I was very busy this weekend making 2 different sets of invitations. The first one is for a shower that my mom is having for one of her co-workers. I got to try out the print and cut feature on my Silhouette and I was so happy with the result.
It was a ton of work, but I figured it out and can’t wait to find more projects to print and cut.
Here are some of the things that I learned:
1. The weld feature is super helpful in creating complex shapes. I created small individual boxes, then added the long skinny box connecting them. I selected them all and selected Object > Modify > Weld, then they became one shape.
2. PNG files work best for printing. Once you have your cut lines set, create the print section in Illustrator (or whatever you like to use) and export as a PNG. I tried PDFs, but the printing was blurry for some reason.
3. Registration marks are your friend. When I was imagining this project in my head, I could not figure out how I was going to line up the printing with the cutting. Luckily, the Silhouette is a genius and has an eye that sees the registration marks and knows exactly where to cut. Open the Registration Marks window before printing from Silhouette Studio, and click on the Show Registration Marks box before printing.
Your printed pages will have the registration marks, then before you send them to the Silhouette to cut, choose Detect Registration Marks.
4. Make sure you cut hard enough. The first few pages that I sent to cut were trouble. I didn’t set the right cut pressure, so I ended up having to punch out a lot of the little pieces. Once I got the pressure right, It was super easy. I just ended up with a pile of confetti when I was done.
Once I had all of the pieces cut, I left them under a big stack of books overnight, since they curled up a bit when I peeled them off of the carrier sheet. The next day I glued them to a solid piece of cardstock cut to fit, and they were all set!
If you are interested in in making them on your own, here is the file I created – Box Invitation Pattern. Let me know if you end up trying it! It is set up for 6.5″ square envelopes, but it can be scaled to any size.
The red heart-shaped cover was cut on my Silhouette, and I added the belly band to keep everything together.
There is a little bit of text on the inside, under the heart shape when the card is opened up.
The back of the card has all of the info about the weekend.
