Last year I picked up a Silhouette printer for ~$100 to tide me over until my GF arrived. One of my first projects was holiday cards for the family. These were a big hit…
As you can see, this is a commercial design by Lori Whitlock. The SVG was $2 and worth every penny. I’m looking forward to being able to cut these on my GF — should be much faster and I don’t have to fuss over the sticky carrier.
The papercutting addicts community is pretty amazing and they work with SVGs too.
Oh this is brilliant!! And quite cost effective!! Love it!! Thanks for sharing!! I’ll probably make some for Christmas assuming the Glowforge arrives in time. 
Another good project and resource! My idea file is getting real fat. - Rich
I have the Silhouette too! Love the machine.
Lori has some cool stuff. I also buy files from LD Design and the Silhouette Online Shop too. They have super sales sometimes - that’s when I stock up!
Silhouette will have a 50% off sale for Black Friday, and that will probably be their last store-wide big sale of the year. You have to do some workarounds to make a silhouette design into general svg, or other file type that would work with the glowforge, but it can be done.
And I don’t think there’s any reason you shouldn’t be allowed to do that. You’re buying a design license; they just give it to you in their format. As long as you don’t redistribute the new file you’ve made, you should be allowed to use the design as you like.
Exactly! Great idea! 
I like to use Make The Cut program to modify and change stuff more than the Silhouette program. I find it easier to work with. What program do you use?
I’m heading up to Mesa ,AZ tomorrow morning for the Annual Rubberstamp Events Fall Show. I used to collect/use rubberstamps but not so much any more (and never got into any scrap booking), but I do like to see the creative things made by people and artists using paper and markers,etc. Although one of the few males there, it really is interesting - I wish I had a fraction of the talent some of those people have with magic markers and colored pencils in their artwork. Should be a fun afternoon and nice drive to get away for the day. Of course will hit the Ikea on the way back (maybe look for GF table?) and pick up cutting boards or other laserable things…
Hope everyone has a great weekend !!!
Side note - When I first moved to AZ - I always wondered what the mailman thought when I used to get packages from companies called "All Night Media, and Bizarro and Rubber Maddness…LOL He probably thought I was some strange deviant…
How do you like Make the Cut? I use Sure Cuts A Lot 4 (I think their naming department just got drunk). I don’t really recommend it for general use – it’s clunky and ugly and temperamental. But it traces raster files and makes them into svg, which is why I use it. And it was, like, $50. Silhouette software does that too, but even with the designer version you can only save as .studio files. So, the silhouette designer software will open svg, but it won’t make them. Which is lame.
I love Make the Cut. I can do so much with it!
I follow this blogger Jin - her stuff is amazing! http://underacherrytree.blogspot.ca/ I learned everything from her tutorials. She uses Make the Cut and the Silhouette Program. She also compares different cutters as she has so many of them!
Oh, cool. Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll check 'em out.
Quick follow up on rubberstamp/Card show in AZ. Some pics…
Seems like a lot of cut paper for a rubber stamp show…but beautiful cards and cut-outs. - Rich
I also use Sure Cuts A Lot 4; it works great with my Roland GX-24 vinyl cutter. I’m glad to know another user here–might need to pick your brains sometime in the future @erin!
Pick away!
Although honestly you probably know it a lot better than I do, and I’ll probably be picking yours
I had a Silhoutte but gave it to a niece since I rarely used it but the Silhouette is probably the best cutter to buy on that price range. It is an awesome cutter.
I have both MTC and SCAL. I “grew” with MTC do I usually will use that program as I Don’t have to try and figure how to do something. SCAL is a program that one day Zibwill play around and do something with. I have friends who have used both and love SCAL. Check out PENNY DUNCAN CREATIONS.
Her blog is great.
I use Studio but I have several versions going. I have the old 1.9 version with the Designer Edition. This is important because I can convert studio files to SVG. Unfortunately, this is not something you can do with the newer versions of the software and even if you get your hands on the old version, you have to have gotten the Designer Edition several years ago, before they did a major change to the software.
Since I don’t really do anything other than convert studio Giles to SVG, I never bothered with the newer versions until Silhouette forced me into it. You can’t purchase files using older versions. I am on my iPhone now bit maybe when I get to my computer I can find the site, but there is s great FB group you can join where you can find out a lot about all the various softwares and cutters, as I think Julie has them all. And I agree that Jin has a great blog.
I haven’t used my cutter or done anything really crafty lately. I am hoping to get back into that world again. I haven’t been to the MTC forum or Silver Bullet forum in several years. Maybe the Glow Gorge will get me back into the swing of things. About the only thing I do keep up with is s Silhouette group on FB.
CUTTER SOFTWARE is the name of the FB group. It is run by Julie Flanagan. She is a font of information. You have to join the group as it is a closed group. Make sure you go through the group as she has tons of tutorials and information on all things related to cutters and the softwares.
Decided to browse Julie’s FB group “Cutter Software” and found after software that will convert studio files (the ones used by Silhouette) into SVG files. Took a little while to get the program going but it is converting my whole library now. Works fast. I have almost 6700 files and it only took a couple of minutes. Looks like it actually converts to a PNG file but that can easily be brought into MTC and SCAL.
After playing with it, the file converter is great for pnc and for the textures but I don’t care for the cutting aspect. Back to using my old silhouette studio software.
