text: Print & Cut Watercolor Décor With Foil - Finding Time To Create
  Kelly March 21, 2017 DIY Crafts, Silhouette, Tutorials
  This is the time of year when I love adding something new and fresh to my décor. However, this is also the time of year when I have minimal time for personal projects. The solution? A 15-minute project that is super simple. How about a watercolor print & cut piece with a little foil accent to give it some zing?
  For this project, I used the following (includes some affiliate links):
  Silhouette printable cotton fabric (or printable cotton canvas would also be a good choice)
  Silhouette metallic heat transfer in pink
  Cute watercolor flower bouquet (Design ID #179524) by Angie Makes
  Hello spring (Design ID #182011) by Sarah Hurley
  8 in. x 10 in. frame, or larger with 8 in. x 10 in. mat
  Here's how I made this. I'm including very-detailed instructions for beginners, but it's pretty simple to do.
  Design printable portion
  Open a printable design (I'm totally in love with just about every watercolor design lately by Angie Makes). I used Cute watercolor flower bouquet.
  Because the printable cotton fabric comes in letter-size sheets, set your page size in the Design Page Settings Window to "Letter", and portrait orientation.
  Draw a rectangle 8 in. wide x 10 in. high (use your Scale Window after initially drawing any size rectangle to make it easy—be sure to uncheck "lock aspect").
  Select the floral design and Ungroup it to move away the offset cut line; we aren't going to cut directly around it this time. You can delete just the outer red cut line once you've separated it from the printable portion.
  Select the floral print and use a corner handle to resize it smaller to fit within the 8 in. x 10 in. rectangle you drew in step 3. Leave about ½ in. white space from the edge so nothing gets covered by the frame you will use.
  Note: This project can be done on a Curio with the large additional base or on a Silhouette Portrait, so if you are not using a CAMEO your mat will look a little different than mine.
  Select both the floral print and the rectangle, then Group
  Go to your Cut Settings Window and, while they are selected, choose No Cut. We are going to do something a little different because this 8 in. x 10 in. edge is too big to fit inside the minimum registration marks.
  Normally on a print & cut design you would turn on registration marks in the Registration Marks Window and make sure your design fits inside the cut boundaries without touching the crosshatch area. However, we want this to fill an 8 in. x 10 in. frame, and the registration marks just won't allow us to cut something quite that big.
  Our solution is to "eyeball it" although it's a little more accurate than that. 😉 We will set up cut lines that will trim the letter-size printout down to 8 in. x 10 in. Because there is enough white space around the edges, and because this is going into a frame where perfectly accurate cut lines don't matter, this method will do just fine.
  Open the Move Window, select the rectangle and flower, and for Move Corner To section, input X = 0 in. and Y = 0 in., and click Apply. This moves your design's upper left-hand corner to the paper's upper left-hand corner.
  Go to the Grid Window, and check the boxes for Show Grid and Snap To Grid.
  With your Line Tool, draw a line from the top edge of the paper at 8 in. and drag it down to 10.25 in.
  Draw another line with the Line Tool from the left edge of the page at 10 in. and drag it across to 8.25 in. Basically, these two perpendicular lines will follow the edge of your rectangle and go just past it at the lower right-hand corner.
  Note: You may not need to extend the line past that corner mark, but with the fabric material I want to make sure I get a clean cut with the cut lines crossing over instead of trying to turn a tight corner.
  Now that you have those perfect cut lines, you can uncheck the boxes for Show Grid and Snap to Grid.
  Design foil phrase
  Open Hello Spring and resize it to approximately 2.75 in. wide x 2.365 in. high (this time you can check the box for "lock aspect" in the Scale Window and simply type in 2.75 in. for the width).
  Use a color fill if you want to visualize the phrase with the heat transfer color you will cut it from, although that's optional.
  Because we're using heat transfer, mirror the image horizontally. (Right click > Flip Horizontally)
  To print the floral portion of the design, click the Printer icon or go to File > Print. Make sure to:
  Move the "Hello Spring" design off the virtual cutting mat so it doesn't print or cut yet
  Choose your correct printer (I use an Epson WorkForce WF-7610)
  Verify the document size is set to Letter and is at portrait orientation to match your work page in Studio
  For printable cotton paper, I left it at the "Plain" paper type setting but chose "Standard—Vivid" for quality (your options will vary by printer)
  Load your printable cotton fabric into the printer so it will print on the fabric side, and Print.
  Note: You will not see the red cut lines print because lines at 0.0 in. thickness don't print, by default.
  There's no drying time to worry about with this material, so you can immediately place it carefully on your mat in the upper left-hand corner of the grid, exactly as you see it on your virtual mat.
  Go to the Cut Settings Window and choose Printable Cotton Fabric as the Material Type. It gives you default settings, but I like to change the blade to 4 (keep speed 5, thickness 33).
  Note: If you use the ratchet blade, manually set it to 4. If you use the autoblade, be sure to select the automatic blade as your Blade Type and verify the virtual dial is set to 4.
  Load your mat into your machine and click Send to Silhouette in Silhouette studio. Two quick slices, and you now have an 8 in. x 10 in. fabric print!
  Now it's time to cut the "hello spring" out of metallic heat transfer.
  Move the floral design and cut lines off your virtual mat in Studio.
  Move the mirrored phrase on to your virtual mat.
  You have a couple of options with cutting heat transfer.
  If you cut it directly from the roll with no mat, I suggest drawing a rectangle around it for easier weed lines. You will trim it off the roll after cutting.
  If you want to use your mat, cut off the amount you need (a strip at least 2.75 in. wide) and place it directly on your mat.
  The metallic heat transfer will go into the machine with the glossy side down (or against the mat) and the matte uncolored side facing up.
  In the Cut Settings Window, I use the following settings for metallic heat transfer: Blade 3, Speed 8, Thickness 20.
  Once you've loaded the mat with foil, or loaded the roll directly into your cutter, click Send to Silhouette.
  Once it's done cutting and is trimmed down close to the design, "weed" away all the parts you don't need with a hook tool, and the design you want will remain on its sticky transfer-tape carrier.
  Now you can iron (or heat press) the "hello spring" on to the printed watercolor design on fabric. I used my home iron with cotton settings, no steam, and pressed and held for 30-60 seconds multiple times until I got a nice bond. I found this foil worked better with a "cold peel" where I waited for the transfer tape to cool off before trying to pull it away from the applied design.
  Now pop that pretty print into a frame, and you're done! I know thirty steps seems like a lot, but seriously, this is a quick project from start to finish.
  Look at that shimmer and shine! I think I want to make more of these watercolor prints. Do you have any questions?
  Decor Fabric Flowers foil Heat Transfer Vinyl Print and Cut Silhouette CAMEO Sparkle & Shine
  6 Responses to "Print & Cut Watercolor Décor With Foil"
  Wow, thank you! I love this project and will have to give this a try. Awesome project Kelly!
  Thanks, Marilyn! I hope you do!
  I just finished one for my MIL and one for myself! Good Easter present. The only thing I did different was use green apple foil regular vinyl and stuck it to the glass because that's what I had. Looks pretty in a whitewashed weathered type frame. Thanks, Kelly!
  That's excellent, Lauri! I'm so glad you used this idea, and the green foil on glass is a clever alternative! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
  chobensa says:
  This is a darling project. Thanks for the great ideas. And, as a Silhouette newbie, I surely do appreciate the info on how to get rid of the pesky cut line for the PRINT portion of the project. I actually made the mistake of printing my first heat transfer project (a baby onesie) with the cut lines! So thanks heaps for that. I do so love a good step-by-step!