My Silhouette Cameo Review – The Ultimate DIY Machine

First, let me start this post off by saying that I have absolutely NO affiliation with the Silhouette brand. I’ve never spoken with anyone at the company, nor do they even know I’m writing this post. The sole reason I’m doing my Silhouette Cameo review is because I am a crafter, and this product is my holy grail. It’s amazing the things it can do, and how much time it can save, if you like to craft as much as I do.

I first heard about the Silhouette Cameo about a year and a half ago. I had seen it displayed in craft stores, but had no idea what it was. So I decided to look it up. On their website, the makers describe the Cameo as “the ultimate DIY machine. From customizing your apparel to personalizing your party—and everything in between—the CAMEO will help you create your own DIY masterpiece.”

WOW! I didn’t read anything else (I don’t read into the nitty gritty unless I have the machine sitting in front of me), but I knew I had to have it. So did I buy it? NO, not right then. Why you ask? Because it cost $275. That is a BIG commitment.

Now I know it can be easy for us women to drop $300 on clothes at the Nordstrom sale, so why was I hesitating on buying this machine that would so easily help with all my DIY crafts? I don’t know. Maybe it’s the spendthrift inside of me, maybe because I couldn’t wear it in front of all my friends to show it off, or maybe I wanted to save that money for my weekend shenanigans. I couldn’t tell you. I just knew it took me over a year to finally pull the trigger.

Why I Invested in the Silhouette Cameo

What got me to finally purchase the holy grail of crafts? I’ll tell you exactly what it was: my DIY flowers. When I was making paper flowers for my wedding, I found a PDF design online, downloaded it, and cut EVERY SINGLE PIECE out by hand. If you read my flower tutorial and looked at the downloadable design, you saw that every flower is made up of 7 tiny pieces of paper. ALL of which I cut out by hand. 140 flowers multiplied by 7 pieces per flower means I spent hours cutting 980 pieces of paper – BY HAND.

I don’t know why it took the lightbulb so long to go off. I think I had stashed the idea of the Silhouette Cameo in the back of my mind. But I could have kicked myself when I was finished making my flowers for not purchasing the machine sooner. Immediately after I was done, I remembered the machine, and went on Amazon to purchase it. I would most likely want to do a craft like this again, and next time, I would be prepared.

With a review of the few cool things I’ve used the machine for, and some tips on the other cool things it can do, hopefully you’ll understand the full extent of it’s usefulness for a DIY crafter. And maybe it won’t take so long for your light bulb to go off.

The Mechanics of the Silhouette Cameo – How it Works

The machine is relatively simplistic in design. There are really only 3 main parts: the machine itself, the tool inside, and the cutting mat.

The machine is sleek and compact. It measures 21” in width, 7” in length, 5” in height, and it easily fits on the edge of my tiny craft work desk. The 21” width is a bit wide, but no wider than a traditional printer, and necessary if you’re going to feed 12” projects through. It has a white and silver design which make it look sleek – and somewhat sexy.

Inside the machine, instead of ink (like in a traditional at home printer), there is a little holder for your tool. There are 3 tools you can use with the standard machine: regular blade, fabric blade, and a sketch pen. And they do just what they sound like they do. The regular blade is used to cut paper and cardstock, the fabric blade is used to cut fabrics, and the sketch pen is used to sketch designs onto materials.

They are all easily interchangeable in the Cameo machine. All you have to do is lift the top of the machine cover up, twist the blue tab to the left to unscrew your current tool, replace it with your new tool, and turn the blue tab to the right to affix the new tool properly. After all, the machine is supposed to save you time, so it better be simple to assemble. So glad it actually is!

Silhouette also sells a pen holder adapter for the machine, so that it will hold any size pen instead of just their squatty sketch pens (which FIY, run out of ink pretty quickly if you’re doing multiple projects). I just discovered the adapter, and haven’t used it yet, but it’s currently in my Amazon cart for checkout. Can’t wait to try it!

Lastly, you have to have their cutting mats to feed your projects through the printer. The mats serve as a backing for the blade (or sketch pen) to cut/ draw onto. If you didn’t have a mat behind your material, the machine wouldn’t be able to do it’s job.

These mats have a somewhat sticky surface, so you can easily affix your material exactly where you want it to go, and pull it off when the machine is finished cutting. When removing your design, the tiny pieces of the cuts will actually stay on the mat, while you remove the rest of the design. This is the only flaw about the mats, is that with some intricate designs and cuts (when you have a BUNCH of tiny paper pieces stuck to the mat) they are hard to remove. After a few of these, the mats become unusable and you have to replace them.

They have “light hold” mats, but they are about 30% more expensive than the regular stick mats. At about $9 each and $12 each respectively, they can get costly. So it is in your best interest to clean your mats as thoroughly as possible after each cut job.

Review Use #1 – Die Cutting

The obvious reason most people purchase this machine is for the purpose of precisely die cutting patterns. The machine comes with a tiny little blade that you affix to the inside of the machine, and when you “print” a design on the cameo, it will cut out the design for you.

The Cameo comes with a software CD so you can make your own designs (the software is available to download for free, as well). You cannot use the Silhouette Cameo without the desktop software – it won’t work. I have heard rumors that you can download any PDF design and import it into your cameo software as a design to cut, but I haven’t figured out how to do that, yet.

What I HAVE done, is both download designs within the Silhouette software, and create my own. If you want to download templates from Silhouette, they usually cost around $.99 per design, and are easily found. You just have to go to the design store (the Silhouette logo on the left side bar of the design studio software) and type in the search bar exactly what you’re looking for. Hundreds of designs will pop up for you to choose from.

Once downloaded, you can import them into your current project, play with the sizing, and even alter them (erase lines, make more cuts, etc). The studio will tell you the EXACT dimensions of the designs on your page, and once they are to your exact specifications, you send it to the printer, and the machine cuts them for you. Simple – just like I like it.

If you are using fabric or thicker media, there is a place in the printer settings to tell the Cameo exactly what you’re working with, and it will tell you what size blade and cutting speed would be ideal. A quick adjustment, and you’re ready to cut – anything and everything – as long as it’s not wider than 12” (the width limit of this machine).

Review Use #2 – Sketching

Another HUGE thing I use my Cameo for is to sketch. I’m really into chalkboard-looking signs right now, and it’s not easy to print them off of a regular printer. The ink doesn’t show up on a black background, and even when I make a PDF with a black background to print on white paper, it takes up all my printer ink.

This machine gives me the ability to print opaque lettering and designs onto black cardstock with ease. The ONLY downside to it (and maybe there is a way to fix these issues that I haven’t yet discovered) is:

1) I can only print outlines – The Cameo is set up as a cutting tool, and therefore, only reads and prints the edges of designs. I can print lettering, but it will trace around the edges, and I have to fill the rest in with an opaque pen. It’s still MUCH quicker than any other method, but a pain I wish I could fix.

 – You can see in this picture that my wording is outlined, and in one color. Also, The pen skipped a couple letters (maybe due to the pen being a month or so old?) I don’t know. But I take very good care of these pens and always cap them when I’m not using them.

 – However, if you look closely, you can see indentations of the lettering, even though it’s not completely outlined. This makes it easy to outline, and fill in your designs yourself. Granted, it defeats the point of the machine doing it for you, but makes drawing designs by hand MUCH easier than trying to freehand them.

2) I can only print in 1 color – When you set up your cameo to sketch, you load in 1 pen that will sketch your entire design. You can break up the design into separate pages, and print them one by one onto the same piece of paper – changing the color pen out for each design – but that’s time consuming. But again, your alternatives are slim, and it’s probably more time consuming to design something freehand that won’t be as precise.

With the sketch pen (or using the adapter and your own pen) you can draw anything. Calligraphy envelopes, draw a logo, even embellishments for your scrapbooks. It’s a great tool that I use often.

Many Other Uses for the Silhouette Cameo

There are SO, SO many more ways to utilize your Cameo. I’ve only had my machine for 6 months, so I haven’t explored the multitude of options yet… but I’m excited to!

Although all of the projects you can make start with die cutting or sketching, you can use the designs you make in the Silhouette Design Studio to etch glass, make stamps, design wall decals, design heat transfers, print on fabric, bedazzle things, create stickers, etc.

However, many of these project require special paint, paper, etc that is sold by the Silhouette company and is not cheap. You have to really rationalize how many of the projects you’ll be doing, and if you’ll utilize the supplies you’re buying for anything else. In my case, I craft often, so I almost always find ways to use my supplies over and over again. But if you just want to make a 1 off project, investing in these supplies probably isn’t the smartest idea.

Silhouette Cameo Review – Final Thoughts

You wonder why you’re able to find so many creative people on Etsy… it’s because of this machine. So many creative ideas at such affordable prices. The Cameo affords everyone the opportunity to make all things DIY.

The catch is, it gets pricey. If you’re only doing one or two projects, and you buy all the supplies needed for those specific projects, it will cost you almost as much as buying it from a vendor. And that is why Etsy has become so popular. If you want to DIY, you might as well make a few more and try to make a few bucks off of it. You get the satisfaction of creating things yourself, and possibly give others a way to purchase it, if they don’t have the time or resources to create it themselves. And if you don’t, well, just go on Etsy and support someone else’s DIY aspirations.

My final word would be to remember my original DIY flower story, and my advice from my post at becoming a better DIY crafter. The more you craft, the better you become, the easier it gets, and the more fun you have. $275 is a HUGE investment, but if you find crafting as fun of a hobby as I do, it will pay you back with much larger returns than your shiny new pair of shoes ever will.

As for my personal opinion, I cannot recommend this cutting machine highly enough. Although it has some faults, it has saved me MUCH time and allowed me to do way more DIY projects than I ever would have been able to without it.

Below are some links to help you save some cash if you’re serious about buying this machine (believe me, I’ve searched high and low and found the best deals online to buy) and some pros and cons to help you make your decision.

Machine options listed in order starting from the LEAST to MOST expensive:

• Silhouette Cameo Machine ONLY
• Silhouette Cameo Machine (with options for starter bundles to go with the machine)
• Silhouette Cameo Machine Standard Starter Bundle (this is the one I purchased)

And if you already own the machine, but want to experiment with the other things it can do, you can find the starter kits here:

• Glass Etching
• Stamp Making
• Vinyl Wall Decals
• Heat Transfer Design
• Fabric Ink Design
• Rhinestone Bedazzling
• Sticker Creation