Vinyl Embellishments for Cardmakers

Hi everyone!

Marie-Clare here. Did you know that vinyl can also be used on cardstock to create card embellishments and decorations? I've started using special effect vinyls on my cards to replace other techniques like foiling, embossing, or trying to cut glitter card - because we all know that if you really want to murder your Cameo blade, glitter card is how to go about it!

Here's a quick guide to cutting vinyl card embellishments.

You will need:

Vinyl of your choice (I'm using a glitter effect today)
Silhouette cutting machine
Silhouette Design Studio

Step 1

Design the embellishments that you will need in Silhouette Design Studio. I'm using the gorgeous Deer Head design from Lori Whitlock (Design ID #116235) and I wrote out the letters and sentiment that I need too.

Step 2

Prepare your material to cut. I placed a scrap panel of my glitter vinyl across the top five inches of the mat to ensure that my designs would cut.

Click on the Send menu in the top right corner of the screen.

I must admit, I LOVE the new Send process. It's much more intuitive and helpful.

There are three main steps to follow before cutting, but at any stage if you want to just cut, press the 'Send' button in the bottom right hand corner. I'd advise following the steps, though.

The first screen you will see is the Material screen. This lets you tell the Cameo which materials you would like to cut. You can have multiple materials on the one mat, and can tell the Cameo which lines correspond to which materials.

I have chosen Vinyl, Glossy.

Down in the bottom panel of the screen, you will see the actual blade depth, speed and thickness settings. I increased the thickness slightly to 18.

Step 3

Click on the 'Next' button to follow the steps through before cutting.

You will now see the Action screen. Maria did a fantastic tutorial on how to use multiple Actions in one project over here in her Sketch and Cut blog post. My project is simple - just one action. I want to cut using the Autoblade. No changes needed here!

Click 'Next' again. You will now see the Send screen. This is great - my mum, who is a beginner user, loves this new feature as it tells her exactly how to make the machine do what she wants it to, with pictorial guides.

Finally, press 'Start', or 'Send', and the Cameo will begin the appropriate Actions using your chosen Materials settings.

Step 4

Weed the vinyl! 'Weeding' just means picking out all of the little bits of vinyl that are not needed. As well as the large pieces of vinyl surrounding the embellishments you have just cut, this means little parts in the middles of letters and so on too. It's actually very therapeutic!

Step 5

Transfer tape is simply used to position your vinyl onto whatever you are applying it to. With walls, plastics, metals or glass, it doesn't really matter - but with paper and cardstock, you really don't want to damage the card or peel it away when you transfer the vinyl on. You need to use a LOW-TACK transfer tape, or somehow make your Silhouette transfer tape just a little less sticky. I recommend sticking your transfer tape onto a clean pillowcase (or in my case, your leggings!) five or six times and peeling it off again. The fluff will make it much easier to work with.

Position your transfer tape on top of the vinyl embellishment, and rub all over with a burnishing tool. I use the one from the Silhouette tool kit but a strong credit card will also do the job.

Step 6

Position your transfer tape and vinyl onto your card, and gently rub all over with the tool, or with your fingers depending on how fragile your cardstock is.

Peel back, and there you have it!