Category: Silhouette Studio Tutorials

I’m sure you know, but it seems like faux leather earrings cut with a Silhouette or Cricut are taking the internet by storm. I love the trend and if you don’t design many of your own cut files, these are a great place to start because they are created with simple shapes.

I’ve said it so many times on the blog before: One way to make your business stand out during trends is to create your own cut files. Of course, doing so insures that your products look different from other small businesses. Let’s get designing!

Design Tutorial: 5 Type of Faux Leather Earrings in Silhouette Studio

(Note: The following tutorials use Business Edition, version 4.1.206.)

Design 1: Teardrop

1. Once in Silhouette Studio, draw a circle using the ‘Draw an Ellipse’ tool. 
2. Draw a triangle using the ‘Draw a Polygon’ tool. 
3. Drag the circle onto the bottom of the triangle. Resize the circle if needed to make sure that it lines up with the bottom corners of the triangle. 
4. Select both the triangle and the circle and right click, then select ‘Weld”. 
5. Draw another small circle. This time, hold down the ‘Shift’ key to keep it round (instead of oval). Drag this circle where you want to attach the earring hardware. 
6. Finally, ‘Select All’ (Command/Control + A on your keyboard). Then, right click and ‘Group’, then right click and ‘Duplicate’. You’ve got two earring designs ready to resize then cut.

Design 2: Hollow Teardrops

Now that you’ve mastered the simple teardrop, let’s make it hollow. This is perfect for layered style earrings!

1. Using the above tutorial, let’s go back to step 4. After welding your triangle and circle, you’ll end up with something like this: 
2. Now, you’ll use the ‘Offset Panel’ (‘Panels’, ‘Offset’) to do an internal offset. Experiment with the offset amount to get the result you want. Click the ‘Apply’ button when you are satisfied. 
3. After you add a small circle for the earring hardware, this hollow teardrop is ready to cut.

Design 3: Striped Hollow Teardrops

Enjoying designing? After you create the hollow teardrop above, add some rectangles across it to make stripes.

1. From the last step in the tutorial above, select both teardrops, then navigate to ‘Object’, ‘Modify’, and ‘Subtract’. The inner teardrop will be subtracted from the outer teardrop leaving only an outline. 
2. Draw a skinny rectangle and duplicate it a few times. 
3. Drag your rectangles across your teardrop outline – spacing them evenly. 
4. Use the knife tool to cut off the excess of the rectangles, then delete the excess. 
5. ‘Select all’ the pieces, then right click to ‘Weld’ them together. 
6. After you add a hole for the earring wire to attach to and resize, this file is ready to cut.

Design 4: Diagonal Striped Square

Tired of the teardrop shape? Try out a square.

1. Draw a box using the ‘Draw a Rectangle’ tool. Hold down the ‘Shift’ key to make it square. 
2. Use the offset function as we did in Design 2 above to create a second box inside the first. 
3. Navigate to ‘Object’, ‘Modify’, and ‘Subtract’. The inner box will be subtracted from the outer box leaving only an outline. 
4. Draw several rectangles and duplicate them. 
5. Draw them across your square design – spaced evenly. 
6. Use the knife tool to cut away the excess diagonal lines. 
7. ‘Select all’ the pieces, then right click to ‘Weld’ them together. 
8. After you add a hole for the earring wire to attach to and resize, this file is ready to cut.

Design 5: Rectangle Cut Out

One more before you go!

1. Prefer something a little different? Start with a skinny rectangle. 
2. Add any shape to the bottom center (circle, heart, leaf, and so on). Then subtract it from the rectangle. 
3. After you add a hole for the earring wire to attach to and resize, this file is also ready to cut.

As you can see, there’s no need to buy cut files to create earrings in Silhouette Studio. All you need is a few minutes.

Don’t forget: I’ve got free earring card templates to mount your earrings on after you create them in this post.

Need help with the actual earring assembly? Hop over to this tutorial by Lycia.

Love design tutorials? I can only keep them coming if you save the image below to Pinterest.

Hey small business owners, I know that December is absolutely the busiest time of year for you. Take a quick break with a fun tutorial today: How to create faux Zentangle cut files!

What is Zentangle?

Before we get started, what exactly is Zentangle? Zentangle is an art form that involves creating pictures using repetitive, doodled patterns. The creators of Zentangle, Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, offer a step by step system to follow to create the designs. They offer live classes and instructor certification programs. You can find more information about official Zentangle at this link.

So, the easiest way to create a true Zentangle pattern to use with your Silhouette is to draw one on paper or your iPad Pro and Apple Pencil; then open and cut it on your Silhouette (or Cricut).  But, you can also make Zentangle inspired cut files.

How to Create Zentangle Inspired Cut Files in Silhouette Studio

1. Draw the outline of a shape in Silhouette Studio. If you cannot draw a shape, feel free to trace a piece of commercial use clipart or use a dingbat font. (This tutorial uses a dingbat font from the Amastery Extras font.) 
2. Purchase a Zentangle inspired pattern from Etsy or Creative Market and open it in Silhouette Studio ‘File’, then ‘Open’. (I’m using this one.) I purchased a file in .eps format. This format is similar to .svg and is ready to cut. If you purchase a pattern in .jpg or .png format, you will need to trace it before being able to cut it. Your pattern should open now: 
3. Copy and paste the shape from your first mat onto your Zentangle inspired pattern. (On Mac, ‘Command + C’, and ‘Command + V’. On Windows, ‘Control + C’, and ‘Control + V’.) Resize your pattern and shape as needed.
4. Make a copy of your shape and set it off to the side. 
5. Select your pattern and your shape. (Hold down the ‘Shift’ key to select both at the same time.) Then, navigate to ‘Object’, ‘Modify’, ‘Crop’. 
6. Your shape should now be cut out and and filled with the Zentangle inspired pattern. Right click and select ‘Group’ to group all the pieces together.
7. Drag the shape you copied onto your Zentangle inspired pattern and ‘Group’ it together. This step gives you a finished edge around the Zentangle. 
8. Add additional text or design elements if desired. Your Zentangle inspired cut file is ready to cut:

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I’ve said it many, many times: If you want your business to stand out from others online – you should create your own designs. Why? When no one else has the same designs as you, you put your business ahead. Creating your own designs is not hard at all, so today I’m going to walk you through an easy way to create a dramatic text design.

This tutorial uses Silhouette Studio Business Edition, but you can do the same thing in any graphics program.

How to Create Two Color Text Block Designs

1. Choose a word that is 3, 4, or 5 letters long and type it as shown in the image below. If your word has 3 letters, type it 3 times; if your word has 4 letters, type it 4 times; if your word has 5 letters, type it 5 times, and so on. (You can use this for any length word, but it looks better with shorter words.)
2. Choose a block, bold, or chunky font style. For my design, I used Ansley which you can grab here for free with commercial use.
3. Depending on your font, you may need to change the line spacing. You can do this from ‘Panels’, ‘Text Style’. You’ll want to make your text close enough together to create a square or rectangle. 
4. To prepare for cutting, you’ll want to ungroup the letters so they are single. Select the text, right click, and select ‘Ungroup’. All letters are now independent of each other. 
5. Now, you’ll need to regroup some of the letters. First, select the letter in the top left hand corner and each letter in your word diagonally (hold the shift key to select multiple letters). Then, right click and choose ‘Group’. Last, fill your diagonal word with a color. 
6. Repeat step 5 for all the remaining letters. When finished, your design should look similar to this: 
7. Add additional text as desired. 
8. That’s it! When cutting your design, try cutting by fill color. 

Looking for more designing tutorials? Try here, here, here, or even here.

Here’s my finished shirt – don’t forget to save the tutorial to Pinterest:

A few days ago I downloaded The Best Sellers Font Bundle Vol IV by Font Bundles and it had several fonts with dingbats in it. (If you don’t know: A dingbat is a symbol or image included with a font. Also, some fonts are made entirely of dingbats.) Personally, I love dingbats! Why? You can use dingbat fonts to create custom cut files to use in your Silhouette or Cricut small business.

How to Use Dingbats to Create Custom Cut Files

• Locate the dingbat/glyph you want to use in Font Book (see these instructions for Mac) or Character Map (see these instructions for PC).

• Copy and paste it into Silhouette Studio (or Cricut Design Space):

• Resize the dingbat as needed.

Now, the file is ready to cut as is – or you can add other images or text:

Wondering about the fonts I used? You can find them all in The Best Sellers Font Bundle Vol IV for a limited time only. Not up for purchasing the whole bundle? You can buy them a la carte: the unicorn head is Unicorn Wishes, the “unicorns” text is Pinsetter Littles, and the word “exist” is Pinsetter Tails.

Note: If you are using a dingbat in a product or design for sale – be sure that you have a commercial use license with the font. Learn more in this post.

Save this image to Pinterest, then download the Unicorns Exist cut file below.

Download the commercial use Unicorns Exist SVG at this link.

It’s about time for another design tutorial, don’t you think? Today, we are going to look at creating cut out text designs in Silhouette Studio. Cut out designs are easy enough for a beginning Silhouette user to create and look great on a number of products, so let’s go!

Here’s a few examples of cut out designs that I’ve shared on the blog before – and they’ve all been popular:

• Free Bring on Vacation SVG Cut File
• Free Easter Bunny SVG Cut File
• Free You & Me Valentine’s Day SVG
• Free ‘Oh Deer’ SVG Cut File
• Free Minivans are Cool SVG Cut File for Silhouette or Cricut
• Free Commercial Use “You Are My Sunshine” Cut File for Silhouette or Cricut

Cut Out Designs in Silhouette Studio Tutorial

1. Start by finding a commercial use clipart design that you can trace. For this tutorial, I chose a free, commercial use unicorn image. When looking for images, find ones that have enough space for text and that are easily recognizable when cut in one color.
2. Trace the unicorn design. In Silhouette Studio version 4, you’d use the “Trace” panel. Delete the original image once you’ve got the trace. 
3. Choose a font and type out the text to put in your design. For this tutorial, I chose Camica font and the words “I ride unicorns”. 
4. Right click the text and select “Ungroup”. This will leave you with each letter separated from the rest. 
5. Now, drag each letter to where you want it. The goal will be to cover most of the shape with the text. I like to let my letters overlap the shape a bit, but that is your choice. 
6. After your letters are arranged, select all the letters and group them together. In Silhouette Studio version 4, you’d right click and select “Group”.
7. Now, we have to deal with the empty space in the design. To fill it in a little more, I just add some flourishes, dashes, and so on. I first drew one shape using the Smooth Drawing Tool (pencil icon, left side), then copy and pasted it and resized it to make more. 
8. Now, I like to turn my picture a solid color. Choose any color and fill in your traced image. 
9. Last, select the text and subtract it from the image. In Silhouette Studio 4, you’d select, “Object”, “Modify”, “Subtract”. 
10. That’s it! Here’s what the finished design looks like: 
    Or, here’s the design in holographic heat transfer material:

Now, get out there and try it yourself! Remember, unique designs pay off!

Download the file I created in this tutorial – free with commercial use license included at this link in .studio3 format.

No time to design right now? Save this post to Pinterest and come back to it later:

I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it again: I think that craft businesses that create their own designs have an advantage over shops who purchase all of their designs premade. Why? It’s no secret that unique designs make you stand out.

Today, we are going to look at creating text based designs. Honestly, there is no reason that you would ever need to buy a text based design from a designer. Why? Even the most uncreative Silhouette and Cricut owners can create text based designs!

Here’s how I create text based designs (tutorial shown in Silhouette Studio – version 4 beta release):

1. Start by writing out the text to include in your design. You’ll notice that I typed each word in a separate text box. This is the key to be able to arrange the words in a pleasant looking way. 
2. Next, choose a font and change all the words to your desired font. The font I used in this tutorial is Elegant Roughness – and it is free for a limited time! I also fill my words with color to make the design easier to see.
3. Now, you will arrange the words however you’d like them. All I’ve done is drag the words around and resized some of them. When I arrange them, I look for nooks and crannies where letters will “fit” into each other. I circled the nooks – the “s” fits nicely into the nook above with “om” and the “r” fits nicely into the nook in the “m”.
4. The design looks good but I don’t like the big space below “mom” and above “ever”. I draw a few teardrop shapes using the smooth freehand tool and place them to fill the space. To balance the design and add emphasis on “ever” I add the same teardrops below “ever”. If you don’t like the teardrops, you could substitute with lines or a heart.
5. Now, you’ll just want to finish up the design by welding the letters if needed.

Additional Posts to Help You with Text Designs:

• Rules of working with text
• Where to find commercial use fonts – many for free!

Now, get out there and start playing with text in Silhouette Studio or Design Space – it’s not as hard as you’d think!

Download the file I created in this tutorial – free with commercial use license included at this link.

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If you know anything about me beyond the Cutting for Business blog, you know that I am a softie for good fonts. Unfortunately, some of my favorite fonts are not good for cutting designs. This is usually because they are too thin to cut and weed well. Today, let’s look at two ways to thicken fonts and make them easier to cut in Silhouette Studio.

Here’s an example of a font that needs thickened to cut better in Silhouette Studio. If you are curious, this font is called Annabella and you can download it here.

How to Thicken Fonts in Silhouette Studio Using Offsetting

One way to thicken fonts is to use an offset. Here’s how:

1. Within Silhouette Studio, navigate to the offset window.
2. Select your design and click “Offset”. 
3. Now, use the slider next to “Distance” to thicken the font. I usually offset by between .01 and .05, depending how thin the font is. Click “Apply” to confirm the change.
4. You’ll now drag your newly offset design away from the original text and delete it. You’ll notice your new design is thickened up and will cut better on your Silhouette. (In the photo below, the top is the original and the bottom is the offset design.)

Offsetting is great and commonly used, but I think there is an easier way!

How to Thicken Fonts in Silhouette Studio Using Line Styles

1. Starting with the same original design, you’ll navigate to the “Lines Styles” menu. 
2. This time, all you need to do to thicken your font is change the line thickness. 
3. When you are ready to cut, first fill the font with a color. Then you’ll choose the “Cut Edge” setting. 

There you go – two ways to thicken fonts to make them easier to cut with your Silhouette. Remember, when you know how to work the software better; your small business will save time and do better.

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Do you draw? Do you use Silhouette Studio? Do you have a Mac computer? Do you have an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil? If you answered yes to all these – then this tutorial is for you! You can take all these things and combine them together to use your iPad Pro as a drawing tablet in Silhouette Studio!

How to Use Your iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet with Silhouette Studio

1. Enable the onscreen keyboard. Here’s how: Go to “System Preferences” then “Keyboard”. Check the box, “Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar”. 
2. From the menu bar on your Mac, click the keyboard icon and select “Show Keyboard Viewer”. You’ll now have a mini keyboard on your screen. 
3. Open Silhouette Studio on your Mac.
4. Install Astropad on your Mac and your iPad Pro.
5. Open Astropad on both your Mac and your iPad Pro. You’ll need to make sure that both your Mac and iPad Pro are on the same wifi network. Astropad will connect and you’ll see Silhouette Studio displayed on your iPad. 
6. Close the welcome screen, and you can start drawing – right in Silhouette Studio! You’ll use all the same tools and all the functions you know in Silhouette Studio, but they will be right on your iPad Pro. These next photos show me designing a pineapple cut file. (As a side note – I’m not a great artist – but I’ll show you my process.) 
   
   
   
   
   
   

Pretty neat, huh!? A few notes before you run off to try it yourself:

1. I use Astropad Standard which costs a one time fee of $29. While this is expensive for an app, this is cheaper than a drawing pad and it works great. Astropad also works on iPhones and other iPads, but you wouldn’t be able to use the Apple Pencil unless you have an iPad Pro.
2. Astropad says that they are working on adding in program keyboards for 2017. Until this happens, you’ll need to turn on the Mac keyboard viewer to type anything.
3. You should be able to do this with Cricut Design Space as well as many other programs.
4. Special thanks to Beau Lindsly Studio for originally introducing me to Astropad.
5. If you don’t have a cap to keep up with your Apple Pencil top, grab one here.

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One of my resolutions for 2017 on the blog is to write more posts about designing in both Silhouette Studio and Cricut Design Space. If you aren’t much of a designer – these posts are for you!

Lately, I’ve been seeing a shift by designers who create cut files for Silhouette or Cricut designs. Instead of selling a completed design that is ready to cut; a number of designers are offering kits to “assemble” your own cut file. If you remember, I recently created a red truck Valentine design using a kit (click here to view it).

Kits are a great alternative for crafters who want a more custom cut file, but lack design skills (like me!). Today, I’m showing you how these kits work. The concept is easy: drag pieces of designs together to create a cut file. Since arrows are trendy right now, Olga from Clean Cut Creative donated her popular The Ultimate Arrow Toolkit to me to use as a demo.

How to Create Semi Custom Designs in Silhouette Studio

1. After purchasing a kit, decide on which design elements to use in your design. You’ll notice that this kit has arrow backs, arrow shafts, and arrow points. You combine them to create a full arrow. Here’s a peek into the different parts in The Ultimate Arrow Toolkit: 
   
   
   
2. After selecting your design elements, open them all onto the same mat in Silhouette Studio or Cricut Design Space. Depending how your chosen kit is organized for download, you may need to ungroup the elements to use them. After your chosen elements are on the mat, your screen should look similar to this: 
3. Now, drag your elements into place or align them using the align command. 
4. Last, select all parts the of the design and weld them together. 
5. You can use the design as is, or add additional text or design elements. 

That’s it! Using kits you can create your own, semi custom design files! And, did I mention that The Ultimate Arrow Toolkit is only $6?! If you are wondering about the font Olga used in “family”, “faith”, and so on – it is KG The Fighter which was slighly offset and available for commercial use for $5.

Searching for more kits? Try search terms like “design elements”, “elements”, or “graphic packs”.

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I share a lot of freebies on the Cutting for Business Facebook page – and one of the things that I regularly share are PNG files. I get asked all the time – “What can I do with this file in Silhouette Studio?” Today, I’ll share 2 ways to use a PNG file.

Note: During this tutorial, I’m using a free bundle from Creative Market. You can pick it up this week at this link.

What is a PNG file?

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics and is a format for pictures. It was originally created to replace GIF images because you can compress the file without losing quality.

Two Ways to Use PNG Files in Silhouette Studio

Print and Cut Images.

1. You can open a PNG file in Silhouette Studio by going to “File, then “Open”. Resize your graphic as needed. 
2. Turn on registration marks by going to the “Registration Marks” icon in the top panel. Then selecting “Type 1”. 
3. Duplicate the graphic as many times as you need by going to “Object”, then “Replicate”. 
4. Your files are ready are ready to print and cut. 

Cut Files

1.  After opening the PNG file in Silhouette Studio, go to “Object”, then “Trace”. 
2. On the right hand side, click “Select Trace Area”. 
3. Draw a tracing box around the design. 
4. On the right hand side, adjust the “High Pass Filter” until the entire design turns yellow. Then click “Trace”.
5. Move over the original design file and – voila! – you’ve got the same design ready to be cut out in paper, vinyl, or another material. 

Now, be sure that you follow Cutting for Business on Facebook so I can share a lot of freebies with you!

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