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Rhinestone Onesie Tutorial & Silhouette Promotion

Rhinestone Onesie Tutorial & Silhouette Promotion via The Thinking Closet

Stop the presses!  Lauren is partnering with one of her favorite brands in the whole wide world, and you betcha she’s going to tell you all about an exciting promotion they’ve got going on right now.

Let’s not waste a second longer and just dive right in to the good stuff:

Silhouette Promotion - Deal on Cameo, Portrait, and Designer Edition of the Software

Silhouette is having a massive sale right now on their craft-cutters, as well as the Designer software.  By clicking here, you’ll access Silhouette’s special promotional page where you can use the code CLOSET to take advantage of these amazing deals.  Let’s review:

  • 1 Silhouette Portrait™ and the Silhouette Studio® Designer Edition Software for $179.99
  • 1 Silhouette CAMEO® and the Silhouette Studio® Designer Edition Software for $269.99
  • The Silhouette Studio® Designer Edition Software for $24.99

Did you catch that?  $70 off the Portrait™ & Designer software bundle, $80 off the CAMEO® & Designer software bundle, and for those of you who already have a Silhouette machine, 50% off the Designer Edition Software!  You’ve got until Friday, March 8th  Sunday, March 10th (promotion extended!) to take advantage of this promotion.

Features of the Designer Edition Software:

You know I’ve already gabbed about the wonders of The Silhouette machine in my Silhouette Challenge posts, but if you’re curious why the Designer Edition software is worth your while, let me share just a few of the nifty features.

Silhouette Studio® Designer Edition contains all the same functionality as Silhouette Studio® plus the following designer features:

  • Ability to open, manipulate, and cut .svg files
  • Rhinestone tools to convert designs into rhinestone templates and create your own rhinestone designs
  • Sketch tools to convert designs into several styles of sketchable art
  • Creative knife tools to allow you to clip designs using different patterns
  • Enhanced eraser set to modify designs with more precision
  • Built-in ruler and guide lines for precise alignment and drawing

Plus, click here to check out a YouTube video tutorial showing these designer features in action.

You want to know which feature I love the most?  A major hint is in this incriminating photo of me with a perm gone bad, which I shared when I revamped my “About” page:

Bedazzler | The Thinking Closet

That’s right: rhinestones!  I loved bedazzling as a kid, and as I approach my thirtieth birthday this March, that love has not waned.  Oh no, in fact, it may have even increased when I recently got the Designer Edition software and started playing with the rhinestone design feature like it was my job.

Our friends Julie & Brian are due to have a baby girl in just a few weeks, and they’ve already given her a name: Harper.  (How sweet is that?)  So, I thought it would be fun to use my new Designer software to create a rhinestone design of Harper’s beautiful name for a onesie.

Here’s a tutorial on how to create your own custom rhinestone name design whether it be for a onesie, t-shirt, tote, pair of jeans, your husband’s backpack when he’s not looking…. {Snicker.}

Rhinestone Onesie Tutorial – Part 1

Step 1.  Open up your Silhouette Studio® Designer Edition Software, and the first thing you should do is select your ruler tool.  This comes in at a close second for my favorite Designer feature (besides rhinestones).  You’ll see why in a moment.

Rhinestone Onesie Tutorial & Silhouette Promotion via The Thinking Closet

Step 2.  Select a font and type the name you’re working with.  After a lot of exploring, I settled on Century Gothic and wrote her name in all lower-case letters.  With rhinestone designs, you want to ensure there is enough space between the letters for a clear design, so I chose to increase my character spacing to 125%.

Rhinestone Onesie Tutorial & Silhouette Promotion via The Thinking Closet

Step 3.  Then, re-size your font to the size that best fits your garment.  Here’s where the ruler tool comes in handy…especially if you want to measure height and width at the same time.  Just take it to the corner!  For a onesie, I decided not to go any wider than 4.5 inches.

Rhinestone Onesie Tutorial & Silhouette Promotion via The Thinking Closet

Step 4.  Next, it’s time to select your text and create an internal offset or rather, a path inside the text shape along which your rhinestones will fall.  Play around with the gauge to find the spot where the internal offset is the most narrow.  It’s okay if there are a few gaps in between lines.  Mine worked best at around .035

Rhinestone Onesie Tutorial & Silhouette Promotion via The Thinking Closet

Step 5.  After hitting “apply” to the internal offset, the interior lines should be selected.  Click over to the rhinestone tool, make sure it’s set to your rhinestone size (mine was 10ss), and play around with the three different options (edge, linear fill, radial fill).  You can also play with the rhinestone spacing to achieve the best shape possible.  Mine happened to work best on edge at .10 spacing (the smallest setting).  Once it’s pretty much set, click “release rhinestones.”

Rhinestone Onesie Tutorial & Silhouette Promotion via The Thinking Closet

Step 6.  Now, you can click on the text and drag it away to reveal your rhinestone shape.  Here’s the fun part where you can move individual rhinestones to better position them and even add new rhinestones by clicking on the “single click” option on the right sidebar.

Below is a screenshot of the design before I made tweaks.  It’s readable, but needs some work.

Rhinestone Onesie Tutorial & Silhouette Promotion via The Thinking Closet

After doing freehand adjustments, I used the “align” tool to vertically and horizontally align certain sections.  This gave my design a crisp, finished look.

Rhinestone Onesie Tutorial & Silhouette Promotion via The Thinking Closet

Here’s my “after” tweaking shot.  Not too shabby, eh?

Rhinestone Onesie Tutorial & Silhouette Promotion via The Thinking Closet

And then, you’re ready to print!

To be continued….

Next week, I’ll be back to share part 2 of this tutorial and show you my finished onesie for lil Miss Harper.  She’s going to be such a blingy baby, I can hardly stand the cuteness factor.  (Click here for Part 2.)

{Still swooning over those deals I mentioned earlier?  Want to add rhinestones to every piece of denim in your household?  Click here to access the special Silhouette Promotion page & use the code CLOSET at checkout.}

I’ll leave you with some of my past Silhouette tutorials.  Both include free cut files available for download courtesy of yours truly.

Letter-Sized Thank You Cards - Silhouette Tutorial & FREE Cut File by The Thinking Closet
“A Thousand Thanks” Card Tutorial & Free Cut File found here.
Burlap Love Banner & Free Cut File by The Thinking Closet
Burlap Love Banner & Free Cut File found here.

This is Lauren, signing off.

Full Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post, but I did receive a free copy of the Silhouette Studio Design Edition software.

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24 Comments

  1. This is going to be so adorable!! Little did I know when we worked on craft projects and you received craft-making gifts as a child that your creative juices would keep going and BLOOM!!

    Can’t wait to see the finished onesie!!

    1. Ha ha! Yes, “Little did you know….” Makes me think of Stranger Than Fiction. “I’ve written papers on ‘Little did he know.’ I’ve taught classes on ‘Little did he know.’ I once gave an entire seminar based upon ‘Little did he know.'”

      Anyway, random movie quote aside, I can’t wait to show the finished onesie to you, too!

      1. I always think of Stranger than Fiction when I start a sentence like that!! I didn’t realize how much you’ve used it in teaching. I’d love to hear that seminar you taught on it!! Someday you’ll have to share your outline, at least. Blessings!!

          1. I didn’t realize that whole quote you did was Dustin Hoffman’s….I was taking it literally as yours! LOL The joke’s on me! But the finished onesie is spectacular!!

            Sending love and a hug!

  2. Ooo, what fun! As if I didn’t already want a Silhouette, now you’re adding to the temptation! And I love the idea of having a job of playing with the rhinestone function. A girl can dream. Poor Mark…I can just see him off to work carrying a rhinestone backpack. Paging Dr. Bling! Thanks for the tutorial…if I ever give in to the temptation and buy one, I know where to turn to learn how to use it! Sending you hugs, Jessica

    1. Ha ha, one thing I love about you Jessica is your childlike spirit. I love that you contemplated ACTUALLY having a job of playing with the rhinestone function. (It is fun to think about it, isn’t it?) And that you imagined Mark heading in to work with his backpack, all blinged up. (Now, you’ve got me thinking of what I would write…maybe “The Doctor is in!” or “An apple a day.” Ha ha. Rhinestones just take any old phrase and give them some pizzazz don’t they? And I’m sure he would LOVE that.) Thanks for reigniting my imagination with your amazing comment, Jessica. Hugs back!

  3. So far you have been the only one I have found on the blog scene to list the extras included in the Design Edition and I truly thank you for that. Last fall I started to really pay attention to how crafters were achieving such high quality cards, cutouts, and the like. I am so happy to have discovered the Silhouette machine and the FREE Studio edition software. I did download the software just to test its capabilities. It is fantastic but with the special offer to upgrade to the Designer Edition, it becomes the better than fantastic software program.
    Let me give you just a little background . . .Back in the 80’s, I was creating advertising Tee Markers and Leader Boards for the national golf tournaments all over the country. It was tedious work because being a small company, we could not afford the commercial software or machines to design and cut. Besides that, Windows had not been developed yet so even the inexpensive software was not available so I just used a copy machine to enlarge business cards, stencils, exacto knives and did it all by hand. Years later, and having moved on to other adventures, I still wanted to be able to create signs and the like, so I purchased a small cutter similar in design to that of the Silhouette Cameo. My machine came with a cutting program that has worked okay for me over the years, but I have always been on the lookout for something better. It has arrived in the form of the Studio software. For anyone “on the fence”, download the software, play with it (it is so easy), and then take advantage of the discounted price for the Designer Edition. It is less expensive than prices during the holidays.
    I still have not made the plunge to upgrade my old commercial cutting machine, but I am getting close to purchasing the Silhouette Cameo because my machine can only cut vinyl. The Cameo can cut fabric, paper and do so much more.
    I did not mean to hog the space on your blog Lauren, but this is a great deal and I just could not keep quiet about it.
    Your new site looks wonderful!
    Karen

    1. Karen, your comments always feel like a face-to-face conversation to me…I think it’s that you’re a natural storyteller. You are not hogging space in the least! Keep it comin’, I say.

      I loved hearing about your background with advertising and your history of craft-cutting. I can only imagine the wonders you would create with your experience and innovation if you got your hands on a Cameo. And I had forgotten that the Studio Software can be downloaded even without a Silhouette (talk about a great deal), and then the cost of upgrading to the Designer edition right now would be a great way to up the ante without breaking the bank.

      Thanks for offering your two cents, Karen! They’re worth a whole lot more than two cents to me.

      (And thanks for your kind words about the site. It’s so fun to finally be able to share it with you all.)

    1. And YOU are just so stinkin’ sweet.

      And I think you’ve got enough to keep you busy with your moodboards and Craigslist finds and room revamping. I seriously need to consider hiring you to help us with our “bonus room” in the basement (most Florida homes don’t have a basement, and ours isn’t really a true basement, but right now, it feels like one). Mostly storage…tile floor…not a lot of light…and I have visions of it one day becoming a space for guests. Anyway, tangent, but I wanted to say that I think if anyone could transform it and give it a new lease on life, it’d be you!

  4. Loving the new site, especially the header!

    Can’t wait to see the blinged out onesie…I’m sure it will be adorable.:)

    Cindy

    1. Thanks, Cindy! I think that’s my favorite element of the new design, as well. And I’m eager to show you the onesie AND the burp cloths I’m going to sew to go with it. (Super simple sewing project…but I think they’ll be cute.)

  5. The new site looks amazing Lauren. Its so well thought out and is so professional and easy to navigate. I’m loving all the little little paint splashes that coordinate so well with your tagline. Congratulations on the migration! Hope you didn’t have as much trouble with as you anticipated, I am still set up to receive my email as an “old” follower, just thought I’d mention. Have a great weekend!

    1. Thanks for the feedback, Christina! I’m glad that you found it easy to navigate and even (gasp!) professional. Now I feel all grown up…and right in time for my 30th birthday in a few weeks. Ha. And to respond to your comment about having trouble, I think I prepared for the worst, and although it definitely took longer than I expected (not a few clicks and BAM, we’re done!), I was relieved to see all of my subscribers show up after the transfer. And time will tell about the hit to search engines…but I’m not too worried. Just glad to have you and my faithful followers still along for the ride. Happy weekend to you, too!

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