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Nursery Watercolor Art: Silhouette Curio Tutorial

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for beginners using the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

My Pop Pop sends me the most profound text messages.  They read more like letters penned in calligraphy than digital chatter.  Back in November, soon after we had shared our exciting news with my grandparents that they would soon be great-grandparents, Pop Pop sent me this message:

I contend if a baby was born only once every thousand years, we would say, “Miracle.”

See what I mean?

The power of his words gripped me so much, I decided they deserved to be immortalized in the form of custom artwork for Baby Girl’s nursery gallery wall.  The medium would of course have to be watercolor since it has been my obsession for over a year now as evidenced in my moleskinin my Journaling Bible, and with my 1980s fashion plates.

So, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to bust out my new *Silhouette Curio machine to amp up my amateur skills to a professional level.  You see, in addition to being able to do everything the Silhouette Cameo can do, the Curio also boasts a slew of new features including embossing & debossing.

And thus, I was able to create my own watercolor template, so I could easily paint inside the lines.  There’s no such thing as “cheating” when it comes to art, right?

I couldn’t be happier with how the finished piece turned out!

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for beginners using the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

And though I was a little intimidated to tackle a new machine, it really wasn’t as hard at it first seemed.  In fact, now I want to #DebossAllTheThings!

Of course, I’m going to share a full step by step tutorial with every juicy detail of how I pulled this off.  That way, you can recreate my design or create your own templates for custom watercolor art.

Let’s do this!

Silhouette Curio Tutorial

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

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Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

Step 1.  Create your design in Silhouette Studio.

I made sure my software was up to date, and then set up my design space in DESIGN PAGE SETTINGS.  I set my paper size to 8.5″ x 6″ and my cutting mat to the Curio (emboss), size 8.5″ x 6″.  Then, I rotated my view by 270 degrees since I wanted a vertical orientation for my design.

NOTE: The Curio’s workspace is typically 8.5″ x 6″, but they do have a kit for a larger base that will enable you to play with a workspace of 8.5″ x 12″.  You can check those out HERE.

Silhouette Curio Emboss / Deboss Tutorial. Join me for the step by step of creating some custom watercolor wall art for our baby nursery!

Then, played around with fonts and layout until I created a design for Pop Pop’s quote that I was keen on.  I also added some watercolor flowers from a design pack I had, tracing them to transform them into a cut file.  Then, I centered it all in a 5″ x 7″ box to match the size frame I had on hand.

Silhouette Curio Emboss / Deboss Tutorial. Join me for the step by step of creating some custom watercolor wall art for our baby nursery!

TIP #1: Use Wordmark.it as a quick n’ easy tool for exploring how certain words look based on the fonts loaded on your computer.  It’s the bomb dot com.

TIP #2: Outline and fill your text with color to gain a more accurate picture of your final design.

Fonts used: Caferus Normal, Aprillia Script, Brusher.  Watercolor flowers by Swiejko

Step 2.  Set the design elements to deboss (or emboss).

You’ll have to connect your Silhouette Curio to your computer in order to activate the features on the EMBOSS menu (the icon that looks like a cinnamon bun…yum!).

Now is the time to choose between embossing and debossing.  What’s the difference?  I’m so glad you asked!

Embossing will give your design raised edges.  Debossing will impress your design into the paper, providing indents.  Since I wanted my design set in relief to better collect the pools of watercolor paint, I opted to deboss.

Because I didn’t opt for any special emboss/deboss effects, I could have skipped this step, but I wanted to at least show it to you in case you want to experiment:

  • Click the design items to select them.
  • Make sure you have selected “deboss” on the top of the menu.
  • Select which effect you would like.  In my case, chose OFF for effects.

Silhouette Curio Emboss / Deboss Tutorial. Join me for the step by step of creating some custom watercolor wall art for our baby nursery!

You’ll notice that everything that is going to be debossed is outlined in blue and my 5″ x 7″ frame, which will be cut is outlined in red.  But these colors are actually going to flip in the next step…and you’ll soon see why.

Step 3.  Adjust your cut settings & prep your machine to deboss.  (Tool 1.)

One of the awesome new features of the Curio machine is that it comes with a dual-carriage system, meaning you can have your fine embossing tool popped in there ready to work alongside another tool like your ratchet blade or sketch pen.  Like so:

The nifty dual-carriage system in the Silhouette Curio machine. Hooray for multi-tasking!

With that in mind, now, it’s time to visit the CUT SETTINGS window so we can set the order for each tool, as well as the deboss lines and cut lines.

Notice that the first carrier is denoted by a red circle and the second by a blue circle.  The Curio machine will always do the action of the red circle first, followed by the blue circle.  And since I wanted to deboss first, I set the first carrier as my fine embossing tool and the second carrier as my rachet blade.  So, what used to be in blue needs to be changed to red.  And vice versa.

So, with the red circle selected, I made sure that the text of my design was selected and set to “cut,” which in this case will really be “deboss.”  Then, for my material, I opted for “Emboss (Fine) – Score & Emboss Paper.”

Silhouette Curio Emboss / Deboss Tutorial. Join me for the step by step of creating some custom watercolor wall art for our baby nursery!

Keep scrolling down and select your blade: Embossing Tool (Fine).  This opened up a dialog box that gave me instructions for how to set up the platform on my machine.  Harrah!

Silhouette Curio Emboss / Deboss Tutorial. Join me for the step by step of creating some custom watercolor wall art for our baby nursery!

“Platform?  What’s that all about?”

Allow me to explain: the Curio comes with an embossing mat (size #1), a cutting mat (size #1), and three platforms (size #2, size #2, size #1).  They’re stackable, and the order and number of platforms you’ll use are determined by your project.  That’s another one of the fun features of the Curio–you can work with even thicker materials than you can with the Cameo.

Everything that comes with the new Silhouette Curio Machine!

So, based on the image that popped up in the dialog box, I knew that I needed to stack my platform from bottom to top in this order: #2, #2, #1-embossing mat with media.

My crafty sandwich of Curio platforms, prepped for the base!

Then, I unclipped the four plastic snaps on my base, lay down my crafty sandwich, and snapped them back in.  Bam!

Snapping the platform into the base of my Silhouette Curio machine.

Tip #1: There’s a protective plastic sheet atop the embossing mat you’ll need to remove, careful not to remove the embossing cushion along with it.  The little blue tab sticker should help you find it.

Tip #2: If you’re embossing, you’ll place your material face-down on the mat.  If you’re debossing you’ll place it face-up.  In my case, there was no up or down, but it’s good to know!

Once your base is assembled, it’s time to load it into the machine.  If you look on the side of your machine, the load/unload light should be blinking, indicating it’s safe to load.

The beautiful profile of my Silhouette Curio machine. Here's how to load the mat n' base!

How do you know how far to push the base into the Curio?  There’s a guide notch on each side of the base that needs to be past the front of the machine (see the diagram under the cover of your Curio for the full run-down).  But in layman’s terms, you’ll just push it until it pops out the back.

The nifty dual-carriage system in the Silhouette Curio machine. Hooray for multi-tasking!

Then, when I hit the load button, the Curio sucked the base into the machine and set it at the proper position.  Easy peasy.  The green light is now solid.  (And when I want to unload it, I’ll hit that same button and wait for the blink to manually unload my base.)

Pop your fine embossing tool into the first carriage position of the machine, locking it into place by turning the carrier knob to the right.

Step 4.  Adjust your cut settings & prep your machine to cut.  (Tool 2.)

Back to the CUT SETTINGS window.  Now, it’s time to set tool 2.

Make sure none of your shapes are selected when you hit the blue circle for tool 2.  You’ll then select the shapes you want cut, which for me was my 5″ x 7″ frame.  And that turned the rectangle blue.  Make sure “Emboss (Fine) – Score & Emboss Paper” is selected for your material and the Silhouette Ratchet Blade for your blade type.

Silhouette Curio Emboss / Deboss Tutorial. Join me for the step by step of creating some custom watercolor wall art for our baby nursery!

Prep your machine by setting your ratchet blade to the recommended depth (2) using the blade adjustment socket on your base.  Then, pop it into the second carriage position of the machine, locking it into place by turning the carrier knob to the right.

Now, you’re ready to deboss n’ cut!

Step 5.  Curio magic time!

Head back to your computer screen and select, “Send to Curio,” to set your machine in motion.  And now is the fun part where you sit back and watch your machine do what it was made to do.  It’s a thing of beauty.  {Sigh.}

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

Look at that fabulous texture on the Score & Emboss Paper!  It’s just begging to be colored painted in.

Look at that fabulous texture of the debossed paper! Now, it's time to watercolor.

Step 6.  Watercolor!

Yep, now it’s time to enjoy some therapeutic watercolor painting using your debossed lines as a guide.

I used washi tape to secure my paper down on a hard clipboard-like surface, that way the artwork wouldn’t warp as it dried.  And then I busted out my favorite Sakura Watercolors Field Sketch Set with Brush to “paint inside the lines,” just like I did as a kiddo.

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

The debossed lines really helped capture the paint on my design.  I just worked slowly and in plenty of light.  If you really want to stay inside the lines, use less water.  Or if you prefer a more organic look, embrace those water droplets.

I was actually really impressed with how well the Score & Emboss Paper took to the watercolor.  It’s almost like they were M.F.E.O.

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

Once the watercolor paint dries, you’ll just delight in the texture of the debossed design.  I found it really made Pop Pop’s quotable POP!  {Yuk, yuk.}

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

Step 7.  Frame your watercolor art, and enjoy!

I dug around in the basement and found a large frame on hand with a big white mat that really suited the 5″ x 7″ design.  Ready to see it in action?

The Finished Piece

Here she is in all of her debossed, watercolor glory!  What do you think?

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

I dare say, I think I’m in love!

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

While I have yet to collect all of the pieces for our nursery gallery wall, I’m all the more motivated now than ever to pull it together.  Especially after seeing Pop Pop’s quote on display above the changing table.  Annnnd, especially since Baby Girl is due to arrive in just a little over two months on June 14th.  Yowza!

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

And because I wanted to step into her baby booties for a moment, here’s the view our girl will have of her great-grandfather’s wise words from the changing table.

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

And a great man he is.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t share a photo Pop Pop himself, otherwise known as Reverend Gordon Cathey.  Here we all are at a family reunion on Captiva Island back in 2013–my beloved Pop Pop seated by his beautiful bride, my Mor Mor–the two of them surrounded by children and grandchildren…

The Cathey Family Reunion on Captiva Island, 2013
Cathey Family Reunion | Captiva Island, 2013

…and soon, their first great-grandchild.

A miracle indeed.

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for beginners using the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

What Else Can the Curio Do?

I hope you’ve enjoyed this mega-detailed tutorial on debossing with the Silhouette Curio.  Perhaps it will inspire some of you to bust your machine out of that box and fire it up, so it can work its debossing or embossing magic.

Curious about what the Curio can do that its counter-part, the Cameo cannot?

  • Metal and foil stippling
  • Metal etching
  • Dual carriage multitasking (such as debossing and cutting in one pass)
  • Embossing
  • Score & Emboss
  • Print & Emboss
  • Deep-cut capabilities with the special deep-cut blade (leather, foils, foams, and more)
  • Using thicker materials as project surfaces (such as sketching onto wood up to 5mm in thickness)

Baby Nursery Watercolor Wall Art | An Embossing & Debossing Tutorial for the new Silhouette Curio Machine! This detailed photo tutorial will turn your intimidation into motivation...and answer questions you didn't even know you had. It's your one stop shop to exploring the emboss / deboss function on your new Curio machine!

And the Curio can do all the same things as the Cameo in terms of cutting; however, unless you get the larger base kit, remember you’ll be working with a smaller workspace of 8.5″ x 6″.  And the Cameo still reigns superior when it comes to making large banners (up to 10 feet!).

If you’re itchin’ to explore the gazillion projects I’ve done with my Cameo, you can check out my Mother-Lode of Beginner Silhouette Tutorials HERE.

Curio-us to Try Felt?

UPDATE: I have another Curio tutorial for beginners, this one on how to cut felt with your Curio to create some State Map Hoop Art, perfect for a baby gift, wedding gift, or moving gift.  Check it out HERE.

How to cut felt with your Silhouette Curio machine. Join me for the step by step tutorial for creating some custom felt state map hoop art for a baby nursery, home gallery wall, wedding or baby gift! Great tips for beginners!
State Map Hoop Art: How to Cut Felt with Your Silhouette Curio

That’s a wrap!

*Full Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post; however, I received free product in exchange for an honest review.  This post also contains affiliate links, meaning that if you make a purchase using my link, I receive a small commission.  Please rest assured that as always, I only recommend products that I use and love like cray-cray.

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12 Comments

  1. I am excited to bust out my Cameo and now I might even consider getting a Curio! I am a decoarative artist and there are soooooo many ways I think this tool will be helpful! I love your spirit and spunk- thanks for sharing.
    Julie

  2. Congrats on the new bundle of joy! It’s going to be so amazing to be able to bond and get to know your child with the inspiring words of their great-grandpa right there. Also, really well put together tutorial, one of the best I’ve seen with the curio.

    Your blog is amazing. I’ll keep coming back for new ideas! =)

  3. What a beautiful reminder above your changing table every time you change that sweet little be-hind! Pop-Pop’s words just abound with his love and grasp of the amazing miracles that God gives us in our children!

  4. A beautiful way to display your Pop Pop’s powerful text message!
    What a special work of art to have in your nursery and so honoring to her great-grandparents!

    Well done tutorial, too!

    That Curio machine reminds me of the Lewis Carroll quote: “CURIOuser and CURIOuser!” cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”

  5. Ooh, I always get so excited when I use my embossing machine! I love feeling that wonderful texture under my fingers. I got a little excited simply looking at your piece right after it came out of the machine! The mixture of font and texture is pretty and irresistible!

  6. Babies are an incredible “miracle” that only God can bring!!! LOVE Pop Pop’s beautiful quote! What a lovely addition to baby girl’s gallery wall. You did a fabulous job!

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