Hello!

Welcome to another tutorial blog!  This week we are bringing you a tutorial to use with our new Crafty Vinyl – this has been exclusively created for you to use without your cutting mat on your Silhouette and Cricut machines. This design can be used in a variety of ways, see our tutorial using it here to make a Christmas card.  Cut it out of Self Adhesive or HTV Vinyl or use it with our A4 card available in a huge variety of styles here.

This design can of course be used for adults, kids, and you can use it for almost anything that you wish to personalise with a Christmassy theme!.

We would love to see what you make!  Have you found our  You Tube channel yet? The video showing this and all of our other tutorials are  available on there, as well as exclusive demos, inspiration and more!  Join us on Facebook , Instagram or Tiktok or  send us an email to [email protected] we would love to hear from you!

What you’ll need:

• Silhouette Cameo 4. Available here 
• Or Cricut Maker 3, Explore 3 or Cricut Joy (if you wish to make it smaller in width). Available here
• GM Crafty Vinyl Available  here
• Squeegee.  Available here
• Optional see step 5. App tape Available here
• Scissors and Lampshade from your own stash.
• Rubbing alcohol and lint free cloth should you wish (We didn’t use it as we want to remove this after Christmas) here
• Cut files, are free below! Including Silhouette Cricut and Brother instructions to follow at the end.

***WATCH THIS BEING MADE HERE***

Christmas Scene Lamp Free Cut Files Click Here to Download

Silhouette

Instructions:

1. Before you start, you need to download the cut files,  upload the cut file into Silhouette Studio and resize as necessary,  (when resizing bring all  layers into the design software by using “merge” and select all  at once to get the correct scale you have chosen)

2. Choose the machine you are using to cut, see below, we chose CAMEO 4, choose NONE for cutting mat, and CUSTOM for media size, we grouped the Santa sleigh and scene below it together, measured the lamp to have 2 different choices of the Crafty Vinyl, and resized it to 50cm long and 25cm high, we turned it on it’s side, then changed the width and height in the menu bar of the material to allow the software to recognise it when we put it in the machine.. CLICK SEND in the top right corner when you are ready.

Remember to test cut if necessary and cut settings are found here along with test cut guidelines for every machine.

3. When on the next screen, ensure you DO NOT MIRROR when using Self Adhesive Vinyl.  But make sure you do mirror when cutting HTV. In this “send” window make sure your settings are all set to the successful settings from your test cut and ensure your machine is linked before proceeding to cut. Cut settings: (**please test cut) Load the material into the machine, without using your mat, after loading the sheet into the machine.  Before you cut ensure you Apply the settings needed for your chosen Vinyl, we made it with our GM Crafts Crafty Vinyl- which is designed to cut without a cutting mat. The settings we used were Blade 4, Force 10, and Speed 5, see below screen shot. When you are happy with the settings – and when the material is loaded into the machine, press SEND to cut the material.

**A reminder that these settings, including the blade setting, are specific to the materials and machine we’re using, adjustments may be necessary if using different materials and machine**

We always recommend before proceeding, you test cut your materials when first using so if you have not recently used this product in your machine. Please test cut for your chosen machine found on our Application guide, and also Blog.  Load the Vinyl chosen individually for each layer.

4. Once the machine is finished, unload the Vinyl from your machine, and using scissors cut around the design to save any waste, (you can cut this “scrap” of vinyl on your mat later to not waste any. (BE SURE TO REDUCE SETTINGS IF USING IT ON YOUR MAT) switch on your LED pad and remove the waste Vinyl surrounding the designs (weeding) I use a pair of weeding tweezers to do this as shown below.

5. OPTIONAL STEP Normally at this point we encourage our customers to use rubbing alcohol to prepare the surface, we have skipped this step for the lampshade as we want to remove it after Christmas and reuse it, again we would also at this point talk to you about how to apply to the application tape at this point too, but due to our lampshade being angled, we need to be able to move the vinyl to fit, and as it is a big design we have skipped this stage- however for those of you that wish to use it- you would need our HIGH Tack App Tape, Once weeded. Take your transfer tape and lay it with the sticky side facing up on the table. Place it onto the sticky side face down, before trimming the application tape from the roll to fit. Take your squeegee and rub the back of the vinyl hard to transfer it onto the application tape. Lift the backing paper back upon itself ready to apply.

6. As you can see below we have already applied the Rainbow Shimmer to one side of the lampshade, and are about to show you how to apply the Red/Yellow version we have just cut, we chose the 2 different types so we could turn the shade around, one is almost like a sunrise/sunset and the other a frosty night effect, we liked the alternative choice of both. Due to the lengths offered in this Vinyl you could cut it as one and extend the design, or weld 2 together to complete one wrap around.

7. We unpeel the Forest scene from the backing liner first, ready to apply it to the base of your lampshade. (REMEBER THIS BACKING PAPER CAN BE RECYCLED) We unpeeled it from either end, see below to reduce the risk of tearing it due to the size of the design.

8. Line this up against the bottom of the shade, our shade pinches inwards as it goes up, so we need to over hang each end at the bottom to wrap it around without creases, and will trim this later on. Smooth with the flat of your hand or Squeegee outwards firmly to activate the adhesive, and remove any creases or bubbles, lightly lift the vinyl and replace if you need to correct any placement issues.

9. Take a pair of scissors and trim any excess edges as you need, our lampshade was very slanted so we got an over hang each end of the design to trim. Alternatively you can tuck this under the shade edge if you wish.

10. Once you are happy with the first scene placement, proceed to add Santa and his sleigh in the same way.

Don’t forget your finished design can be matched by using any material cut using a cutting file, card, self adhesive vinyl or even HTV. We’d love to see your makes on our social media pages! Or email them in!

Cricut Cut Files

To import these files into the Cricut Design Space:

Click “Upload Image” on the left-hand Design Panel, and navigate to the cut file you want to open. Select ‘Insert image’ and select image type ‘simple’ when prompted. Insert the image onto the canvas and resize to suit your project.

Reminder – Test cut!

Cut settings are found here for  JOY,  AIR2 and Explore, MAKER

Brother Scan and Cut

To import these files into the Brother Canvas Workspace:

After downloading, please log in as usual to your design space account, open a new project mat, then left click on the SVG  icon in the top left bar in canvas, this will then allow you to import your files. Once you left click this icon, a pop up box appears with you to choose where to import file  from, choose to import the file from your downloads list or where you have chosen to save when unzipped.

Reminder – Test cut!

Cut settings are found here