How to Cut a JPEG with Silhouette Studio (for Free!)

Today we are answering a reader question...oh, this is so exciting it means people are actually finding Silhouette School!

The question comes from Jamie who asks:

I have a question in regards to the Silhouette.   Our school as a mascot that isn't on a Cricut cartridge.  Is there a way to download this to a silhouette? Please help me answer this question!

The exciting news is it's a big ol' YES to Jamie's question.  The more exciting news is the possibilities are nearly endless as long as the image is in JPEG or GIF form.

Jamie wants to work with her school's mascot and as long as she has a JPEG or GIF file of it, she's good to go cut.  Please note, you do NOT need Silhouette Design Edition to do this!  To demonstrate how to bring a JPG into Silhouette, I'm going to use a random school mascot, too.  I was Spartan in high school so we'll go with that.   I literally just found this image doing a Google search. 

DIY Kitchen Canister Labels (Free Silhouette .Studio File)

It's pretty much any excuse to cut vinyl on my Silhouette these days.  My latest excuse came last week when I scored a set of matching vintage glass jars that I turned into canisters.  You can read about my find and why I just couldn't hide these in the pantry over on our sister site Two It Yourself.  But here we're gonna talk strictly DIY canister labels.

I actually ended up making two sets of labels because...well, like I said it's any excuse!  Both sets of labels were cut on white vinyl.  But this was a bit of an experiment and I'm happy to say both worked out great on glass jars and stainless steel canisters.

Alright so the first set of labels I made I use the 'label' design that comes as a free design with the Silhouette Studio.

{Silhouette} Vinyl Monogram Wall Art

I'm just gonna put this out there - I love monograms.  Okay there I said it.  I'm a monogram-aholic.  I would monogram my forehead if I could...okay, not really.  Anyway, I had this old frame that the glass had broke and I didn't really care for the silver.  Originally I used it to make a DIY jewelry organizer for daughter, but she never used it and I thought I could put it to better use....and so I upcycled it, again!   If you have an old frame and you want to get this look check out how I accomplished it here before you move on to cutting your monogram.

Alright, let's start cutting!  This is a really simple Silhouette project that has a huge impact.  First, you want to make sure you have the font Monogram KK downloaded and installed on your computer.  If you don't, you can get it for free at Dafont.com. 

Now open up Silhouette Studio (you must do this after the font installs on your computer or it won't show up in SS's font list).   For a married monogram the wife's first initial is on the left, the last name is in the middle and the husband's first initial is on the right.  So go ahead and pick the font tool and Monogram KK font and type the three letters with the first and third letter being lower case and the middle (last name) initial upper case.  Monogram KK automatically sizes them for you!  So cool.

Silhouette {Heart} Nail Art Tutorial

My little girl loves to have her nails painted - but what she loves even more is the few times she's actually gone to the salon and they've done a cool design on her nails.  I do not have a steady hand so I'll have no part of that, but I recently saw a really cool idea on Marvelous Mommy. She put mustache nail art on her toes...how freakin' cute!

So for Valentine's Day I thought it would be cool to make some little vinyl Silhouette nail art using hearts!  There are two ways to do this - you can actually use the vinyl as the nail art and keep it on the nail like a sticker or you can use the cut out as a stencil and paint the design on the nail then peel off the vinyl.  It would even be cut to do a combination of both!   Since I didn't have white nail polish on hand, I decided to use the white vinyl as the actual nail design.

First, I created the design in Silhouette.  I had purchased this heart and arrow design set a while back so I just ungrouped it and deleted everything I didn't need.

DIY Painted Owl Pillow Cover

I have some serious love for my Silhouette right now. I mean what's not to love about this adorable pillow cover.  I came up with the saying and immediately knew I had to find the perfect owl for it..would you believe the owl is actually part of a dingbat font and it's not an image graphic?

Free Designs for Silhouette using Dingbat Fonts

I'm seriously jumping out of my seat to share this one with you - it's so freaking awesome you're gonna love it!!  Okay, so we all know by now that most of the designs in the Silhouette Online Store are .99.  We've already talked about how to stretch your dollar in the store by buying larger designs with tons of separate elements...well now I've discovered a way to get FREE design images.  Are you ready for this?

The answer is dingbat fonts.  "Dingbat fonts?" you ask... yes, they're the fonts that show up as little images instead of actual letters.  For example..press an 'A' and a snowflake shows up, hit 'B' and you get a snowman..you get my snowdrift.  (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Since Silhouette Studio lets you use any font installed on your computer, you basically have access to a whole bunch of free designs.    So now I know you're gonna raise your hand and ask where to get a dingbat font.  Well, my students, DaFont.com is the ultimate!  This website rules when it comes to free font downloads and it has dozens, if not hundreds, of image/icon fonts.

ANY font installed on your computer in your design that means dingbat fonts are gonna be your new BFF.  It's like a nearly endless supply of free Silhouette designs.

Silhouette: How to weld (joining letters and numbers)

Joining or 'welding' letters, numbers and design elements in the Silhouette is one of the first things I learned to do when using my Silhouette.  Think of welding as linking all the letters together so they cut as one big word instead of individual letters.

Of course, you can weld more than just words and numbers, you can weld pieces of a design so they cut as one unit instead of individual pieces.   In today's lesson I'm going to show you the basics of welding and how you can use it for fonts ... then tomorrow we'll talk about welding design elements.

DIY Kitchen Art Made Easy with Silhouette

Yesterday I shared a little secret on how to stretch your dollar in the Silhouette Online Store and today I'm going to show you exactly how I put one of those images I purchased (as part of a larger design) to use.  I recently made a set of Painted Burlap Kitchen Art and my Silhouette did all the heavy lifting.  Honestly, I don't think this project would have been possible without it - at least it wouldn't have been possible to complete the entire thing in about 30 minutes.

What I wanted to do was replace the existing art in three frames that I already had with the 'eat', a set of utensils, and a monogrammed mug.  The opening in each frame/mat measured 5 3/4" square so I cut three pieces of 6 x 6 burlap.  Click here for tips on cutting burlap perfectly straight and details on how to keep it from fraying.

Where to buy Cheap Silhouette Vinyl

The Official Silhouette Online Store is stocked with tons of supplies to make pretty much anything you can dream of using your Silhouette.

I recently went to buy a roll of 9"x10' white vinyl from the store. The price was $9.99, but I had a 30% discount code.  That's a great deal.  The only problem is they were going to charge me $8 to ship it! Yes, you read that right - I would pay more for the shipping than the vinyl.  Not this girl!

I checked a few online sites including Amazon and Save-on-Crafts, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for and for a better price...that is until I hit up eBay.  I quick search for 'Silhouette vinyl' and I landed a roll of the Silhouette-brand white vinyl in the same size roll for less than $8 total.  The seller priced the roll at $7.95 and the shipping was free.

Lesson here: shop around and keep your eye out for great deals everywhere.  If you land a 40 or 50% off coupon for Micheal's, Hobby Lobby, AC Moore or any of the other craft stores, you can definitely score cheap Sihouette vinyl...you just have to know when and where to look.

Thanks for coming to class today at Silhouette School, if you like what you see, I'd love for you to pin it!

Silhouette Online Store: Stretching your dollar (or .99)

So the Silhouette Online Store is actually a pretty good deal.  Most of the downloadable designs sell for .99 and there are a ton of them.  But here's a little trick - you can actually get more for your .99 if you shop around.  Here's a good example....

A few days ago I was looking for a coffee mug for a set of kitchen art paintings I was working on.  I wasn't real picky on the 'type' or shape of the coffee mug.   A search in the Silhouette Online Store for 'coffee mug' brings up 124 different mug designs.  Most of them are simply that - a mug.  A single solitary image for .99.  That's not a bad deal, but why not get more for your money?

Freezer Paper Stencil: Silhouette Tutorial for a No Bleed, No Fail Paint Stencil

There are many reasons for making a freezer paper stencil, but among the strongest would be that it's nearly fail and bleed-proof for painting.  Your Silhouette can cut a freezer paper stencil, just as it would any other stencil making a detailed painting job super easy.

Let me start off by saying, I have tried what feels like dozens of ways to stencil - from using an exacto knife to transferring images with wax paper and water to using newsprint and a pencil.   Each method is good in its own way and much of it depends on what you are trying to stencil and what your mediums are...wood, fabric, walls, etc.

A freezer paper stencil works best on fabric.  The reason is it can be ironed directly - and firmly - onto the fabric and will prevent paint from bleeding leaving you with a good clean, crisp paint line while stenciling onto fabric.  I have used this method for pillows and table runners and it is nearly fail-proof.

So you ready? Let's get started - DIY freezer paper stencils are super easy to make.  Cut a piece of freezer paper off the roll and trim it down to 8.5x11 or 12x12 (or smaller if your image isn't a full page size) depending on if you are using the Silhouette Cameo or Portrait.  I work with a portrait, but the method is the same.