A few years ago I was looking for a die-cut solution for our church.  I started looking at the electronic cutter market and found the Silhouette Cameo.  My wife and I picked up the Cameo for the church since we didn’t know if it would be a good fit for our congregation or not.  Let me tell you, the Silhouette Cameo is an impressive piece of technology and it is one of my favorite things!

You might be asking, “What can I do with an electronic cutter?”  There are tons of projects, flourishes and practical uses for the Silhouette Cameo.  I recorded a video to go with this post, but it wound up being REALLY long (10 minutes) because there is so much to demonstrate on the Silhouette Cameo.  The video is at the end of this post, but let me try to summarize some of the amazing things the Cameo can do.

The Silhouette Cameo hooks to your PC or Mac and uses software to plot cuts and complete projects.  The cutter uses a sticky mat for holding most of the media that is cut but some types of media, like vinyl, are cut without the mat.  The Cameo can cut paper, card stock, vinyl, cloth and several other materials.  There are also specialty papers like the temporary tattoo paper and sticker sheets.  It even has sketch pens for drawing designs.

In my opinion, the two big selling points for the Silhouette Cameo is the flexibility in finding/creating cutting images and the print and cut feature.  If a font or image can be found on your computer or the internet, the Silhouette can probably cut it out.  Using the included software the user can trace images and create cutting shapes.  With the print and cut feature, an image can be printed on card stock on a standard printer and then precisely cut with the Silhouette Cameo using some of the cool technology on the cutter.  (The print and cut feature is displayed in the video I created.)

We have made a variety of projects using the Silhouette Cameo.  Here are a few:

• Letters for bulletin boards and other displays.  (Can cut up to 12″x12″ letters.)
• Cards and flourishes for cards.  There are an amazing amount of projects in the Silhouette store that can be purchased for $0.99.  Some have very intricate designs.
• Vinyl stickers for labeling a variety of items.
• Vinyl stencils for etching glass.
• Gift boxes of various sizes and shapes.
• Christmas ornaments.
• Chapstick holders for a baby shower.
• Components for various hanging banners.
• Various decorations.
• Place mats for various events.

As you can see, the Silhouette Cameo is a very flexible piece of equipment.  I have barely scratched the surface on what this machine can do.  There is a learning curve for using the

This is where the magic happens….the cutter.

Silhouette Cameo.  The software can be a bit daunting if you plan on just jumping in and immediately cutting out some shapes.  There are tons of “how-to” videos out there to help with this effort.  It also takes a little while to figure out what blade settings and cutting speeds work best for the various materials you are cutting.  If the Cameo is being used in a church or other group setting it would help to have one or two people who are in charge of using the cutter and trained to use it efficiently.

The Silhouette Cameo is a great tool for a church or the dedicated crafter.  I first learned about the Cameo from several blogs that I follow.  You might want to check out I Am Momma Hear Me Roar, The Silhouette Blog, and Infarrantly Creative.  If you’re really interested in learning more about the Cameo I think you will enjoy watching the video I put together…

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