Cameo 4 Foil Quill Alternative

Hi Everyone!

This week I wanted to share with you another brand of heated foil quill that you can use with your Cameo 4. It comes with an adapter specifically designed to fit the Cameo 4 machine. I found it on Amazon a few weeks ago and I decided to try it out.

Craft Express Heat Foil Pen Scrapbooking Tool with USB Cable for Cricut Maker Explore,Silhouette Cameo 4 Plus Pro,for Cards Leather Craft Making

Craft Express

Buy on Amazon

For now, it looks like it’s only available with one tip size. It seems similar to the medium tip foil quill from We R Memory Keepers.

Note: The adapter that comes with this does NOT fit the We R Memory Keepers Foil Quills.

I placed the foil quill in slot 1 in my Cameo 4 carriage and plugged it in. This foil quill still needs to be plugged into a USB power source like the We R Memory Keepers Foil Quills. I used one of my small portable chargers.

The pen temperature can supposedly be set to 2 different levels. I’m not sure how that works, when I plug it in the switch has a red light or green light. For this initial testing, I have it on the green light.

I have some simple concentric circles that I made in Silhouette Studio to test it out. I’m using some heavy cardstock and the We R Memory Keepers Gold Foil.

After giving it a few minutes to warm up, I loaded my mat into the machine and pressed Send.

I used the Heavy Coverstock material setting, force of 5, speed 2. You might need to play around with the settings depending on your materials. It didn’t tear the foil at all and it did a really nice job of foiling!

After it was done, I turned off the quill and removed it from my machine. Warning!! It gets much hotter than the We R Memory Keepers foil quill, even with the adapter around it. Be very careful when handling it, even if you just unplugged it. It even made slot 1 of my machine very warm, so I’m not sure if I would use it for a long period of time.

Other than that, it did a really nice job. My only wish is that they would offer additional tip sizes like a fine tip and a bold tip.

Silhouette Cameo 4 Fine Tip Foil Quill Adapter

Hi Everyone!

Links in this article may be affiliate links.

It’s been a few weeks since my last post, but during that time I got a Cameo 4 and I’ve been playing around with it a little bit.

As you probably already know, the We R Memory Keepers Foil Quill is one of my favorite tools to use with my cutting machines. I see a lot of people having trouble using the Fine Tip Foil Quill in particular with the Cameo 4 and Portrait machines. I got my fine tip to work pretty well with my Portrait 3, and I tried it out with the same settings on my Cameo 4. Those settings didn’t work with my Cameo 4 and I actually broke the tip off my foil quill. Oops!!

I ended up buying a new Fine Tip foil quill and I finally figured out a better way to keep it from ripping my foil and breaking the tip. It’s so simple and, I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner!

All you need is some cardstock. I’m using a 100lb cardstock, so it’s a little thicker. But you can use whatever you have on hand.

I created an 18mm (0.71in) circle in Silhouette Studio with a 12.5mm (0.49in) circle inside. So now I have basic ring. I duplicated it a few times, depending on the thickness of your cardstock, you may need more than one, you can stack them on top of each other.

I cut the rings with my Cameo machine using the Heavy Coverstock setting and the Autoblade.

I placed the ring on top of the D adapter. I know the Foil quill says the A adapter is for Silhouette machines, but that’s for the Cameo 3 and previous models. For the Portrait 3 and Cameo 4 you need the D adapter, which is really supposed to be for a Sissix machine.

Then I screw my Fine Tip foil quill into the adapter. The cardstock ring keeps it just slightly above the top edge of the adapter, and it also helps keep the tip from wiggling around in the adapter. I already tried not screwing the tip all the way into the adapter and it wobbles around to much when you are trying to draw with it.

If you are using a thinner cardstock, you might need to use 2 or 3 rings stacked on top of each other.

Next, I’m going to test it without being plugged in or with any foil. I’m checking to make sure the tip actually reaches the cardstock I’m going to be foiling. My foil quill is loaded into slot 1 on the carriage.

I have a scrap piece of cardstock on my mat and I’m going to test with the Coverstock, Heavy material setting, force of 5, speed of 2, action is sketch, tool is pen.

I run it though my machine without the quill plugged in and no foil. I can see that the tip leaves a slight indent in the cardstock. You want to make sure the tip isn’t digging in too deep, or it will rip your foil. This looks like a good depth, so next I’m going to test it with some foil.

I plug in my foil quill and cover my piece of cardstock with foil. I’m using the We R Memory Keepers brand of foil.

I run it through my machine with the same settings Heavy Coverstock, Force 5, speed 2.

It makes it through without tearing the foil.

It looks great after removing the foil!

Depending on the materials you use, your settings may be different from mine. If you want to try using the Fine Tip Foil Quill on thicker materials, you can try adding some more rings to help raise the tip higher up and away from the mat.

Shrink Plastic Pins with the Cricut Maker

Hi Everyone!

St. Patrick’s day is this week, I wanted to try making a little four leaf clover pin using shrink plastic and gold foil for good luck!

Since my Portrait 3 doesn’t quite cut all the way through my shrink plastic sheets, I thought I would give my Cricut Maker a try. It’s got more cutting force than my Portrait 3, but I was also quickly reminded how much I HATE Cricut Design Space. I really wish instead of releasing ridiculously priced heat presses they would invest in better software. I really love Silhouette Studio (it works how I’ve always dreamed Design Space should work) and I think I see a Silhouette Cameo 4 replacing my Cricut Maker in the near future!

Ok, rant over. Here’s how I did it on my Cricut (Note: this DOES NOT work with the Cricut Foil Transfer tool):

Supplies:

Four leaf clover single line SVG from my Good Luck Charm bundle

Cricut Maker

Deep Cut Blade (the black one)

Light Grip mat (the blue one)

WRMK Foil Quill Medium Tip with C adapter

Gold heat reactive foil

Shrink plastic sheets

Green Sharpie

Glue

Pin back

Heat Gun on Toaster Oven

First I cut down my shrink plastic sheet into smaller squares, mine are about 3.5 x 3.5 inches. Then I colored the squares with the green Sharpie.

Tip: The Sharpie blended better when I used small circular strokes.

I set my green squares aside to dry for a little bit. Now I’m going to set up my project in Cricut Design Space.

I’ve got my four leaf clover single line SVG uploaded into design space. I made a 3.5 x 3.5 inch square (the same size as my shrink plastic squares) and I scaled my four leaf clover to fit inside the square. I left a little border around the edges since I will be taping my shrink plastic to my mat.

I’m also going to add a random little square to my file so I will be able to pause and remove the foil before cutting.

You’re probably saying “Just use the Pause button on your machine!” Well, unless my machine is faulty, my machine won’t pause until it has already started to cut with the blade.

I’m also doing this because Cricut has eliminated the ability to just skip unloading the mat and continuing with your cut. If you don’t eject your mat, don’t worry, your machine will do it for you! So I’ve gotta keep coming up with new ways to outsmart the Cricut!

Once I have my Cameo 4, I will make a version of this project using it so you can see why I like the Silhouette software so much better!

Make sure the operation for the foil portion of the four leaf clover is set to Draw/ Pen. The operation for the offset line around the clover should be set to Basic Cut.

I set the operation for my random square to Draw/ Pen. Make sure you select a different color from the clover drawing. Fingers crossed that my machine will request the gold pen after the silver pen!

Now, I’m going to attach all of my clover pieces together, DO NOT attach the squares.

Don’t forget to Save your project. Then click Make It.

It’s set up for 3 separate mats at the moment. In mat number 2, I’m going to move my square down and over so it’s toward the bottom of my mat.

Next, I’m going to select mat number 3. Click on the 3 little dots in the corner and select Move Object.

Select the mat with the big square and click Confirm.

Now I’m going to place my clover over the big square.

Then I’m going to select mat 1, click the 3 little dots and move the small square to mat 2 with everything else. But I’m going to keep it in the upper left corner. So now, everything is on mat 2. Isn’t this such a pain?!!

Now I will select the 3 dots and hide the large square. It was only there so I could put my clover in the correct place on the mat

It’s probably a good time to plug in your Foil Quill to get it warmed up!

Now I’m going to tape my shrink plastic square on my mat on all four sides. It’s in the same position on my mat as the 3.5 x 3.5 square was in Design Space.

Then I’m going to tape my foil on top of the shrink plastic on all four sides.

Back in Design Space, I’m going to click Continue. I tested some shrink plastic a while ago and I ended up making my own custom material setting that I named “Shrink Plastic.” (real original, I know). I’m going to search the materials and find my Shrink Plastic setting. (For some reason Cricut Design Space won’t allow me to save it as a favorite, I just get an error.)

Design Space is prompting me to load the silver pen in clamp A. I'm using my foil quill in clamp A instead. I don’t have anything loaded into clamp B. I load my mat into my machine and I press the Go button.

After the machine is done foiling, my design is still under the rollers so I can’t remove the foil. (What a pain! This is why I have the little square up in the corner of my mat).

It’s going to prompt me to load the gold pen into clamp A. I’m actually going to remove the foil quill (Careful, that tip is hot!) and load the Deep Cut blade into Clamp B. Press go on my machine.

My machine is going to move to the top of the mat to “Draw” the little square. I need to QUICKLY press the Pause button on my machine. Now I can easily remove the foil from my design.

Once I press the Pause button again, my machine will continue with the Deep Cut blade.

My cutline and drawing aren’t quite centered, so I may have to calibrate my machine. I’m going to go ahead and use this piece anyway since it won’t be as obvious once I shrink it.

Now it’s time to shrink! I’m using my heat gun, but you can also use a toaster oven and follow the instructions from your shrink plastic manufacturer.

Be careful when it’s shrinking. If it curls up on itself too much the foil might transfer to another part of the design, like the left side of my clover in the photo below.

After it’s done shrinking, I glue a pin back on the back, and it’s ready to wear for St. Patrick’s day! If you don’t like the pin back showing through the shrink plastic you can also use this technique on the white shrink plastic.

Making Pins using Black Shrink Plastic and the Foil Quill

Hi Everyone!

This week I’m going to share a fun little project you can make with your WRMK Foil quill, black shrink plastic, and a single line SVG file.

Supplies:

(Links to items below may be affiliate links)

Single line SVG file (I will be using one from my Celestial collection)

Black shrink plastic

WRMK Medium tip Foil quill (the mint one)

WRMK gold foil

Silhouette or Cricut machine that is compatible with the WRMK Foil Quill (I will be using my Portrait 3)

Light grip cutting mat

Deep cut blade (I will be using my CB09 holder with a 60 degree blade)

Heat gun or toaster oven

Pin backing

Glue

Let’s get started!

I’ve got my Single line SVG file opened in Silhouette Studio. I want to make this into a round pin that will end up being approximately 1 inch in diameter.

I will draw a 2” circle since my shrink plastic will shrink about 50 percent.

Now I need to scale down my art to fit inside the circle.

I’m going to draw and cut this by line color, so I will be keep my artwork in black and the circle in red.

I cut down my black shrink plastic sheet to a 2.75 x 2.75 inch square. I also cut down my foil to a smaller square.

We’re going to do the foiling first. I’m going to place my back shrink plastic a little further down on the mat so it’s easier to remove the foil once it’s done.

Make sure everything is taped down well to your mat so nothing shifts while foiling and cutting.

I’m using the Medium foiling tip. My Material is set to Coverstock, Heavy. The action is set to Sketch, tool is set to Pen. The force is set to 7 and speed is 5.

After it’s done foiling, do NOT remove the mat! Carefully remove the foil.

Now it’s time to cut. I’m using my CB09 blade holder with a 60 degree blade. I selected Acetate for the material. Tool is the Deep Cut blade, depth is 10, force is 33, speed is 3. Number of Passes is set to 10 which is the most Silhouette Studio will allow.

After the first 10 passes, do not remove the mat from the machine. Carefully dust of any little plastic particles and send it through again for another 10 passes.

Once it’s done with the 2nd set of ten passes, do NOT remove the mat. Dust off any little plastic particles again. You can carefully lift a corner of the shrink plastic off the mat to see if it’s close to be cut through. Just make sure you don’t accidentally shift the placement on the mat.

I typically have to make 30-40 total passes, even then it’s not always cut all the way through, but it’s enough I can carefully pop it out.

Here it is before shrinking so you can get an idea of the size difference.

Now it’s time to shrink it! I’m going to be using my heat gun and little metal spatula on some teflon sheeting. But you can also follow the instructions that come with your shrink plastic and do it in a toaster oven.

Once it’s done shrinking, while the plastic is still warm, you can use a metal spatula or other flat object to help flatten your piece.

The shrink plastic doesn't shrink perfectly even, so my circle is now a little lopsided, but it’s not too bad. I love how the gold foil keeps all the little details and still adds a little bit of shine. I haven’t noticed the gold foil scratching off, so it’s up to you if you want to apply some sort of sealer on top.

I’m going to glue my pin onto the back ,and now it’s finished and ready to go on a jacket, a bag, a hat, or anywhere else you like to add pins!

Another Style of Watercolor Clipart in Procreate

Hi Everyone!

This week I’m going to share another variation of watercolor style clipart in Procreate. I will be using some of the same brushes as last week from the Everything Watercolor brush set by Uproot Brushes. Let’s get started!

I will be using my same Capricorn line drawing from the past few weeks. At the end of this post you will see all the different ways I’ve used this same base drawing and rendered it different ways.

I’m going to be using the Smooth Paper texture canvas that comes with the Everything Watercolor brushes. I will go ahead and delete the others so I can have more layers to work with for my painting.

I’ve got my line drawing as the bottom most layer and I have reduced the opacity to 5%, so I can just barely see it. We’re not going to trace it too precisely, this painting is going to be a little looser than the paintings from the last 2 weeks.

I quickly sketched my lines in a dark navy blue color with the Dry Ink brush that is included with Procreate. You can find it under the Inking brushes.

Then I’m going to create a new layer underneath, set it to Linear Burn and use the Brushy McBrush Face from the Everything Watercolor brushes. I’m using a light blue color for the whole painting, I want this version to be more monochromatic.

Next, I’m going to add some variation to the light blue. I’ll create another layer, set it to Linear Burn, then I will make this layer a clipping mask. If you tap on the layer, a menu pops up to the left, select Clipping Mask.

Now I’m going to use the Stain Jane brush from the Everything Watercolor brushes. In the same light blue color I will go around and add some darker blue areas. It will appear darker because my layer is set to Linear Burn. Since this layer is a clipping mask, all of my “painting” stays within the light blue of the original layer I painted. This is a great way to add some of the color variation like you get with real watercolors.

Here’s what it looks like without the clipping mask applied.

I’m going to lower the opacity of my original light blue layer just a little bit, the blues got a little to dark for my liking. Now it’s finished!

Here it is next to the other paintings from the last 2 weeks. This is a fun exercise if you’re trying to figure out your drawing/ painting style.

Creating Watercolor Style Clip Art in Procreate to Use With Your Cricut or Silhouette Machine

Hi Everyone!

This week I’m going to share a watercolor style technique that I like to use in Procreate to make clip art that I can use with my Cricut or Silhouette machine.

I will be using the Brushy McBrush Face brush from the Everything Watercolor brush set from Uproot Brushes. This is a great set of brushes and it also comes with some very nice paper textures. The paper textures make a huge difference when trying to make convincing digital watercolor artwork.

Let’s get started!

I will be using my same Capricorn line drawing from the past few weeks. In the end you will see all the different ways I’ve used this same base drawing and rendered it different ways. This is also a great way to figure out what kind of drawing/ painting style you prefer to use for your own artwork.

I’m going to be using the Smooth Paper texture canvas that comes with the Everything Watercolor brushes. I will go ahead and delete the others so I can have more layers to work with for my painting.

I copy and pasted my Capricorn line drawing and put it underneath the paper texture. I also lowered the opacity of my drawing to where I can barely see it. The paper texture always needs to stay on top, you painting and drawing layers will always be below the texture stack.

There are already some layers labeled “Paint Here”, I’m going to go head and duplicate these while they’re still empty, but you can always add more later.

For simplicity, I’m going to use the same colors that I did last week, and I’m going to start with the tail again. I select my Brushy McBrush Face brush and start painting on one of the “Paint Here” layers. With this brush, once you lift your pencil off the screen, when you draw/ paint over the same area again it will get darker.

I really love the ends and edges of this brush, they’re a little rough so it looks like i’m painting with an actual brush.

This brush also layers very nicely, once I’ve got my base layer down I can go back in and make some darker areas like with real watercolor.

I still like to keep all of my colors on separate layers, so it’s easier for me to go back and make any color adjustments if needed.

Once I’ve got my base colors down, I’m going to add some more shadows. The color I started out with was little dark, but I ended up adjusting my layer opacity to 50%.

Now for my finishing touch, I’m going to use the Dry Ink pen that comes with Procreate (you can find it in the Inking brushes) I want this to look like I quickly went around it with an old Micron pen. I’m going to loosely trace around my original one drawing, but I’m not going to worry about being too precise. I want this illustration to have a looser feel than my gouache style painting from last week.

Now it’s finished, and here’s a side by side with my painting from last week. I can use these painting as clip art for stickers and I also plan to make some repeating patterns once I have finished all the zodiac signs.

Watercolor style with black ink details

Gouache style with pencil details

Creating Gouache Style Clip Art in Procreate to Use With Your Cricut or Silhouette Machine

Hi Everyone!

The last few weeks I showed you my process for how I create and test my single line SVG files. If single line SVGs aren’t really your thing, for the next few weeks I’m going to share with you some other methods for how I create artwork to use with my Cricut or Silhouette machine.

Since I already have this nice outline of my Capricorn, I’m going to use it as a guide to do a full color gouache-style version in Procreate on my iPad Pro. I’ll be able to use my finished artwork as clip art for stickers and other things.

Procreate is one of my absolute favorite apps for the iPad. It is a paid app, but it’s worth every penny in my opinion. It comes with some great brushes already included, there are numerous brush sets you can purchase from other artists, or you can even create you own custom brushes.

Today, I’m going to use a combination of brushes that are included with Procreate and some brushes that I have purchased. But you can absolutely create your own artwork using just the brushes that are already come with Procreate. Let’s get started!

I’m going to open my file that contains my line work for my Capricorn single line file. You can also start with a rough sketch too. I’m going to lower the opacity of this layer to about 10%, it’s visible but won’t interfere with my painting on top too much.

I like to work in a lot of layers, I think it’s easier to make adjustments to individual layers if I need to make any changes the further I get into my drawing or painting. I’m going to start with the tail first and I’m just going to fill in my base layer without any details. I’m using the Round Smooth Semi Wet brush from Lisa Glanz’s Gouache brush set. This is one of my favorite brush sets that I have purchased, I love using these brushes for my gouache style artwork.

The initial color I started with is a litter darker than I wanted, so I’m going to use Hue, Saturation, Brightness to adjust the color to my liking.

I will use the color picker tool (the little square between the brush sliders) to grab the new adjusted color. Then I will continue to fill in the tail.

I like to have separate layer for each base color. Once I’m finished with the tail, I’m going to fill in the body on it’s own layer.

After the body, I fill in the horns and hooves on their own layer.

Now I’m going to go in and do some detail work with the Peppermint pencil. This is one of my brushes that is already included with Procreate. The details for the body will be on their own layer and the details for the tail and horns will be on their own layer.

After I’m done with the details, i’m going to go back and add some shadows and highlights with the Thick Sticky brush from Bardot Brushes Gouache Paintbox set. Since I’m working with layers, I can sandwich my shadows and highlight between my pencil details and my base layers.

Looking at my drawing/ painting, I want the pencil lines to be a little darker, so I set my layers to Multiply. I still want to to be a little darker, so I swipe left on the layer and duplicate them a few times. Now it’s to my liking!

To use this file as a print and cut, I will need to export it as a PNG, this will give it a transparent background and will merge all my layers. If I want to make any color adjustments, I can always go back to my layered file in Procreate and re-export it.

Creating a Single Line SVG File in the Adobe Illustrator App Using Vectorize

Hi Everyone!

This week I wanted to share another method you can use to create your single line SVG file in the Illustrator App using the Vectorize tool.

One great thing about the Illustrator App is they continue to improve it. I’m not sure when they came out with the vectorize tool, but I stumbled upon it when I was tracing my sketch manually with the pencil tool.

Initially, I tried it out with my rough sketch, and the results weren’t great.

I went back into Procreate and I traced over my rough sketch with Studio Pen brush at 5% for a more refined drawing. The thinner you draw your lines here in Procreate, the better single line file you will get in Illustrator.

I saved my file as a PNG. At this point, it looks like it would make a good draw file in Cricut Design Space, but that is definitely not the case, you will get the dreaded double lines.

So we will need to do some additional steps in Illustrator to get a proper Draw file. I’m going to import my PNG file into the Illustrator app.

With my image selected, in the tool bar on the right side, I’m going to click on Object and in the dialog box I will select Vectorize.

This works a lot like Image Trace in the desktop version of Illustrator. I’m going to make sure I have my color mode set to Black and White and my Output set to Strokes. You can play around with the sliders a little bit to help refine your drawing.

Once you get it to where you like it, you can click Expand Vectorization and now you will have a drawing composed of single line strokes.

One last thing I’m going to do is make all of my strokes 1pt in width.

Now I can go through and refine my drawing even more with the direct selection tool and add any parts that may be missing with the pen or pencil tool. Once I’m satisfied with the way it is, I can save this as an SVG and import it into the Cricut Design Space App.

Creating Your Own Single Line SVG File - Part Three

Hi Everyone!

This week I’m going to test the single line SVG file that I created in the Illustrator app last week. I’m going to do this all on my iPad, so I’m going to test it with the Cricut app.

First, I’m going to open the Cricut app and start a new project. Then, down at the bottom of the screen, I’m going to select UPLOAD and BROWSE FILES.

In last week’s tutorial, I saved my design on my iPad as an SVG file. Now. I need to locate that file on my iPad. I saved mine in my Illustrator folder.

Inside the Illustrator folder I select my Capricorn file.

Cricut Design Space will show a preview of the file. It will default to a CUT image. I can’t change it to a DRAW file until it’s uploaded into Design Space. So now, I can name my file and click save in the upper right corner.

After I click save, Design Space will bring up all my uploaded images. I select my Capricorn file and click INSERT down in the bottom right corner.

Now, my file is on my canvas. I’m going to scale it down a little bit, so it fits on the piece of cardstock I will be using to do my test drawing. I’m also going to change this to a DRAW file. Down in the bottom tool bar, select EDIT, then where it says BASIC CUT on the bottom left, select that and change it to DRAW/ Pen.

Here I can change the pen type and color. I’m using my Fine Point Black pen. I’m going to change the color just for visibility purposes in Design Space. My machine cannot determine the actual pen color I’m using, so I can select whatever color I want.

Even though all of my lines are already grouped together, I still need to ATTACH them. Otherwise Design Space will spread them out all weird on the mat when I select Make It. Down in the bottom tool bar I select ACTIONS then I select ATTACH. Now I’m ready to SAVE my file and then select Make It.

I’m going to position my design relative to where I have my piece of cardstock on my actual mat.

Click NEXT and then select my Maker machine.

I’m using a scarp piece of cardstock, so I select Heavy Cardstock as my material. and I load my Black fine point pen and my mat into my machine, and Press GO!!

After my machine is done drawing, I check my design to see if skipped any of my lines. If any parts of your design are missing, try re-uploading your SVG file into Design Space.

It looks like all of my lines are there, now I’m going to try out my design with my WRMK foil quill. I can use my Foil Quill with my iPad because my machine treats it like a pen. I cannot use my Cricut Foil Transfer tool with my iPad, I don’t know why Cricut hasn’t figured that one out yet.

But here it is with silver foil on black cardstock! Now that I’ve tested my file and it works, I can use it for whatever projects I want.

Creating Your Own Single Line SVG Files - Part Two

Hi Everyone!

This week is part two of how to create your own single line SVG files. I’m going to share with you how I take my sketch from Procreate and use the Adobe Illustrator app on my iPad Pro to create the SVG file.

Last week exported my file from Procreate as a JPEG. I’m going to bring that file into the Illustrator app by selecting the picture icon in the tool bar on the left and finding that file on my iPad.

You can adjust the size of the image, I typically keep my pretty large at this point. I’m going to add a new layer above my sketch layer, then I’m going to lock my sketch layer.

I typically start with a basic out line of my image and then fill in all the little details on a separate layer. You need to use either the pencil tool or the pen tool to create a single line SVG. This is so your image is made up of individual paths and not filled shapes. I’m going to use the pencil tool since it feels most natural when I’m tracing my image using my Apple Pencil.

I’m going to start tracing the outline of the horns with my pencil. If you need to stop and lift up your pencil, you can continue that same line again by selecting the path and start drawing at one of the end points.

Now, you can choose the draw the rest of the outline or start refining each section as you go along. I’m going to refine each section as I go along. Using the Direct selection tool, I can delete anchor points, change curved points to sharp angles and vice versa.

After the outline is complete, I will create a new layer for the details.

I do the details by sections in the drawing. As you can see, I simplified the scales on the fish tale from my original drawing. Now is great time to make any adjustments to your drawing. Once I finish the details, I make each section a subgroup in my layer.

Now it’s time to export this file as SVG. Click on the box with the arrow in the upper right tool bar across the top in the app. Select “Publish and export.”

On the left side of the screen, select “Export as.”

In the drop down next to Format, select SVG and click the blue Export button.

I’m going to select “Save to Files.”

Then I select the “Illustrator” folder. Next week I will show you how to test this file using the Cricut App on my iPad.

Creating Your Own Single Line SVG Files - Part One

Hi Everyone!

One of my goals this year is to create more SVG files to add here and my Etsy shop. There are a lot of SVG cut files available out there, but not as many single line or draw files. I thought I would share my process for how I create my single line SVG files.

I start off by trying to come up with an idea for a collection of files, this year I want to do all of the zodiac symbols. Since we’re still in January, I’m going to start off with Capricorn, which is often depicted as a sea goat.

I love using Pinterest to gather inspiration and I created a board where I’m collecting images of all the different zodiac symbols. I’ll keep adding to this board as I work my way through all the zodiac signs.

After I’ve gathered a few images I go through them and I start to pick out what parts I like from each image.

I really like how the fish tails loop around on these.

I think I want a profile view for the head.

Next, I’m going to start creating a rough sketch on my iPad Pro in one of my favorite apps, Procreate. If you don’t have an iPad, you can also do your sketch the good old fashioned way with pencil and paper.

I would like for these to fit on a round shape like a key ring or coaster, so I’m going to start out. with a circle shape and keep my design within that shape.

I like to sketch with the Peppermint Pencil, it’s one of the brushes that comes with Procreate. It’s almost like sketching with a real pencil!

Another great thing about Procreate is you can have your reference image in a separate little window inside Procreate.

Or you can do a split screen with Procreate and Pinterest.

I’m going to work with my reference image in a window in Procreate. So I take some screenshots of my Pinterest images that I will be referencing.

After I work out my sketch, I can either take a screenshot, save it as a JPEG or PNG file to bring into the Illustrator app.

If you made your sketch on regular paper, you will need to scan you image so you can bring it into Illustrator or another vector program of your choice.

Next week I will share with you how I turn my sketch into vector line art in the Illustrator App on my iPad.

Low Poly Heart Box

Hi Everyone,

This week I’m working on some Valentine’s Day designs. I’ve been testing a pattern for a heart box on my Silhouette and Cricut machines so I can post here and in my Etsy shop. Here are the project details for making this on a Cricut Maker if you want to try it out for yourself!

Supplies:

(some links below may be affiliate links)

My Heart Box Pattern SVG

Cricut Machine (I will be using my Maker)

Light Grip mat (the blue one)

8.5” x 11” Foil Cardstock (or whatever cardstock you prefer)

Scoring Wheel or Scoring Stylus

Fine Point Blade

Tape runner or glue pen

Upload to SVG into Cricut Design Space and insert it onto a blank canvas.

The top heart is the back of the box, to bottom heart is the front of the box. The back of the box is slightly smaller than the front.

Select the groups that contains the score lines and change them from Basic Cut to Score Lines. Now your score lines should look like dashed lines.

This part is optional, but since I’m using 8.5x11 cardstock I want to make sure my hearts are placed so they cut in the correct area.

Make an 8.5 x 11 rectangle and put it behind the hearts. Make sure the hearts fit within the rectangle. Attach just the hearts together, leave the rectangle on it’s own.

Make the material color for the hearts White so we can see them in the next step.

Press the Make It button, now we should have 2 mats - one with the hearts and one with the rectangle.

Select the mat with the hearts and click the 3 small dots. Select Move Object in the pop up box.

Select the mat with the rectangle in the pop up box and click Confirm. Now your hearts and rectangle will be on the same mat, but you can move them around separately.

Select the rectangle and move it as close to the 1x1 position on the mat. The red border at the bottom will keep you from moving it all the way to the 1x1 position.

Now select the hearts and move them so they are centered left to right on the rectangle and the bottom point of the heart is touching the bottom red border line and the bottom of the rectangle.

Select the rectangle again, click the 3 dots in the corner and select Hide Object from the pop up.

Now we are left with just the hearts on the cutting mat and the rectangle is hidden.

Place your cardstock on your Light Grip mat, the Top left corner of the cardstock should be at the 1 x1 position.

Since I’m using foil cardstock, I decided to use the Foil Posterboard material setting on my machine for this project.

After I select my material it shows me the tools I will need. It calls for the double scoring wheel, but if you prefer to use the single scoring wheel or scoring stylus, click where it says Edit Tools in green.

I’m going to use the single scoring wheel, so I select it and click apply. Now it’s time to load my mat and press go!

After it’s done scoring I need to switch to the fine point blade.

Once the machine is done cutting, before removing the mat, check to see that the blade cut all the way though your material. Mine did, so I can unload the mat. If it didn’t, press the Cricut button again on machine and it will do another round of cutting.

Now it’s time to assemble! It doesn’t matter if you start with the front or back heart. If you forget which piece is which, lay them on top of each other, the back heart piece is slightly smaller than the front heart heart piece.

The areas in red will need tape or glue applied when assembling.

I like to fold all of my score lines before I start taping/ glueing. I’m going to start at the center of the heart, these 2 pieces in the center need to be folded in the opposite direction of all the other lines.

Then I fold all my other lines.

I’m going to use double sided tape to assemble this, but you can also use glue. Again, I’m going to start at the center of the heart. I apply my tape to the flap and line up the edge with my score line.

I do the same thing for the other side. Then the little tab needs to be on the inside of the heart, and taped.

Then I move to the top of the heart, apply tape or glue to the little tab. Line up the score line to the cut edge and secure it.

I work my way all around so all the little tabs are taped/ glued.

Now one side is finished and I repeat the same process for the other heart piece.

Now I put them together, the back nests inside the front. This is a view of the back.

Now you have a cute little heart box! You can even cut some vinyl to add names or cute little messages to the front heart.

Planner Stickers with the WRMK Foil Quill

Happy New Year!

The new year is always a great time to make a fresh start with a new planner. I bought a planner notebook last year, but I didn’t realize it only had pages for 6 months and a bunch of blank pages at the end. After I filled up the 6 months , I kind of stopped using it. So this year, I’m going to make my own calendar/ planner pages and hopefully keep myself on track for this year!

Supplies: (links below may be affiliate links)

My Single line SVG files or another file you may have

Clear Sticker Paper

WRMK Fine Tip Foil Quill (the pink one)

WRMK Gold foil or heat reactive foil of your choice

Silhouette Portrait 3

Light Grip cutting mat

Autoblade

I created some single line SVG files for the months, days and dates. I’m going to test them out with my WRMK Foil Quill and some clear matte sticker paper.

I bought this clear matte sticker paper on Amazon. Unfortunately, when I received it I realized it has a slit down the back carrier paper which is not disclosed in the product description. I should have read more of the reviews! It’s not a problem for this project since I’m trimming the paper down to foil it.

I’m trimming my sticker paper down to 5.5 inches x 4.25 inches. You don’t have to do this, but I have an easier time foiling with smaller pieces.

I have all of my months set up to fit on one 5.5 inch x 4.25 sheet in Silhouette Studio and now it’s time to foil!

I’m using the fine tip foil quill (the pink one) with the D adapter, since my letters and numbers get pretty small.

I’ve got my sticker paper on my light grip mat approximately where it is shown in Silhouette studio and my foil is taped down tightly on all four sides.

After some initial testing with this sticker paper I created a custom material setting:

Action: Sketch

Force: 2

Speed: 2

Passes: 1

After it’s done foiling, do not remove your mat from the machine! Carefully remove the foil and place the Autoblade in carriage 1.

I want my stickers to be kiss cut, so the blade will not cut through the backing paper on the stickers. I added the following settings to my custom material:

Action: Cut

Force: 25

Speed: 4

Passes: 1

I repeat the same process for the days of the week and the dates.

Now my stickers are ready to be added to my calendar template!

3D Cardstock Snowflakes

Hi Everyone! It’s almost the end of 2021, this year has flown by! I’ve been spending the past couple of weeks planning new projects and files to share on my website and Etsy shop. Christmas may be over, but it’s still winter in some parts of the world, so I thought I would share part of a project I’ve been working on. It’s a pretty simple one you can do on a snowy afternoon!

Supplies:

(links below may be affiliate links)

Cutting machine (I will be using my Portrait 3, but you can also use a Cricut or other cutting machine)

Light Grip cutting mat

Snowflake cut file (You can download the one I’m using here for free)

Lightweight cardstock (I’m using foil cardstock, 2 different colors)

Glue stick or tape runner

Ribbon, twine or fishing line to hang the snowflakes

First open the SVG file in Silhouette Studio and adjust the size of the snowflake to your liking and will fit to your materials. Since I’m using two different colors of cardstock, I’m making my snowflakes pretty large.

I have one snowflake with a hole added at the top for hanging and one snowflake without the hole at the top.

I’m using my light grip cutting mat. I initially tried to do the matless, but the angles are a little too tight to get a nice pop out cut.

My foil cardstock feels a little heavier than my regular 65lb cardstock and the lightweight cardstock settings didn’t cut all the way through with my test cut. I got the best cut results using the Heavy Coverstock settings. The settings you see are for my CB09 blade since my auto blade is a little too dull to cut cardstock. You can use the default auto blade settings for Heavy Coverstock if you are using your auto blade.

I cut one color first, then I cut the same shapes from the 2nd color.

Next, I’m going to glue my pieces together, I’m using my tape runner, but you could also use a glue stick. I’m going to glue the two pieces with the hole at the top together. Then I’m going to glue the two pieces without the hole in the top together. Make sure the slit lines match up on the two pieces without the hole in the top.

Then I’m going to slide the two pieces together along the slits until they meet in the middle.

Now you can add ribbon, twine, or fishing line through the hole at the top to hang your snowflake!

Portrait 3 Print and Cut Gift Labels

Hi Everyone! Only a few more days until Christmas and I’ve still got quite a bit of gift wrapping to do! I always seem to run out of the little sticker gift tags very quickly. So this week I’m going to share a quick way to make your own using my Portrait 3 and the Print and Cut feature.

To do this project you will need the following: (links below may be affiliate links)

Some clip art (you can download my snowflake here for free)

Printable Sticker Paper (I’m using this one from Online labels)

Inkjet or laser printer

Silhouette Portrait 3

Autoblade

I’m going to open Silhouette Studio and create a new file. I’m using the business version, yours may look slightly different if you do not have the business version.

I turn on the registration marks so I know where to place my artwork and these will also be printed to the machine knows where to cut.

I’m going to do these matless (I love being able to cut stickers matless!) So under the Design area menu my Cutting Mat will be set to None. My Media size is Letter 8.5 x 11.

I load my snowflake PNG file (it’s pretty big when I first bring it in) and I scale it down to about 2 inches. You can scale it to whatever size you wish. I’m also going to change the red lines around the snowflake to transparent so they don’t print later.

Then I’m going to create an offset around the outside of the snowflake, this will be my cut line. I make my offset 0.125 inches from the edge of the snowflake.

Next, I’m going to make a rounded rectangle so I can add a To and From area onto my label. I make my rectangle approximately 2 inches wide by 0.75 inches tall.

The I’m going to Weld my rectangle and the offset cutline together so I have one continuous shape to cut.

I add the To and From text in the rectangle area. I’m using the Lucida Grande font at 10pt. You can use whatever font you prefer.

I’m going to group everything together and now my label is ready to be duplicated. I can fit 9 of these labels within the print and cut area. Make sure your artwork is NOT falling into the grey mesh areas too much, it can mess with the machine when it’s trying to scan the registration lines.

Now it’s time to print my labels! First, I tried printing directly from Silhouette Studio and I got some glitchy lines in the To and From letters. So instead of printing directly from Silhouette Studio, I’m going to save my design as a PDF and print from Photoshop.

To save your file as a PDF from Silhouette Studio, click on the printer icon. Then in the bottom left corner, click on the dropdown menu and select Save as PDF. Name your file and save it to where ever you want on your computer.

Open the PDF that you just saved in Photoshop, or other application the can print PDFs if your don’t have Photoshop. Make sure you DO NOT scale the file when you print it. Now everything looks like it’s supposed to!

Back in Silhouette Studio, I’m going to the Send tab and I always like to cut my files by Line color. My cut lines are red, so I make sure the box is checked next to the red square. I want my stickers to be kiss cut so my setting are as follows - Material is Sticker Paper, White; Blade depth: 2; Force: 14; Speed: 3.

I load my printed sticker paper with out the mat and press Send in Silhouette Studio.

My machine scans the registration marks and starts cutting. Once it’s finished I have a set of little snowflake gift labels to help me finish my gift wrapping!

DIY Gift Card Envelopes

Hi Everyone! This week I want to share a quick and easy way to make gift card envelopes.

Supplies:

(Links below may be affiliate links)

Silhouette Portrait 3 or other cutting machine

Portrait 3 Light grip mat

Bevel quill with D adapter from Foil Quill or scoring stylus with Silhouette Pen adapter

Auto Blade

My A2 Envelope template or any other envelope template you may have

Lightweight printed or plain cardstock

Gold adhesive foil or any adhesive vinyl of your choice

Vinyl transfer Tape

Glue or tape

To start, I overprinted some of my 65lb lightweight cardstock with a marble design I created in Procreate. You can use plain cardstock or any printed cardstock you already have on hand.

I’ve got the A2 envelope SVG already uploaded into Silhouette Studio. I have my score lines in Blue and my Cut lines in Red.

I will do the score lines first, so I’ve got my Bevel quill loaded with the D adapter from my Foil Quill. Settings are Sketch action, Force of 33, Speed 2. Your settings may vary depending on your materials

After it’s done scoring, I will use my Autoblade to cut the red lines. Settings are Plain Cardstock, Blade depth 4, Force 20, Speed 4

Next I created my word layout in Adobe Illustrator using the font Blenny Black. I outlined my letters and saved them as an SVG so I can import my file into Silhouette Studio. (I’m using the Business version).

You can use another font that you already have and you can also create your lettering directly in Silhouette Studio.

I’m going to cut my letters out my adhesive gold foil with my Auto Blade set to Vinyl, Metallic Material; Blade Depth 1; Force 10; Speed 5. Depending on what type of vinyl you use, your settings may vary.

After cutting, I weed out the excess foil and apply the transfer tape to the foil.

I’m going to peel off the backing of the foil letters and center my design on the front of the envelope (Just eyeballed it, but you can lightly mark on your cardstock with a pencil if you want to be more precise).

Carefully remove the transfer tape and make sure my letters are secured onto the cardstock.

Then I’m going to fold along the score lines and use my tape runner to seal the edges of the envelope.

Add your gift card, close the envelope with either glue, a tape runner, or a sticker and it’s ready for gifting!

Blade Replacement Alternatives for Portrait 3

Hi Everyone!

I’ve been cutting a lot of gift tags the past few weeks and I noticed my Auto Blade that came with my machine is getting dull. I searched on Amazon for a replacement and one single Autoblade is $16.99, yikes!! You have to replace the whole thing, not just the little blade inside.

So I did a little research and I found this CB09 blade that should work with the Portrait 3 and Cameo 4, you just need to put it in the Blue Tool Adapter, before inserting it into your machine.

**Links may be affiliate links and I may earn a small commission if items are purchased via the links.

EVISWIY Blade CB09 for Silhouette Graphtec Holder with 15psc Vinyl Fabric Cutting Blades (30/45/60 Degree) for Silhouette Cameo 1 2 3 4/Portrait/Curio/Graphtec 6000/CE 5000-60 Plotter

EVISWIY

Buy on Amazon

I got mine a couple of days ago and I decided to try it out. It is a little bit of a process to set it up, but it seems like it’s going to be well worth it.

I’m going to test on some of my heavy cardstock, so I’m going to use one of the 45 degree blades with the red tip. I also need one of the little springs that comes with the blades.

Carefully remove the red rubber tip and slide the tiny spring onto the blade.

Then, unscrew with black plastic barrel on the blade holder. Insert the blade with the spring into the body of the holder. There’s a small hole with a magnet inside that will grab the blade when you insert it into the holder.

Screw the black plastic barrel back onto the holder.

I still have my dull auto blade and the blade depth is set to 7 which is what I use for my heavy cardstock. I’m going to twist the ridged silver metal portion of the holder so the blade is peeking out at approximately the same distance as my auto blade. It’s barely showing at the tip of the holder.

Now I’m going to put the entire holder into the Blue tool adapter, and snap it closed.

Time to load it into my Portrait 3 machine!

In Silhouette Studio I made a small 0.5 inch square to test.

In the send tab, I’m going to select Heavy Coverstock as my material and Ratchet blade as my tool. I want to try my blade depth on 7, Force of 30 and 1 pass.

I load my mat and send it through my machine. I lifted my cardstock off the mat to see if the cut went all the way through. It didn’t quite cut all the way, so I will try one more pass.

After the second pass, it cut all the way through. So now I’m going to save these material settings in Silhouette Studio.

So now my blade is set up to cut heavy cardstock. If I want to cut other materials, I will need to adjust the blade depth by turning the ridged silver part of the CB09 holder. There are no markings on the holder, so I will probably add a sticker and draw some lines on it so I know where I had my blade set for different materials.

This blade did a very nice cut, and with all the replacement blades it came with, it’s a fraction of the cost of the Auto Blade. I’m excited to see how long these blades last!

12 Gift Ideas for Someone Who Owns a Cricut or Silhouette Machine

Hi Everyone!

With the holidays getting closer, I wanted to share some gift ideas for people who already own a Cricut or Silhouette cutting machine. These are also great for someone who will be getting a machine for Christmas this year and you want to get them a few little extras.

Here are my top 12 gift ideas: (Note: Amazon links are affiliate links and I may receive a small commission if you purchase by clicking the link)

1. Extra Cutting Mats

You can never have too many cutting mats! I like having a few of each color so If I’m making multiples of the same project I can set up additional mats while one is running on the machine. I haven’t bought any off brand mats yet, but a lot of people swear by the Nicapa brand on Amazon. But if you’re not willing to risk going with an off brand yet, check the Cricut website, Amazon, Michael’s, JoAnns, Hobby Lobby, or any other craft stores, someone usually has them on sale. For my Silhouette machine, I haven’t found an off brand mat that I like yet, but once again, check Amazon, craft stores, or Swing Design to see if there are any sales.

Cricut Variety Pack(1 StrongGrip, 1 LightGrip, 1 StandardGrip) Adhesive Cutting Mat 12"x12" - For Cricut Explore Air 2/Cricut Maker - 3 Pack

Cricut

Buy on Amazon

Silhouette America Silhouette Portrait Cutting Mat, Medium, Blue

Silhouette America, Inc.

Buy on Amazon

2. Extra Cutting Blades

A lot of people buy off brand replacement blades from Amazon and claim they last much longer than the Cricut or Silhouette brand blades. there are a lot of options, make sure you read the details and reviews to check that they will with with your machine. I haven’t tried any out yet, but I just ordered some blades that should work with Portrait 3 (with a CB09 holder and the Blue tool adapter). I’m very excited to try these once I get them!

There are also A LOT of off-brand replacement blades for Cricut at a fraction of the cost of a Cricut brand replacement. You use the same blade housing that came with your original Cricut blade. As always, read the descriptions and review to make sure the blades are compatible with your particular machine.

EVISWIY Blade CB09 for Silhouette Graphtec Holder with 15psc Vinyl Fabric Cutting Blades (30/45/60 Degree) for Silhouette Cameo 1 2 3 4/Portrait/Curio/Graphtec 6000/CE 5000-60 Plotter

EVISWIY

Buy on Amazon

30 Pcs Replacement Blades for Explore Air 2 Blade for Maker Expression Vinyl Cutter Machines Needle for Vinyl 30 Degree 45 Degree 60 Degree Cutting Plotter Blades

TTSAM

Buy on Amazon

3. Paper Trimmer

I know it seems silly to buy a paper trimmer when you have a big expensive machine to cut cut paper, but a paper trimmer really comes in handy when you need to quickly cut down a piece of paper or cardstock into smaller sizes.

Fiskars SureCut Portable Trimmer with Recycled Cutline, 12 Inch Cut, Black,01-005454

Fiskars Brands, Inc.

Buy on Amazon

4. Craft Knife

Also, it seems silly to buy a craft knife or an Xacto knife when you have a fancy machine. But this little tool can be a lifesaver when you’ve already removed your mat from the machine and there are a few areas that didn’t quite cut all the through like they should. I recommend an Xacto knife or another generic brand over the Cricut True Control Knife. You can use standard #11 blades with an Xacto or generic, Cricut has it’s own special replacement blades, of course!

Fiskars Softgrip Craft Knife (12-67007097)

Fiskars School, Office and Craft Division

Buy on Amazon

X-Acto X2000 No-Roll Rubber Barrel Knife with #11 Replaceable Blade and Safety Cap (X3724)

Elmer's Products

Buy on Amazon

5. Self Healing Cutting Mat

This a great for protecting your workspace as well as having a nice little area to assemble projects. I own several of these in a few different sizes.

anezus Self Healing Sewing Mat, 12inch x 18inch Rotary Cutting Mat Double Sided 5-Ply Craft Cutting Board for Sewing Crafts Hobby Fabric Precision Scrapbooking Project

anezus

Buy on Amazon

6. Delicate Surface Tape

This tape is awesome! I used to use blue painters tape to help hold my projects on my mat, but sometimes it would rip the cardstock. This tape rarely tears my cardstock and it does a great job holding my foil in place when I’m using my foil quill.

Scotch Delicate Surface Painter’s Tape, 0.70 inches x 60 yards, 2080, 1 Roll

3M

Buy on Amazon

7. Tape Runner

These are super nice for assembling cards and envelopes and you don’t have to wait for glue to dry!

Tombow 62140 Power Mini Glue Tape, 3-Pack. Easy to Use Compact Applicators for Strong, Permanent Bond

Tombow

Buy on Amazon

8. Pen or Marker Adapter

If you want to use any non-Cricut brand pens or marker with your machine, these are a must! And well worth it in my opinion. Check the details to make sure you are buying the correct one to fit your machine. These are also great for Silhouette machines, but not as necessary since they have a great adapter already.

Cameo 4 - Pen and Marker Holder All-In-One Kit by Zoom Precision

Zoom Precision

Buy on Amazon

Bundle, 3 Items: Pen Holder + Marker Holder (Silhouette - Cricut [NOT Explore Models] - Pazzles - more) + Sharpie Pen

Chomas Creations, Sharpie

Buy on Amazon

9. Sakura Gelly Roll Pens

These pens are amazing on black or dark colored cardstock! The Cricut metallic gel pens DO NOT show up very well on black or dark colored cardstock, don’t waste your money on them. In order to use these with a Cricut machine you will need a pen adapter (see above). They fit in the Silhouette pen holder too!

SAKURA Gelly Roll Metallic Gel Pen 10-Pack (57370)

Sakura of America

Buy on Amazon

10. Glue Pens

These are a fun little accessory you can use to foil, glitter, or heat emboss. You can buy the WRMK Glue Quill kit which comes with adapters for each machine. Or you can buy just some glue pens, but you will need pen adapter for your machine.

We R Memory Keepers WR661092 Quill Starter Kit, Assorted

American Crafts

Buy on Amazon

Sakura 58483 6-Piece Quickie Glue Pen Set

Sakura

Buy on Amazon

11. Light Pad

A lot people use these to help see the cut lines while they’re weeding vinyl or cardstock. It’s also great for tracing designs! This one is a fraction of the cost of the Cricut brand.

HUION L4S LED Light Box A4 Ultra-Thin USB Powered Adjustable Light Pad for Tracing

ShenZhen Huion Animation Technology Co., LTD

Buy on Amazon

12. Foil Quill Set

I recommend this to everyone I know that has a machine, I love it! Don’t waste your money on the Cricut Foil Transfer Kit. The Foil Quill is so much more consistent and it works on way more materials. Just be aware, it will void the warranty on your machine, which is usually about a year. My Cricut machine is way out of warranty and I’ve also been using it in my Portrait 3 that I got this year without any issues. You can also check JoAnn’s, they often have deals on the Foil Quill.

We R Memory Keepers Starter Kit, Multicoloured

Vista Partners Inc.

Buy on Amazon

That’s all for now! I hope I gave you a few ideas for gifts you could ask for or for someone you know that has a machine.

Foiling on Acrylic with Cricut and WRMK Foil Quill

Hi Everyone!

This week I’m going to make the same acrylic ornaments with foil on my Cricut Maker. It’s not quite as easy as my Portrait 3, but it is doable if you have Cricut instead of a Silhouette machine. I will be using my WRMK Foil Quill, the Cricut Foil Transfer tool does NOT work on acrylic.

Supplies:

(Links below may be affiliate links)

3 inch acrylic disc, 2mm thick

SVG Draw file (you can get my snowflake here)

WRMK Foil quill (medium tip) with C adapter

Gold heat reactive foil or other foil color of your choice

Cricut machine (I will be using my Maker)

Strong Grip Cutting Mat (the purple one)

Cricut pen (any color)

Chipboard template

Blue Painter’s tape or Washi Tape

9-12 inch length ribbon or twine for finished ornament

Let’s get started!

I exported my snowflake design that I made a few weeks ago from Silhouette Studio as an SVG so I can upload it into Cricut Design space.

Since I will be using my WRMK Foil Quill and it works as a pen in clamp A, I will be using the Cricut App on my iPad Pro. For some reason the app seems to handle detailed draw files better than the desktop version. I almost always get the “Wow that’s a big project!” yellow bar when I try to use one of my draw files in the desktop version.

After uploading my SVG into Design Space, I change my lines from “Cut” to “Draw.” I’m going to make my snowflake and numbers gold metallic glitter, I’m going to make the circle outline silver glitter. The colors you pick don’t really matter, they just need to be 2 different colors.

I “attach” the gold and silver lines and click on the Make It button in the upper right corner.

As usual, Cricut defaults to placing my artwork in the upper left corner, but I’m going to move it so it’s further down and closer to the middle of my mat. This will help when I need to place the template and foil later.

It’s also a good idea to plug in your foil quill tip while you’re setting up the template on your mat, so it has plenty of time to heat up. I’ve got mine plugged into a small battery pack.

If you plan on making multiples of these all at once, using a template is a good idea. I will be using the same chipboard template from my previous posts to help keep my acrylic disc in place on my cutting mat. So before I start foiling the acrylic discs, I need to align my template on my mat.

To get my template aligned, I’m going to start with a piece of plain paper that’s a little bit smaller than my overall chipboard template. I place it approximately where the artwork is located on my screen.

I’m going to use just the plain black fine tip Cricut pen that cam with my machine. You can you any pen color that you wish, this is just to get the template aligned.

I select “Chipboard 2mm” for my material since this is the closest material thickness to my 2mm acrylic.

I press send and it prompts me to load the Silver pen, which is the circle outline. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to which pen color Design Space selects first. I have made this same project previously and it wanted the gold pen first.

I load my mat and press the Go button on my machine. Once it’s finished with the silver pen, it prompts me for the gold pen. My mat is still halfway in the machine (this will be important later when you need to place the foil).

Since I’m just using the black pen, I press the go button and the machine draws the snowflake portion. Once it’s done, DO NOT unload your mat from the machine!!!

Now it’s time to actually place the chipboard template on you mat. Take your template and place it on top of the plain piece of paper, lining up the circle cut out with the circle drawn on the plain piece of paper. Place a piece of tape along the top edge of the template to make a hinge.

Carefully lift up the template and remove the the plain paper from your mat.

Place the template back down on your mat and tape down the other 3 sides. Now you can place the acrylic disc inside the cut out in the template. Don’t forget to remove the plastic film from the side of the acrylic that you will be foiling!!

Now, I’m going to go ahead and tape my foil down over the acrylic since my machine wants to make the circle outline first and once it’s done with the circle, my mat will be stuck in the middle of my machine and I won’t be able to tape my foil down at that point. I’m not going to load my foil quill into clamp A just yet since I don’t want the circle to be foiled..

I press the “Go” button on my machine and let the empty carriage go through the motions of drawing the circle. My machine stops with the mat still in the middle of the machine and prompts me to load the gold pen. This is why I placed the foil on my mat earlier.

I place my foil quill in clamp A. Be careful not to touch the little metal tip, it’s hot!

I press “Go” on my machine again and the foil quill draws the snowflake and the date. Once it’s finished, a little box will pop up in Design Space saying the action is complete, you can click OK.

If you want to make another ornament, DO NOT unload your mat and do not exit Design Space. Just leave this screen showing.

Remove the Foil Quill from clamp A and carefully remove the tape from the foil and remove the acrylic disc from the template. You can also remove the protective film from the back of the acrylic disc.

Now you can place a new acrylic disc in the template, cover it with the foil. Press the “Go” button on the machine and it will start with the circle shape again.

A couple of tips:

1. Remove the foil quill from Clamp A when your machine wants to draw the circle portion of the artwork.

2. Don’t unload your mat from the machine! Otherwise you will need to do the whole template alignment again.

3. You can use a piece of tape to carefully clean up the edges of the foil.

How to Set Up Your Template on Your Cutting Mat for Silhouette Users

Hi Everyone!

The past 2 weeks I have shared 2 projects that I am using a chipboard template with a 3 inch circle cut out to help keep my acrylic discs in place while I’m foiling or engraving. This week I’m going to share my method for how I align my template when starting a new project or coming back to my project after I’ve unloaded my mat from my machine.

In Silhouette Studio I’ve got my project already designed and set up to cut/ sketch by line. I’ve placed my design toward the middle of my mat so it’s easier to place the template while the mat is in the machine and so my template will NOT go under the rollers on the edges of my machine.

On my actual mat I’m going to place a regular piece of printer paper approximately where my design should be.

I’m going to cut just the circle part of my design, so I select just the blue line, load my mat and send it to machine.

After the machine is done cutting, DO NOT UNLOAD the mat!! Carefully remove the excess paper from around the circle.

Now I’m going to take my template and place it over the circle so all of my edges are aligned.

I tape down the top edge of the template to my mat and carefully lift the template, hinging at the tape along the top edge.

I remove the paper circle from my mat and place the template down again. I place some more tape around the edges of the template to help keep it in place. Now my template is ready to load an acrylic disc!

Back in Silhouette Studio in the send screen, I uncheck the box for the blue circle. I select my yellow lines to sketch, foil, or etch and it’s ready for me to press send to my machine.

As long as I don’t unload my mat, I can place another acrylic disc in the template once my first one is done.

If you accidentally unload your mat, you can repeat the same process above to realign your template again.