Card making · Craft · papercraft

Things I’ve Learned As A Silhouette Cameo 3 Beginner

MrsCraft

I have been the proud owner of one of these awesome machines for 15 whole days now, although I only got it out on Boxing Day evening. Mr C warned me that the reviews online said it had a lot of settings and could be tricky to use, so I braced myself for a learning curve. I already own a Cricut electronic cutter-one of the early models-so I knew a little bit about these types of cutters. The fact it was a different brand kind of made some aspects trickier as I was so used to the old one (which is now going on eBay!)

My experiences inspired me to write this post about learning some of the basics (and in my case, some of them are REALLY basic!)

  1. Don’t be scared, just open the box! It’s a pretty box and all that but you’ll never learn to use it whilst it’s in the packaging.
  2. Download the software as soon as you know you’re getting a machine and then you’re ready to play straight away. Once it’s downloaded, make sure you grab the free designs from the Silhouette store too.
  3. Adjust the rollers! I (naively) assumed that, because it was a 12″ cutter with a 12″ mat that the rollers would automatically be in the right place. I was wrong, and in the process I managed to cut through the mat as the machine stalled when cutting. (the funds from selling the old machine and cartridges might well be used to buy a new mat!)
  4. Push the blade right into the holder. I didn’t, because I was afraid of breaking it, and I didn’t get very good cuts at all initially. It was only when I checked a photo online that I realised it wasn’t pushed in far enough.
  5. Look up beginner tutorials online, check that they use the same version of the software (other wise you will be extra confused), select one that you like and have a go. I used materials that I didn’t mind being wasted if it went a bit pear shaped. I tried out several, just to learn about the settings and the machine itself.
  6. Following on from 4, just have a good play. Inspiration for projects will come once you know more about the many things the machine can do.
  7. Before you press ‘send’, triple check the settings. Every single one of them. There are a few to look at, and even with the autoblade you need to make sure you have the right material selected, plus making sure you have chosen the right function (e.g. cut or sketch).

I have managed to create a couple of ‘real’ projects, as well as a lot of mess and a few sheets of wasted card. I’ve yet to try vinyl; I think that’s one for another day.

Within 2 days of having the machine I had made this card. I followed a tutorial from the Silhouette School blog (well worth a look whether you are experienced or a total beginner) to make this pop up card. I then also used the weld function to create the greeting. It’s hardly a tricky card, but it was a great way to explore the machine and make something. I combined the machine made bits with a Forever Friends decoupage kit, and my mother in law quite liked her birthday card.

20171229_1401321576516400.jpg

Remember what I said in point 6 about inspiration coming once you’ve had a play? Well, I made one of the rat bookmarks for a colleague and wanted a gift box to present it in. I searched the Silhouette store for one, and found this amazing wedge shaped truffle box. This sparked my imagination. A wedge shaped box in yellow-CHEESE! Yes, I needed to do it just to see. I was not disappointed, and neither was Instagram apparently as it was my most popular photo in the last 3 months. I then made a tag and got a little bit clever with the sketch pens, which the children (with help from Mr C and Amazon) bought me. In fact I made the machine use TWO TOOLS AT ONCE! I know, go steady.  I was most pleased that it worked first time, though I was holding my breath for a little while when I pressed ‘send’. My colleague was also thrilled with her gift, and I have a few more business ideas now.

img_20180107_195420_3881081637676.jpg

I know that my adventures so far are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what the Cameo 3 can do, so if you have any tips for other things to try I would love to hear them. (I have bought the Pixscan mat but not used it much yet.)

 

38 thoughts on “Things I’ve Learned As A Silhouette Cameo 3 Beginner”

  6. I’ve got the pixscan mat for my portrait and its great. I’ve never had any issue with it not registering. Looks like you’re well on your way to being an expert already haha

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      3. Oh! I thought you meant you could send things to the silhouette from your phone. Silly me. Yes I had to do that too 🙂

        Like

  8. I love how your card turned out and that cheese box its flat adorable. I have a cricut and a Silhouette Cameo. I find my Cricut so much easier to work. I lose patience with the silhouette.I wish i liked it better because there is much better graphics with the silhouette. Every so often i play with it again and try to figure it out. I am very impressed with what you have done so far. The only thing I have ever done with mine lol is use it to cut vinyl. I cant wait to see what else you come up with. =) Have a fabulous week!!

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thank you, I liked my Cricut but I could only use it with cartridges as the software just wouldn’t load on my computer. The poor machine is on it’s last legs too, so I’ll have to sell it as spares and repairs. I hope you keep going with your cameo.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I will keep trying. LOL its a bit confusing to me.. the newer cricuts are cool because you can buy just the graphics you want. I can buy cartiridges if I want .. I just dont. i buy a subscription though for like $10 a month and have access to almost all of them. I missed the boat on ever using the older machine. I definitly like the newer technology!! lol

        Liked by 1 person

  11. Wow, looks like it can do amazing things.. Wonderful.. And happy to see Roger Rat making another appearance.. I made a second one, which I called Rita.. 😀 for my daughter in Law, she loved the one I made our granddaughter she wanted one.. 😀 … SO thank you for that Mrs C… xxxx Happy Creating to you 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  14. I have a Cricut Explore Air, and I’m always curious about features on other brands of electronic cutters. I hope you enjoy playing with your new machine! It looks like you’re doing a great job with it already!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s