SILHOUETTE CAMEO

Hello everyone!
How are you all doing?
Well today's post is on the very famous Electronic Die cutting machine- Silhouette Cameo!
I hope you all know Crafters Corner now has official dealership of Silhouette and we have all its products available on the website at the best possible prices!
Well I bought Silhouette Cameo 2 years ago and I have loved every bit of it! There is soo much you can do! I will try to fit in all the things this machine can do in one post without making it too long and boring!

Let me begin with some answers to the basic questions I am asked about the machine.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SILHOUETTE CAMEO AND A SIZZIX BIGSHOT?

Silhouette cameo is an electronic die cutting machine which works with a computer/laptop/ipad and can cut a variety of designs without any cartriges or cutting dies where as a sizzix bigshot is a manual die cutting machine which required metal dies to cut the design you want.

WHAT ALL CAN A SILHOUETTE CAMEO CUT?

Cameo can cut a variety of products like cardstock, pattern paper, vinyl, fabric, light weight chipboard, oph sheets/ acetate sheets. The machine is not designed for cutting heavy duty items.

WHAT OTHER FEATURES DOES IT HAVE?

There is a very cool features Cameo offers which helps makes some amazing printed die cuts and its called Print and cut.

The second interesting feature comes with a pen holder. You can replace the blade with silhouette pens and draw the design on paper instead of cutting or use a pen holder along with any normal pen that you have and draw.

Silhouette America also sells stamping starter kit - this kit includes stamp material, a specialised cutting mat, acrylic blocks, a black ink pad, 10 stamp designs, an instructional DVD and an idea book. The stamping kit gives you the freedom to make any custom stamps you desire be it fonts, florals the options are endless.

Lastly Silhouette Cameo has recently introduced a PixScan mat - The mat allows you to fussy cut any element from your pattern papers or printed sheets by either scanning the mat or clicking a picture of it and uploading it to the silhouette software. This mat measures 11.687*12.812 with a cutting area of 8.5*11.5 inches.

HOW DOES THE MACHINE WORK?

The machine comes with a 12*12 cutting mat. The cutting mat is a plastic mat with a sticky surface which helps keep the paper in place as the blade moves to cut the design after some use the mat does gets less sticky but not to worry we have spray adhesive available for it , once you use the spray it is perfect for use. The blade fitted in the machine cuts the design you open in the Silhouette studio on your computer. It might wear off after several cuts if you use it with highly textured cardstock so make sure you use good quality cardstock and clean the blade when required. Replacement blades are available at Crafters Corner.

WHAT ARE THE DIMENSIONS OF THE MACHINE?
It is a beautiful looking machine which can be the charm of your craft room it measures

• Height 5”
• Width 20.9”
• Depth 6.5”
• Weight 12 lbs

WHAT ALL DO I GET WITH THE MACHINE? 

You will find all the essentials when you open the box. All you need to do id to decide the material and design you want to cut for your first project.
On unboxing you will find :-

• Silhouette electronic cutting tool
• Silhouette Studio software for Windows XP/Vista/7 and Mac OS X 10.5.8 and higher
• Basic Instruction Guide
• 50 exclusive cuttable designs
• Power cable
• USB cable
• 12" cutting mat
• Cutting blade
• $10 gift card to buy more designs from Silhouette Online Store.  

WHAT ACCESSORIES DO I REQUIRE?

The first thing that one needs is a silhouette scraper cause after the cuts you will have bits of paper stuck to the cutting mat that need to be removed before you cut your next design.
The next thing that I always recommend everyone who has a cameo is the Designer edition upgrade. This is a paid addition to your silhouette software which allows you to cut a variety of free SVG files ,trace images available on the net it is such a must have!
Lastly you need an adhesive spray and a dust cover to save your machine from getting dirty.

HOW DO I DESIGN? AND WHERE CAN I BUY THE FILES? 

The machine comes with 50 pre loaded files on your purchase. You can create designs with Silhouette Studio software which makes it easy to create designs with drag and drop tools that help you move, resize and add texture to your images. If you dont want to make your own designs then the files can be purchased from silhouettedesignstore.com There are a variety of websites that sell digital files. The best part of the machine is you can resize a design to any custom size you want it can cut the smallest possible to the max of 12*24 inches (if you use the 12*24 inch cutting mat else 12*12)
You can cut any font, shape with this machine. Silhouette Online Store offers a variety of files which are priced at $0.99 which is extremely cheap. Once you buy the design it will be stored in your library for you to cut n number of times. One thing that is important to remember that if you are using the files for commercial use then you should always opt for the commercial license option available on the website.

Now I will begin with sharing some projects I created using Silhouette Cameo :-

For this card I cut out the top layer with my cameo and distressed the back layer using few colours of Tim holtz distress inks. 

The scrolls are super easy to make just cut the butterfly in any size you want roll an a4 size sheet , create a band with cardstock and adhere the butterfly to it. 

For this card I purchased a file from the Silhouette design cut the layers in different coloured cardstocks and adhered them on one top of the other adding them to the card and using some charms for the finishing. 

This cute mailbox is also a digital file I purchased from the Silhouette design store. 

This is one of my favourite projects it was a free file available on the net. 

This too was a paid file i purchased from the store. 

This is something I created and designed on my own after being inspired from a digital art I saw at a nearby cafe! 

One of the cards I recently created from a file from Silhouette design store. Just look at how intricate the design is and how well did it cut!

I've used Vinyl for this frame I traced a picture and the fonts too were cut using my cameo. 

This quote is also from the Silhouette design store and is cut with vinyl! 

Hope you all like the post. If anyone wants a tutorial on any of the projects I've uploaded here or any specific feature of Cameo please do let me know will surely do a post on it!

Lastly I would like to thank my fellow DT Arjita for helping me out with this post as she too is a Silhouette cameo user and she made sure I did not miss out on anything and you all get the maximum information about the machine :) 

Have a good day!

Hugs

Anchal Sapra