EASY TATTOOS WITH SILHOUETTE CAMEO THAT LOOK REALISTIC & FOOL YOUR FRIENDS
Have you ever thought of getting a tattoo? Just thought about it…once or twice?
Well, I’m going to show you a way to make easy tattoos with Silhouette Cameo that look realistic and fool your friends! This way you can try on a tattoo without having to commit to the rest of your days with it!
Yep, I’m talking temporary. Heck, you could even make several temporary tattoos, and wear a different one whenever you feel like it. How does that sound?
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Step 1: Let’s Look At the Paper
Before we start preparing the tattoos, let’s go over what paper I’m using. I’m using the Silhouette brand Temporary Tattoo Paper. It is a bit expensive, but it definitely does the trick! It’s also a bit confusing how to use it, but I will be explaining that in this tutorial.
Please Note: I will update this post with more suggestions for alternative tattoo paper once I find some and have tested it.
Step 2: Opening the Tattoos
To get started we want both our tattoo images on the sheet of paper (the tattoo paper). So let’s go up to File, Merge and pick the first design, and that will load it on to the page.
Now we want the other tattoo image on the same page. To do that, you just go to File, Merge again then pick the Canada Day image.
Step 3: Tracing the Tattoos
Now we want to size them down a bit. So click on the Canada Day one and resize it down.
Next we are going to trace the two designs because, as you can see, there’s a white background on both of the images. We don’t really want that so let’s get rid of it.
Go to the Trace Panel. Select both images then just zoom in a little so we can see it a bit better.
Now we want to move the threshold just a bit. We want to make sure the outsides of everything are all there, and not choppy.
But we don’t want to go so far that we get bits here, outside the leaf. We’re getting a little bit, so we want to kind of find a happy medium.
It looks pretty good there. So let’s go down to the Scale. Scale kind of smooths things out a little bit. But we don’t want to go too crazy. We just want a nice, smooth cut out.
Now we’re going to click Trace and Detach. Trace and Detach is going to detach the design from that white background. So let’s click that.
When we click on the white background and move it, you can see…there’s the white background. It’s not around your design anymore, so just delete that.
And the same with the Canada design. You can see all the white is removed, so click that and delete.
Step 4: Add Cut Lines
Next we want to put a cut line around our images and when I do that, I like to leave some white space around it, like a white margin. So what we’re going to do now is go to the Offset Panel. Now we’re going to select both designs, then click Offset, and click Apply.
If you look, there’s some little bits here. You can either leave them or remove them. I think I will remove them.
Just right-click, release compound path.
Now we can remove all the little bits. You see boxes around them? You’ll want to click outside then click back on one of the bits…hit Delete. Delete all of those bits because we really only need the outside to cut.
Step 5: Registration Marks
Before we get to Registration Marks, make sure your Media size is set to 8 ½ x 11.
Now that we have our cut lines, we want to get our Registration Marks. So click on the Page Setup Panel, and click on Registration Marks.
Select On. I always move the Thickness right up to “1” so that those lines for the Registration Marks really show up. If the marks are thin, your Silhouette Cameo might sometimes have trouble seeing them.
Step 6: Sizing To Fit
Now we want to make sure our designs are the size we want. We need to also group them so we don’t lose the cut lines from each design. We’ll select both from the first design, right-click, Group. And do the same for the Canada Day design. Select all, right-click and Group.
Now I figure I want the little gnome to be about two inches. So let’s move him so the top of his hat is on this line.
I’ll use the squares on my mat to measure. We want to also do the same for the Canada Day design.
Both designs don’t have to be the exact size, close enough is good enough.
Step 7: Mirror Tattoo Designs
When you’re doing tattoos, you have to remember you are going to want to reverse your images. So let’s select them, right-click, Flip Horizontally.
Click outside of them, and move them back to where I had them before. Make sure you have them placed so they don’t go over the cut border or into the hash lines.
Yeah, don’t make that mistake of not Mirroring them…I totally did! Sheesh!
Step 8: Printing
IMPORTANT: Before we go ahead and print, just make sure that you do an ENTIRE PAGE OF TATTOOS. So fill up your page with the same designs, or different ones. That way you don’t waste a whole sheet of Tattoo Paper.
Now we are going to print them out. So let’s go up to Send To Printer, then click on Print.
The tattoo paper that I’m using requires an inkjet printer, so I select mine, and go into Preferences.
I’m selecting the rear paper feed slot for mine, and I’m going to go down here and change the Paper Type to Photo Paper Glossy. That’s fine if it goes back to auto select, just change it back.
Make sure it’s on Color.
Now you can click on OK, and Print.
Step 9: Prepare Tattoo Paper For Cutting
PLEASE NOTE: Please excuse the double printing of the 2 designs. I accidentally didn’t mirror my first designs, so I had to print them again. Yep, I make mistakes, too! So that is why the green strip is already on my paper
After we have printed our Tattoos we need to place the clear Carrier Sheet (the one with the pale green paper on it) on top of our printed Tattoo paper.
Just pull the strip of pale green paper off first and place it at the top of your paper.
Then slowly and carefully remove the rest of the pale green paper while smoothing the clear, sticky sheet onto the printed paper. It’s a little tricky at first, but just go slowly.
You can even use your Scraper Tool to make sure you have all the bubbles out.
Step 10: Cutting Our Tattoo Designs
Place the Tattoo Paper/Clear Carrier Sheet onto your cutting mat. Just make sure it’s on there really good so it doesn’t slide around.
To cut them, go to Send.
We will want to use Line to cut, so that way it’ll only cut the outside offset that we did. So check off the Red Line box.
For the cut settings we will use Temporary Tattoo Paper, as the Material; Cut; and 3 or 4 for the Ratchet Blade.
Then click Send.
Now we’ve cut our tattoos out. As you can see, it cut just on the offset lines.
Now we’re going to take the Tattoo Paper off. The best way to do that is peel your mat off of the Tattoo Paper. That way your Tattoo Paper won’t warp or roll.
Now we’re ready to punch out our Tattoos. If you end up with a few torn bits of the paper, don’t worry. Because when you put it on your wrist, or wherever you’re going to put these Tattoos on, we’re just transferring the ink. We’re going to get rid of the paper anyway.
Now let’s put them on!
Step 11: Putting On Your New Tattoos!
To put the Tattoos on, we’re just going to peel back the clear carrier sheet. This might be a little tricky at first, so it might take a few tries. Just peel it right off the design.
Once you do that we place it where we want to put the Tattoo. I’m going to put mine on my wrist.
Just make sure it’s on there, and take a wet cloth, and press it on for about 20 to 30 seconds.
Once the time’s up, take the cloth off and carefully peel off the paper backing.
There you go. You’ve now made your first Tattoo! Doesn’t it look great?
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These are so great!
So glad you like them! 🙂