How to cut your own pictures with the Silhouette Cameo

As you guys know I got my Silhouette about 2 weeks ago and I LOVE it. I have had few issues with the blade not cutting precision around letters but maybe that's because I haven't figured out the settings. Has anyone else had issues with letters being cut and being jagged? However, I did manage to make a cute Christmas ornament with some vinyl.

While I was trying to figure out how to cut out pictures I got from the internet, I thought I wasn't the only one right? So here's how I cut my own pictures with the Silhouette Cameo.

Step 1:
Find your picture. When doing this make sure you find one with crisp lines or else you won't have a clean cut. Save it to your pictures on your computer.

Step 2:

Open Silhouette Studio. Click "File" then "Open".

Step 3:

Once you have "My Pictures" open, change "Files of Type" to "All Files" (the very last one). Click and open the picture you want.

Step 4:

Once you have chosen your picture click "Trace Window" in the upper right hand corner. It's a little square with blue in the centre. Then once you have that sidebar open, click "Select Trace Area" and drag a box around your picture. This is what it should look like. Your picture may not be completely yellow but we'll fix that later.

Step 5:

In "Trace Settings" area on the right side of the screen un check "High Pass Filter"

Step 5:

If your picture was not yellow like mine, this step is for you. Again under the "Trace Settings" tab turn up the "threshold" until your picture is almost solid yellow. Then with the "Scale" turn up and down until the letters in your picture and the outline of your picture is clear and crisp. This will ensure your cut is clean. However, if you only want the outer edge of the picture cut (not the inside detail) don't worry about making the inside lines clean, just the outer.


Step 6:

Once you finished adjusting your picture, on the right side of the screen you'll see three options for tracing:
              1. Trace
              2. Trace Outer Edge
              3. Trace and Detach

If you want the letters or details inside your picture cut as well as the outer edge, click "Trace". For those that only want the outline of their picture cut, click "Trace Outer Edge". (I haven't yet figured out option 3.)

Once you've clicked your trace option move your picture it and under it should be your outline that's to be cut. All the lines should connect and it should be clean. If not, you may have to go back and play around with your Threshold and Scale options.

It might seem intimidating at first, I know I was when I started. But if you slowly go through this tutorial step by step you'll catch on really quick. If you have any questions feel free to send me an email allisoncdale@gmail.com. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Allison.