CNC Silhouette Peel & Stick Glitter Art

Make Silhouette DIY peel and stick glitter art projects! Print and cut your own peel and stick art projects using a Silhouette cutter!

I have been experimenting with a new attachment for my Silhouette Portrait. The device allows me to use the Silhouette to draw using sketch pens. Instead of buying the expensive pens, I bought a plastic adapter, and will use my own pens. For this craft, I will use the cutting machine to draw a simple hot air balloon design, cut the design partially through label paper, and use the finished product for peel and stick glitter sand art. Other brands of paper cutting machines could also be used.

Step 1: Gather Your Supplies.

Supplies needed for the glitter sand art project:

· A Silhouette Portrait or other electronic cutter

· Label paper, half size sheets or larger

· Markers, pens, and adapter for pens/markers Silhouette Pen Holder

· Fine glitter or sand in several colors

· A colorful piece of card stock paper

· Spray adhesive

Step 2: Make or Download a Cutting Design.

Glitter sand art peel and stick pages can be easily cut using many of your own .svg files. Most coloring page type designs, available for free downloading on various online sites, can be used. Find, create, or download a file, and convert the file type, if it is incompatible with your machine. Open the file in your Silhouette software. Select a box around your design, and click "group". Resize your design to fit your label sheet size, by dragging the corner of your design/group.

I am using a simple hot air balloon design that I drew using Inkscape software (free to download and install!), and imported to my Silhouette as a .svg file. I could not find a way to provide the hot air balloon .svg file that I used for my project (the file download shown above is for a .pdf file). Contact us, if you would like us to email you a .svg copy as an attachment.

Step 3: Draw the Pattern on the Sticker Paper.

If you are not a veteran crafter using electronic cutters, allow several hours in a quiet room for this project. Learning new skills with computerized cutters can be rewarding, but time consuming. Don't get frustrated. Once you find the proper techniques, save or write down your machine settings, and the next project will go much faster. Leave comments in the discussion section, if you have trouble with this project.

Replace your blade with a pen or marker, using the Silhouette pen adapter. I am using an ordinary ink pen, instead of the expensive Silhouette pens. My cut settings are for “Silhouette Brand Pen”, using the default option of ball point pen. If your label paper is expensive, and this is a new skill, run a test print with scrap paper.

Put your label paper on the mat, right side down. The “label” with the sticky stuff will be facing down, sticking to your mat. You will be printing on the “wrong” or back of the label paper. Draw the hot balloon pattern onto the label. DO NOT unload the mat from the machine when finished!

Step 4: Cut Your Labels.

This part may take a few attempts. You need to find the proper speed and depth setting for this project. You want to cut through the label backing, but not through the actual adhesive backed labels. After much experimentation, I used a blade setting of “2”, speed “10”, deepness “5”. Hopefully, your settings will be close to my settings, depending on your brand of label paper. Don't forget to adjust your blade setting both on the physical blade, and in the software.

Step 5: Mount Peel and Stick Project on Cardstock.

Remove your project from the cutting mat. Cut a piece of card stock slightly larger than your project. Spray the uncut (and unprinted) front of the label paper with adhesive spray glue. Attach the card stock to the unprinted label front. This will give your project more stiffness as you peel sections, and add glitter. Flip the project over. Peel the backing off a section, revealing a sticky section. Add glitter, and tap off excess gently. Continue peeling and sprinkling until your project is complete!

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