Workflow Wednesday: Welding Fonts Tutorial in Silhouette Software

One of my favorite parts of the Silhouette Software is being able to use the fonts you have installed in your computer to cut words or stencils. It's so fun and super easy and I think you're going to have a blast once you've learned this easy trick.

Also, be sure to read all the way through, there might be a sweet giveaway at the bottom that you don't want to miss! I've been loving doing these tutorials with you on how I use my Silhouette Portrait in my pocket pages. I asked Silhouette America if we could do a giveaway of my favorite materials and they were excited to do it! I am too!!!


Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials


When you use a print type font you generally keep your letters separate. That's easy to do with the Silhouette. But, when you use a script font you want the letters to flow together in one stroke. That means you need to show the software which letters you want to "weld" together to make your word. Once you've learned this easy technique, it will be easy for you to make pretty script word art.


SUPPLIES USED


HOW TO WELD FONTS

STEP ONE: Open your software and make sure your page settings are correct
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

STEP ONEb (optional): create a 4"x6" box. I do this for design purposes, but don't actually cut this box. I'm using the word art on a 4"x6" card so I want to be sure it will fit nicely.
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

STEP TWO: open the font window, it's the box with the "A" in the middle.
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

STEP THREE: type your word
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

STEP FOUR: Scroll down your "text style" list until you find the font you want to change it to. You can make all sorts of adjustments here from character spacing and line spacing. It's lots of fun to see.

NOTE: The key to a good welding font is that each of the letters are overlapping. Before you move on to the next step, you will want to check to be sure the letters are overlapping, or move the character spacing until they are.

STEP FIVE: Right-click and click on "weld". You will see a nice script word all welded together into one piece rather than each individual letter.
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials


SIDE NOTE

What do you do when the letters aren't all overlapping as you type it out and the character spacing makes some of the letters go too far with overlapping? You're going to do a few extras steps to get the letters to finally weld together the way you want.

Here is an example using Stringfellow. When you look below you will see that there are several boxes within the highlighted box. This shows that when I go to weld the letters I will have four separate pieces.
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

I didn't like the character spacing option so I'm going to follow the steps above... highlight all the boxes, right-click and choose "weld".
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

I then highlighted the "s" and moved that over to the left a few notches until it was overlapping with "read". After they were overlapping, I clicked on the "tr" and moved it over to the right and up a few notches until it was overlapping with the "uth". Again, after they were overlapping, I highlighted them all, right-clicked and chose "weld". Now, we have three separate words like I wanted them.
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

This particular font wasn't a perfectly clean font, since calligraphy generally isn't clean. I zoomed in to see the little tiny red dots/cut lines. I chose the eraser tool and "OUTLINE" so I wasn't making bigger cut holes and it was just erasing the extra holes.

I moved the sample dot really small so that it would fit in the middle without erasing the outer edge.

I then clicked the eraser on the little dots to clean it up.
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

I zoomed in really large to make sure I had them all.
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials


BACK ON TRACK - CUT THEM OUT

STEP SIX: move your words around to get the best cut and use up less paper.

STEP SEVEN: delete your 4"x6" box since you don't want to cut that part out.
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

STEP EIGHT: choose the cut settings, choose the material you are using to cut on, check your blade to make sure it's the correct setting, load your paper on the mat and then into the machine and click "send to silhouette"

NOTE: I used the gold foil for the "she reads truth" words and adhesive backed cardstock for the "earth cake" words. I moved the words to the side as I was cutting one set and then switched for the next set.


Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

The lines between the letters were super skinny and delicate. I used my tweezers to stick them to the journaling card. I also ended up using it on a 3"x4" card instead of my original planned 4"x6" card. I LOVE how it turned out!


Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials


I was using a 4" wide piece of the adhesive cardstock, so I changed the page settings to make sure I wasn't going to run into any cut problems.
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

Notice that I had to change the blade settings too.
Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials

After pulling it off the backing, I dipped the letters into some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Citron and Teal to match the cake and then added my journaling and doodles.


Heather Greenwood Designs | tutorial on how to weld fonts in Silhouette America Software and cutting them with printable gold foil and adhesive cardstock essentials


GIVEAWAY

If you've made it this far, I have a fun giveaway from Silhouette America of all my favorite materials. This giveaway is worth over $70. It is open to US and Canadian residents, 18 & Older. Winner cannot have won another giveaway from Silhouette America in the past 90 days.


Heather Greenwood Designs | My Favorite Things Giveaway #SilhouetteAmerica

This giveaway ends at midnight EST next Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. I will have Rafflecopter choose the winner on October 15th and announce it here on the blog for the next Workflow Wednesday tutorial. Please leave a way to contact you, so that I can get your mailing address from you to send your prize.

Giveaway Items: White Sticker Paper, Adhesive Cardstock Essentials Pack, Stencil Material, Sketch Pens - Black & White, Double-Sided Adhesive, Printable Gold Foil, Printable Cotton Canvas, Corrugated Paper





Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I will receive a small commission on purchases made, using my link. Thank you for your continued support in keeping this blog running and to help purchase supplies for the tutorials and inspiration!


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