I am so excited to show off my new toy, the Silhouette Cameo. My family chipped in together to give it to me for Christmas. This machine is AMAZING. They found it on the Silhouette website on Black Friday and the bundle came with a starter tool kit, 1 month of free designs, the vinyl starter kit and Silhouette Mint (that post is coming!). I found the sketch pens at Hobby Lobby and bought them with my 40% off coupon but am excited to learn how to use other pen brands (such as Sharpie) with the different pen holders I also found.

My first craft was a vinyl Home Sweet Home sign for the antique window displayed in my living room. I can’t wait to show you how I did it with some simple beginner step by steps for your first Cameo cut.

I spent quite a bit of time looking over the Silhouette Design Store at all the different cut files they have. If you wanted to buy a file most are around .99 cents. They even offer free ones every week! I love that you can buy 1 cut versus a whole cartridge for $25-$50. My machine came with 1 month of free designs so this was the first one I bought (only .99 cents!). This design, Home Sweet Home, is design# 86145 if you are interested in looking for it too.

After purchasing the design from the Silhouette Design store simply open up your Silhouette Studio, click files at the top left corner then download pending orders. Your new image will then show up in your library. Double click the image for it to appear on your computer mat. Size it to how big you want then click the blade image (it is selected in blue below) in the top right corner. Select that you are using vinyl, then scroll down and it will tell you what number to have your blade on. This says I need mine on a 1.

Use your little ratchet that is indented on the bottom left of your machine to turn the red mark to a 1.

Then place your blade back into the holder. The little white flap turns left to unlock the blade and right to lock it in place. Make sure it is locked in place or it won’t cut. Also make sure that the black fin piece on the blade is facing the 6 o’clock position. Don’t line the blade up by the red line at the 1, just place it with the black “fin” facing towards you.

When you put the vinyl on your mat you do not need to take off the white backing off. Place the whole piece/sheet on the mat directly with the vinyl on top and the backing against the mat.Then make sure your machine is plugged into the wall and your computer. And hit send to silhouette from your computer screen. The machine will start cutting automatically.

Once it is finished remove the part of the vinyl that you will not be using and you should be left with what you want on your sign or your window.

My vinyl starter kit came with some transfer paper, but I’ve read you can use this next process using contact paper from your local grocery store. Rachel, our guest blogger, has used it instead of transfer paper and says it works the same way. Peel your transfer paper off of its backing and place it face down on the vinyl.

The transfer paper will pick up the vinyl up off of its original white backing.

Now it looks backwards but when you place it on your window or sign it will be facing the right way. Here is my empty window, just make sure you’ve cleaned your surface to remove any dust.

Then use the lines of your transfer paper to align it straight on the window.

Slowly peel the transfer paper off of the window and the vinyl should remain on the window. A little tip, when peeling the transfer paper instead of pulling it at a 90 degree angle try pulling it back flat against the object at 180 degree angle. This will keep the materials tight and prevent the vinyl from pulling up from the window during the process.

And that’s it!

I love how it turned out and it looks so professional!

I’ve got so much more to learn about everything the Silhouette Cameo can do. I’m interested in uploading my own fonts and cutting them out for projects similar to this, but I wanted to start with something simple while learning how to work the machine.

If you are looking for inspiration the Silhouette has it’s own blog where they are constantly posting how to project ideas. The blog is: SilhouetteAmerica and I’ve linked it for you to go see it.

I’ve got some more projects and how-to beginner steps coming soon! In the meantime check out my Silhouette and Cricut pinterest board.