Category: Design with Me (SVG Tutorials)

That’s it! Your repeating word design is ready to go!

Download my Joy, Joy, Joy SVG or Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas SVG.

3, 4, and 5 Letter Christmas Words

I mentioned above that this design works best with 3, 4, and 5 letter words. Here are a list of words to get you started:

• Joy
• Elf
• Noel
• Snow
• Tree
• Yule
• Merry
• Frost

Need more ideas? Ask ChatGPT for a “list of short Christmas words”.

Silhouette Studio Tutorial: Santa’s Footprints

1. Grab a boot sole clip art from your favorite source. Double check the license to make sure it has commercial use. I grabbed mine from Adobe Stock.

2. Open the image in Silhouette Studio, then navigate to ‘Panels’, ‘Trace’. Trace the image and delete the original.

3. Right click the boot soles and select ‘Release Compound Path’. This allows you to manipulate each piece of the boot sole independently.

4. Delete all the interior pieces of the boot soles.

5. Use your favorite Christmas dingbat font and fill the interior of the boot sole with Christmas-y things. For this tutorial, I used the Country Trees font for the tree.

That’s it! Your Santa’s footprints are done!

In a hurry? You can design one sole, then duplicate it and mirror it for a second sole. Don’t forget to reverse your text if you have any in your design.

My finished design looks like this when used with some flour on the floor:

That’s it! Your string of Christmas lights is ready to go!

Tutorial: Abstract Boho Rainbow SVG

In Silhouette Studio, use the Draw Smooth Freehand tool (7th tool on the left) and draw a shape that resembles a rainbow. Be sure to start and finish at the same spot.

Double click your rainbow to make the Point Editing Panel appear. Use the Point Editing Panel to smooth out edges and make your rainbow more uniform by dragging the points around.

Right click and ‘Duplicate’ your first rainbow. Move the copy inside the first rainbow shape you drew, dragging the edges to make it fit. Leave a negative space layer between the two shapes.

Right click to duplicate the interior rainbow. Resize it to fit in the middle of the other rainbow shapes.

Repeat the above step to duplicate rainbows until only a small space remains in the middle. Point edit the rainbows as desired.

Here’s the fun part: The styling! Once you’ve built the rainbow foundation – there is so much freedom to be creative when you fill in the rainbow pieces. Add patterns, solid colors, dots, dashes, flowers… add anything!

Here are 4 examples of boho rainbows styled for fall:

Design with Me is a new regular feature on Cutting for Business! Each Friday, I’ll bring you a new Silhouette Studio tutorial featuring how to design an SVG.

Today, let’s look at creating a stacked pumpkin SVG.

Design with Me is a new regular feature on Cutting for Business! Each Friday, I’ll bring you a new Silhouette Studio tutorial featuring how to design an SVG.

Today, let’s look at creating a stretched letter filled pumpkin SVG.

Silhouette Studio Tutorial: Stretched Letter Filled Pumpkin SVG

Ahhh, smell that? That’s the smell of fall! Let’s look at another tutorial. Today, I’ll use a pumpkin pun to make a letter filled pumpkin design.

1. Start with a pumpkin shape. It can be a dingbat from a font, a pumpkin you designed, or a pumpkin you’ve previously designed (hint, hint – view this tutorial). For this tutorial, I’m using a dingbat from the Fall Feels font.

2. (Optional) Right click on the dingbat if needed, then click ‘Make Compound Path’. This will allow you to easily delete anything in the center of your pumpkin. I chose to leave the steam detail inside the pumpkin.

2. Pick a fun or funky font. Something a little different. For this tutorial, I’m using this font. Add your text and put it in place.

3. Right click on each of the words, then select ‘Ungroup’.

4. You can now rotate, stretch, and move each letter independently. So, move through each word and letter and move it around. Go crazy! The only ‘rule’ is that you cannot go outside the pumpkin outline.

5. After rotating and moving my letters around, I’ve got some empty spaces. I’ve circled them in blue.

6. To fix the spaces, I extended the letters by adding a rectangle to each, then welding the rectangle to the letter. (Reminder: To weld, select both the rectangle and the letter, then right click and select ‘Weld’.)

7. Keep fine tuning until you are happy with the final design.

8. Group all the interior letters and pieces together by selecting them all, right clicking, then choosing ‘Group’.

9. Fill the pumpkin shape with color.

10. Select the pumpkin, then interior letters (and pieces if you have any), and head to ‘Object’, ‘Modify’, ‘Subtract’.

That’s it! You could follow these steps with so many different shapes and fonts for unlimited designs.

Design with Me is a new regular feature on Cutting for Business! Each Friday, I’ll bring you a new Silhouette Studio tutorial featuring how to design an SVG.

Today, let’s look at creating a fall spiral SVG.

There’s a great quote in the book The Great Gatsby about Fall. Since The Great Gatsby entered the public domain in 2020, I can safely use quotes from the book without fear of copyright infringement. Today, I’m turning a quote from the book into a fall cut file. Let’s look at it.

Silhouette Studio Tutorial: Fall Spiral SVG

1. Start by downloading this single line spiral I created. Then, open it in Silhouette Studio.

2. Type out a string of fall related words or a fall quote. For example: Fall, autumn, hayrides, flannel, pumpkins, and so on. In this tutorial, I’m using the quote, “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” from The Great Gatsby.

3. Double click the text to make the round handle appear. Drag the round handle to the spiral. Now, this can be finicky in Silhouette Studio. My best advice is to zoom in. When zoomed in, you’ll have better control over the text and where it lands. When you are happy with the text on the spiral, click outside the text box.

4. Right click on the text and select ‘Convert to Path’.

5. You’ll notice that the spiral line turns from gray to red after converting it to a path. Click on the spiral line and delete it.

6. Now, depending on your quote, it may land with the beginning upside down like mine did. Click the text and rotate it using the green circle.

7. Finish your design off with a dingbat in the middle. In this tutorial, a fall leaf from the Fall Feels font worked perfectly!

Add some color and your design is finished.

Silhouette Studio Tutorial: How to Create Plaid Patterns

1. Draw a large rectangle.

2. Fill the rectangle with a color.

3. Draw a long, skinny rectangle. Fill that rectangle with a color.

4. Right click and select ‘Duplicate’ to make a copy. Do this several times so you have a number of copies.

5. Spread the copies out across the large rectangle.

6. Hold down the SHIFT key and select all the skinny rectangles. Then, navigate to ‘Object’, ‘Align’, and ‘Space Horizontally’. You’ll be left with perfectly spaced skinny rectangles.

7. Draw a skinny rectangle and place it to the right of the first skinny rectangle you made.

8. Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 to duplicate the rectangle, space the duplicates out, then use the align command to space them horizontally.

9. Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 several times until you are happy with the amount of vertical lines. Remember, it is your choice… you are the designer.

10. Select all the black rectangles. Then, navigate to ‘Panels’, then ‘Fill Color’.

11. Slide the transparency slider over to make them transparent. In this tutorial, I chose 60% transparency, but again, it’s your choice.

12. Now, draw a skinny rectangle that is horizontal instead of vertical.

13. Again, repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 multiple times to make more horizontal rectangles. Spread them out, then align them vertically.

14. Add more horizontally rectangles, remembering to space them vertically.

15. Select all the horizontal lines and again navigate to ‘Panels’, ‘Fill Color’. Slide the transparency slider over to the same amount you did with the vertical lines.

16. Voila! Instant plaid. Use it in a design, printable, or however else you’d like.

Tutorial: How to Draw Fireworks

1. Draw a circle in Silhouette Studio using the ‘Draw Ellipse’ tool. Be sure to hold down the SHIFT key to make it a perfect circle.

2. Navigate to ‘Panels’, ‘Offset’. Then, create an offset of your circle. The thickness is your choice, but I stick towards a thinner offset.

3. Select both circles and right click, then choose ‘Make Compound Path’.

4. Right click again and duplicate your circle a few times. Then, move the duplicates off to the side.

5. Draw a tiny circle towards the middle of the mat. Again, hold down the SHIFT key to make a perfect circle.

6. Using the knife tool, cut the circle into pieces. No need for precision.

7. Drag the pieces of the circle around the tiny circle to start constructing your firework. Use the green circle to rotate the pieces.

8. When you’ve placed all the pieces from the first circle, use a knife to cut the next circle and place those pieces. The placement and number of pieces you use in your firework are up to you.

9. Add circles to the tips of each firework.

10. Delete any remaining circles/circle pieces. Then, add color or additional details.