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Do you remember back in April I did a review for the Silhouette Cameo? Wow, was that April already? Where does the time go? In that review I showed a card, all designed and cut in the Silhouette Studio software.

I thought I would show how I made the little mini-tabs in Silhouette Studio, which is the basic software that comes with the cutting machine.

Before we start the software defaults to inches, I don’t mind working in inches but sometimes I just find it easier to work in centimetres, but it is easy to change the software to measure in centimetres.

(If you are having problems seeing the pictures then try opening them up in a new tab in your browser.)

Got to the ‘File’ drop-down menu and choose ‘Preferences’ which is three up from the bottom of the list.

Pick ‘Measurements’ from the list on the left in the new pop-up window and pick ‘Centimeters’

I then like to change my design mat to the size of the card I am working on, in this case an A6 (10.5 cm by 14.8 cm), to make it easier to judge the size of the elements.

So tap the page option if the ‘Page’ tab isn’t already open and change the width and height. You can always resize it again later if you want.

Ok, on with making the mini-tab! On the left hand-side there are all your line and shapes tools, pick the rounded-corner rectangle (third in that mini-list) and draw a rectangle to the size you want it. then pick the circle and draw a circle.

Select both shapes and use the ‘Align’ option to align centre the two shapes relative to each other.

Then pick the ‘Weld’ tool to merge the two shapes into one. Almost there!

Now it is time to trim the Tab into shape, so pick the ‘Knife’ tool, this is such a cool tool! With the ‘Knife’ tool selected, click on the left-hand side of the tab, near the bottom of the shape, hold the button down and stretch the tool over to the right-hand side of the shape. Keep the line horizontal as you drag the cursor across the shape and you have a straight line cut when you release the button.

Ta Da! You now have two shapes!

Select the bottom shape and delete it, hitting backspace, or the scissor icon or even using delete in the ‘Edit’ drop-down menu will get rid of it for you.

Yay! A mini-tab that you can now add a shape to, or some writing, or even leave as it is if you like. Oh and of course you can now cut it out too!

Happy cutting.

Kim