5 Tips for Cutting Silhouette Double-Sided Adhesive (and a Silhouette CAMEO Beginners Tutorial)

You know when you email me and tell me you were just about to throw your machine out the window and then one of my tutorials helped talk you off the ledge? Yeah, well that was me trying to cut Silhouette brand double-sided adhesive sheets. GRRRRPPHHHHH if you heard that noise it was me!

Seriously that stuff gave me a run for my money! But now that I've got it figured out I'm going to share them with you so you don't end up making those weird animal-like noises too and scaring your children out of a nap.

Now, I've built Silhouette School on just being real with ya. And if that means I gotta give a big ol' thumbs down to something well...then that's just the way it's gonna be.  That being said - there's definitely a lot to be said for "user error" -  in this case I'm the user.  So while I made a whole lot of not-nice noises through the process I'm happy to report with some tweaks of a few settings, I finally made it work with what I found to be the not-so-user-friendly Silhouette Double Sided Adhesive Sheets.

1) First of all...when using the double sided adhesive you really need to think about your design. Small, intricate designs are tough - nearly impossible - to cut on the Double-Sided Adhesive sheets. Keep that in mind and give your design a small offset to help it out a bit.

2) Remember, that you will need to manually move the design by hand (without the use of a transfer material) so welded fonts and designs without m/any free pieces are easiest to move.  See how a portion of that "M" above is free-floating? That's a toughie to work with.

3) When you go to cut, use the recommended settings in Silhouette Studio for "Double Sided Adhesive" BUT click the option to turn the "segment overcut" on. I adjusted to a distance of .03.  This will help you so when you have a sharp corner the blade isn't dragging the corner. Instead it will overcut slightly and then lift the blade and re-set the blade before cutting the connecting lines.

4) Make sure your mat is sticky!  My two 12x12 mats that I have going right now are plenty sticky for vinyl and htv, but the Double-Sided Adhesive is so thick it tends to move...a lot. Ask me how I know. I ended up taping it down to keep it in place while cutting.

5).  Test cut. No seriously TEST CUT! If you don't you'll end up making those weird animal grunting sounds because you just ruined an entire sheet of Double-Sided Adhesive.

Now that you know the tips and tricks for cutting Double-Sided Adhesive Sheets here's a quick beginner Silhouette CAMEO tutorial to make your first cut!

Open your design in Silhouette Studio.

From the Cut Settings Window pick Double-Sided Adhesive.

Click Advanced Settings and turn on Overcut.

Place the adhesive sheet on the sticky mat with the yellow side down.

Cut.

Remove the design from the mat.

Remove the yellow sheet from the cut design.



Flip the design onto the surface where you want it applied with the sticky side down.

Remove the white sheet to expose the clear adhesive.

Apply glitter, foil, cardstock or whatever material you want to stick to your design. In this case I used DecoFoil Foil Sheet-the same foil sheets I used when applying foil to adhesive foam and paper! 

Enjoy!

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!

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