Craft Chameleon Archives

Posted on January 23, 2024January 30, 2024 by silhouettesecretsplus — 2 Comments

3 Ways to Customize Acrylic Shapes with Silhouette

I’m in love with these Layered Snowflake Arabesque Tile acrylic shapes from Craft Chameleon. They come in a wide variety of colors and I’ve been using them for testing. I want to share 3 methods I tested, my results with each, and which one is my favorite at the end – you might be surprised.

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Layered Acrylic Shapes Snowflakes Craft Chameleon

I am calling these ornaments, but they can be so much more. Gift tags, ornaments, stand alone decor item, and more!

3 Ways to Customize Acrylic Shapes with Silhouette

Etching Acrylic with the Silhouette Curio 2 Power Engraver – Let It Snow Design
Etching Acrylic with the Silhouette Curio 2 Punch Tool – top left Snowflake saying
(the Curio 1 and Silhouette etching tool can do this too – more info below)
Adhesive Vinyl Decal – any cutting machine can do this with good quality vinyl!

1 – Etching Acrylic with the Silhouette Curio 2 Power Engraver

I have been doing a lot of testing with the Silhouette Curio 2 and just had to try this with the new Silhouette Power Engraver Tool.

Silhouette Curio 2 Power Engraver Acrylic Etching

I have had great results with the Silhouet t e Power Engraver. However, it is not a fine detail engraving tip. When you are working with it, you want to keep that in mind and may need to adjust the design to work with it.

I have a full step-by-step class the Silhouett e Secrets+ Teachable site on setting up for etching/engraving on acrylic with the Silhouette Curio 2 including how to get exact placement on shapes. I share all the things that worked and those that did not in the class too!
Find all the details and see more examples of my etching tests HERE.

Silhouette Curio 2 Power Engraver Etched - Engraved Acrylic

The etch is pretty subtle on the colored acrylic. Acrylic blanks are also one of the most difficult things to photograph too! Right up there with glass objects.

I love the sparkle of the top layer of this acrylic shape.

Check out a quick look at the Silhouette Power Engrave Tool in action on the Silhouette Secrets+ YouTube channel HERE.

Supplies used:

Silhouette Curio 2, Curio Debris Tray, Silhouette Cutting Mat, Silhouette Power Engraver, Let It Snow by Jamie Lane Designs, Layered Snowflake Arabesque Tile acrylic shape, lint roller, super glue, craft clamps, ribbon
*use code SECRETS at CrafterCuts to save 10% on Silhouette supplies – does not apply to new machines

For more details on the Silhouette Curio 2 click HERE.

2 – Etching Acrylic with the Silhouette Curio 2 Punch Tool

With the release of Silhouette released version v4.5.760+, which means the Silhouette Punch Tool has been unlocked for etching with both the Silhouette Curio 2 and the Silhouette Cameo 5. I have been testing the Silhouette Punch Tool for etching with both models of machines.

For more details on etching with the Silhouette Cameo 5 and Punch Tool check out this post HERE.
Note: etching on the Silhouette Cameo 5 is designed for Silhouette metal etching sheets and not for acrylics – more details in my blog post

The Silhouette Punch Tool is supposed to be the etching tool for finer details with the Silhouette Curio 2 and Cameo 5. While it does etch, it definitely is no where near the same quality of etch as the Silhouette Curio 1 was with the Silhouette etching tool.

If you have a Silhouette Curio 1, I would recommend hanging on to it and get that baby out to etch on acrylic. It does a fantastic job.

However, the Silhouette Curio 2 is here to stay. It is the new machine model and the Silhouette Curio 1 is no longer manufactured. Honestly, the Curio 1 had a really, really long lifespan for a machine model. I am surprised that it was manufactured for so long.

The Silhouette Curio 2 and the Silhouette Cameo 5 has a specialized Carriage 2 housing that allows not only for specialty tools, but also a higher force. While the Carriage 1 housing on Silhouette models is an up and down motor, the Carriage 2 housing on Silhouette model machines is a round and round motor. This means that it is different than the Silhouette Curio 1 machine that was designed over 10 years ago. Different machine, different results.
I’ll have more details on the blog later about all of that.

Bottom line is – the Silhouette Punch Tool does etch.

Check out a quick look at the Silhouette Curio 2 & Punch Tool in action on the Silhouette Secrets+ YouTube channel HERE.

Supplies used:

Silhouette Curio 2, Curio Debris Tray, Silhouette Cutting Mat, Silhouette Punch Tool, Snowflake Kisses Holiday Wishes Design, Layered Snowflake Arabesque Tile acrylic shape, lint roller, super glue, craft clamps, ribbon
*use code SECRETS at CrafterCuts to save 10% on Silhouette supplies – does not apply to new machines

For more details on the Silhouette Curio 2 click HERE.

3 – Adhesive Vinyl Decal

I used Oracal 651 white adhesive vinyl and cut this with the Silhouette Cameo 5 using the Silhouette Autoblade.

Yes! The Silhouette Autoblade!

Silhouette Cameo 5 Detailed Vinyl Cut with Autoblade

I selected the Vinyl Glossy setting and increase the blade depth to a 2. Actual cut settings that will work for you will depend on your material, machine, and blade life. Test cuts are the only way you will know what works for you. Find more information on Perfect Cut Settings HERE.

One of the big key factors is you want high quality adhesive vinyl and good quality transfer tape for detail works. Low quality vinyl can just be a mess and more of a headache than the money it tricked you into saving. If you have ever cut low quality vinyl or old vinyl, you are nodding right now and know exactly what I mean!

Silhouette Oracal 651 Vinyl Cut with Autoblade

Now, yes, I lost the dots to my i’s. But holy smokes! This is tiny details! At this size, I could care less about those little dots on the i’s. I can either cut more and add them or add in a different embellishment to the project.

Silhouette Oracal 651 Fine Detail Cut with Autoblade

One of the things that can help when cutting this small is adding Weeding Lines to the design and it definitely helped in this small detail cut.
For more details on adding Weeding Lines click HERE.
For designs like this, I prefer to draw my own weeding lines. It takes just a little more time in the setup and cutting process, but it can be 100% worth it to save you headache when weeding.

I have more tips on cutting small fonts & designs HERE too!

Silhouette Oracal 651 Vinyl Fine Detail Cut with Autoblade

Check out a quick look at weeding this design on the Silhouette Secrets+ YouTube channel HERE.

Supplies used:

Silhouette Cameo 5, Silhouette Autoblade – Type B, Silhouette Cutting Mat, Oracal 651 White adhesive vinyl, AT65 Transfer Tape, Snowflake Kisses Holiday Wishes Design, Layered Snowflake Arabesque Tile acrylic shape, super glue, craft clamps, ribbon
*use code SECRETS at CrafterCuts to save 10% on Silhouette supplies – does not apply to new machines

My Favorite

Out of all 3 methods, this one has to be my favorite because it really stands out. And the best part is, anyone with a cutting machine could do this method!

Silhouette Cameo 5 Detailed Adhesive Vinyl Decal with Autoblade

I hope that gives you some ideas how you can create and customize with acrylic shapes. You are not limited to Snowflake Arabesque Acrylics either! Craft Chameleon has a wide selection of acrylic blanks. The 3″ clear acrylic rounds are my favorite and I make sure to stock up each time I order.

Save this for future reference by pinning the image below.

Enjoy !

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Silhouette Classes

Never stop learning! Let me help you take the anxiety out of learning with Silhouette and get to creating faster! My Silhouette classes are heavily focused on software, so you can take the skills & techniques taught and apply them to many future projects!

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Silhouette step-by-step Classes by Silhouette Secrets+

Posted on June 5, 2019June 5, 2019 by silhouettesecretsplus — 3 Comments

Silhouette Inspiration

Today I am headed out to the June 2019 All Things Silhouette conference and I have to tell you while it may be a lot of work to prep and set up for the conference, I always come back knowing more than I did before & feeling inspired by all that I see at this conference.

So today, I’m going to share a few projects I’ve been working on and hope I can pass on some of this inspiration that I feel when I attend the conference.

First, here are a few acrylic etching projects that I’ve completed with my Silhouette Curio in preparation for the classes I’m teaching at the All Things Silhouette Conference & for display during classes.

This is an acrylic coaster from Craft Chameleon and I created a design and added text to it to be etched on the backside of the coaster. These come in a set of 4 coasters and it is the perfect gift to customize.

I love that Craft Chameleon has Curio templates that have been created to work specifically with their acrylic shapes. While the Curio is amazing in the fact that it can return to the exact spot & continue working even after the platform is unloaded (if the platform is loaded correctly), these templates are so helpful in being able to make sure the designs are in the same place the material is placed.

An Acrylic phone stand etched with the Silhouette Curio.

These are another great gift idea as pretty much everyone has a phone. And if any of you are like me, I will set my phone down on my desk and it is soon under some notebook or stack of papers. It even has a slot for the charging cord to keep your phone charging as it’s on the stand. And both pieces of the acrylic stand can be etched as the Curio template has a space to fit both pieces.

I love that there are so many possibilities and the ability to create custom items with the Silhouette machines.

This is a 5″ acrylic disc that is etched with a Beach Blessing by Deborah Stine – Design #62386 from the Silhouette Design Store.

Something to keep in mind when you are etching acrylic or any raised surface, is to keep the Silhouette tool away from the edges or any holes in the material. This 5″ disc has a hole in the top for adding a means to hang or attach it to an item. If the Silhouette tool comes near the hole or edge, it can hang up on it and cause the blade housing to move out of alignment, which can alter where the design etches. The more you design & work with the Curio, you will get a feel for what that safety zone is and how the tool housing moves.

Since I could not etch close to the edges and hole of the acrylic disc, I cut a Rope Frame from adhesive vinyl to add to the front of the disc. Once the vinyl was added, I took a little round file and poked out the hole so the disc could still be hung.

This is just another way you can mix and match different materials.

The Curio can accommodate thicker materials with it’s unique platform system. This means that not only can it etch on acrylic & metal but it can still cut paper, vinyl & HTV. The difference is in how you stack the platforms. For thin materials under 1 mm, all of the platforms must be stacked in order for the machine to cut properly. That means that a 2+2+1+cutting mat are all required to get a clean cut.

For more tips on getting started with the Silhouette Curio, check out this post HERE.

Here are a couple more items I created this week before packing my Curio up for the trip. It never fails that I want to get “just one more” project done before I have to pack.

These are 15/16” clear discs that work well as bracelet charms or wine charms, they are also from Craft Chameleon.

This is a Honu Turtle design by Suzanne Cannon from the Design Store.
The Honu turtle is a symbol of wisdom and good luck. Who doesn’t need more of that?

I found this design while trying to decide what to put on my beach tote bag for my recent trip to the Silhouette Summit. I love that you can use the designs in many ways and for more than 1 project.
Check out all the neat things I experienced at the 2019 Silhouette Summit HERE.

Here is another charm I created for my new bracelet. This one is a design that LeighBee Designs created specifically for my class attendees at the All Things Silhouette Conference.

Make sure to grab the Curio template for these discs too! It makes it so easy to line up the project.

There are so many fun things you can create. For anyone with a Silhouette Curio machine, I would suggest just getting it out and playing with it. It is the best way to learn.

Now while so far, most of the photos shown have all been created with the Curio, I love all my Silhouette machines equally (shhhhhh don’t tell them).

Another one of my favorite things to do is print and cut projects. I have had so much fun creating with Colorjet III printable Heat Transfer material by Specialty Materials in preparation for my class at the ATS conference.

This tote bag was created by using Colorjet III Heat Transfer paper for light materials and the Silhouette Cameo 3. I used the Summer Flower Bundle by Echo Park from the Silhouette Design Store and set the project up as a Print and Cut project. Check out these tips HERE on this Print and Cut Part 3 – Images post to see exactly how I set it up.

I’ll be sharing more projects I created with this Colorjet III Heat Transfer next week after my class at the June 2019 All Things Silhouette Conference.

I hope that this post has inspired you in some way and you get time to create with your Silhouette machines soon!

Feel free to post your comments and questions below or on my Facebook group at Silhouette Secrets with EllyMae.

Enjoy!

**This post may contain affiliate links. What that means is that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher but I may get compensated for sharing.

Posted on November 3, 2018July 14, 2019 by silhouettesecretsplus — 2 Comments

Silhouette Showcase

This year I am honored to be teaching several classes at the 2018 All Things Silhouette Conference hosted by Terri Johnson Creates. An option at the conference is participating in the Silhouette Showcase. This is a chance to show off things that you have made using your Silhouette machines or software and is open for all levels of users. Each person who enters gets an extra ticket to a prize drawing and while the staff is excluded from winning, we can display items in the hopes of inspiring others and showing all the possibilities with Silhouette.

I was so excited to be able to make up a few things to display during this event and wanted to share those with you.

Silhouette Showcase

Not sure what you start your day with, but mine is coffee.
So I started with this coffee inspired collection.

Metal serving tray with Oracal 651 vinyl.
This design was created with Lori Whitlock’s Fresh Eggs font – Design #263759 and Coffee Dingbats Font – Design #223050 using the Warp Feature in the Silhouette software. I use Oracal transfer tape for all my vinyl decal applications. Acrylic

Glass etched coffee mugs.
These glass mugs were purchased from Target and work well for etching. I used Oracal 651 vinyl for my etching stencil and Etchall cream for a great etch every time. For the mug on the left, I used Yay Coffee by Dawn Nicole Designs – Design #188578 and Coffee Pulse by Sophie Gallo – Design #149882. For the mug on the right, I used You Can Do This – Coffee by Jillibean Soup – Design #218802.

Acrylic coasters etched with the Silhouette Curio machine.
I used the emboss panel in the Silhouette software to create the etched design.
These acrylic coasters can be found at Craft Chameleon and I would recommend purchasing the Curio template as well.
The designs used to create the coasters are:
Yes. Coffee by Kolette Hall – Design #171334
But First Coffee by Lilium Pixel SVG – Design #242962
Life Begins After Coffee Arrow Quote by Sarah Hurley – Design #258161
Relax and Enjoy the Coffee by Silhouette Secrets+ using History font by JumboDesign – Design #268580 and The Memories Sans Font Duo by Nursery Art – Design #276602.

If you have followed me in my “Let’s Explore v4” series or on my Facebook page or group, you may know that I enjoy a glass of wine at the end of the day.
So of course, a wine collection set is right up my alley.

Acrylic wine bottle caddy etched with the Silhouette Curio and the large Curio base.
This acrylic wine bottle caddy can be found at Craft Chameleon and the design file is included with the purchase of the acrylic blank. I would suggest the Curio large base template as well, it makes etching this blank so easy.

Glass etched wine glasses.
For the etching stencil, I once again used the Oracal 651 vinyl and Etchall etching cream. The Monogram Wreath Font by Kristen Magee – Design #260225 was used to create these personalized glasses.

Wine cork collector.
This glass block was found in a craft store and Siser Easy PSV Merlot & black and Oracal 651 gray vinyl applied to the front.
The design is I Saved Some Wine Today Phrase by Kolette Hall – Design #131228 from the Silhouette Design Store.

Acrylic wine charms etched with the Silhouette Curio.
These wine charms are 15/16″ clear acrylic circles and wine charm rings from Craft Chameleon.
Designs used to create the wine charms are:
Pour Me…. More Wine by Sophie Gallo – Design #203872
Live Love Wine by Kolette Hall – Design #158086
Drinks Well With Others by Kelly Lollar Design from SoFontsy
Screw It design – Freebie from Silhouette School
Got Wine design – created using the Buddy Mac font by Missy Meyer from SoFontsy

Acrylic coaster etched with the Silhouette Curio machine.
These acrylic coasters from Craft Chameleon are a great way to personalize any gift.
The designs used on the coasters are:
Mom’s Fidget Spinner by Sweet Afton – Design #202772
Today’s Forecast 90% Chance of Wine by Jillibean Soup – Design #212800
Uncork and Unwind Arrow Quote by Sarah Hurley – Design #236620
Add More Wine by Megan Hardy Designs – Design #124514

For the Silhouette Showcase, a recipe is included with each display item.

I used the Silhouette Print and Cut feature to create recipes.

Don’t forget when doing a print and cut, to select all the objects that you do not want to cut out and then choose the No Cut option on the Send Tab.
For instance, all I want is the outside edge to cut, so all the Cut lines except the outside edge need to be turned off.

I started my Silhouette journey with paper crafting and continue to have a passion for it as well as all the other neat things you can do with it such as vinyl, glass etching & acrylic with the Curio, etc.

I could have just left it at that, but of course, I didn’t. I added a little detail to the back that makes it stand up even more.

This easel adds the perfect touch to my recipe, so I am easily able to transport it on the plane and display it at the Silhouette Showcase.
This is a file by Lori Whitlock called Easel for Back of Card – Design #76159 and I have used it many times when creating paper crafts.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the projects I created using my Silhouette software and machines for the Silhouette Showcase at the 2018 All Things Silhouette Conference.

Enjoy!

I love seeing what you are creating with your Silhouette machines!
Feel free to post on my Facebook group at Silhouette Secrets with EllyMae.

**This post may contain affiliate links. What that means is that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher but I may get compensated for sharing.