Sketching Christmas Cards with the Silhouette Cameo and Silhouette Portrait

Hello Janet here again with ideas for quick, sketch cards drawn onto Kraft card blanks with a Silhouette Cameo or Portrait.

A quick method, for making a batch of cards, is to sketch from the Silhouette software onto pre-made card blanks. I purchased a Winter Birds set of clipart images by Le Petite Market on Etsy and quickly turned them into a set of Christmas cards with the Business Edition of the Silhouette Studio software.  The bird outlines were resized in the Silhouette software and sketch sentiments from the Silhouette Design Store were added. I made six variations and simply sketched them in Uniball Signo white gel pen.


What You'll Need

Kraft Card Blanks with matching Envelopes

Clipart

White Gel Pen

Silhouette Pen Holder

White coloured pencil



STEP 1: Import Images

Open all the winter birds file in the Silhouette software (simply File > Open, locate file and Open). The Business edition of the Silhouette Studio will open the EPS files which are ready to sketch. If you don't have the Business edition you'll need to open either JPG or PNG images and use the trace function to make your own sketch lines.

STEP 2: Add Sentiments

Open the sentiment files in the same tab, or type your own using the Text tool and a sketch font. I used a couple of sentiments from the Silhouette Design Store.  Add some small circles for full stops (periods) for the snow flakes.

STEP 3: Prepare Card Layout

Measure a card blank and make the page size the same as the open blank.

Draw a rectangle/square equal to the size of the card front and place it in the top left of the virtual mat. Position and resize the sentiments and the bird images.

STEP 4: Sketch Cards


You made need to reorientate the page size and card front to match the physical position of the card blank on the mat.

Remove or hide the square and the card is now ready to sketch.

Sketch several of one card and then change out the bird and sentiment to print variations and you'll have a stack of cards in no time.

I added some simple shading with a white coloured pencil.

Just fold the card blanks and they are ready to write and send.