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Clever Someday

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Distress kit for Silhouette Studio

April 30, 2015 by Kay

Easily add a fully adjustable distress effect to your Silhouette files! I get lots of questions about how to get the grunge or distressed look in Silhouette Studio and I think I finally have a good solution for you! Download my new free distress kit file here and watch the video below to learn how to use it to easily add a fully adjustable level of distress to your cut files. For those of you who like written instructions, here are the general steps.

-Open the distresskit.studio file. -File>Merge to add your image to the distress kit document. (Instructions assume a black image.)

-Size your image to the desired size.

-Place either of the distress overlays (bounded in pink) on top (right click and Bring to Front or, if using V3DE, open the layers panel and drag your image layer to the top of the list) of your image and size to fit. Note: The overlay on the bottom is lower density and seamless.

-Adjust the scale, angle and position of the overlay using the Pattern Fill>Advanced settings. Multiple overlays can be overlapped for different effects.

-When your image looks satisfactory, click the Trace button and select Trace Area, being careful to avoid the overlay’s pink boundary.

-Uncheck the High Pass box and click Trace.

-Separate pieces and copy your newly distressed shape to a new document for cutting.

(Visited 35,997 times, 1 visits today)
Class of 2015 free SVG
Foolproof Print and Cut with a Silhouette

Comments

  1. Patti Painter says

    April 30, 2015 at 3:19 pm

    Thanks so much for this file, I always learn something from your videos. You are so talented with the Silhouette and you have a great way of teaching. Have a great day.

  2. dj says

    April 30, 2015 at 3:35 pm

    This is fantastic! I have learned so much from your blog & videos. Thank you so much for all of your help.

  3. Susan Little says

    April 30, 2015 at 4:25 pm

    Thank you. Have a good afternoon.

    Sue

  4. Susan Vigansky says

    April 30, 2015 at 5:01 pm

    thank you!!!! I love it!!!

  5. Cheryl says

    April 30, 2015 at 6:04 pm

    I wish words could express how much I appreciate that you took the time to create this and share it with us. I use distress a lot for my teen grand kids. This file will be extremely helpful!

  6. Jenny says

    April 30, 2015 at 7:06 pm

    Kay you are AMAZING! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful video & written directions. I have learned so much from your videos! Many thanks!

  7. Missy says

    April 30, 2015 at 8:24 pm

    Thank you so much for posting this!!!

  8. Destiny Lorance says

    April 30, 2015 at 10:11 pm

    Thanks so much for sharing!

  9. Maïté says

    May 1, 2015 at 12:34 am

    Merci de nous offrir ces motifs .

  10. randplasch says

    May 1, 2015 at 9:50 am

    Thank you for doing such informative and easy-to-follow videos….this ones great and I appreciate your doing this.

    Now, I’m still not at your level (not even CLOSE to it!!!!) of expertise and wonder the best (least frustrating?) way a person weeds this? Thanks in advance if anyone has tips!

    • Kay says

      May 1, 2015 at 10:04 am

      The overlay is designed with weeding in mind, and you can adjust the size and density of the pattern to suit your individual weeding tolerance, but, of course, any distress design is going to involve extra weeding. You might want to look into “reverse weeding” which is basically treating adhesive vinyl as if it was heat transfer vinyl by transferring the entire cut to the film first, then weeding from there.

  11. dottiej27 says

    May 1, 2015 at 10:46 am

    Thank you! Even though I am not normally a big fan of the distressed look, this is still a useful file to have on hand and I learned some software tips from your video.

  12. Roberta says

    May 1, 2015 at 10:47 am

    Thank you so much, Kay!!! I’m going to get a lot of use of this file. I always stop what I’m doing when you have a new post because I know I’m going learn something new and will love it. So glad you are out there experimenting and sharing.

  13. Lynette says

    May 1, 2015 at 11:58 am

    Kay – Can you share where you got the Class of 2015 image? I looked in the silhouette online store and couldn’t find it. Thanks! Lynette

    • Kay says

      May 1, 2015 at 1:24 pm

      It’s a freebie from me! Check the blog post before this one.

  14. Jean Arizona says

    May 1, 2015 at 5:27 pm

    Thanks Kay. You are incredible.

  15. Hilary Wyatt says

    May 2, 2015 at 1:31 am

    Thank you Kay for all your lessons, much appreciated
    .

  16. DEBBS MCC says

    May 2, 2015 at 8:56 am

    Thank you sooooo much, Will have to play with it, never would have thought how to do this process, you’re so talented.

  17. tlanehTammy Whitley says

    May 2, 2015 at 12:13 pm

    Hi Kay, I am unable to open the download. My message is that Safari cannot open the download. Any suggestions???

    • Kay says

      May 2, 2015 at 12:50 pm

      You do not want to open it, you want to save it. Then go to Silhouette Studio, choose File>Open and navigate to your Downloads folder and select it and open it that way.

      • tlanehTammy Whitley says

        May 2, 2015 at 4:30 pm

        Okay thank you!!!! Silly me!

        • Kay says

          May 2, 2015 at 4:53 pm

          Not your mistake so much as a glitch with Silh Studio. Hope you enjoy the file!

  18. Alexandra says

    May 3, 2015 at 2:14 am

    Hello Kay, thank you very much for the distresskit. Love it.
    But when i open a black file, the distress look doesn’t show. In youré video you just put the file before the blocks and it distress. What step do i miss. in youre writing steps you say file -Merge.
    In dutch translate “bestand samensmelten”. But when i do that, something else happens.I tried group together, add paths, but nothing works.

  19. Alexandra says

    May 3, 2015 at 2:50 am

    Hi Kay, me again 🙂
    My husband has found the answer. I just needed to put the cutfile backwords, instead of put on background. 🙂

  20. Sheila Ausum says

    May 6, 2015 at 12:47 pm

    Thanks so much! Very generous of you to share.

    Regards,

    Sheila A

  21. Kathy Potter says

    May 10, 2015 at 1:03 pm

    Thanks so much for this file. So fun! It came in very handy for my last two projects. Do you have a page to show off our finished designs? So much inspiration out there!

    • Kay says

      May 10, 2015 at 5:38 pm

      Would love to link to any pics of this in use!

  22. marlies says

    May 23, 2015 at 7:34 pm

    Love this kit!!! Thanks for the good tutorial on you tube! Greetings from Holland, Marlies

  23. Vicki Crockett says

    May 27, 2015 at 7:50 pm

    I am lost! I downloaded the distress kit and have it on the Silhouette page. When I place the distressed area over my design…..the distressed area is behind the design not on top, so the distress doesn’t show. What am I doing wrong?

    • Kay says

      May 27, 2015 at 7:58 pm

      As I mention in the written instructions, right click the overly and select Bring to Front. Or you can select your design and right click>Send to Back.

  24. Simone says

    May 30, 2015 at 4:58 am

    This really is usefull! Thank you very,very much for sharing!

  25. Carrie Sexton says

    May 30, 2015 at 3:13 pm

    Thank you so much for the distress kit. This is going to be very useful and thanks for the video too!

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