Most of us are familiar with the Silhouette digital cutter. You can buy shapes from the Silhouette online store and cut the shapes out using your paper stash. But did you know that the Silhouette works with any digital graphics?
The first way I use digital products with my Silhouette is to use black & white png/jpeg files to trace and cut shapes. The ability to trace & cut inside the Silhouette Studio software is what makes this tool so powerful. It means you can cut out any digital graphics you desire!
I love this set of digital arrow sentiments by Ali Edwards and wanted to incorporate the "love this" arrow into a paper layout.
So I dragged the png file into my Silhouette Studio software and performed a trace to get the cut outline. (If you are unsure how to do that, you can see a video tutorial on Ali's blog.)
I cut the shape out with some patterned paper and adhered it to my Polaroid photo on my layout. This one is actually a little sneak peek into my June layout for the Write.Click.Scrapbook. gallery!
I used these png edged border files by Amy Martin to trace and cut.
I resized them to 6 inches and cut them out with various patterned papers. I ended up sewing these borders onto 4x6 cardstock to make custom journal cards!
You can trace & cut any digital shape you want. This opens up your Silhouette cutting possibilities to any digital file you can find/purchase on the internet! For this layout, I found a map of California on the internet and traced the cut outline in Silhouette Studio.
A second way to incorporate digital graphics with your Silhouette machine is to use the print & cut function. This is very similar to trace & cut, but you would use colored digital graphics, and you would only trace the outline versus everything. After tracing the outline of the digital graphics, you would turn on the registration marks in the Silhouette Studio software. Then print out the graphics with the registration marks using your regular printer. Put the sheet back onto your Silhouette cutting mat and let the machine detect the registration marks so it knows where to cut. I will show you a few examples.
Using these Everyday Story Doodles by Lauren Grier.
I traced the cut outlines in Silhouette Studio. Then I printed out the sheet and had the Silhouette cut it.
I did the same thing using other various graphics from The Lilypad.
I created a video tutorial on how to print & cut any digital graphics using the Silhouette for The Lilypad blog. You can find it here or on youtube here.
More print & cut diecuts using digital graphics.
Which I used to make these two cards.
My coolest print & cut project was probably doing a whole hybrid 12x12 layout using digital scrapbooking supplies. For this project I used the digital kit "For The Record" by One Little Bird and Paislee Press. First I created a digital layout in Photoshop so I get the sizing and placement correctly on my page.
Next I placed all the elements I want to print & cut onto a separate 8.5x11 canvas in Photoshop. I saved the 8.5x11 as a jpeg file.
Then I opened up the file in Silhouette Studio and traced the cut outlines.
Then I printed the page with the registration marks. After that I put the sheet back onto my Silhouette cutting mat and sent it through my Silhouette machine to cut.
Then I created my hybrid page by placing and adhering all my elements onto white cardstock and adding other embellishments such as punched glitter paper, wood veneers, twine, paint, and sewing.
A third way to use digital graphics with the Silhouette is to trace the digital graphics and then use the Silhouette sketch function to draw them onto paper with a pen. I made some cards using this method and some digital frames from The Lilypad.
Silly Frilly Frames by Valorie Wibbens
Thin Doodley Frames by Jacque Larsen
I traced the graphics inside my Silhouette Studio software. Then I used a Chomas pen holder and used some Sakura glitter pens to draw the shapes onto white cardstock.
I arranged them so that I got two cards out of 8.5x11 cardstock.
After the Silhouette sketching was done, I just cut the sheet in half, folded both of them, and adhered some other digital elements I had print & cut (see above) using dimensional foam adhesive.
I hadn't gotten enough of the Silhouette sketching using the doodled frames, so I used some more digital graphics and made some sketched 3x4 journal cards for Project Life using more Sakura glitter pens.
These hybrid projects incorporating digital graphics with the Silhouette opens up a world of possibilities! I love everything about it.
Hybrid Week header graphics made using digital graphics by Kate Hadfield.