Crafters rejoice! The new Silhouette cutter is bigger and better than ever, and easier to use. The 12” Silhouette Cameo is able to handle more jobs with greater precision and ease than past cutters by Silhouette and others.
If you’re looking for an upgrade, skip ahead to the next section to hear about what’s new with the Cameo. If you’ve never owned a cutter before at all, or even if you’re new to crafting, you’re in for a treat with this electronic cutting tool.
What can I do with a Silhouette Cameo?
Cutters are great tools, making extremely difficult, if not impossible jobs, simple and easy for all kinds of users. Even if you’re not particularly interested in crafting, these cutting tools have many practical uses for everyday applications.
For example, you can make really great and unique cards for holidays and special occasions, gift cards, or anything you can think of. Imagine giving customized Christmas cards to your friends, your family and your coworkers with stylized patterns cut right into the card paper, and being able to say that you made them yourself. All you have to do is load the pattern and fold the paper when it’s done.
For crafters though, the Silhouette Cameo electronic cutting tool really shines. With the number of materials you can cut using this tool, and the level of intricacy possible, the possibilities are just about endless. It’s a really exciting and versatile device to own.
Scrapbookers love the Silhouette Cameo, and this is the most obvious application that comes to mind when I think about cutters. With the Cameo you can achieve greater detail than ever before.
You can even cut fabric to make your own patterns and clothing. Or, you can cut stencils to use in adding fabric ink to your clothing. You can even add fine, lacey edges to fabric using this cutting tool.
It really is a fantastic device to have in your home, especially if you’re into crafting, but just about everybody can find interesting and useful things to do with the Silhouette Cameo.
How does it work?
The Silhouette Cameo electronic cutting tool is very easy to set up and use. We’ll go over some of the specifications and quirks of the machine here.
The Cameo comes with a very detailed instruction manual complete with video tutorials, which is really helpful in getting started.
The machine is itself very easy and intuitively designed. It has a very attractive overall design, and the control panel is sleek, simple, and easy to use, with buttons clear and simple to understand.
The Silhouette Cameo weighs about nine pounds in total, and can cut paper, fabric, vinyl, card paper, and other materials, 12” wide and up to 10 feet in length. It’s quite large and capable compared to other electronic cutting tools.
The motor on the Silhouette Cameo runs quietly.
It comes with an adjustable roller for different sizes and thicknesses of materials, and a built-in blade cap for easy adjustments to the blade. Older cutting tools required users to manually remove and switch out blades, but there is no effort needed here beyond simply turning the cap.
The Silhouette Cameo electronic cutting tool can pause cuts in the middle of a job, to cancel or adjust the settings, or fix any problems with the cut. The user can resume the cut at any time.
The unit comes with an adhesive mat upon which materials are placed, to keep them from sliding or moving out of position during the cutting process. It’s quite simple to remove even standard paper from the mat without tearing it, and without having a sticky residue left on the back, which has been a problem with some past electronic cutting machines.
The cutting blades last a very long time, and can be replaced if necessary for under $20.
Getting into designs and patterns
The Silhouette Cameo comes with 51 cut designs preloaded, and more can be downloaded from the online store. $10 credit for the store is included with your purchase in the form of a gift card.
There are a lot of cuts available to download and play around with online, and you can even make your own with the included software. The software is quite capable and should allow even novice users to create attractive designs.
You can be very creative with the Silhouette Cameo and find good results. Ultimately, it’s a lot of fun just to play around and learn as you go.
Silhouette Cameo Electronic Cutting Tool
This is one of the best electronic cutters on the market, able to produce near perfect circles at the smallest sizes, and it handles big jobs like a champ. The Silhouette Cameo is a great product and provides everything one needs in an electronic cutter. A great buy.