How to Cut Hand Drawn Art on the Silhouette Cameo

It’s actually super simple to put you or your child’s hand drawn artwork onto a T-shirt, tote bag, lunch box, and almost anything else! There’s over 100 Items You Can Decorate with Siser Heat Transfer Vinyl, so let your imagination run wild.

First you’ll need some home made artwork! Choose your favorite drawing tool: crayon, marker, pen, even plain ole’ pencil will work, however just know that the thicker the lines are the easier it will be trace it in the Silhouette Studio Software.

I drew the main character from one of my childhood favorite story book’s, The Rainbow Fish. After scanning my drawing into the computer (you could also take a picture and upload it) I opened the image in Silhouette Studio and image traced it. Next, I cleaned up my drawing a bit with the Point Editing Tool so there were no gaps between lines. If some of my lines weren’t connected all the way I would lose pieces I needed in the weeding process. Finally I colored the lines of my drawing to coordinate with the color and material I would be cutting it out of.

Notice how my image in Silhouette Studio is the reverse of my drawing? Always mirror your image when cutting HTV! It will be the correct direction after it’s applied.

I used EasyWeed Sky Blue for the body of the fish as well as White and Black for the eye and Sun for the lips. The scales are Green, Turquoise, and Maroon EasyWeed. And his beautiful shiny scales are made from Holographic Silver.

To cut heat transfer vinyl on the Silhouette Cameo, place the carrier side (glossy plastic side) down onto the cutting mat and load into the cutter. After that, all I had to do was select “Send to Silhouette.” I already set up the Cut by Line Color function with a pause after each color so I could switch material colors on the mat.

Here are the cut settings I used for EasyWeed: Blade= 2, Speed= 5, Thickness= 5. For Holographic I used Blade= 3, Speed= 5, Thickness = 11.

When each material is cut, grab your Siser Weeder and start removing the excess vinyl. When that is complete you’re ready to heat apply!

I’ve talked about the EasyWeed 1 Second Tack a few times before. See those posts here and here. It’s probably my favorite attribute of EasyWeed because I can create hand drawn designs with several colors quickly. Each EasyWeed layer was tacked for 1 second at 305°F with medium pressure. Remember to remove the carrier sheet before applying your next layer. The final layer was the Holographic material so I pressed that one fully for 15 seconds. During each press I used a heat transfer cover sheet to protect my materials and the upper platen of the heat press.

The end result is much more vibrant than my original piece of hand drawn art! It’s so special to be able to take a plain piece of artwork and transform it into a full color design! This could be a cool craft for kids, teachers, and of course artists.

What do you think of this technique? Ready to draw up some art for your next T-shirt? You can send us pictures of your projects through the Siser app! Download it on the App Store or Google Play.