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Free Screen Birthday Card Silhouette Cut File from Lori Whitlock

It's Freebie Friday and it's the best one this month because on the last Friday of every month we team up with Lori Whitlock to share an amazing Lori Whitlock design with all of you!
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This week Lori, who has something like 5,500 designs in the Silhouette Online Store, is sharing this adorable screen birthday card with Silhouette School readers. How fun is this?!  It totally has the circus feel going on. 

Little Known Silhouette Studio Selection and Drag Box Options

Did you know you can change the preferences for the selection or drag box in Silhouette Studio?!  tI's one those tools we use all the time in Silhouette Studio, but the options to change how it works are often overlooked.

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Silhouette School weekly contributor Becky Dykes is here to explain more about the two ways to use the Drag Box, depending on what type of project you're working on.

Dark Dining Room To Bright Home Office Makeover Reveal

I am so thrilled to finally reveal a project we've been working on at Silhouette School headquarters for months!!!  Together with Wayfair as our sponsor, we have transformed our dark red dining room into a light and bright home office that I consider industrial-masculine-chic.

Dining room to home office makeover reveal wayfair

Many of you know that a few months back my husband, Bob left his job in Corporate America to join me full time on the blog (read about our journey blogging full time as a couple on our other site Boss Lady and Bob).  In less than three years, Silhouette School has grown from a blog into a full fledged business with a whole series of books, a membership site in the works, speaking engagements, and more - and so we decided going into business together would be best for our family.  What is not best for our family or relationship or business...is sharing an office.  When it comes to working - I need my own space.  In other words: Bob needed his own office.

It was pretty evident that our barely-used red dining room was on the chopping block.  I have to admit, I did not shed a tear to see it go...so take a good ol' look at the 'before' because the difference is pretty shocking!

How NOT to Check for Silhouette Studio Updates

I'm just gonna be blunt about it because I've written and then deleted the start of this tutorial about 67 times so far.  The "Check for Updates" feature in the Silhouette Studio is basically useless. There...I said it.

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If you're running Silhouette Studio and you're relying on that little feature to make sure you're running the latest version of Silhouette Studio - you're making a huge mistake.  It doesn't work the large majority of the time.

Trick to Cutting a Score Line on Silhouette CAMEO

Need to cut the perfect score line with Silhouette CAMEO? Sometimes the perforated cut doesn't quite give you the professional-looking fold line you're going for, but a solid cut will splice through the paper. Enter a score line!

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Win Silhouette U for a Year!

Silhouette School is expanding...opening up Silhouette U on October 4!!!  I haven't been as excited or as nervous to launch a new service or product since I put out my first book, The Ultimate Silhouette Guide.

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To celebrate the upcoming opening of our new membership site - we gave away a free year long subscription to Silhouette U - valued at more than $100!  Here's the lucky winner....




Now if you didn't win...don't worry you can still join us at Silhouette U. I know you're dying to know "So what's this Silhouette U all about anyway?"  Silhouette U is Silhouette School's new exclusive membership site offering premium content to members.

Text Won't Weld Correctly in Silhouette Studio? Here's The Fix!

Every now and then I'll run into a script font or a shape that just doesn't want to weld correctly. There are a number of issues that can cause this to happen, but sometimes a quick fix is just what you need in order to continue on with your project!

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Silhouette School weekly contributor Becky Dykes is here today to share not one, but two quick fixes.  Which method you go with will depend on your personal preference, for dealing with a tricky font or shape that just won't weld normally.

Check Your Silhouette Studio Version Now: How and Why!

It's always a good idea to know what version of Silhouette Studio you're running. This is especially important when there's an update to the software, a problem with feature or tool not appearing or a known bug in the software - since there are so many Silhouette Studio versions.

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13 Silhouette CAMEO Tutorials for Beginners Rolled into One Ultimate Newbie Project!

It's a rare occasion when you come across one of those Silhouette CAMEO projects that essentially combines all the basics...I didn't even realize this one did just that, until I was basically done and started writing this tutorial! That's when it hit me that if there was ever a single paper-based project to combine all the beginner Silhouette CAMEO tutorials - this is it! 

silhouette cameo beginners tutorial tracing designing pixscan stickers print and cut

Working your way through creating your own custom stationary set gives you the opportunity to really touch on so many of the most popular ways to use a Silhouette cutting machine and Silhouette Studio - in their most basic form!  This one project manages to touch on the basics of tracing, offset, adding new fonts, accessing special font characters, designing, Pixscan, print and cut, stickers, sketch pens, adding new fonts to Silhouette Studio, importing patterns and even using and importing elements of graphic design packs from places like The Hungry JPEG.  

Throughout this tutorial I will point you to other beginner Silhouette tutorials so you can refresh or learn more about the technique - and at the very end you will find a full list of all 13 Silhouette tutorials touched we on!

Free Pink Ribbon Silhouette Design and Cut File (Breast Cancer Awareness)

It's Freebie Friday and with Breast Cancer Awareness month coming up in October, what better time than now to share these beautiful designs!  

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This is a sponsored post but all opinions are my own

How to Use Silhouette Studio Business Edition Tiling Tool

We don't talk a whole lot about the Silhouette Studio Business Edition around here, but we should! It has some really cool features. My two favorites are the ability to cut with multiple Silhouette machines at the same time and auto-adding weeding lines. But, the Tiling feature in Silhouette Studio Business Edition is super useful when it comes to cutting oversized designs and stencils!

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Silhouette School weekly contributor, Becky Dykes, is here this week to give us a beginner lesson on how to use the Tiling Tool in Silhouette Studio Business Edition.

5 Tips for Cutting Silhouette Double-Sided Adhesive (and a Silhouette CAMEO Beginners Tutorial)

You know when you email me and tell me you were just about to throw your machine out the window and then one of my tutorials helped talk you off the ledge? Yeah, well that was me trying to cut Silhouette brand double-sided adhesive sheets. GRRRRPPHHHHH if you heard that noise it was me!

Seriously that stuff gave me a run for my money! But now that I've got it figured out I'm going to share them with you so you don't end up making those weird animal-like noises too and scaring your children out of a nap.

Now, I've built Silhouette School on just being real with ya. And if that means I gotta give a big ol' thumbs down to something well...then that's just the way it's gonna be.  That being said - there's definitely a lot to be said for "user error" -  in this case I'm the user.  So while I made a whole lot of not-nice noises through the process I'm happy to report with some tweaks of a few settings, I finally made it work with what I found to be the not-so-user-friendly Silhouette Double Sided Adhesive Sheets.

DIY Girl and Doll Matching Shirts: Silhouette CAMEO Tutorial (Guest Post by Olivia, 8)

I'm handing the blog over to my 8 year old daughter, Olivia, today so she can share one of her fun kid-friendly Silhouette CAMEO tutorials with you...again!  This time Olivia's back to share a tutorial on how to make a DIY matching doll shirt from any 'big girl' shirt!

make DIY matching girl doll shirts Silhouette CAMEO

Olivia just started third grade and wrapped up her tutorial before the end of summer! She completed everything from the project to typing up the Silhouette CAMEO tutorial with very limited help from me (except for the heat press part)!

Easy Silhouette CAMEO projects kids beginners


How to Make an Envelope Liner Template with Silhouette Studio and Sticker Paper

So you're wondering how to make envelope liners in Silhouette Studio? You've come to the right spot because I've figured out an easy way to make custom size envelope liners using Pixscan and printable sticker paper. Oh you're gonna love this!

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This is a sponsored post, but all opinions are my own.

Free Ice Cream Cone Silhouette Studio Design Cut File

It's Freebie Friday around these parts and this week I'm sharing my love of ice cream with all of you in the way of a free ice cream cone Silhouette Studio cut file!

Make Any Font or Shape Distressed: Silhouette Studio Tutorial

Distressed fonts and designs are really popular with Silhouette crafters...but they're not always readily available. Did you know it's possible to actually turn any font or design into a vintage-style font or image right in Silhouette Studio? It's true!!!

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Silhouette School weekly contributor Becky Dykes is here to share a Silhouette tutorial that's only a few steps from start to finish! Check it out so you can start cutting your own custom distressed fonts and designs on your Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait!

Cutting Cardstock with Silhouette CAMEO: Secrets and Cut Settings from the Pros!

I'm so excited that the queen of Silhouette Paper Crafts and Designs, Lori Whitlock is on the blog today! Lori's here to share her pro tips on cutting cardstock cleanly with Silhouette CAMEO and Portrait!

Hi everyone! I’m Lori Whitlock and I’m so excited that Melissa asked me to do a guest blog post for you all today. I’ve been designing for Silhouette for over 7 years now (since the beta version of the Design Store was around). If you’ve seen my work you know that I do a lot of card making and 3­ D design so I am using my Silhouette to cut paper and card stock all the time.



With over 5400+ designs I would say I’ve practiced cutting paper A LOT. At some of the events that I attend I’m astounded at the number of people that I have met that have never tried to cut paper/card stock with their Silhouette.

Let me just tell you a little secret... it’s really not that hard! So, let’s give it a try! You should be able to get beautiful clean cuts from card stock or patterned paper. I’ve taught several classes and find that Silhouette crafters can get frustrated trying to get clean cuts. But, I’m here to tell you that if you get everything set up properly your Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait should cut card stock just like butter. It might take a little practice, but I promise you can get it figured out.

Samantha Font Designer Releases New 4-Font Bundle

And all the fonts lovers said AMEN!  Laura Worthington, the font designer behind the hugely popular Samantha font, has teamed up with The Hungry JPEG for the first time. The newly released Laura Worthington Font Pack includes four beautiful commercial use fonts - all of which are fully accessible in Silhouette Studio.

Commercial script font bundle Laura Worthington Silhouette CAMEO
This is a sponsored post, but all opinions are my own.

Just like their sister font, Samantha, Alana, Rosarian, Sheila, and Shelby fonts include hundreds of extra characters, glyphs and ornaments each - all of which can be used in Silhouette Studio without the need for any other software program.

Silhouette CAMEO Bluetooth Fixes and New Details on Silhouette Studio V4 Release

If you've experienced Silhouette CAMEO 3 Bluetooth issues - there's good news! Silhouette America released an update to Silhouette Studio V3 late this week to fix several bugs in the software program as well as to stabilize the Bluetooth capabilities.  "The latest version of the software (3.8.088) adds a lot of stability to BlueTooth, so it’s an essential update in my mind," Silhouette America IT Director Tony Anderson tells me. 

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