Fleur-de-Lis Print-and-Cut Invitations with Silhouette Cameo

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I got real close with my Cameo this week. We're best buds now. We've had a love/hate relationship thus far, and you know what took us to the next level?  Patience. Patience and a new mat. I made hundreds (literally) of these fleur de lis invitations and learned so much about the Silhouette in the process. The majority of my issues were resolved when I got a new mat. I spent the better part of 2 days working on this project with my original cutting mat which had lost most of its stickiness. I was cutting through the mat, the paper was moving around and tearing, it was a nightmare. Finally I realized that I needed a new mat so I got a 2-pack of Cricut mats (yes, that's right) and suddenly the clouds lifted and there were blue skies and angels singing. For realsies.  Also at some point I realized that I hadn't been locking the blade in correctly - how is this possible?!  I have always thought the blade locking wasn't designed well.  So here is the lowdown...

This is a pretty simple 3-part design that I made with the Silhouette Studio software: a gray background layer, the main teal print-and-cut design, and a fleur de lis cut in glitter cardstock. I'll do a quick review of how I made each component in Silhouette Studio.

I started by designing the teal piece with the text (the little leafy flourish is #17739) . I sized the fleur de lis (#6798) to fit and then dragged it off the grid to be cut separately. To make the background I selected the teal design and chose Offset, and then dragged the outline away since it will also be cut separately. Notice in the photo that I like to use color to fill each part of the design, it's easier to visualize the finished piece.

Now I'm ready to print and cut the teal piece. Turn on the registration marks and Send To Printer. You will end up with a pile of these (see next photo).  Notice the registration marks in the corners.  Once you print make sure you don't change anything in the design in Silhouette Studio.  Also note that I had to use 8.5x11" cardstock to work with my printer, and it is pretty easy to cut 12x12" cardstock to fit if needed.

Now load the printed pages in the Cameo and cut. Make sure you have the Cut Edge defined so it doesn't cut the lettering (which is printed, not cut).  Sometimes it found the registration marks easily and sometimes it took several tries. Occasionally it cut off center or lop-sided. I'm not sure of the exact reason for that, sometimes I feel that if your paper isn't loaded straight it will cause issues.  For example, say your printer doesn't feed the paper through perfectly straight, then even if you line up the paper with the gridlines on the mat, the printing is still a little out of whack.  So what I did is align the paper on the mat but eyeball it and if the printing didn't seem to line up I would tweak it a little.  Also, make sure the paper is really stuck to the mat, if theres any air pockets you might get a warped cut.  And sometimes I think the Silhouette just gets sluggish and needs to be turned off and back on.   

For the fleur de lis I set the blade at 7 (longer than the Glitter Cardstock default of 6). I was working with a new Cricut mat and the paper stuck really bad the first time.  After that they popped off the mat easily.

When I had all my pieces cut I used Elmer's spray adhesive to assemble the cards (which I had purchased to re-sticky my old mat). I used up 2 glue sticks before I switched to the spray glue.  If you're using the spray adhesive then use LOTS of newspaper or whatever to protect the surface.  My table has lots of bumpy over-spray that is currently covered with a tablecloth until I can find something to dissolve it.

Once I figured out the blade settings and cutting mat issues, I got into a rhythm of cutting enough pieces to assemble, and then stuff envelopes while still cutting new pieces...  My BFF over at City Girl, Country Life gave me the best tip, by far, which is to have at least 2 mats so that you can arrange pieces on one while the other one is cutting.  I was very happy with using 2 layers of cardstock, which produced a sturdy invitation.  And the glitter fleur de lis was so pretty and irridescent looking, a nice embellishment.  Much easier than cutting and pouring glitter over the double-sided adhesive that Silhouette sells.    

I hope this helps you make friends with your Silhouette too!  Thanks for visiting.