Embossing with Glue Pens and Silhouette Portrait 3

Hi Everyone!

This week I want to share another technique I like to use to embellish gift tags and cards. I will be using the WRMK glue quill with embossing powder. If you buy the glue quill set, it comes with 2 small jars of embossing powder. Or if you already have some embossing powder on hand, you can use that too.

I’m going to do this technique with a clear embossing powder that I already have and the gold powder that came with the glue quill set. I will also need my heat gun.

I already set up my file in Silhouette Studio, my blue lines will be drawn with the glue pen & the red lines will be cut. I’m using 65lb Recollections cardstock, and I will be drawing and cutting all of this matless, yay!!

First, I will draw all the lettering with the glue quill and the Silhouette pen adapter. When I open the send tab I select “Line" and check the box next to the blue square.

After it’s done drawing, I uncheck the blue box & select the red box to cut. I choose auto-pop out since I’m doing a matless cut.

I did need to send my cut through twice, it wasn’t quite deep enough to pop out the tags nicely after the first cut.

I remove my tags from the cardstock & now i’m going to apply the embossing powder. The glue from these pens stays tacky for a little while, so don’t worry if the glue looks dry, the powder will still stick.

I’m using an old jar of Recollections clear embossing powder, I’ve had it for a few years and it still works! I apply the powder pretty thick and move it around so all of the glue gets covered. I dump the excess powder back in the jar once I’m done applying it to all the tags.

(Top) Clear Powder applied, (Middle) Clear Powder being applied, (Bottom) No powder applied, only glue

I apply some heat to it with my heat gun. The powder melts and I’m left with almost like a clear gel-like finish. It’s raised and also very shiny.

Next I tried the gold powder that came with the Glue Quill set. I applied it the same way as the clear powder. This one is kind of disappointing. I was expecting a pretty metallic gold, but this one is very drab and not metallic at all. I will be on the look out for a better gold embossing powder.

But this is another way to add some texture and dimension to gift tags or cards using your Silhouette machine!

Silhouette Portrait 3 Matless Drawing

Hi Everyone! For little side income I sell my SVG files in my Etsy shop. But before I list my files for sale, I test them on on my Silhouette Portrait 3 machine and my Cricut Maker. I typically start my testing with my Portrait 3 because I can actually edit and save my file as an SVG from Silhouette Studio (I have the Business Edition).

This week I’m working on some single line skull designs that can be used to draw, foil, engrave, or anything else that needs a single line file. I originally drew my artwork in Adobe Illustrator, then I uploaded it as an SVG into Silhouette Studio.

To test my file, I’m going to use what is quickly becoming one of my favorite features, matless drawing. Yes, not only can you cut matless with the silhouette machines, you can also draw matless. This wasn't even a selling feature for me and my Portrait 3 machine, but I’m loving it!

When I first open my illustration in Silhouette Studio, it shows up placed on the cutting mat.

To change to matless, click on the white sheet of paper at the top to the tool bar on the right. Under cutting mat, select “None”. My cardstock size is 8.5 x11 inches, so I will leave that as is. Keep in mind that the usable area of the cardstock becomes a little smaller with the matless feature. I need to keep all of my artwork within the red bounding box.

Disregard the two different colors in my drawing. For now, I’m going to test it with only a black pen.

In the upper right corner, I click “Send”. There’s no need to attach all of my elements and my drawing stays centered on the canvas (no shifting to the upper left corner like my Cricut machine).

In the send screen I’m going to stay with “Simple” since I’m only doing a single color drawing. Notice, now all of my lines are red. The cardstock I’m using is 100lb, so for my material I select “Coverstock, Heavy.” For my action I select “Sketch.” For my tool I select “Pen.”

I load my piece cardstock into my machine without a mat, yay!! Then I load the Silhouette pen adapter with a Sharpie Pen.

I press send and my machine starts drawing away!

After a few minutes it’s done, and there’s no stickiness left on the back of my cardstock from the mat!