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3 Ways to Perfect Print and Cut Stickers with Silhouette CAMEO (No White Border)

If you've ever print and cut stickers with your Silhouette CAMEO you know you can get the dreaded white edge sometimes.

This is a sponsored post but all opinions are my own

It's caused when the machine cuts just a tad bit off leaving the unprinted sticker sheet as part of the sticker.


Now since I know you're going to ask - I prefer the sticker sheets from Online Labels. They have a huge selection of printable sticker sheets - everything from glossy to matte to clear to waterproof sticker sheets.  You 'waste' enough of your sticker sheets due to registration marks, you don't need to waste any more with stickers that aren't perfectly print and cut!


There are three ways to prevent the dreaded white edge and pretty much guarantee you'll get perfect stickers every time.

Solid Offset
The first option is the easiest and it works if you're printing and cutting a design that has an edge or a fill that's the same all the way around.

For example, let's say you're making stickers from this ampersand design. You can see the edge of the design is teal all the way around. To make sure you don't get any white edge, simply open the Offset tool, from the right sidebar, and make an offset. The offset distance does not matter.


Fill the offset (I changed the line color of the offset to blue, below, so you could easily see it) with the same color as the nearest edge (teal, in this case). You can use the color picker in the Fill Color tool to color match the fill.



Now go to the Send panel.

Select the Offset line only and select "No Cut". Select the original edge of the sticker itself - red line here - and click "Cut Edge."


By creating an offset you have essentially created a bleed area around the edge of your sticker. This way even if the Silhouette CAMEO print and cut isn't perfect, instead of seeing a white edge, it will be the same color as the sticker itself and no one will know the difference!


Here's a close up...


This set was printed on Online Labels gloss white printable sheets and you can see the slight bleed is very helpful in making sure the color goes to the edge of the cut.



Create an Internal Offset 

The second option works best on designs that are more bold. Let's take this pumpkin for example.  To cut this pumpkin as a sticker and avoid any chance of a white edge, add a small internal offset and cut that.


This way if the cut is off by any little bit, you'll still have a little print bleed around the outside of the the cut line.

The distance of the offset will vary based on the shape of the design and the size of the sticker, but this is what you're going for.

Be sure you go into the Send panel and change all of the cut lines so only the internal offset is set to "Cut".


 This set cut perfectly on the white matte sticker sheets

 
Make a Duplicate

The third method to perfect print and cut stickers is useful when you have a design that is both intricate and multiple colors like this feature design.



Putting a solid-filled offset around the design won't work if the cut line is up against a bunch of different colors, but putting a slightly enlarged copy - or two - of the same design behind the one to be cut, will.

Open the design to be cut in Silhouette Studio and then make a copy.


Slightly scale down the original - by pulling in one of the corner nodes - so it's smaller than the copy.  Place it on top of the larger copy, positioning it so the outer edge of the sticker is within the larger copy.  If any edges of the sticker are touching the white area of the background or paper, make another copy and shift it sightly to the other side. You are basically creating your own bleed area.


Go into the Send panel and turn off the cut lines for everything except the edge of the actual sticker design.


Look how perfect these stickers print and cut even in the very detailed area around the flowers. 


And that's how you avoid wasting your Online Labels sticker sheets by getting a perfectly print and cut sticker every time!



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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5 comments

  1. Funny you posted this today - this weekend I was doing print and cuts and did the internal offset and it worked perfectly!!!

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  2. Wow, Melissa. Those are some super great tips. I know I will use them in the future. I was wondering why use sticker paper instead of just white card stock and use some type of adhesive on the back? Thank-you for all of your help with the Cameo. I refer to you anytime I have a problem. I also tell all of my friends about your terrific website and e letters.

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  3. Great information. There is another option if there is already a colored line around your image. Select the line color option and make the outline color the same color as the outline that is on the image. Then go to the thicken the line icon and taking the line. I use 8. Then send to cut. Today I had an image that was multiple colors so I made the outline the same color of the cup I was going to be applying my decal too. That way the edge will blend into the cup color. I hope this makes sense.

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  4. Thanks for another great tutorial! I have been using some of these techniques, but I tend to make the duplicate larger rather than reducing the size of the original, as that is often exactly the size I want. I also turn of the cutting on the duplicate straight away so I can't forget ... ;-) What I nver thought of so far is using more than one duplicate for the bleeding, now why didn't I???
    Kind regards, Stef

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  5. My Silhouette is translated to Dutch and I cannot find the offset tool :-( neither doing a search on 'offset' helps me, I suppose this word is translated as well....The images in this blog refer to the previous version so I cannot find it that way either. Hope someone has a picture of the updated Silhouette?

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