Wheelie Bin Numbers Created by a Silhouette Cutter.

I attended a very good workshop at Leicester Hackspace to find out what a Silhouette Cutter can do. I decided to print some vinyl number stickers for my wheelie bins. The first step was to download the free software onto my laptop from:

http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/software/silhouette-studio

Step 1: Designing My Numbers.

I then set the page size to A4 measurements and had a play about with the portrait/landscape options and various font styles and sizes until I was happy with my numbers.

Step 2: Cutting the Vinyl.

I cut a piece of vinly off the roll to A4 size using a paper trimmer.

Step 3: Feeding the Vinyl Into the Cutter.

The vinyl piece is then stuck to the cutting mat, paper side down, and fed into the cutter by pressing the top button which has an icon that looks like a grid.

Step 4: Connecting the Laptop to the Cutter.

When I plugged the laptop into the cutter I followed the on line prompts to install the device driver software. Then used the "Cut Settings" (the icon that looks like a paint brush) on the top right of the Silhouette Studio to select: Standard, Cut, vinyl.

Step 5: Cutting.

To start the cutter I selected "Send to Silhouette" (the icon on the top right of the Silhouette Studio screen) and the Silhouette Cutter sprang into action.

Step 6: Pulling Off the Surrounding Sticky Vinyl.

I tried to pull off the surrounding vinyl so that my numbers would show up better for this photo but this proved to be a tricky task. Somewhere during my attempt I lost a 5, as my bottom row should have read 55 57 57. I suggest not to bother doing this and just pull the numbers off as you stick them on your wheelie bin. You can then use the left over vinyl in between your letters for other projects if you are handy with a pair of scissors!