How to Sketch & Cut with the Silhouette Cameo 4 or Portrait 3

Learn how to sketch and cut with the Silhouette Cameo 4 (or Portrait 3!) machine! Sketching and cutting makes it super easy to make custom labels, tags, and more without a printer! Thank you to Silhouette for sponsoring this post, which contains affiliate links that help to support this site at no extra cost to you.

A sheet of iridescent craft room supply labels on a pink background. A Silhouette Cameo 4 blade and a black marker in a Silhouette pen holder tool lay on the table next to the craft room labels.

I know I’m not the only one who finds themselves purging clutter and working on organization at the beginning of a new year. My craft supply stash has gotten pretty out of control lately, so I have been working on cleaning things up, and pretty labels always make organization a little more fun.

While I could have printed labels or cut vinyl decals, instead, I decided to make labels by sketching and cutting, which is perfect for making quick, gorgeous projects without a printer. I already have a post on how to sketch and cut with the Silhouette Cameo 3, but the process is slightly different with the Cameo 4 (because of its new, more powerful second tool carriage), so it was time for a new tutorial!

To punch up my simple labels a bit, I used the beautiful Silhouette iridescent sticker paper, which is just so pretty!

Clear plastic bins filled with craft supplies sit on a gray table in front of a turquoise brick wall. Two small jars of glitter sit on the table in front of the bins.

How to Sketch & Cut with the Silhouette Cameo 4 (Or the Silhouette Portrait 3)

These instructions for sketching and cutting will work for the Silhouette Cameo 4 and the Portrait (1, 2, and 3). You will need a few supplies for your sketch and cut project.

Supplies for Sketching and Cutting with Your Silhouette:

Silhouette Cameo 4 or Silhouette Portrait
Silhouette Sketch Pens OR your favorite marker and a Pen Holder (You will need a Type A Pen Holder for a Portrait 2 or earlier and a Type B Pen Holder for the Cameo 4 or Portrait 3.)
Silhouette Blade (be sure to get the right blade for your machine)
Cutting Mat
Silhouette Studio Software (All of the features I use in this tutorial are available in the basic version of the software.)
Sticker Paper or Card stock (I used the Silhouette Iridescent Sticker Paper)

Once you have gathered your supplies, you are ready to start making. I have created a full video tutorial you can watch below, or keep scrolling for written instructions.

Step One. Prepare Your Design.

First you will need to create your design in the Silhouette Studio software. For my labels, I drew squares using the shape tool in the software and then typed out the words for my labels using the Heart Face Script font.

To make the sketch and cut process super easy, change the line color of your sketch lines to a different color. To do this, first select all of the lines in your design that will be sketched. Then, click on the Line Style panel, open the Line Color options, and click on a new color.

In the image below, you can see I made my sketch lines purple, and left the cut lines red. It doesn’t matter what colors you use as a long as the sketch and cut lines are different colors.

Screencap showing how to change the line color in the Silhouette Studio software.

Step Two. Sketch.

With your design prepared, you are ready to sketch! Place your sticker paper or card stock on your mat, load your sketch pen into the machine (I used a thin black marker and the Pen Holder), and then load the mat into the machine.

Next, click over to the Send tab. Below the top tabs, you should see a few different options for cutting. The default is “Simple,” and you will also see “Line,” “Fill,” and “Layer” (the Layer option is only available in the Designer Edition or higher). For this project, we will be using action by Line, so click on the Line tab.

Now, you will see the different line colors you have in your design. Since I made my sketch lines purple, I need to uncheck the other color (red), so only the purple lines are selected.

screen capture of the silhouette studio software

Adjust your settings as necessary, and then send it to the machine to sketch.

silhouette cameo 4 machine sketching craft room labels on iridescent sticker paper

THIS IS IMPORTANT! Do NOT unload your mat after sketching! To keep your sketch and cut lines perfectly aligned, keep the mat loaded as you switch out your sketch pen for your blade.

Step Three. Cut.

After the machine has finished sketching, do NOT unload the mat. Back in the software, uncheck the color you chose for your sketch lines and check the box for your cut lines.

Cut settings for sketching and cutting by line color in the Silhouette Studio software.

Remove your sketch pen from the first tool carriage, and insert your blade. Adjust your cut settings as needed, then click Send in the software.

A white Silhouette Cameo 4 machine cuts labels from iridescent sticker paper.

After cutting, your sketch and cut project is all done! So easy, right?

I just peeled my labels off the sticker paper backing and applied them to my bins.

a hand peeling off one sticker that reads "glitter" from a sheet of sketched and cut craft room labels on iridescent sticker paper

You can see in the image above that the iridescent sticker paper is slightly translucent. I just think it’s so pretty!

Five clear plastic bins filled with craft supplies sit on a gray table in front of a turquoise brick wall. The bins have iridescent labels on them that read "buttons," "embroidery floss," "sewing notions," "glitter," and "gems." Two small jars of glitter sit on the table in front of the bins.

That’s it for today! I hope this sketch and cut Silhouette tutorial was helpful for you. Let me know in the comments if there are any Silhouette tutorials you would like!

Until next time, Happy Making!

Check out more Silhouette projects:

How to Sketch & Cut with the Silhouette Cameo 4 (Or the Silhouette Portrait 3)