My five quick tips for Silhouette Cameo users - Ordered by importance!

I have had my Silhouette Cameo for about 10 months now and it is easiest the best investment I made in terms of my crafting hobby. Since buying one, I think I might have convinced about three people to purchase one of their own! (I'll wait for my check Silhouette America =P )

Anyways, here are FIVE quick tips for those who are just getting started with the Silhouette Cameo. They are ordered by importance! (#1 is the most important obviously):


1. Sign up for a free account with the Silhouette Online Store and download the weekly FREE designs! Why wouldn't you want to do this? You get free designs to use and some of them are really cute. You never know if you you will end up using one of designs later on.

2. Buy extra mats - Having extra mats will help if you have a lot of projects to cut. With a second or third mat, you can create an assembly line by preparing the mats with papers while you peel your design off of your first one! I currently have four mats and I bought all of them from Amazon (Silhouette Cameo Replacement Cutting Mat). It is cheaper to buy from there than straight from Silhouette America AND you can get it in two days if you have PRIME!

3. Do not throw away mats after they become "unsticky" - For a long time I was trying to figure out how to make my mats become sticky again and a lot of people suggested using spray on adhesive. Here is my opinion on it, DO NOT DO THAT!!! Over time it will create gunk all over your mat and it will become unusable. I had it ruin two mats and thankfully I just used Goo-gone to clean it. 

I now use Re-nu sheets from "That's Scrap, Inc" (website here). It is a layer of sticky stuff that is temporary and holds paper just as good as a new mat. It's not as tacky as the original Silhouette mat but it is strong enough to hold onto cardstock and thick glitter cardstock from Michaels.

4. Learn how to use the Trace tool in the Silhouette software - The tracing tool is amazing and honestly, you can trace almost anything! For best results I would find an email that is black and white with clear cut lines. You can even take screenshots of silhouetted images to trace in the software! I'll write a blog post on just tracing another time,

5. PIN PIN PIN!! Since using my silhouette cameo, I have been pinning a lot on Pinterest. I find a lot of ideas that way and I try not to copy others but sometimes you find things that are just amazing! I have two boards on there now, one on only handmade cards, and the other is silhouette tips and tricks. Find me there and follow or just pin things I already pinned if you fancy them!