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In today’s tutorial I am showing you how to make this adorable yet manly (lol) 3D Father’s Day Grill Card with the Silhouette Cameo 4.
Cards are what I make the most and I love it when I can use my electronic cutting machine to make one fast. This design, created by Lori Whitlock (linked below in Supply List), is super fun and pretty simple to put together but it definitely has a wow factor in the end.
I provide tips on how to lay it out in Silhouette Studio for better creation with your Cameo, how to get your Cameo to fill in the letters when sketching a greeting as well as tips on fixing an error in the design file when you assemble the card. It’s a bit of a long video (and post) but it’s basically a step-by-step cardmaking class.
Please check out the video tutorial below or scroll down for instructions with photos:
Open the Father’s Day Grill Card Design in Silhouette Studio
As I mentioned above, I used a design for this card created by Lori Whitlock that I purchased from the Silhouette Design Store. Not only is it perfect for Father’s Day, you could easily adapt it for Fourth of July (if American) or any kind of summer grilling card if you want to. Yay – multi-purpose!
When you first open it in Silhouette Studio, it looks like this:
Ungroup and Separate by Color in Silhouette Studio
This is very helpful for determining how to put it together after its cut, but not that great as a layout for cutting. I like to arrange all the elements that are the same color together on the mat so I can conserve the amount of card stock I need and hopefully, cut all the elements at the same time so I don’t have too many cutting steps. To do this, Ungroup all of the elements in the design by clicking on it and then clicking the Ungroup button on the upper tool bar. Do this until all of the elements are separated from each other.
The larger black elements have perforated lines on them to help with folding during assembly but it is very hard to see those lines before you start moving things around. The easiest way to find them is to click on the Send panel in the upper right corner.
On the Send panel, you can easily see the dotted red lines drawn on the larger black elements.
For me, I needed to move the black tab pieces with the food outlines on them closer to the larger black grill piece on the bottom so I needed to make sure I grabbed the dotted lines on these pieces before I moved them. To do this, I moved the colored fire pieces off of the first tab and then very carefully clicked and dragged over just the top black tab to select it. I then dragged it down closer to the large black grill piece. Once moved, I went back to the Send panel to make sure I had moved the dotted lines too.
If you missed the dotted lines, click the Undo arrow and try again. Being mindful of those dotted lines, rearrange all of the black tabs near the grill piece and then rearrange the other elements into groups by color. Leave the greeting on top of the white rectangle when you move it.
Add a Fill Effect to the Father’s Day Greeting in Silhouette Studio
The Happy Father’s Day greeting is very small and won’t cut well as a result. It’s better to change it so the Cameo can ‘sketch’ it instead of cutting it out. To do this, click on it to select it and then click on the Line Effects icon on the left tool bar.
The Line Effects menu will open and you will have a few different choices under the Line Effect header. Click on the cross hatch effect and the words will change to a very weird looking drawn effect.
This happens because the spacing is too large. To make it smaller, click on the small rectangle on the bar under the Spacing header and drag it as far as you can to the left to make the spacing as small as possible. You will see the words transform and become legible. If desired you can also move the slider box under Angle; I changed mine to 30 degrees so it looked less linear.
In all likelihood, the words are now red. This is the default line color for the cut action in Silhouette Studio. But, I don’t want this to cut, I want it to draw so I need to change the line color. To do this, go to the Line Color box and click on it to open the line color menu.
Click on any color other than red to select it; I chose blue. The words should change to a blue color.
Now click on the Send tab in the upper right corner of the screen.
Use the Line Tab on the Send Panel in Silhouette Studio
The Send panel normally defaults to the Simple tab where all line colors are red and everything is set to cut.
To change this, click on the Line tab on the right (next to the Simple tab). Now you can see the different line colors for the words (blue), the dotted lines (dark blue – crosshatch on line tab) and the solid cut lines (red) on the mat as well as separated into different action lines on the Line panel.
First, set the material for the lines that are going to cut (the dotted dark blue lines and red lines) to Coverstock, Heavy if using heavy weight (80 – 100 lb) cardstock like I am.
Then change the Action for the blue lines (the greeting) from Cut to Sketch. The tool should automatically change to a pen.
If needed, change the material for this line to Cardstock, Plain. This setting doesn’t really matter for Sketch but to be safe, make sure you are set on some kind of paper.
Rearrange the Actions if Needed in Silhouette Studio
Often, the line colors are arranged in an order that doesn’t make much sense. The Cameo performs actions from the top down so you want the ‘Sketch’ action to be the first line, the dotted cut lines to be second and the red cut lines to be last.
If you need to do this, click on the colored square of whichever line you need to move up or down. You can tell the line is selected because the color of the box on the area below the line color actions will be change to that color. Once selected, drag the line up or down within the list to get the actions arranged in a better order. Repeat as needed until the actions make more sense (Cut is usually last).
Add a Pause to the Actions in Silhouette Studio
The Silhouette Cameo 4 has the ability to pause between actions so you can change the tools being used but you have to manually add them to the actions list.
I want the machine to draw the Happy Father’s Day with a Sketch pen and then cut the dotted lines and solid lines. I need to add a pause after the Sketch action so I can replace the pen with the Autoblade.
To do this, click on the first Sketch line. The section below the Actions list will show the color of the line you have currently selected which should now be the first Sketch line and to the right of that, there is a button that says Add Pause. Click it to add a pause between the Sketch and Cut actions.
A Pause bar will appear between the top Sketch line and the second Cut line in the Actions list.
That’s it for adding pauses. You don’t need to pause between the Cut actions because both will use the Autoblade.
How Much Cardstock Do You Need on Your Mat?
Before you go to the machine to load the mat, a quick way to tell how much and where to arrange the paper on your mat is right on screen in Silhouette Studio. Since the mat you work on in the program is a representation of the mat that will be loaded into the machine, you can figure out by counting the darker squares (each square is the equivalent of 1 inch) around each design element.
My arrangement shows that I need a piece of black cardstock that is 7″ x 12″ to be placed along the bottom half of the mat. The silver cardstock should be 3″ x 7″ and placed in the upper left corner of the mat. The turkey bones, meat, corn cob and large fire are all 2″ x 2″ pieces placed in the upper right of the mat and the remaining elements are smaller and placed below the silver cardstock.
Once I figure that out, it makes cutting the correctly sized pieces of paper as well as their placement on the mat, a breeze. The small sizes are also an excellent way to use up any scraps I may have.
Install the Sketch Pen into the Silhouette Cameo 4
To draw with a Sketch Pen in the Silhouette Cameo 4 you will need the blue adapter that came with the machine.
Place a black Sketch Pen into the blue adapter so the line along the bottom of the round barrel of the pen in just inside the bottom of the adapter. If it is outside the bottom of the adapter it will drag across the cardstock as the machine moves leaving a black line – not good.
Close the adapter and make sure the sides are snapped together by fitting the tab over the small box on the edge of the adapter.
If you haven’t already, turn on your Silhouette Cameo 4. Open the lid and pull forward on the plastic tab holding the blade in place in the tool 1 carriage. Pull the blade housing straight up to remove it and set it aside. With the flat side of the housing (has a silver metal rectangle on it) facing into the machine, slide the blue adapter with the Sketch Pen in it straight down into the Tool 1 carriage until it stops. Push straight back on the plastic tab until it clicks in place and locks in the pen holder.
Load the Mat into the Silhouette Cameo 4
Line up the left side of the mat with the gray line and arrows on the left side of the Silhouette Cameo 4. Press the mat lightly against the wheels on the roller bar and press the load mat button (looks like an up arrow) on the right side of the machine. The machine will pull the mat in.
Draw, Pause and Cut with the Silhouette Cameo 4
Back in Silhouette Studio, click on Send to start the machine drawing.
The machine will draw the greeting. Since it is filling in the letters with a crosshatch pattern, this can take some time. Once it finishes, the machine will stop (aka pause). Remove the pen holder from the machine by pulling forward on the plastic tab and then pull the pen adapter straight up out of the machine. Replace with the Autoblade making sure its holder is all the way down in the carriage by pressing it down until it stops. Push the plastic tab back in to lock it in place.
Click Resume in Silhouette Studio. The machine will now cut the dotted fold lines and then cut out all of the elements. If you are using the Coverstock, Heavy setting like I did, it uses a speed of 1 so the cutting takes a long time, around 30 minutes or a bit more, so be prepared. I’d also suggest keeping an eye on the cutting as I had cardstock start sliding around with the pressure of the blade the first time since my mat wasn’t sticky enough and I had to restart and add blue tape around my cardstock pieces to keep them in place (see photo in the unload step)
Unload the Mat and Remove the Designs
When it finishes cutting all of the elements, the Cameo 4 will stop and then push the mat forward. Push the unload mat button (forward arrow) to unload the mat.
Remove the cardstock from the mat by flipping the mat over and peeling it away from the paper. Separate all the pieces and dispose of the excess to prepare for card assembly.
Options to Fix an Error in the Cut File
It turns out that the perforation lines that show you where to fold down the sides of the grill cut too high and make it so you can’t use the silver grill racks as they are without some modification to either the grill piece or the racks.
The first option would be to score a new line on those side pieces so they fold back in line with the grill body instead of above it. This is what I did. Bear in mind that if you use this solution, you will need to cover the perforation lines with the grill racks when you adhere them down on these panels (it’s easy).
The second option is to trim the grill racks down from three rows to two. The smaller racks then fit on the side grill flaps.
Do whichever fix you like.
Modify the Card Components
If desired, blend some Distress Ink on to the flames, turkey meat, corn cob and corn husk with a blender brush. I don’t show this in the video but you can find a step-by-step walk through of this process in my Halloween House Builder Card tutorial. I also added some squiggly lines and cross hatching on the corn cob to look like charred kernels with a thin marker. Adhere these elements together with the glue or tape of your choice and then adhere them to their appropriate black cross bar pieces.
Assemble the 3D Father’s Day Grill Card
Fold along the dotted lines (and new score line if applicable) on the black grill piece to form the 3D grill shape and on the food/fire tabs. You may want to reinforce the folds by going over them with a bone folder or edge of a credit card.
Using glue or tape, adhere the black dots to the thicker silver strip so they are evenly spaced and look like knobs on a grill. Adhere the silver grill racks down on each side flap of the black grill piece. If desired, add the skinny silver strip across the top edge of the tall back panel of the grill piece. Layer the greeting on top of the red piece and then adhere to the tall back panel of the grill piece overlapping the silver strip (if you used it). Adhere the two doors to the panel on the grill piece that creates the front of the grill (on the opposite side from the grill racks) and then add the silver strip with the black knobs above the doors. If desired, cut a small white panel (2.5″ x 4″) and adhere to the center of the back panel so you can write a message on the card (not pictured).
Add adhesive to the tabs on the black food/fire cross bars (I don’t know what else to call them – lol) from the previous step; I suggest using tape of some kind as wet adhesive may not dry fast enough and can get messy. Line up the right folded tab on the black fire cross bar just inside the crease along the back panel of the grill and just under the crease for the side panel and adhere down. Then line up the right tab on the black corn cross bar next to the just adhered fire tab and adhere in place. Finally line up the right tab of the black turkey tabbed element cross bar next to the just adhered corn tab and press in place. The three cross bars should line up roughly straight with one another.
Fold the cross bars back toward the left in a straight line; they should do this automatically but you may have to tweak the individual pieces a bit to get a straight line.
Remove the backing from the tape on the tabs and fold the left side of the grill up and then down on to the exposed tape.
Finally, remove the backing from the tape on the long tab on the inside front of the grill and fold the front panel over and on to the tape to complete the 3D grill. Be careful to line up the side and the feet of the grill before you press the panel down on the tape to make sure the grill can stand up straight.
Glue the handles to the silver grill utensils and then adhere them on the back panel of the grill in a criss-cross pattern below the greeting. If desired, add some black enamel drops to the knobs and door handles on the front of the grill for dimension.
When dry, fold flat and place in a 6″ x 5″ envelope for mailing or giving. Happy Father’s Day!
Questions or Comments?
If you have any questions, please leave me a comment below and I will get back to you soon. Want to just tell me how much you loved this tutorial? Please leave me a comment below – lol!
Suggestions?
I would also appreciate any ideas you may have for topics to cover related to the software for Cricut (Design Space), Silhouette (Studio) or Brother (Canvas Workspace) and any suggestions you may have on projects to create with the Cricut Maker, Cricut Joy, Silhouette Cameo 4 or the Brother Scan N Cut DX. Please leave any requests you have in the comments. I appreciate you taking the time to visit and read my blog. Thanks!
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