It’s no secret that I love my Silhouette Cameo. Until recently, though I used it basically for vinyl (a LOT) and cutting out some shapes I purchase in their online store. I’m branching out to their many different areas now, and I’m so glad I did! This is How Silhouette Pixscan Saved My Weekend!

Silhouette Pixscan

Contains affiliate links that support this blog at no extra cost to you. See my Disclosure Policy for more info.

You probably saw my first try at Making my own Stencils a bit ago. That was totally new, but nothing like their amazing Silhouette Pixscan Mat! Seriously, it saved my butt….and by that I mean it saved me TONS of time! For a busy mama, that’s like saving my life, no joke!

With my daughter’s baptism, and tons of family flying into town, I had hours of prep work that I had to fit into about….maybe 20 minutes? Ya, I’m no miracle worker, so that wasn’t gonna fly with me! Luckily I’d just gotten the new Pixscan Mat and decided to put it to good use cutting out dozens upon dozens of designs for Wonder Woman’s special day (you can see all the details of the baptism and family fun here!)

To start, I quickly did my camera calibration for the program by following this quick tutorial. I then smoothed my first sheet onto the Silhouette Pixscan mat. It has a nice, semi-sticky (but not TOO sticky) surface so it holds your paper nicely. I shot my image head on, with plenty of light and the markings on the mat showing.

Then import it into your Silhouette Software by clicking the PixScan icon, then import it on the right.

Add your cut lines. I used the Trace Icon and pulled it over my entire sheet. Notice how some of the yellow lines (showing where it traced) are on the insides? I just want it to cut on the outsides so…..

…I selected ‘Trace Outer Edge’ then bumped the High Pass Filter up. You can adjust it and see how it changes where the trace lines are.

I then went into Cut Settings and made sure the red cut lines were correct, selecting Cut Edge.

Feed your mat into your Silhouette Machine (mine’s a Cameo). Be sure the edge is lined up exactly on the lines indicated on your machine (see the arrow below)

Hit ‘send to Silhouette’ and let it go to work for you! When it’s done, you can easily pull up your cleanly cut designs!

Pull it up bit by bit first, or just pull out the large sheet. The sticky makes it a nice and smooth pull up.

See how quick that was? Maybe 5 minutes of my active time for an entire sheet of cut shapes….and it would’ve taken me a minute or two on just ONE of those scalloped edge circles alone…if I was lucky!

So instead of staying up even later than we already were with family to get this done, or missing out on our fun activities, Silhouette Pixscan saved my time, therefore my fun weekend with family and friends!

The Pixscan makes it so easy to do any pre-designed cuts, which can be a huge time saver for anyone! Wonder Woman’s birthday party is coming up next weekend, and I’ve already got plenty of stuff to cut out. Looks like my Pixscan will be put to work again…and save me even more time! Woot Woot!

Other Silhouette ideas…

This content may contain affiliate links. We earn a commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase. We may earn money, free services or complementary products from the companies mentioned in this post. All opinions are ours alone…