell you there's a workaround that will make make your print and cuts while saving material. We're going to focus specifically on sticker paper today.

Upcycle Old Silhouette Cutting Mats into Re-Usable Stencils

Don't throw out those old Silhouette cutting mats...they make awesome re-usable stencils! We all need to get new cutting mats for our Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait every once in a while - but instead of throwing out the old ones or struggling to clean and re-stick them, do what you've never wanted to do before and intentionally cut through Silhouette cutting mat.

While the sticky side of the mat may not be sticky enough to hold vinyl or paper or other material in place while you're cutting, it likely has a little stick left. And that stick is just enough to hold a stencil in place while painting on fabric or another surface! The back side of the mat is easily cleanable which means you can wipe off paint and re-use the stencil over and over again!

Silhouette Studio Word Art: How to Have Text Form a Shape (Free Cut File)

Word Art in Silhouette Studio isn't exactly a "thing"... but there are definitely some workarounds that you can do to get some really cool Word Art effects in Silhouette Studio. This Silhouette Studio tutorial will walk you through how to get text to take the form of a shape. This word cloud-ish type effect is something I'm asked about repeatedly.

My whole goal with Silhouette School is to teach you rather than do for you...but today I'm doing both. I will show you exactly how to create this type of word art and I am going to give you the free Silhouette Studio cut file in hopes you are inspired to work through your own custom design!

Silhouette Studio Hack for Fixing Inaccurate Text Size

Chances are you've come across a font in your Silhouette Studio font list that doesn't show an accurate height measurement when typed into a text box.

This is a sponsored post but all opinions are my own

It can be extremely frustrating to cut out a font based on the dimensions in Studio only to find out it's far from the size of the actual cut design.

Silhouette Print and Cut Registration Failed on Glossy Paper? Here's the Fix!

If you've ever tried to do a Silhouette Print and Cut on glossy, pearlized, foil or shiny paper only to have the registration fail - fear not! Do I have a Silhouette CAMEO hack for you!

This is a sponsored post but all opinions are my own.

The print and cut problem is potentially threefold:

1. The glossy-ness of the paper causes the rollers to slip and actually grab - and then print on - the piece of paper below the sticker paper in the printer tray
2. The glossy-ness of the paper prevents the printer rollers from grabbing the paper at the right time therefore printing the registration marks too high on the page
3. The glare caused by the glossy paper prevents the machine from properly reading the registration marks. 

Secret to Layering Glitter Heat Transfer Vinyl (without Subtracting!)

Well, this glitter HTV-lovin' girl just got the best news ever! It's possible to layer up to three colors of glitter HTV!!!

This is a sponsored post, but all opinions are my own.

Previously, I shared a workaround on layering glitter HTV which required some modification to the design in Silhouette Studio to subtract out the area of the top layer from the bottom. BUT...now with Chemica Bling Bling from ProWorld that extra time and work isn't necessary!  You can simply layer up to three layers of the glitter or 'Star' heat transfer vinyl (as it's called) on top of each other!

Even  better - you can try it for yourself since one lucky Silhouette School reader will win a $50 gift card to ProWorld!

How to Put a Selection Box Around Multiple Edit Points in Silhouette Studio FAST!

Did you know it's possible to select multiple edit points in Silhouette Studio at the same time and then delete or modify them in some way - whether it's moving or deleting?! OMG this totally just changed  designing in Silhouette Studio for me!

So You Can Make Word Art in Silhouette Studio!

Silhouette Studio is a powerful editing and design program - one I'm not afraid to say is pretty much all you need. When it comes to making word art, however, it leaves much to be desired.

For more complex word art I have always suggested using Powerpoint or another similar program and then tracing the design in Silhouette Studio. But recently I discovered you can actually make simple word art designs in Silhouette Studio.