Foiling with Glue Pens

Hi Everyone!

This week I want to share a little foiling technique that doesn’t require any heat or a cutting mat! I will be using my Silhouette Portrait 3, a glue pen, and some reactive foil (I’ll be using a Minc brand roll of foil that I already have).

I’ve been working on some holiday single line SVG files for gift tags and cards, so I want to test them out using this technique.

I already set up my design to be drawn and cut matless. Each operation will be done according to line color - the blue lines will be drawn with the glue pen, the red lines will be cut. Make sure your design is set up so it is between the rollers on your machine, you don’t want to get glue all over the rollers!

First, I’m going to start with the WRMK Glue Quill. (there are other brands of glue pens you can try, but this is the one I have on hand.) Before loading you pen into the machine, be sure to scribble your pen on a little piece of scrap paper to make sure the glue is flowing. I am using the pen adapter that is made for the Silhouette machines.

I’m going to do the drawing with the glue pen first (the blue lines). I select the heavy coverstock as my material. I’m going to slow down the speed from 5 to a 3, so the glue flows from the pen evenly.

After the machine is done drawing, DO NOT remove the cardstock. I’m going to let the glue dry for a few minutes. It dries pretty quickly and still remains a little tacky, which is exactly what we need to apply the foil.

After the glue is dry, I’m going to cut out my gift tags. I check the box for the red lines & use the Pop out cut.

I cut some small pieces of foil to fit the gift tags. I lay the foil over the gift tag, making sure all of the glue areas are covered by the foil.

I use an old credit card as a scraper, but you can also use a small squeegee. I smooth the foil down in all directions, vertical, horizontal, etc.

Once I see the letters starting to appear, I lift the foil to check my progress. If there are a few spots missing the foil, you can continue to go over it with the squeegee, you can even reposition to foil if needed and continue to squeegee.

Once it’s done, I carefully brush off any foil dust and you have a foiled gift tag! This technique gives the lines kind of a vintage, distressed look.

Silhouette Portrait 3 Matless Drawing & Cutting

Hi Everyone! This week I’m going to combine two of my favorite functions on my Silhouette Portrait 3, matless drawing and matless cutting. I’m going to be using some heavy cardstock and my gold Sakura Gelly Roll Pen to make some little Thank You tags.

I already set up my file to be matless and made sure all of my artwork is within the red boundary. I made the little tag shapes in Silhouette Studio and I am using my Thank You script that you may have seen me use before in some of my foil tests. The Thank You and the border will be drawn with my gold pen and then the tags will be cut out after the drawing portion.

I press SEND and I’m going to draw and cut by Line color, instead of simple I’m going to select LINE at the top of the send panel. I’m using Heavy Cardstock so I select Heavy Coverstock for my material for both line colors.

I’m going to draw with the gold pen first, so for the yellow lines I select SKETCH as my action. I’m going to leave the settings as the default, they work pretty well as is. I load my cardstock without a mat and gold pen with the pen adapter and I press SEND at the bottom of the screen.

When the machine is done drawing, DO NOT unload the mat. I swap out the pen adapter for my auto-blade.

My machine recognizes the auto-blade and I select the Pop-Out Cut Action.

The default pop out cut settings weren’t working great for this cardstock. After a little trial and error, I figured out the settings that worked well and I saved the material setting so I can use them again in the future.

When the machine is done cutting, the tags will still be slightly attached to cardstock. I carefully pop them out and I use the tip of a pen to pop out the little holes in the tags.

And now you have a bunch of little tags you can tie to favors for birthdays, weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, etc.

Silhouette Portrait 3 Drawing by Line Color

Hi Everyone! This week I’m going to share another favorite feature of my Silhouette Portrait 3, being able to draw by line color. Yes, I can do this with my Cricut Maker, but with my Portrait 3 I can essentially choose the order of the colors that I want my machine to draw. It’s not as simple to do with my Maker.

I’m going to test another skull SVG that I created in Illustrator. In Illustrator, I already applied different colors to the lines I’m going to draw and saved my file as an SVG. Note: I am using the Business Edition of Silhouette Studio so I can import and export SVG files.

I’m going to use the matless feature again and draw this floral skull on some black cardstock using my metallic Sakura Gelly Roll pens.

I select SEND in Silhouette Studio. Instead of simple, I’m going to choose LINE. As you an see all of the colors are selected. I’m going to pick Heavy Coverstock for my material and Sketch for my Action.

Then, I’m going to uncheck all of the colors except for the color I will be drawing with first.

Next I will load my pen adapter with the first color I will be drawing with and load my cardstock into my machine.

My first layer is done, next I want to draw the blue scroll work. All I have to do is uncheck the line color I just drew, and check the box for the blue lines for the scroll work. I load my blue pen and press SEND.

Hint: Don’t forget to uncheck the colors you have completed, otherwise it will draw over that same area with the next color you have loaded!

After the blue lines are done I want to draw the little green leaves. So I uncheck the blue lines & select the green for leaves. Load my green pen and press SEND.

I go through the same process until I have completed all the colors. I love that I don’t have to go in the order of colors dictated by the machine!

The most tedious part of the process is swapping out the pen every time I switch a color, but I really enjoy the end result and being able to select the order of the colors that my machine will use to draw.

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!

WRMK Foil Quill & Recollections Foil Transfer Sheets

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Hi Everyone! Last week I tested the Recollections brand foil transfer sheets with the Cricut Foil Transfer tool. This week I tried out the foil transfer sheets with the WRMK Foil Quill on my Silhouette Portrait 3 machine.

First I tried the gold foil. I used my celestial artwork from last week and the foil quill medium tip on my favorite black cardstock. On my Portrait 3 my speed is set to 2 and force is 22, I typically get good results foiling with these settings. And I got really great results with this foil!

WRMK Foil Quill, Recollections Gold Foil Transfer Sheets

Here it is next to the Cricut Foil Transfer tool version from last week.

(L) WRMK Foil Quill Medium Tip, (R) Cricut Foil TRansfer Tool Medium Tip

Next I tried the holographic foil. The results with the Cricut foil transfer tool were disappointing. But the results with the Foil Quill are beautiful! You can actually see the holographic effect on the on the cardstock.

Here’s a side by side of the holographic foil using Cricut Foil Transfer tool versus the Foil Quill. The Foil Quill version is stunning!

(L) WRMK Foil Quill Medium Tip, (R) Cricut Foil TRansfer Tool Medium Tip

This foil is not labeled as being heat sensitive, but it works perfectly! It’s a really great option if you only need a small amount of foil and don’t want to buy an entire roll.

WRMK Foil Quill, Recollections Holographic Foil Transfer Sheet

Foiling with the Silhouette Portrait 3 and WRMK Bevel Quill

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Hi Everyone!

Last week I did some foiling with my Portrait 3 and the WRMK foil quill. This week I wanted to share another technique you can use to foil with your Silhouette Portrait 3 or Cameo.

I found the WRMK Bevel Quill a few weeks ago in the clearance section at my local JoAnn’s, and I’m a sucker for all the little attachments for Cricut and Silhouette machines. Another bonus, I can use this tip in either my Cricut Maker or my Portrait 3.

The bevel tip has a small ball point and is intended to deboss on the “bevel board" materials that are included with the tip , but I wanted to try it with the Spellbinders Glimmer Foil since the foil is also pressure sensitive.

WRMK Bevel Quill

The A adapter included in the kit is intended for the Silhouette machines, but it doesn’t fit the Portrait 3 or Cameo 4.

First, I tried it with the D adapter that also came in the kit, but it doesn’t fit very snugly in the Portrait 3 and pops up out of the tool holder every so slightly when the machine presses down on the tip and there’s no longer any pressure for the tip to apply the foil.

So I grabbed the D adapter from my foil quill set, it’s just a hair wider than the other D adapter. It makes such a big difference, and it stays nice and snug in the tool holder.

D adapter from Foil Quill set

Once again, I used my favorite black cardstock and the Standard grip mat with the regular copper and gold Spellbinder foils. I tried out a few different settings. I ended up getting pretty decent results with my Force between 20-25, Speed 2, and 2 passes.

Copper foil and gold foil on black cardstock

The results are pretty close to what I get with my Cricut Foil Transfer tool and my Maker. The foil doesn’t always stick in some places and it can be a little dusty when you remove the foil sheet after transferring. The WRMK Foil Quill is still my favorite tool for foiling, but this is definitely a good option if you don’t want to be bothered heating up the WRMK Foil Quill.

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.

Cricut Foil Transfer Tool with Silhouette Brand Foil Sheets

Hi Everyone!

(Links in article below may be affiliate links).

As many of you who work with the Cricut Foil Transfer tool already know, you MUST you pressure sensitive foil. Cricut has their own brand of foil that is designed specifically to work with the foil transfer tool. So far, I haven’t been a huge fan of the Cricut brand foil. It doesn’t stick well to to some card stocks. I have a very tough time using it with my black 100lb cardstock and some of the colors in my 65lb Recollections multipack from Michaels. Also, it will foil perfectly fine in some parts of my design and then the foil doesn’t stick in other parts of the same design. I dunno, maybe I’m being to picky.

So far the only other pressure sensitive foil I have found is the Silhouette brand. I’m going to give the Silhouette foil a try with the Cricut Foil Transfer Tool.

Cricut Foil Transfer Tool - Fine Tip

Unfortunately, the Foil Transfer tool can only be used with the Desktop version of Design Space. I don’t know why that is, but hopefully one day they will make it compatible with the app as well.

I started out with the default pressure on 100lb cardstock. Failure. Like with the scoring stylus in last week’s post, the foil is not sticking to the middle of the letters.

Fine Tip - Default Pressure

Then I tried less pressure on the 100lb cardstock, again, failure.

Fine Tip - Less Pressure

More pressure?? Nope, still a failure. To be honest, if I hadn’t written my settings on the back of the cards, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them, they all look equally terrible.

Fine Tip - More Pressure

Cricut Foil Transfer Tool - Medium Tip

To cut down on wasted materials, I tried just the word hello and a filled in star. I can usually get sort of ok results on this cardstock with the Cricut Brand foil the default pressure setting and the medium tip. If any setting were to work, I would assume that it would have been medium tip, default setting. Still terrible results, not matter if it’s default, less, or more pressure.

Cricut Foil Transfer Tool Medium Tip, Top - Default Pressure, Middle - Less Pressure, Bottom - More Pressure

Cricut Foil Transfer Tool - Bold Tip

I also gave the bold tip a try. I only tried Default and less pressure, they were both absolutely terrible!

Bold Tip, Top - Default Pressure, Bottom - Less Pressure

65lb Cardstock

I made one final attempt on 65lb Recollections cardstock with the medium tip, less pressure. It’s pretty terrible as well.

65lb cardstock with Medium Foil Tip, less pressure

I think the Cricut Foil Transfer tool uses way too much pressure for this foil. Unfortunately, Cricut is really limited with the adjustments for each tool. I can’t make any other adjustments to the pressure other than default, less, and more. So I DO NOT recommend using this Silhouette foil with the Cricut Foil Transfer tool.

So far the only Cricut Tool I’ve had some success with the Silhouette foil is the Deboss Tip. You can check out my previous post about that here.

Foiling with the Cricut Fine Deboss Tip

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Hi Everyone! I’ve been doing some more experimenting with my Fine Deboss Tip for my Cricut Maker. You can even use this tip for foiling!

Please note: The Deboss Tip only works with the Maker machine, it is used with the quick swap housing.

I’m showing this method because I can use the Deboss tip with the Cricut App on my iPad. For some reason the actual Foil Transfer tool is not compatible with the Cricut App.

You need to use a pressure sensitive foil. So I tried out the foil that is used with the Cricut Foil Transfer tool and the Silhouette brand pressure sensitive foil.

Here are my results:

Cricut Brand Foil Transfer

I am testing some single line words and a few filled shapes with the Cricut brand foil and the fine deboss tip on 100lb cardstock. I select the 100lb cardstock from my materials, with default pressure.

Fine Deboss tip with Cricut Gold Foil, default pressure.

The foil transferred in a few places, but far from a success.

Fine Deboss Tip, Cricut Gold Foil

Next I tried 100lb cardstock, more pressure.

I snuck a peek after 1 full pass. It did a little better than the default pressure, but still not great.

Fine Deboss tip, more pressure, one full pass.

I didn’t unload my mat so I could try sending it through my machine one more time. Definitely better than the default pressure, but still not great.

Second pass, more pressure

I made one last attempt with the Cricut foil, this time I tried with the medium 80lb cardstock setting. What a disaster! It tore the foil paper on default and light pressure. I didn’t even attempt more pressure.

Medium 80lb cardstock, default pressure. Tearing the foil.

Medium 80lb cardstock, less pressure. Also tore the foil.

So the deboss tip doesn’t really work with the Cricut Foil.

Silhouette Brand Foil Transfer

I’ve seen a few you tube videos of people using the Silhouette foil transfer sheets, it’s intended to be used with the Curio machine, so I hope the foil doesn’t get discontinued like the Curio machine. But I thought I would give it a shot. They’re a little pricier than the Cricut foils and fewer color choices. I mainly use gold, silver and rose gold anyway, so it’s not a huge deal for me. Sometimes they go on sale, so keep an eye out for that.

It’s a lot thicker than the Cricut Foil and you need to remove the back carrier sheet before placing it over whatever you’re foiling.

Remove the backing sheet!!

I started out with the 100lb cardstock default pressure again. When I first remove the film after it’s done, it looks kind of scary, but you can clean up the excess pieces and edges with blue painters tape or Washi tape.

After cleaning it up, the results are pretty good. It’s REALLY shiny compared to the Cricut Foil. The filled circles look spectacular! Pretty smooth and flat. It occasionally misses parts of some of the letters and the edges aren’t super crisp.

Filled Circles before cleaning up the edges

After cleaning up the edges with Washi tape.

I tried the 100lb card stock setting with More pressure, that came out ok, the edges are not as clean as the default pressure.

Silhouette Foil, 100lb cardstock, More Pressure

I also tried the Medium cardstock setting, Default pressure, just to compare the results. The foil did not stick at all!!

80lb cardstock setting, Default pressure

Overall, I think I like the results with the 100lb cardstock, default pressure the best. The lettering is OK, but it would not be suitable for really small text. I don’t think this would be a great option for very detailed, intricate designs either. It worked really well with the filled circles, so this could be a good option for filled shapes or thicker solid stripes.

It’s another foiling technique you can use if you work primarily with the Cricut App, or you don’t want to purchase the Foil Transfer tool or the Foil Quill.

I just got my Silhouette Portrait 3 machine, so I’m excited to try the Silhouette foil with that in the future!

Cricut Design Space vs Silhouette Studio - Curved Text

Hi Everyone! This week I’m going to compare how to curve text in Cricut Design Space versus Silhouette Studio.

Let get started!

Cricut Design Space

Truth be told, I usually don’t make any of my text directly in Design Space, it’s such a headache! Curving text in Cricut Design Space is pretty easy, but VERY primitive and limited. I typically make my text and do any curving or warping effects in Illustrator, then upload my file as an SVG into Design Space.

But I’m going to go ahead and demo making the text only in Design Space so you can see for yourself. First, I’ll start by typing my text. I’m going to do something pretty simple like “Happy Birthday.” The font I’m using is called Alek Bold, it’s one of my system fonts. I refuse to pay for Cricut fonts.

Once I’ve typed my words and selected my font, I will adjust the kerning (Letter Space) so my letters are touching. For some reason by default Design Space really likes to S P R E A D out the letters.

I bring my letters closer together to they’re actually touching like they’re supposed to. But now my space in between Happy and Birthday is gone! Even if I add extra spaces in the text box, nothing!! Super annoying, but moving on.

With my text still selected, I will click on “Curve” in the toolbar across the top. I move the slider to the right to get a nice curve.

My letters get spread out on the curve so I need to adjust my kerning (letter spacing) again. Still no space between Happy & Birthday :(

I also wish I could move my letters along the curve so my H and Y at the ends are level with each other.

You can play around with the slider to get convex or concave curves or you do a complete circle (the letter spacing looks even more ridiculous). And that’s about all you can do with curved text in Design Space. So far, I’m still very underwhelmed with the feature and will continue creating my type in Illustrator or Silhouette Studio.

Silhouette Studio

I’m going to try Happy Birthday in the same font in Silhouette Studio. I don’t have to adjust the kerning in Silhouette Studio yet, it uses the default for the font, yay!!

Silhouette Studio has a really cool feature called Text to Path that I’m going to use to curve my type.

First I’m going to draw a circle.

Then I’m going to Double Click on my text so a little 4-pointed arrow shows up.

I’m going to click on the 4 -pointed arrow and drag my text over the outline of the circle. My text will snap to the circle starts following the curve!!

I can click and drag my text to slide my letters along the circle so I can get the placement I want.

Now I’m going to adjust my kerning (character spacing) a little bit, but I still have have the space between Happy & Birthday and my letters are touching!

I can also use the little slider to make my text move above the baseline of my shape. Again, I may need to do a little adjusting to the kerning.

Or I can move my text to the bottom of the circle.

And again, use the little vertical slider to move it further out from the circle.

The Text to path also works on a regular path. I can draw a wavy line and the text will follow the line!

Once again, Silhouette Studio is so much more powerful than Cricut Design Space!

Cricut Design Space vs Silhouette Studio - Filled Letters

The offset feature in Cricut Design Space finally offers a way to fill in letters directly in Design Space. Although, this is far from my favorite method for filling in letters, it’s another useful technique to have in your arsenal.

Cricut Design Space - Filled Letters using Offset method

This took a bit of trial and error to get an end result I was satisfied with, nothing is ever as simple as it seems with Cricut Design Space, LOL!

I typed the word “love” first. I’m using one of my system fonts - Very Berry. Of course the letter spacing (kerning) is absurd, so I have to adjust that first.

Then in order to get the offset to behave how I want, I need to “flatten” my text layer so it becomes a “Print then Cut” layer.

Then, with my flattened layer selected, I click on the offset button in the top tool bar. I type in -0.014 inches, that’s basically equivalent to a 1pt offset in Illustrator, which is how close I like to keep my lines if I’m going for a solid filled text. Note: You have to type -0.014 in the box, it’s such a small measurement you cannot use the slider.

Next, so I can actually see my offset lines, I change my offset layer to a “Draw” operation and change the line color to something bright and contrasting against the flattened black layer.

I select the offset layer I just created and then click the offset button again. It’s already set to the -0.014 inches, so I click apply. I change my line color again so I can see it against the flattened black layer.

I keep repeating the same offset until I get my letters filled as much as I can.

Once it’s all filled in with the offset lines, I select my original Flattened layer and “Unflatten” it. Then I “weld” the letters together.

Note: You CANNOT weld the letters together at the very beginning, the inner loops of the letters will not be offset properly.

I also tried the process with an SVG file that I imported from Illustrator. I prefer creating my words in Illustrator first, it’s much easier to adjust the kerning and use any special glyphs.

I upload my SVG as usual and change my Linetype from “Basic Cut” a “Draw” linetype.

Then I applied the -0.014 inch offset to the offset over and over again until my word was filled as much as possible.

After I show you the Silhouette Studio method we will test all the different fills on my Cricut Maker Machine.

Silhouette Studio - Filled Letters

Silhouette Studio has an awesome Line Effects tool that you can use to fill words.

I open my same SVG file that I created in Illustrator and click on the Line Effects tool on the right tool bar.

I’m going to copy and paste my word so I can use one to draw an outline completely around the word, I think that gives it a cleaner look.

There are a few different line types you can use for fills. The first one I’m going to pick is the just the straight lines. It’s simple and it’s one of my favorites.

It starts off looking horizontal and pretty spaced out.

I type my 0.014 inches in the spacing box and -45 degrees in the angle to get the close diagonal lines I’m going for.

I use the Align tool in the toolbar across the top to line up my fill lines with the outline.

Next, I duplicate both layers and then I pick the crosshatch fill. I’m going to keep my spacing at 0.014 inches and a -45 degree angle.

I duplicate my words again and I pick the concentric circles, this gives the same look as the offset in Cricut Design Space. I keep my spacing at 0.014 inches.

The last one I’m going to try is the spiral. It already has an outline so I can delete one of my layers. I keep my spacing at 0.014 inches and my angle at -45 degrees.

Since I have the Business editon of Silhouette Studio, I can save my file as an SVG so I can import it into Cricut Design Space.

I’m open my SVG in Cricut Design Space. I need to change the linetype to “Draw.” For some reason my SVG is twice the size it was in Silhouette Studio, so I’m going to scale it back down to size.

Here’s a comparison of the offset from Design Space and the Concentric circle fill in Silhouette Studio.

Time to test the different fills! I’m going to use my We R Memory Keepers foil quill, medium tip on cardstock with my Cricut Maker.

Here are the different results, my favorite is still the diagonal line fill at 45 degrees. The crosshatch and spirals both have some interesting textures. The offset is still not my favorite, the lines start to create weird little areas at some of the intersections.

Which fill style is your favorite?

Cricut Design Space vs Silhouette Studio - Rounded Corners

With the new offset tool in Cricut Design Space, you can make rounded corners on shapes, FINALLY!!! This will be super helpful with simple things like gift tags that I usually have to create in Illustrator first, then upload into Design Space. Here’s how making rounded corners in Cricut Design Space compares to Silhouette Studio.

Cricut Design Space Rounded Corners

I’m going to start off with a simple 5x7 rectangle. I select the Square from the Shapes menu on the left side panel.

To make it a rectangle i’m going to click the little lock so it is unlocked and type 7 inches for the width and 5 inches for the height (or vice versa) in the tool bar across the top.

Now that I have my rectangle, I select it and then click the Offset button in the toolbar across the top.

I’m going to start with a 1/4” inch rounded corner. You can type 0.25” into the box or use the slider to adjust the measurement. Then click Apply.

You can hide (click the eyeball in the layers) or delete the original rectangle once you are finished with it.

The offset makes the rectangle a little bigger, so I can adjust the size again by having my new rounded rectangle shape selected and typing my 5 x7 dimensions in the width and height spaces in the tool bar across the top.

I can use that same original rectangle shape to try different sizes of rounded corners. Here are a few of the different corner dimensions that I tried in the Offset Dialog box.

I tried the same technique with a star shape too, now you can have nicely rounded corners instead of sharp points.

Silhouette Studio Rounded Corners

So Silhouette Studio is already way ahead of Cricut Design Space, there’s a rounded rectangle shape tool in Studio. I can select it from the rectangle shape on the tool bar on the left or press Shift + R on my keyboard. (I love keyboard shortcuts).

Then I can type my dimensions into the Width and Height boxes in the toolbar across the top.

One thing I love is that I can drag these little dots to adjust my rounded corners. I adjust the one corner and it automatically does the other corners.

I tried a star shape too. The star tool in Silhouette Studio is pretty awesome. I can use the little slider in the middle to adjust how many points I want and I can move the little red dot to adjust the depth of the points.

There are A LOT of different shape tools in Silhouette Studio if you click on the star shape on the left side tool bar. There’s even a kind of rounded star shape, but it’s a little weird for what I’m trying to do. So the best method I have found so far, is again using the offset function. I can type in my offset side or use the slider to adjust and I select the rounded corner style.

So Silhouette Studio wins this one again in my book. They have had the rounded corner feature for a while and It’s so much easier to make adjustments to my shapes in Silhouette Studio. It’s nice that Cricut Design Space has finally (sort of) added the rounded corner feature, but their software is still very limited when it comes to editing shapes.

Cricut Design Space vs Silhouette Studio - Offset Feature

Cricut users have been asking for an offset feature for years and Cricut finally announced offset is available in Design Space.

Here’s a quick little comparison of the offset feature in Cricut Design Space vs in Silhouette Design Studio.

Offset in Cricut Design Space

For the offset feature in Cricut Design Space I’m using the most current version to date 6.6.112. According to the Offset pop up window this feature is still in Beta.

Some things to take note of for using offset in Design Space:

• You MUST be in the NEW Canvas Style, it is not available in the Classic Canvas setting. So that’s a bummer when you have to switch your project to Classic Canvas when the New Canvas is being glitchy (which seems to happen pretty frequently in past versions of Design Space, we’ll see how the newest update has improved).

• It is currently only available in the Desktop version of Design Space. That’s a real bummer for the sticker makers who want to do everything on their iPad or Android Tablet.

To start, I uploaded a PNG file of a watercolor design I made using Procreate. One of the things I love about watercolor are the rough little edges. But I don’t necessarily want the rough edges on my cut line. Let’s see how the Cricut offset feature does with those rough edges.

The default offset appears to be 0.25 inches. There are some obvious little bumps and some weird little jagged spots. I don’t see any kind of smoothing option, maybe something they could consider adding in the future.

Next I’m going to try to make the offset a little narrower, I’m going to use 0.125 inches (That’s 1/8 of an inch). I’m going to use the slider to adjust the measurement. There’s still quite a bit of bumpiness and some more jagged areas on the offset line.

I can use the Contour function to get rid of the cut inside the “L” loop. In order to be able to use the Contour function I have to change my offset from “Print & Cut” to “Basic Cut.”

I’m also going to try an even smaller offset, 1/16 inch. I can use the slider, but it becomes more difficult to get the exact value for 1/16. It ends of being easier to just type it in the box 0.0625.

Again, I change the “Print then Cut” offset to a “Basic cut” so I can use Contour to remove the cut from inside the L loop and E loop.

Save your file and let’s get ready to test our offset cuts!

Don’t forget to flatten your artwork and the offset together!

I’m going to do a test Print then Cut. I’m using plain copy paper for my test so I don’t waste my sticker paper.

The little jagged pieces are definitely there, they don’t look as terrible once I pull the piece off the mat. But I would never sell a sticker with this kind of rough cut edge. Yes, I even used a brand new blade for this cut!

I tried this little guy too. He’s a PNG I imported from procreate. The offset is 1/16 inch. There’s a weird little cut area by his ear. I changed the line to a Basic cut line and there’s no option to use the contour feature, so I can’t even get rid of the line! I didn’t even bother printing and cutting him. I’m better off adding an offset to him via Illustrator like in my previous posts.

The offset probably works great for images with smooth edges and vectors, but that’s not always the kind of artwork I’m using. Nice try Cricut, maybe try adding a smoothing option to the offset dialog box.

Offset in Silhouette Studio

Right out of the gate Silhouette Design Studio blows away Cricut Design Space. Am I being biased? Probably. But in the short time I’ve been using Silhouette Design Studio, it has been soooo much easier for me to achieve the offsets and cut lines that I want. Another Bonus that a lot of the Illustrator keyboard shortcuts also work in Silhouette Studio. Cmd + /- to zoom in and out, Alt + Drag to copy and paste, Spacebar to pan around my canvas. I’m loving Silhouette Studio so far!

I opened the same Love PNG file in Silhouette Studio. It does make my PNG gigantic initially, but it’s not a problem to shrink it down to size.

I tried the same offset measurements that I used in Cricut Design Space. I started out with a 0.25 inch Offset. You will need to select if you want an internal or external offset instead of Cricut’s slider bar. The offset is already so much smoother than the Cricut version, no little jagged bits!

Next I tried the offset at 1/8 inch (0.125). Again, waaaaaay smoother than the Cricut version.

Finally I tried a 1/16th (0.0625) offset. Still much, much better than the Cricut version. I can even refine the edge more by smoothing, adjusting or deleting anchor points on my offset path in the Silhouette software.

If I don’t want to cut the loops inside some of the letters I can easily select them and press “Delete”

I even tested this little guy again, 1000x better than Cricut’s offset.

I can also refine the edges of his offset even more by using the Smooth tool, or deleting anchor points, or adjusting the anchor points.

I don’t have a Silhouette machine yet to test the cut on one of their machines. But I do have the Business Edition upgrade so I can save my file as a PNG and upload it to Cricut Design Space to test the cut.

I have to save this file with the offset as a PNG because an SVG with this type of watercolor artwork does not import correctly into Design Space.

Make sure the Offset stroke lines are set to white or no stroke so they don’t appear in the PNG file.

I select save as PNG to my hard d rive, check the transparent background box and make my DPI 300.

Then I upload my file into Cricut Design Space as a Print then Cut image. I do have to resize again, for some reason PNGs are huge in both Design Space and Studio

Look how much smoother and more refined the offset cuts are! I can’t wait to get my Silhouette machine to test how it cuts!

No little jagged edges!

Sorry for the curling, these a just plain paper that I peeled off my blue mat.

It’s Silhouette Studio for the win! The offset lines in Silhouette Studio already start out much smoother than in Cricut Design Space and I can always smooth them out even more or make adjustments to the offset lines in Silhouette Studio.