Import PDFs into Silhouette Studio

Today I want to share these pinecone elves I made with my kids as a Christmas craft. I used a Martha Stewart PDF template available online for the mittens, hat, and shoes. Of course you know if I can use my CAMEO, I will, so I imported the PDF into Silhouette Studio (Designer Edition) and my CAMEO cut the pieces out of hard felt.

If you don’t know how to open a PDF in Silhouette Studio, I’ve made a short tutorial for you. (Note: This is a feature only available in Designer Edition and does not work in the basic edition of Silhouette Studio.) As I point out in the video, not all PDFs are alike. This process works well for a PDF when I just want the cut lines and will not be printing. You can also import printable PDFs into Silhouette Studio DE for a print & cut this way, but they are sometimes more complex.

I cut the mittens, hat, and shoes out of Camelot hard felt (I found a seller on Etsy who could ship me individual pieces). I made a custom cut setting for this hard felt: blade 10, speed 3, thickness 33, (no double cut). I used a sticky mat and my dedicated fabric blade, and it cut beautifully with no fabric stabilizer at all. The felt is stiffer than other felts, but still soft and pliable enough to use for plenty of felt projects.

My kids decorated the faces on these 1″ wooden beads. They bled a bit, so next time I will paint or seal the wood first. I helped with the hair and the hot glue. It’s been fun to see these little elves show up in random places around the house.

We made hair for my girls’ elves with some medium-thickness jute twine.

Happy holiday crafting!