How to Turn Silhouette Cut Files into Print and Cut (And a DIY Baby Month Blocks Project)

If you're looking for the perfect DIY baby gift to make with your Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait - look no further!!  

  To help me out as we are moving, my good friend Rachel Teodoro - who is not only incredibly talented and crafty - but also a little Silhouette-obsessed like we are - is here today to share a fun, cheap and easy print and cut project with you!  The best part is she's sharing her tips on how to turn regular Silhouette Studio cut files into print and cut designs in just a few simple steps!
  Hey Silhouette School readers! I'm Rachel over at RachelTeodoro.com and I am so excited to be here as a substitute teacher. I got my first Silhouette for Christmas in 2010 and fell in love almost immediately. It was a total crafting game changer for me. I love creating and crafting but I am also frugal thrifty cheap and I do my best to live well on less with my family of five in the greater Seattle area. I share tutorials and DIY's, and also tips and tricks to teach you how you can live a Nordstrom lifestyle on a WalMart budget.    These monthly onesies that I made using heat transfer vinyl were my go to gift for years, but they were expensive and time consuming to make.   

I'm going to show you how I made these monthly blocks using cut files from my Silhouette library and turned them into a design file that could be print and cut.

  My printer only prints 8 1/2 x 11" so I set my width and height in the Design Page settings. I had two wooden blocks that were 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" and so I started by making squares slightly smaller than that so that they wouldn't fill the whole block face. Then I filled the page with as many blocks as would fit. I was able to get four squares on my page.    I wanted a few different designs, but I wanted something simple that could also coordinate and be gender neutral. I used the circle banner and pennant banner {both were free and in my library-make sure you are getting those freebies every week from the Silhouette store!}. As you can see, both of the banner files were cut files. I wanted to use them as graphics. 

On the circle banner, I selected the image, went to Cut Settings and selected No Cut. I noticed that there was still a round outline, so I selected it and went to object and ungrouped it. Now I can remove and delete the offset. The colors in the circle banner were part of the design so I'm going to work with them. 

As you can see above, the pennant banner has cut lines on the whole thing and it doesn't have any color. I selected the design, went to cut settings and selected no cut. That left me with a blank design. I used the Fill Color and Line Color tools to match the colors of each pennant with the colors in the circle banner. 

I replicated the banners and used them in every other block. Next, I added the months. When you type in the text it will come in as a cut file. You want to select the text and change the cut setting to No Cut.

Next, you will want to select the text and change the line and fill color.  Melissa probably has some great tutorial for this that takes my thirty-six steps and makes it all happen in one easy swoosh, but this is how I do it. 

 

Make sure your registration marks are turned on because you will be using this design as a print and cut file.

Once this is done, you can use the first four months as your template and simply go in and change the numbers for the following months. Make sure you change 1 month old and make it plural! Save each set before you change the months and move on to creating the next group.

Before you print and cut do one last check to ensure that the ONLY cut lines that are turned on are those around the border of each box. Then print and cut out your pages for the blocks.  I printed on cardstock but you could also use printable vinyl or sticker paper for this project.

I painted my blocks an off white color. I used mod podge and a sponge brush to apply the paper to my blocks. (You can skip this step if you're using sticker paper or printable vinyl.) Simply brush on mod podge on the wood, apply the paper and then brush the mod podge on top of the paper. Don't worry, it will dry clear and it will seal it from any wet baby drool!

  These would make a great baby shower gift to give or it would make the perfect thing to make so that you can take those monthly pictures and see how much your baby is growing!  

I'm so excited to spend some time with you and would love it if you would drop on by RachelTeodoro.com. Grab a cup of coffee or tea {it's what we do in Seattle} and stay a bit. Take a look around. You can find my Silhouette projects here. If you want to get a laugh only my Silhouette friends would understand, check out how these birthday invitations cost me $115 each to make. Yep, this was pre-Silhouette School Blog. Melissa is one of my favorites! Thanks for having me friend. 

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine!

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