Silhouette Portrait 3 and the WRMK Foil Quill

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Hi Everyone! A few months ago I finally crossed over and got a Silhouette Portrait 3, and I love it!! It works like I always thought my Cricut should work.

Last week I tried the Spellbinders Glimmer Foil with the WRMK Foil Quill in my Cricut Maker. The results weren’t great on cardstock, but it looked really nice on my clear sticker paper. So this week, I decided to try it on my Portrait 3 because I can adjust the speed and pressure with the Foil Quill, unlike the Cricut.

I have to use the D adapter for the Foil Quill with the Portrait 3, the usual A adapter for Silhouette doesn’t fit the newer machines.

Use Adapter D for the Silhouette Portrait 3.

First I tried the regular copper metallic foil on my favorite black cardstock. I’m using the Standard Grip mat with a Force of 22 and Speed 2. It looks fantastic!

Copper Foil, Medium Foil Quill Tip

Then I tried the regular gold foil, also on black cardstock. It looks pretty nice, there are a few spots where the foil didn’t stick great, but I might not have had my foil taped down tight enough (very important when foiling).

Gold Foil, Medium Foil Quill Tip

Next I tried the Silver iridescent foil with the same Force of 22, Speed 2. It looks sooooooo much better than it did on my Cricut Maker! There are a couple fo spots where the foil didn’t stick so I’m going to try a few more settings.

Iridescent Silver, Medium Foil Quill Tip

I tried a bunch of different pressures and speeds, but none of them are as good as the Force 22, speed 2.

Iridescent Silver, Medium Tip, different pressures and speeds

I also tried the gold holographic foil, it did much better on the the Portrait 3 than with my Cricut Maker, but there are still a few spots where it didn’t stick to the cardstock.

Gold Holographic Foil, Medium Foil Quill Tip

Then I wanted to try it on some black vinyl for stickers. It came out pretty good, but there are some gaps in the solid hearts.

Gold Holographic Foil, Medium Tip on Black Adhesive Vinyl

I changed the fill for the solid hearts from just diagonal lines to a crosshatch fill. Which is SUPER EASY to do in Silhouette Studio, and the results are much better!

Silver Iridescent Foil, Medium Tip on Black Adhesive Vinyl

I wanted to try using the Light Grip mat since the backing of the vinyl sticks a lot to the Standard Grip mat. The Light Grip mat is slightly thicker than the Standard Grip and it’s just enough difference that no matter what force I use, it’s too much and it even melted my vinyl.

Silver Iridescent Foil, Medium Tip on Black Adhesive Vinyl using Light Grip Mat

So I switched back to the Standard Mat and it works much better! There are still some little gaps where the foil didn’t cover, so I decided to do a test with the Bold Tip Quill to see if it gets better coverage with the filled shapes.

Gold Holographic Foil, Medium Tip using crosshatch fill

Yes! The Bold Tip does an even better job with the filled shapes!

Gold Holographic Foil, Bold Tip using crosshatch fill

Silver Iridescent Foil, Bold Tip using crosshatch fill

One final test with the Bold Tip on cardstock. I ended up having to switch my mat to the Light grip mat, I wasn't getting enough pressure with the Standard mat. The Bold Tip gives a really nice flat fill, but I think I like the Medium tip better for lettering.

Gold Holographic Foil, Medium Tip using crosshatch fill, Light Grip Mat

An important lesson learned this week is that the cutting mat can have a really big impact on the outcome of the project!

Silver Iridescent Foil, Bold Tip using crosshatch fill. Top is using the Light Grip Mat. Bottom is using the Standard Grip Mat.

Creating an Offset for Stickers in Adobe Illustrator - Method 1

Hi Everyone! This week I want to share one of the methods I use to create offsets for my stickers. This is just one of the methods you can use. I like it because you can get a clean and simple cut line. I’ll be sharing some other methods in future posts.

For this method I will be using the Blob Brush tool in Adobe Illustrator.

Let’s get started!

Supplies: (Links below may be affiliate links)

• Sticker artwork (I’m using artwork I created in Adobe Fresco, you can use your own artwork)

• Adobe Illustrator CC

• Inkjet printer

• Sticker Paper (I’m using this waterproof vinyl paper)

• Cricut Maker or other Cricut machine

• Light Grip Mat (the blue one)

• Fine Point Blade

My artwork is a PNG file. I created it in Adobe Fresco and then exported it as a PNG so there is no background. I’m placing my artwork in Adobe Illustrator.

After I place my artwork, I create a new layer below my artwork layer. This is where we will be making the offset.

Lock the layer with the artwork so you don’t accidentally select it.

I’m picking a bright contrasting color so I can easily see my offset that I’m creating.

Select the Blob Brush tool (Shift + B)

I start “painting” around the edges of my artwork. I’m just going around the outer edge and making a small border around my artwork.

Once you are finished going around the edge, I turn off my artwork layer (click the eyeball in the layers panel). Now I’m only seeing the outline that I just painted.

Using my direct selection tool (white arrow, keyboard short cut “A”) I’m going to select the just the inside path and press DELETE.

Now you have a solid filled shape. If I want to refine my shape even more, I will go around the edges with the eraser tool (Shift + E) and the Smooth Tool.

I’m going to add a few more stickers, resize, and layout my artwork on my page.

Then add crop marks to the corners.

Next, I’m printing a test page directly from Illustrator to check the scale of my stickers. I’m keeping the offset showing on my test print so I can determine how far off my machine alignment is since I’m not using the Cricut Print and Cut function.

Once I’m happy with the scale of my stickers, I’m going to place my test print onto my blue cutting mat in the upper left corner. (My white border is the area that Design Space will not allow you to place your artwork beyond.)

I’m going to save my artwork file with the stickers and cut files as an AI (Illustrator file). Then I’m going to delete the sticker artwork, leaving only the cut lines and crop marks, and save this as and SVG file that we will upload into Cricut Design Space.

Upload the SVG file to Design Space and press INSERT IMAGES.

Select the very top layer and click ATTACH so all the cut lines and crop marks stay together.

Then press MAKE IT.

Make sure your top left crop mark is as far to the top left as Design Space will allow and press CONTINUE.

I am using the Printable Sticker Paper (white) material setting. I load my mat into the machine and press GO.

My machine alignment looks pretty good. I’m not going to get too fussy since it will be a white border.

Since my alignment is good, I’m going to print my designs from Illustrator on the actual sticker paper, without the cut lines showing.

Load my mat with the sticker paper this time. Select the Printable Sticker Paper material setting again. Load my mat and press GO.

Once the machine is done cutting, DO NOT REMOVE the mat. Check to make sure it cut all the way through the material. It took about 4 passes to get all the way through the sticker paper, I might try another material setting next time.

Now we have some cute kitty stickers! These are vinyl and waterproof so you can stick them on a water bottle, phone case, laptop, notebook, etc.