March Silhouette Group Meeting

Hopefully the weather won't still be bad on Monday, March 3  (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) as we have our monthly meeting at AE.

Thought our attempts at stamp making at the last meeting brings a nice dimension to our Silhouette can do list.  Bring anything you may have used your stamp on.  Jacquie had an observation that I wanted to pass on.  The stamp material is thinner than what we find on commercial stamps and it is easy to pick up ink on the sides of the block where the image sits, so maybe we could try double cutting a design and place it on top to make it thicker.  Haven't done it yet, but will give that a try when I break out the stamp kit again.   Also, don't know a lot about inks, so if anyone wants to recommend what is best to get a good image with Silhouette stamp material, pass it on.    Kate at AE is ordering the stamp mats and stamp material for us, so will let everyone know when that comes in.   Twelve dollars is a small investment to be able to do your own personal stamps.

Planning on diving into a rhinestone kit I purchased a while ago and share how to use your Silhouette to create bling designs for fabrics, t-shirts, etc.

Also, looking forward to seeing what you all did with the design template from Page Maps. 

Don't forget to bring anything you have worked on with your Silhouette.

Organizing your Silhouette file

Happy New Year Everyone!!

You ever notice how the New Years always brings the thoughts of organizing and re-organizing things? I do and have begun to look forward to it. Despite the fact that anytime of year could work.  Well if you are like me and you keep on getting new Silhouette files, you will eventually forget what you have. And what a pity since you just knew you were going to use the files.

Well I thought it would be great to start the year off organizing our Silhouette files.  If you look at the Silhouette Online store they have a wonderful structure for organizing the files. I have since moved to this structure with a few tweaks.  I created a PDF file that you can print out to see the categories Silhouette uses on there store. It is very helpful when you are creating your organization structure Feel free to head on over to my Belinda's Crafts and download the file and see a few tips on organizing your files.

I hope you are all well and look forward to seeing you all at our upcoming Silhouette Designer's Meeting on Monday, February 3rd.

Happy Crafting!!
Belinda

TIPS AND TRICKS: Split screen view

Have you ever downloaded a cut file from the Silhouette Store and then when you open it in your Drawing Window it is a clear cut file and all the pretty colors the designer used are gone?  Many of us end up clicking back and forth from window to window to know which color papers to use to cut the file on the Silhouette.

Well there is a better way...

The first thing you want to do is click on the Show Library icon (the icon is on the left side of the screen and third from the bottom.

Then click on the Show Window and Draw Area button (the bottom icon).

Then select the file you want to use and click on it to load it into the Draw Area.

Now you can see the image and your drawing area at the same time while you work.

You can also resize each window to suit your needs.

So if you didn't know this, then give it a try!

Welcome to Silhouette Designers Group!

About Us:

The Silhouette Group meets the first Monday of each month at Absolutely Everything in Topsfield, MA from 11am - 1pm. Absolutely Everything is a paper arts, rubber stamp and scrapbook store so meeting here each month is great because we have access to purchase Silhouette as well as other crafting products.

Each meeting consists of:

• 'Sharing' time where members can share things they have created or working on as well as tips and tricks they learned along the way.
• A lesson on a variety of functions of the Silhouette machine. We focus on one or two each meeting so that we are all able to fully learn.
• A challenge using the new technique when time allows so that we can really help us learn more.

Don't let the name of our group fool you because beginners to advanced Silhouette users are welcome. So don't hesitate to drop in and have some fun!

November 5, 2013 - Newsletter

This month's meeting:

We had a lot of fun at our November meeting.  Jackie brought a project to show the group and explained how she took the October lessons we learned from Cathy using the Subtract feature to help her complete her Christmas Advent calendar.

She used it to design a template to cut out the paper to go on each drawer on the calendar.  Something that would have taken hours to produce by hand but once she created the template in Silhouette.  Now she has a template she can use again and again.

Group Lesson:

Cathy saw a card in a popular card magazine and used it to inspire her create a similar card using the Silhouette. She then turned it into a lesson for the group to use the Weld Tool, Replicate and Mirror images functions to create these cute cards.

She walked the group through the steps to create very cute cards and gift tags.  A handout of the step-by-step instructions was distributed to the group for future reference.

It could be used to create someone's initials, other words like 'Love' for Valentine's Day, a son or daughter's name. The possibilities are endless on using this feature to create custom cutout word cards.

Our Next meeting:

Our next meeting will be help on Monday, December 3rd from 11am-1pm and Belinda will teach the group how to import digital papers into Silhouette and ways to use them with shapes and fill pattern in preparation for her Print and Cut lessons. Remember, beginners to advanced Silhouette users are welcome.