Little Wooden Boxes using NEW Silhouette Wood Effect Vinyl

Hello.
Janet here again, with another NEW speciality media for the UK: Silhouette Wood Effect Vinyl.  I had a great time trying out this new product by using it to decorate some of Lori Whitlock's new Polygon boxes.

The wood effect vinyl comes on a roll in one of three colours: Ebony, Maple and Walnut. The rolls  measure 9 in. x 6 ft. (229 mm x 1.80 m).  They have a matte wood texture and appearance and have a strong self adhesive backing. They cut like other premium vinyl although the vinyl feels a little thicker.

These boxes are made in dark brown cardstock and decorated with panels cut from wood effect vinyl in maple and walnut. Additional images (links at the bottom of the post) in contrasting vinyl are applied on top.

The boxes would make great little gift boxes for rustic jewellery and small crafts, but larger versions would be pretty enough to be displayed in their own right.



SUPPLIES REQUIRED:

Silhouette Wood Effect Vinyl in Maple and Walnut
Clear Transfer Tape
Dark Brown Cardstock
Weeding/Hook Tool
Burnishing/Scraper Tool
Transfer Tape
Heavy-Duty Double Sided Tape
Silhouette Cameo® 3



HOW TO MAKE THE BOXES


Step 1: Prepare the Files

Open the files for all three boxes in the same tab in the Studio software. Ungroup the pieces and arrange them into cut groups for the types and colours of media.

STEP 2: Cut the pieces. 

Cut out all the cardstock pieces. Fold along the crease lines and flatten out again.  Prepare the vinyl parts to cut by clicking the Send tab. Choose the default setting as a starting point. The ideal is to achieve a 'Kiss-cut'; cutting through the vinyl but not the backing sheet. Carry out a test cut and reduce the Force to where it will still cut through the vinyl (the default was the correct setting for me). This is particularly important if you are going to cut without a mat. 

[Note: I used my mat (although the product instructions suggest that the mat is not necessary), however the vinyl is pretty spring-y, and I'd probably cut without the mat now that I am happy with the settings].

Step 3: Prepare the Media

Remove (weed) the excess vinyl from around the cut pieces.  The vinyl will pull away from around the panels. Ease the vinyl gently from around the decorative elements and use a weeding tool to remove the small interior pieces.

Step 4: Attach the Vinyl

Peel the panels away from the backing paper and align them carefully onto the cardstock pieces. Press them into position. Place a piece of clear transfer tape over each vinyl design and rub firmly with a scraper/burnishing tool.  Lift the vinyl design away from the backing paper.

Place each design in position on a vinyl covered lid.

Rub (burnish) the design with the scraper then peel away the transfer tape.

Step 5: Construct the Boxes

Place heavy duty double sided adhesive tape along the flaps, close to the crease lines. Rub the tape with a scraper to adhere it firmly.

Peel off the protective layer from the tape; align the flaps, and press into position.

That completes the boxes.

You can get great results by adding vinyl to cardboard. The wood effect vinyl gives a great wood look finish, and intricate decorative designs are easier to cut from vinyl than from cardstock. I hope you'll try it.


Bye for now,

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Introducing Glitter Sheets - Decorating Christmas Crackers

Hi, Janet here with an introduction to the NEW Silhouette® Glitter Sticker Sheets which are now available in the UK.

I've included a little festive project, using the glitter stickers to decorate some home-made Christmas crackers using the Oh Deer! heads by Lettering Delights from the Silhouette Store.

GLITTER STICKER SHEETS

There are 8 sheets in a pack, each sheet being 8.5in. x 11in., or 215 mm x 280 mm. The sheets are glittery with a slightly silvery colouration.  They can be printed with any pattern on a home printer. I used my regular inkjet printer and the colours were bright and clear. The sheets are adhesive-backed, so no additional adhesive is needed.

Recent versions of the Silhouette® Studio software have a recommended setting for the Glitter Sticker sheets under "Sticker Paper, Glitter" (Blade 1, Speed 5, Force 10 and a single pass). I found that this setting gave a  perfect 'kiss-cut' with my AutoBlade and a sticky mat.

However, I didn't find the whole Print & Cut process as straightforward as usual so thought I'd share my difficulties and some tips in case you have a similar experience.

I started off using the sheets to make a sheet of round stickers to use as gift seals and to add to gift tags, but was alarmed to find that on my first attempt the round sticker shape was distorted. Additionally, the circles were not aligned with the printed designs.


TIP 1: PAGE SETTINGS/TEST CUT - Set Page Settings to US Letter and then carry out a test on regular white card or paper. To eliminate any user error, do the first Print & Cut with media of the same size as the sheets (i.e., US Letter size). If you don't have letter sized card you can trim down a piece of 12" x 12".

TIP 2: PRINTER SETTINGS/PRINT & CUT GUIDE LINES - Ensure that your printer is also set to print to US Letter. I find it useful to check with the 'Show Print Border' and 'Show Cut Border' guides turned on in the Page Setup panel.  UPDATE: Set up your Print & Cut in portrait rather than landscape (as I did). This allows the marks to be printed entirely within the material's non-glitter corners. For the same reason, use the other default settings too.

If the grey (print) guide line is off the page on the virtual mat, then check the page setup and orientation and change the Print Page Setup if necessary (File > Print Page Setup).  

If you still have a problem with alignment, check that your printer settings are not set to 'borderless', that 're-size to fit' is off, and that scale is set at 100%.

Tip 3: GOOD LIGHT CONDITIONS - Carry out the Print & Cut process in good light. If the software fails to pick up the registration marks once the printed media is loaded into the Silhouette, it is most likely a problem with light. Low light, bright light and shadows can all cause problems. I had no success with the glitter sticker sheets until I used them in good daylight.

Tip 4: REGISTRATION MARKS - The Sticker Sheet instructions advise the use of default registration marks. To restore the defaults, in the Page Setup Panel select the correct Style of registration mark (usually Type 1) and click on 'Restore Defaults'. (optional) At this stage I increased the Thickness from 0.50 to 0.70 (regardless of the unit of measure).

Tip 5: WHITEN THE REGISTRATION AREA - The sticker sheets have a smooth area at the corners where the registration marks print. However, I found that I didn't have success with the sheets until I covered these with pieces of white sticker paper (this is a hack I use for any shiny or coloured Print & Cut media). Only 3 pieces are required as shown in the photo  below.

GLITTER STICKERS FOR CHRISTMAS CRACKERS

I used these same designs to decorate a set of home-made Christmas crackers (we really wanted some fun rose gold crackers this year). Here is a quick overview on making the decorations.

1. Open all the Oh Deer! files in one tab.

2. Arrange them as you want them to cut (they are already coloured).

3. Recolour the grey colour to match the copper/rose gold crackers. You can enter the RGB numbers shown, but you may need them to be a little different for your printer.

4. Move the facial features aside and make an offset of the heads. Release compound path and remove any tiny pieces. Print & Cut the heads from a glitter sheet.

5. To make the wrapper, use only the offsets, and weld each one with a rectangle which is long enough to go around a cracker with a small overlap.

6. Cut the wrappers from medium weight white card.

7. Cut the features from black and red vinyl (I made duplicates).

8. Adhere the stickers onto the wrappers and partially cut around the lower part of the head to allow it to stand proud from the cracker.

9. Transfer the vinyl features to the lower part of the wrapper.

10. Adhere the wrapper to the top part of the cracker. Add additional decorations and scraps of glitter sheet.

I'd love to see what you make with the sheets. You can share photos of your makes over on the Silhouette UK Facebook page.


Bye for now,

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Whats new? v4

Well, I have updated, have you? I am not usually one for jumping in on newly released software as there are often things that may still cause issues, but I was intrigued to find out what was going to be so new in this version. So I took the leap and I don't regret it.

Well isn't it pretty!

The first thing that's new is the loading screen with a new graphic. 

 If you're updating when your software loads, you will notice a window on the right with your recovered files, this isn't in itself new but now you can move this panel anywhere on your screen that suits you.

At first look, there is not a great deal different with the software, however, there are some things that have been added to improve the usability, We can now make the buttons bigger which I for one greatly appreciate. This is done by clicking Edit then selecting Preferences. A new window will appear allowing you to change various things, like choosing cm or inches much like in the previous versions, but now if we look in the Display section, not only can we change the colour theme but we can also change the size of the buttons.

There is also a handy interactive Tutorial feature which is accessed through the help button on the top toolbar. This feature offers instruction in the format of a short animation to guide you through starting off with your machine.

Switching between Design, Store, Library and sending to your silhouette are all done in the top right of your screen as shown below.

 

A new project screen will look like this with a window open with options to select your page size, the mat your using and the orientation. By selecting different tools, new windows will pop up on your screen, these screens can be simply closed down again or if it's a tool you use often leave it open and move it around the screen to a position that suits you best.

The next big thing is the trace feature has been updated. 

we now have trace by colour and magnet trace which will be a whole blog in itself.

The updated process for sending your files to be cut is a much more linear process which should mean we make fewer mistakes by forgetting to change little things. Options for your blades are now beneath your virtual mat and the first screen to appear on the left is a comprehensive list of media types, simply select your media type (or add a new one) for each of your blade housings. At this point, I recommend using the test cut function for each of your media types, we can now use the arrows to position the blade over each different media before clicking on the test cut button.   

It is now easy to load different media onto the mat to cut at the same time while telling the software how to treat different media in the same pass. 

I highly recommend this upgrade, I've been using it for some time now and find it a much smoother process with less opening and closing of tools.

 Well, there are further updated features if you have DE or above but for now, have some fun playing and get a feel for the layout. If you use other graphic programs you will find the new version very familiar and will be flying in no time. 

Crafty hugs X

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