How to Make a Glitter Fill in Silhouette Studio

If you work with glitter heat transfer vinyl or glitter vinyl a lot you may have found it necessary to create a mock up in Silhouette Studio only to realize that a solid color doesn't even come close to the glitter look.

This Silhouette tutorial will show you exactly how to make glitter fills in Silhouette Studio so you can create realistic glitter mock ups!

One thing to keep in mind is you will need Silhouette Designer Edition for this  Silhouette Studio V4 tutorial...if you don't have it - it's totally worth the $30 or so (shop around for the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition upgrade card Amazon or grab the instant code from Swing Design) these 13+ reasons. 

How to Make a Glitter Fill in Silhouette Studio

The first thing you want to do is snap a picture of the sheet of glitter HTV or vinyl.  You can do this with your phone by emailing the image to yourself and then downloading on your computer.

Open up Silhouette Studio and go to your Silhouette Studio Library.

In the Local Users area of the Library you'll have four main folders. Among them is a Patterns folder. Mine has a + on it because I have created sub-folders to organize the custom patterns I import into Silhouette Studio.

Double click the Patterns folder to expand it and view the sub folders or to open the main folder.

Importing Custom Pattern Fills in Silhouette Studio

Now drag the photo you took of your glitter HTV into the Patterns folder in your Silhouette Studio library.

Go back into the work area in Silhouette Studio.

Open up the Silhouette design you want filled with the glitter pattern.

Keep it in the work area while you open the Fill Color panel from the right sidebar. The third tab at the top is the Pattern Fill tool.  The patterns at the top of this window are the default patterns that come with Silhouette Studio. Below that are the custom patterns imported into Silhouette Studio.  If you have sub-folders in the Patterns folder your patterns will be organized into groups this way.

Filling a Silhouette Design With a Glitter Pattern Fill

Select the design in the work area, that you want filled with the glitter pattern and click the glitter fill swatch from the Fill Pattern window.

And now your design is filled with glitter rather than a solid color.

If it's not "glittery" enough for you (you can see it's 100% in the above screen grab)...click on the "Advanced options".

Move the Scale Pattern bar to the right.  The glitter effect will increase as the pattern is enlarged.

Silhouette Studio Image Effects Tool to Change Colors

I went one step further and used the Image Effects tool to get a silver glitter instead of gold.

The heart was filled with the pink glitter pattern fill.

I would also suggest you change the line color to transparent.

Filling the design this way in Silhouette Studio gave me a very realistic idea what my design would look like once it was actually cut on glitter HTV and applied.

And in case you're wondering...yes, I have finally found a glitter heat transfer vinyl that can be layered! 

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine! 

Thanks for coming to class today at Silhouette School.  If you like what you see, I'd love for you to pin it!

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