Silhouette UK: Using NEW Wood Sheets to Make a Mama Bear Picture

Hello,
Janet here with another NEW product - Silhouette Wood Sheets. I am super excited to have the opportunity to try these and am really pleased that they are now available in the UK.

There are six sheets in a pack, two each of dark brown, light brown, and light grey (the colours are similar to wenge/dark mahogany, beech/pale oak, and silver grey). They each measure 5 in. x 7 in. (127mm x 178mm). They are like a super-thin wood veneer and, just like the cork sheets, are self adhesive with a protective paper backing.

To try out this new product, I decided to make a little framed wall art using this sweet Mama Bear design by Sweet Afton.

I resized the design to fit my frame and cut the bear from the dark wood sheet, and the lettering from the grey. I wasn't sure just how well the lettering would cut, so I made a second cut from an offset. However, this proved unnecessary, as the original cut just fine.

I used the cut setting recommended in the Silhouette® Studio software for Wood Sheets, but realised that for my set up I should have reduced the thickness slightly to leave the backing sheet intact. Serves me right for neglecting to do a test cut first.

These are the recommended cut settings (they aren't included on the packaging). With my setup I'd try a Thickness of 17 or 18 next time.

It was then simply a matter of peeling off the remaining backing paper and layering the pieces onto a backing piece of wood sheet and placing it into a frame. I positioned the glass behind the picture, as I liked the more natural look of wood texture without a glass covering.

One tip I'd like to share with you - I placed my finished piece in a warm place (above my heating radiator) and the cut pieces started to curl a little. If you plan to display your design in a 'hot spot', I'd recommend using some additional adhesive. I'm certain this wouldn't be necessary if you adhered the pieces direct to paper or another more absorbent surface.