My very 1st project using the Silhouette Cameo

I'm so excited I finally finished a project with my new Silhouette Cameo. When I read that it could do projects as large as 10 feet long, I knew I had to make something big! I was slightly apprehensive about doing something so large for my "first" project. "Maybe I should start small," my inner rational voice said. However, I told her to shut up and I decided to throw caution to the wind. Ha!

My father needed some signage for his business, and I was all too happy to volunteer my services. The sign is about 4 feet wide. It's just a simple sign, but totally effective in my opinion. We hung it on an old swing set! Pretty cool, I think. The Silhouette cut the vinyl so beautifully. OK, I had one tiny issue on the first long vinyl piece. It stopped cutting on the very last "s" in the word transmissions. So I had just half of an "s" at the end. I figured it was just a fluke. It didn't happen second time around on the exact same graphic. I can't complain. I'm a novice after all. I just used an exacto blade to finish it off and it was fine.

Anyway, here's the photo of the finished piece. It's also looks exactly the same on the other side. I figured we needed to make it visible from both sides for passers-by. Sorry for the picture quality. The light was getting low as we didn't finish the sign until late afternoon. Not to mention the sign is placed under a huge tree. I just had to take a picture anyway. I blurred out the phone number for "safety." It doesn't really look like that, ha! I just know I'll have a blast with my Cameo. What can't the Silhouette Cameo do?

I can't wait to use this machine for other projects. T-shirts are my next project (also for my dad). I plan to airbrush them with stencils I make with the Silhouette. That way he can be a walking advertisement. Then I'm going to apply vinyl branding on his truck too! All his idea of course. I'm not crazy or anything.

A couple of tips for new Silhouette Cameo owners

I just recently got a Silhouette Cameo, which I've been wanting for a while now. YAY! I'm so, so happy about that! Yet, having used various graphic programs for years it is taking me a bit to get used to the way their software works. I get super annoyed at how you are automatically returned to the "Select tool" when you deselect an object. I like for it to stay on the same tool I choose until I'm ready to choose another, or unless I have just opened the software program. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who gets so annoyed at this?

Either way, I have figured out what I need to do to fix this annoyance...for the most part. If you go to the File menu on the toolbar and choose "Preferences," a window pops up and has several options. On the left hand side you choose "Tool Selection." It is, by default, set on "Choose Select" which means it will go straight back to the "Select tool" (the very first tool that looks like a mouse cursor) as soon as you stop drawing or whatever. If it bothers you as much as it bothers me, simply click on the options that say "Continue..." for each of the tools as shown in this screenshot below.

Unfortunately, the tool that I use most--the "Edit Points tool"--is not on this menu. I wish that it was, but I have found another way around that flaw. If your object/shape is already selected, all you need to do is double-click on the object and it automatically shows the path and points which you can then edit as you wish. If the object is not yet selected just click on it once, then double-click on it. Voila! Ah, you can't imagine my relief from this serious irritation. I hope Silhouette fixes this issue in their next upgrade. But if they don't, I hope that this discovery helps someone else to not tear their hair out.