Creating Customized Specialty Fonts

Have you ever really liked elements of a design, like a specialty font, but the wording just didn''t fit your tastes? Let me show you how to make custom lettering yourself.

The inspiration for this tutorial was found on Etsy. The font pictured below is half leopard print / half solid-colored font. If you've recently been on Etsy or DesignBundles, I'm sure you've seen something similar. This is a quite popular design element and there are several variations available. With a little help from the Silhouette Studio software, you can easily use any pattern you like and create a fun, one of a kind customized font. 

Let’s get started.

--First choose the font you want to use and type out the words you want to use. Here I have chosen the word CRAFT. The font I’m using for this example is Arial.

 

--Next using the knife tool, making sure it is set to solid line and straight, cut each letter in half. Remember if you hold your shift key down when using the tool it will cut in either direction, in a straight line and not on an angle.

                    

--Once you have each letter cut, you will want to start filling in the pieces with your fill pattern and solid color(s). Solid color fills and pattern fills can be found in the Fill Panel (right hand side of software screen 3^rd icon down) – first and third tabs within the panel.

   

                    

--Now choose a fill pattern and begin filling the letter pieces with the pattern. If you do not have a pattern you want to use, then you will need to acquire a pattern and import it into the patterns folder in the library within the Studio software. I got mine from DesignBundles. You can grab it here.

 

--Then choose a solid color you want to use and fill the remainder of the pieces with this solid color(s).  

--Once all your letter pieces are filled in, decide if you will be printing this design out for use as a sublimation transfer or another printable product. If this is what you are planning to do with your design, change your line color to no color. This option can be found in the Line Style Panel (right hand side of software screen 4th icon down / Line color - 2^nd tab). By default, the lines are colored red to represent cut lines and will print red if the line color is left as the default.

If you are not going to be printing the design and plan to use heat transfer vinyl (HTV) or another media that will be cut, leave your line color as is.

--Now you are ready to either print your design or cut your design out of HTV or another media. Before printing or cutting, make sure that all letter parts are touching appropriately with no gaps. Make sure to group them together before sizing / etc., to ensure that pieces do not get bumped out of line, have unwanted spacing, etc.

If you are ready to print your design – Hit the print icon and chose your printer of choice.

 

--If you are going to cut your design from HTV or another media – place your material choice for the pattern pieces on the mat securely and load your mat accordingly. Choose the Send Panel – 4^th icon top of software screen. Then chose Fill tab (3^rd tab choice) to cut the design by the pattern & solid.

--In order to cut just the pattern pieces, you will need to uncheck the 1st box (solid color) and double check that you have chosen the type of media you are utilizing, as well as type of blade installed in the tool carriage from the pull-down menus. You will notice that the pattern pieces on the screen will have a red line around them. Now hit the send button. Your design should begin cutting. Once the cutting of this part of the design has completed, remove your media from the mat.

--Place your solid HTV or other media choice for the remaining pieces on your mat securely and load your mat accordingly. Now you will check the first box and uncheck the 2^nd box. Again, make sure that the correct material is chosen from the pull-down menu as well as the type of blade you are using. You will now notice that there should be black lines around the solid-colored pieces on the screen. (Your lines around the solid-colored pieces will be whatever color you filled those pieces in with.)  

 

Now hit the send button again. Once your design has completed cutting, you are ready to press your design accordingly.

Guess what??!! You just created your own customized lettering!

 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need additional information.

If you like this post, please share it with a crafty friend and please share it on Pinterest, so others can find it. If you are on Facebook, I would love for you to check out my page and join my facebook group! In the FB group I like to share freebies, tutorials, and help with troubleshooting, etc. The group's members are super nice and like minded. We all really enjoy fellowing and crafting fun. Hope to see you there! 

Until the next time we meet. Happy Crafting!

Julie 💕

 

 

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