How to Cut Heat Transfer Vinyl with Silhouette CAMEO 4: Beginner Tutorial (2022)

Cutting heat transfer vinyl with Silhouette CAMEO 4 is a great first project for beginners. It's easy to cut, easy to weed, and easy to apply. Plus HTV is very forgiving.

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Picking the right design is key to having a successful first Silhouette CAMEO heat transfer vinyl cut and lucky for you I am not only including a free Silhouette design download for you, I am going step by step so you can follow right along!

Launch Silhouette Studio then power on and connect your Silhouette CAMEO to your computer. I'm going to assume you are using the CAMEO 4 autoblade so make sure the blade is fully seated and locked into the left carriage.

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How to Open a Heat Transfer Vinyl Design in Silhouette Studio

Start in the Silhouette Studio Send panel. Go to the machine list at the bottom and select the machine that's "Available" or "Ready to Load."

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Now move to the Design area of the software. Open the Page Setup tool from the right toolbar. Make sure the Machine is set to CAMEO (Auto). The Cutting Mat should be set to CAMEO (Auto) and the Page Size should be set to Auto (12x12).

How to Open an Image in Silhouette Studio

To open a file in the design area depends where the file is coming from. There are two main options: the library or your computer. For this tutorial I only want you to open a Silhouette Studio file type or an SVG (if you have Silhouette Studio Designer Edition or higher). Opening either of these file types will mean we do not have to trace to create cut lines.

To open a file from your Silhouette Studio library click Library at the top of Silhouette Studio. Find the design > right click > Merge. This will open the file in the work area.
To open a file from your computer (like the one I offered as a free Silhouette download) go to File > Merge and navigate to the file to open.

How to Group a Design in Silhouette Studio

If you click on the design to select and move it and only part of the design moves, you'll need to group all parts of the design together.

Click your mouse far away from the design then drag completely across the design. All parts of the design will get a box around them. Right click > Group.

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How to Resize a Design in Silhouette Studio

Select the design and move ONE of the corner nodes in or out to scale the design to be around 4-5". It doesn't have exact this is just an easy size to cut.

How to Move a Design within the Silhouette Studio Design Area

Select the design again and move it towards the top left corner of your work area.

How to Mirror a Heat Transfer Vinyl Design in Silhouette Studio

HTV must be cut in reverse so select the design > right click > Flip Horizontally.

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How to Create a Weeding Box for HTV in Silhouette Studio

Use the Draw a Rectangle tool from the left sidebar to draw a box around your design. The box should be at least half an inch from all edges of the design. This is called a weeding box and it will help us in several ways later.

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Silhouette Cut Settings for Heat Transfer Vinyl

Move to the Send panel and make sure the rectangle and the design have bold red lines. These are the cut lines. If the cut lines are not bold and red, select the design and click "Cut".

Change the material type of Heat Transfer Vinyl, Smooth. The software will reset with default cut settings for the material..unfortunately the force is too low. Manually increase the force setting to 14.

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How to Load HTV in Silhouette CAMEO

Place a sheet of HTV on the cutting mat with the shiny side down. Press it down well so it sticks to the cutting mat.

On the CAMEO control panel click the Up arrow until it flashes.

Take the cutting mat (with the heat transfer vinyl on it) and with two hands hold it gently up to the CAMEO's rollers. Make sure the left edge of the cutting mat is lined up with the gray line.

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After a few seconds the machine will start pulling in the cutting mat.

Return to Silhouette Studio's Send panel to click "Send". Select "Send As Is" since you already mirrored the design.

The HTV cutting will begin.

When the cut is complete don't unload the cutting mat right away. With the mat still loaded in the machine, use a weeding tool or hook to try to lift one of the corners of the box that was cut around your design or remove the middle of a letter like A, O, or D.

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If it lifts easily you can feel pretty confident your design has cut well. If it required ANY pulling or snagged, return to the Send panel and click "Send" again to cut the design again.

Once you have confirmed the vinyl cut well, unload the mat by pressing the down arrow on the CAMEO 4's control panel.

Use the weeding tool now to remove that weeding box completely.

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Remove any other areas in or around the cut heat transfer. The clear carrier sheet is a built in transfer.

How to Put HTV on a Shirt

Use scissors to cut around where the rectangle was off the larger sheet of HTV.

Flip the HTV onto the shirt. Now you can use an iron or heat press to apply the HTV to the shirt.

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You can apply heat transfer vinyl with an iron or a heat press.

Most beginners will use an iron. The iron should be set to the cotton setting. Set the iron over the carrier sheet and use firm pressure for about 20 seconds in each iron-size area. Do not move the iron around.

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Peel up a small area of the carrier sheet. The HTV should stick to the shirt as the carrier sheet is removed. If it doesn't apply a few more seconds of heat and pressure.

Congrats you've just completed your first Silhouette CAMEO 4 heat transfer vinyl project!

To apply heat transfer vinyl with an iron follow this tutorial. To use a heat press to apply heat transfer vinyl, check out this tutorial. You can find more Silhouette CAMEO 4 Beginner tutorials including how to make your first vinyl cut with CAMEO 4 and how to do Silhouette CAMEO 4 print and cut here.

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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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2 comments

UnknownJanuary 9, 2022 at 4:17 PM
Do you recommend washing the garment before you apply the HTV?

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