Posted on June 19, 2018April 27, 2023 by silhouettesecretsplus — 6 Comments

Let’s Explore v4 – Stipple Panel

If you are Silhouette Cameo 3, Cameo 4, or Curio owner and have plugged your machine into your computer, you will have access to the Stipple Panel.

With a Cameo 3 or 4, you can use a pen or marker to stipple a design. This means that the design is a series of dots. With this feature you can turn any design or photo into a stippled image.

With a Curio, the Stippling tool and the embossing mat can be used together to create the stippled design on other media types. With the Curio, it actually makes small indents in the material such as the Stippling metal sheets. The Stippling tool is designed to be used with the Curio machine.

Stipple Edge – This option will add Stippling dots around the edges of the design on the screen. *Mama Needs Wine by Dawn Nicole Designs – Design #209918
Spacing – Adjust the spacing between the dots on the Stipple edge by increasing or decreasing the inches here.
Stipple Fill – Choose from many fill options. The way it fills in with a stipple will vary with each design.
Grid Spacing – Increase or decrease the grid spacing of the design being stippled.Here I have decreased the grid spacing on all the designs to 0.500 inches. This places more of the design and stipple into a smaller grid area on the original object.
Stipple Spacing – Increase or decrease the spacing of the stipple dots to be closer or farther from each other. Something to note here is that with some Stipple fill patterns, options may be grayed out because they do not apply. As you can see in the first 2 of my example here.Here I increased the Stipple spacing to 0.100 inches.
Scale Factor – Increase or decrease the scale of the points by a percentage.Here I scaled all of them down to 50%. As you can see, with each option, the look of the design changes and you can hardly recognize which options that I filled each with.
Angle – Change the angle of how the design fills the object.Above, the Angle is set for 135 degrees on all the designs.
Offset – This controls how far the fill pattern starts from the edge of the original design.Above, I have changed the offset to 0.250 inches and you can see that on all of the hearts, it has started the fill pattern 0.250 inches from the edge of the design.
Stipple Size – Change the size of the Stipple point.This option only changes the visual look of your design and does not change how big of a point the pen or tool will stipple.
Print Stipple – By checking this, the design can be sent to the printer to print the stippled image.

Keep in mind that the more dots you add to your design, the more details that is for your Studio program and computer to process. What does that mean? That means the more details you have in your design, the more data you computer is processing. If you experience a lag, be patient, the computer is working and will catch up.

Now, another thing to note, if you missed it in the beginning, is that this Stipple feature is only available for Cameo 3 or Curio owners, otherwise, the panel will be grayed out.

There are so many fun options to explore in the Silhouette software – hope you have fun creating today! Feel free to post on my Facebook group at Silhouette Secrets+ with EllyMae.

Enjoy !

THANK YOU for your support! How can you help? Click HERE & buy a coffee. Every little bit helps with the cost of running the site.

Looking for more in-depth, step-by-step classes, check out all of my online Silhouette classes on my Teachable site HERE.

Posted on June 12, 2018April 27, 2023 by silhouettesecretsplus — 2 Comments

Let’s Explore v4 – Pop Up Panel

Today we are exploring the Pop Up Panel. Did you know there was such a thing? If you have v4.1.197 or higher of the Silhouette software, then this is available to you.

This is a neat feature that you can take a design and make it pop out of base shape, such as a card.

Let’s take a look at how we can go from this

to this

First, I started with my Page Size set at 5.5″ x 8.5″ for my card base and turned it to a Portrait Orientation.

Next, I drew a 5.25″ x 8.25″ rectangle to fit inside my card base. I used the Scale Tab to get the exact dimensions I wanted for my inner rectangle.

Then, I used the Align Tool to Center the design to my Page.

Then, I pulled down a vertical Guide (blue line) from the top to line it up with the center fold line of my card at 4.25″. Guides are a Designer Edition upgrade feature and you can turn them on and off under the Page Setup Panel – Tab 2.

Now, open the design you want to use for the Pop up card.

We are now ready to take a look at the Pop Up Panel features.

Convert Selected Shapes to Popup – Select the Design and click this to create your Popup shape on your base. Lines will show up on the design at the top and towards the bottom.The bottom line is the score line for the center of the card. Match the score line up with the Guide created at 4.25″When the design is selected, a directional arrow in the center appears & that can be used to move and adjust the design and pop up features and vary the length of the design to pop out of the base.The farther down you pull the arrow, the more the features adjust. Pull the red dots on either side of the score line out to the edges of the card, so it will score a fold line to the edge of the card.
Restore Original Shapes – This will restore the shape to the original design. This is great if you decide you don’t like it and want to start fresh.
Release Popup – This releases the design into individual cut lines, which can be used to further manipulate the design how you like it. Each line will now become it’s own separate piece and can be moved or deleted, as you see fit.
Base Width – This will adjust the base width of the score line on the bottom edge of your design where it meets the card.Here I increased it to 57% to show you how it looks. Each design will vary in how it looks and the look you want to achieve.
Min. Strut Width – This adjusts the Popup tabs at the top of the design. As the number increases the number of tabs goes down.I increased the Min. Strut Width to 0.269″ and it changes so there are only 5 tabs at the top of my design.
Dash Pitch – Dash pitch adjusts the score line width and how far each line will cut before skipping to the next one.

And here is the final view on the Send tab before you go to cut the Popup design.

Send your design to cut and assemble the card.

This PopUp feature is amazing! So many options & so much fun to create with.

What is the best way to learn? Play, play, play!!! Will you make mistakes? YES! Everyone makes mistakes! But you learn as you go!

Now, set aside some time and play, play, play!

This card was created with Happy Face One Design #147176 by Sarah Bailey from the Silhouette Design Store, Close to My Heart cardstock, and Oracal 651 vinyl.

Yes, you read that right. I used Oracal 651 vinyl on a card. This would not work with all cardstock as it will depend on the fibers of the cardstock but a high quality, smooth cardstock you should have no issues using transfer tape to apply your design.

I would love to see what you create – feel free to post on my Facebook group at Silhouette Secrets+ with EllyMae.

Enjoy !

THANK YOU for your support! How can you help? Click HERE & buy a coffee. Every little bit helps with the cost of running the site.

Looking for more in-depth, step-by-step classes, check out all of my online Silhouette classes on my Teachable site HERE.

Posted on June 5, 2018April 27, 2023 by silhouettesecretsplus — 37 Comments

Let’s Explore v4 – Offset Panel

Offset Panel – Silhouette Studio v4

We are moving down the right side of the Silhouette Studio v4 software and going through the Panels in detail.

Let’s take a look at the Offset Panel.

This tool can be very useful for many things such as creating a background layer for a decal, creating a shadow, thickening fonts, making frames, etc.

Offset – This tool creates a copy of the design on the outside edge of the original shape. The default distance is 0.125 inches and that is what shows when Offset button is chosen, it can then be adjusted.Select your design and click on the Offset button. *the offset is filled with yellow for you to see it better *Create by Cali Arroyo – Design #215617 Once the Offset is applied, it will automatically weld together and any parts that are overlapping will now be welded. Keep in mind that if there is a part of the design, such as a dot of an i, that is not overlapping, it will not be welded and it will need to be grouped after you create your Offset.
Internal Offset – This will apply the offset inside of the design. The default is set for 0.125 inches here too and most likely you won’t see any offset created, if that is left. Once you decrease the offset distance, you can see a change happen.This is one way to fill a font that you want to use the sketch pens with. By creating multiple internal offsets, the sketch pen will “fill” the font in by drawing all the internal offsets.Here is an example of creating multiple internal offsets to “fill” in a font to sketch. This was many internal offsets, so many I lost track of how many I created. First, I will say that it took a lot of ink to fill this in. I was using the Silhouette sketch pens and your results will vary depending on the pen you use and the tip it has on it. You can see above that even with multiple internal offsets, it did not fill in completely with the Silhouette sketch pen. In some cases, it is not worth the ink or the time to use the sketch pens like this and would be easier to use the Print and Cut feature instead.
Offset Distance – Change the Distance of the offset to achieve the look you want.
Offset Corner – Change the look of the offset created by changing the corner shape.
Cancel or Apply – Choose whether to Apply the Offset (can also hit Enter key) or Cancel.

Let’s take a look at some examples of using Offsets.

Creating an offset as a background to layer a decal:

Check out how I created this and then used layering marks to line up the decal exactly HERE.

Using a Offset to create a space when subtracting and layering HTV:

See details on how I created this shirt HERE.

Using an Offset to thicken fonts for cleaner cutting:

The Samantha font is very popular but it can sometimes be a pain to cut for small projects, a small offset can make a big difference without changing the look too much.

Using an Offset to make a frame:

Make an Offset of the original design, select the offset & original, then right click and choose Make Compound path or use the Modify Panel and choose Make Compound path. Now, you have a frame.

There are many ways to use the Offset and these are just a few examples. How do you use the Offset feature? I would love seeing what you are creating – feel free to post on my Facebook group at Silhouette Secrets+ with EllyMae.

Save this for future reference by pinning the image below.