Silhouette Cameo, Bluetooth, Auto Adjusting Blade, Vinyl Trimmer, 12x12 Mat, 100 Designs, 110v-220v Power Cord Cameo 3-Aqua Blue Limited Edition SILHOUETTE-CAMEO-3-LTBLU-4T

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Let me start by saying, I never ever write a review, and I buy from amazon almost daily. This is my third Cameo, I had the 1 & 2 before this one. I also have the Brother Scan & Cut 2, and the Cricut Explore; so I know a little bit of electronic cutting machines. From the three brands silhouette is the one that alouds you, and give you the power to be more creative, therefore the learning curve is a little bit more steeper. You need to know about this before you decide to purchase this machine. You will need to dedicate some time to learn how to use it, and how to use the software. That means hours on Youtube, hours on silhouette blogs (Silhouette School), hours on Facebook silhouette groups. If you have the time and you are willing to do this, you will open a pandora box in your life, is like magic. There are few tips I going to tell you before you push the buy it now button. First if you are going to use it on paper crafting you need a hight quality card stock, a cheap card stock wont work in any of the machines, and cheap I dont necessary mean on the price, I mean the quality. Card stocks books from Hobby Lobby and Michaels always work for me. Another important tip, I would share with you is the blade, silhouette black ratchet blade is the worst blade on the market, horrible, specially for paper. The automatic blade is better, but more expensive, the deep blade the same. I would suggest you to buy the the CB09 bladehttps://www.amazon.com/Graphtec-Holder-Plotter-Degree-Blades/dp/B01IXRKYT8/ref=sr_1_5_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1474296797&sr=8-5&keywords=cb09+blade. It is cheaper & last so much longer than the silhouette blade, it does not have a guide like the silhouette blade, but you can use the silhouette blade as a guide for this one. You can watch some videos on youtube for how to use it. After a few times using it, you would not need a guide anymore. I decided to make a review of the machine, after noticing so many bad reviews that were made by people that are newbies, and most of them are frustrate, because they probably were not expecting a steep learning curve as I was at the beginning, it took me a month of non stoping reading and watching videos, but I also was very frustrate, before I took some of my time to really learn. Anyway this is a long review for somebody that hate writing reviews, I hope it help make your decision easier or give you some inside.

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I actually tried the Cricut Explore Air 2 and this for about a month. They are both so different, yet similar. I chose the Cameo because the software is WAY better (not even a contest), and the way you organize your files is better. The cutting ability is fairly similar, but the Cricut does better with chipboard and thick things like that. You can always just set the Cameo to do a double cut though. I watched YouTube comparisons saying that the Cameo was flimsy while the Cricut was so much sturdier. Well, thats not really the case imo. I think many of those people are Cricut reps. They are both great machines, and I love that Cricut has templates in their software so you can visualize how big you need to make your design. The problem is that you have to design things elsewhere, and it just gets disorganized with files everywhere. When you upload them into Cricut Design Space, theres no way to organize them. Its a giant jumble. I like designing in the Silhouette software because everything is in one place, and tracing is so much easier. I tried tracing in Sure Cuts A Lot 4 (great program if you do end up going with Cricut) and in Inkscape, but neither were as easy as Silhouette Design Space. I would advise updating to the Designer edition of the software, but you can usually find it for $29.99 or less. Im new to the crafting world, but I did a crash course this last month or so, and Ive learned a ton. You can make so many things with this.

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0:00 0:00 This video is not intended for all audiences. What date were you born? January February March April May June July August September October November December 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1946 1945 1944 1943 1942 1941 1940 1939 1938 1937 1936 1935 1934 1933 1932 1931 1930 1929 1928 1927 1926 1925 1924 1923 1922 1921 1920 1919 1918 1917 1916 1915 1914 1913 1912 1911 1910 1909 1908 1907 1906 1905 1904 1903 1902 1901 1900 Submit Adobe Flash Player is required to watch this video. Install Flash Player I’ll start by saying that this is my second Silhouette Cameo machine. I’ve had the original Silhouette Cameo 1 since early 2012, which was just after it was released. I have the Silhouette Curio and Mint machines as well. I also have the Cricut Explore Air and Brother Scan N Cut. I’ve owned several other Cricut machines in the past. I share all this to say, I’m not new to die cutting machines and software. Of them all, I’ve found the Silhouette Studio software to be the most user friendly, by far. I unboxed this machine the minute it arrived and quickly got to work following the instructions at the website listed on the decal that was stuck to the machine. Make sure you register your machine by entering the serial number. Once you’ve registered your machine, you get a $25 download credit via email to be used in the Silhouette Design store. This credit expires one month from the date you enter it, so make sure you use it all up. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Those designs are yours to keep. The firmware actually took the full 15 minutes to download. I had issues getting the software update to download from there, so I went to the Silhouette website and just downloaded the latest Silhouette software update . The Bluetooth wasnt released when I initially wrote this review, but a week after that, I was able to use the Blue Tooth. It was a little tricky to pair it, but you go into the settings on your cameo by touching the arrow on the language screen and then turning the Bluetooth on, and then you go to the settings in your laptop to pair it to the Cameo. I played with this thing until late last night and then 12 hours today just so that I could test everything out and write an accurate review. As far as the function of the machine, it worked flawlessly for me once I figured out the new features with it. I am uploading a video along with this review to show how I used those new features, if you want to check it out. I was really skeptical about the automatic blade. I’ve never had good luck with the preset cut suggestions working on my selected materials in the past, so I expected this to be the same, but I was pleasantly surprised when it worked so perfectly. I tested it on card stock, heat transfer vinyl (HTV), and outdoor vinyl with and without a mat. I didn’t have to change a thing. I just fed my selected media into the machine, and it worked flawlessly. As you can see in my video, I tested the dual carriage feature using the automatic blade in the red tool 1 slot and a silhouette sketch pen in the blue tool 2 slot. It is important to note that the automatic blade will ONLY work in the red tool 1 slot. The new dual carriages (blade holders) lock and unlock by pushing in and pulling out on the mechanism. I much prefer this to twisting like the previous models, because I know people that twisted just a little too hard on them and broke the blade holder. You can use the ratchet blade and sketch pens in either side. The automatic blade adjusts just after you send your project to the silhouette machine to cut, unless you were using that same media on the previous project, like me in my video. In that case, it doesnt have to auto adjust because it is already adjusted to that setting. When it does auto adjust, it moves all the way to the left side and taps several times until it gets to the proper setting for the material you selected, then it begins cutting just like the previous models. This machine may be a little quieter than the previous models, but the noise has never bothered me, so I’m not 100% sure it is quieter. Vinyl is the only material that can be cut without a mat, as far as I know. When you cut without the mat, you have to unlock the release lever on the right side, then hold the roller head with your fingers in one hand and then the roller body with the fingers on your other hand and twist them in opposite directions to get it to switch it to the unlocked position. You then slide the entire roller over to the left until it slips into the next grooves, and then twist to lock back into position and flip the release lever back up. When you want to use your mat again, just reverse the instructions. These instructions and illustrations are on the inside of the lid, but I’m mentioning because I found it very difficult to twist mine the first few times. It got better the more times I used it. I think it loosened up after a few uses, so don’t get discouraged. I checked to see if the my Silhouette America Roll Feeder from the previous model would work with this machine and I’m happy to say it did work great. Unfortunately, the Silhouette CAMEO Tweed Rolling Tote for Scrapbooking and the Silhouette Cameo Dust Cover, Teal from the previous Cameo 1 and 2 models won’t work because this machine is larger. I really tried to stuff the new Cameo 3 in the bag, but I just couldnt get it to go through the zippered opening without ripping the bag. All of the mats, pens, and blades from the previous Cameo models can be used with this machine. You can even use your CB09 blade as well. You just have to manually adjust it, just as you did with the previous models. You just won’t select the automatic blade when using something you have to manually adjust. You will choose the ratcheting blade just as you did before. My overall impression of the new Cameo 3 is that it is amazing! The automatic blade takes all of the guess work out of cutting the pre-set materials listed in the software. I think the Bluetooth is amazing as well. I lose things right under my nose all the time, especially when they are small, so the extra storage is a much needed addition. I keep my pick and cutter in the drawers located on the front underside of the machine in between projects and I store my extra blades in the 2 blade storage slots located to the left of the dual blade carriage. When I’m done for the day, I just close the drawer. The new mat/media guides are extremely helpful for keeping your mat or media straight as it is fed into the machine. I like that they fold away when not in use, as I dont use them often. Im use to lining my media up on the line with 2 arrows located on the left front side of the machine. I feel that this machine was definitely worth the wait and they really improved it over the previous models. The only feature they didnt add that I would have loved to have was a wider cut area. Maybe that will come with the Cameo 4, but Im completely content with this for now. I uploaded a video of the different things I tested with this machine, to accompany this review. I hope it helps. *Update: since originally posting this review, I tested a 12x24 cricut brand mat with the Cameo 3 because its the only brand I had in that size and I needed to use it. It worked perfectly with the auto blade. Note: someone mentioned to me that using a cricut mat voids the warranty on the cameo, so just do whatever youre ok with doing. I still prefer the cameo mats, but when in a pinch, it might help you as well. *Update #2: After reading another review about the mat being too sticky, I figured I should come back and offer a little advice that has always helped me when I get a new mat. When you first open the mat, it is very sticky. I always put the mat on my t-shirt a couple of times to reduce the sticky a little. It always helps me, but with paper or card stock, you still need to curl the mat off of the paper rather than curling the paper off of the mat. It gives you much less curl in your paper because the mat has more give than the paper. I hope this helps.

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I cant even begin to tell you the array of vinyl decals and t shirts I have already made with this product. Lives up to the hype, I am pleased with this cutter. Rollers can handle 12" or 15" vinyl sheets or rolls. If youre on the fence, take my word, pull the trigger, you wont be disappointed. Software is fantastic, I can literally take any image from the internet trace with the tracing function in the software and cut in a matter of minutes.

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I LOVE THIS MACHINE! I had a very negative experience with the CriCut Explore 2 and this machine literally did everything that the CriCut machine COULD NOT. I purchased this for the main purpose of creating professional quality glossy white vinyl decal stickers featuring my own artwork and the Cricut machines "Print and Cut" features only work on matte papers and matte vinyl. Not so with the Silhouette! The Cricut machine and online design studio only allow for a cut area of 6 inches by 9 inches! Now, if youre buying expensive sticker paper or vinyl it probably comes in 8.5x11" and everything outside 6"x9" is waste. I have NO idea why this is, since the machine can accommodate a 12"x12" mat just fine. The Silhouette easily allows you to fill and cut a full 8.5x11 sheet. Another huge con with Cricut machine is that it constantly loses connection to the design studio- both while using bluetooth and USB connection. I have to refresh, disconnect, turn off, restart over and over to get it to see the connection again. The Silhouette again, does not have this issue. The Cricut machine also cant cut without THE INTERNET. Now, if you have a spotty connection like I do, this is SO aggravating especially on top of the connectivity issues it already has, as mentioned above. You can only cut from the Cricut ONLINE design center and you cant do it offline or by simply just downloading software. Again, Silhouette Cameo wins here! The Silhouette Studio is super user friendly (especially if youre familiar with Photoshop) and easy to design and use. To sum up, I LOVE this little machine and would highly recommend it. Stay far away from Cricut machines- at least until the address the aforementioned issues! Good luck! Happy Cutting!

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I have the first silhouette machine, which is still working great and I still use it. I purchased the Cameo 3 about two months ago and I love everything about this machine. The selling point for me was the blue tooth and the auto blade. I use it to make stencils for wood projects, for iron on transfers, among many other craft projects. The designs you can make with this is endless. I work at a school and a teacher there purchased one just for her classroom.

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I have cricut, gazelle and now cameo 3-4T, I have also had a Robo, out of all of them my new favorite is the cameo. Super fun to use, quiet, works with SCAL , My favorite software is the SCAL so I was super excited when I hooked up my machine and found it is compatible with Scal, I didnt see that in any of the reviews I had read. The only complaint I have at all is the set up. Your free images are suppose to load when you hook up machine, I installed and uninstalled software 3 times. I followed the instructions of unplugging and reset, still no luck. I then decided to test my cutter and see if my computer and machine were responding together. As soon as I hit send to machine to cut the images loaded. Would of saved a lot of time if this was in the instructions.

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Way back when I couldnt afford the lump sum for a Silhouette, so I bought a Pazzle which I could make payments on. I never totally unstood how to set the blade on the Pazzle. When I saw the Silhouette Cameo 3 on Amazon at such a reasonable price, I moved money around until I could buy it and I havent regretted it yet. It took a few days to acclimate to it but thats true of anything more complicated than a pair of scissors. You can download the Silhouette software for free from Silhouette America.com and work with it. I added the designers edition upgrade to the software and had the pictured diorama ready to cut by the time the Cameo arrived. Please notice the delicate paper grasses in the front of the scene. (My cat did; she ate one.) I could never do that on the Pazzle. The following month I bought some heat transfer vinyl and created the parrot T. If you notice a shadow behind the design, thats the residue from my first messed up attempt. You MUST be sure the autoblade is all the way down in the first blade holder before cutting anything. There are Youtube vids for this and just about anything else you might need to know. Also the loud clacking noise it makes at the beginning of a new cut is normal. Its just the Cameo adjusting the autoblade. The first day I kept unplugging the machine thinking something was wrong. Once I installed the blade correctly & stopped panicking when I heard the autoblade adjusting, I cut the diorama pictured. There is a users manual on Silhouettes website for the Cameo 3 & the software, but I havent finished it. What can I say, Youtube & Google are quicker & easier. There is so much more the Cameo is capable of that I havent yet tried. Im retired and have a limited budget, but eventually Ill have all the supplies I want. Im looking forward to making some awesome Christmas decorations.

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It took google to figure out how to install the blade properly since there are no directions with the machine and I couldn’t figure it out through the install software. Once I got that down, I’ve been having fun designing and cutting vinyl, htv, and paper. The computer software is pretty easy to use, especially compared to my old cutter (a craft robo- the silhouette’s predecessor). I occasionally have to adjust the auto settings as they aren’t perfect but that is quick and easy to do.

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Slightly unrelated, whats with ALL the free product reviews? Theyre out of control. I have the original silhouette cameo and Ive had it since 2012 or 2013. I use it quite a bit, and Im very familiar with the software. Also, I do not read instructions. My cameo 3 came with one, I think, but it didnt get opened. So take all of that into consideration. Pros: 1. auto-blade saves a bit of time and, with my brief experience cutting both glitter paper and card stock, the autoblade settings were accurate. 2. Bluetooth is nice for minimizing cords. 3. Built in storage is nice enough. It doesnt add much to the overall size (and this version is quite a bit larger than the cameo and cameo 2), so its good they were thoughtful about how to utilize the added size. 4. Cord management built into the machine to direct the plug to either side . 5. Touchscreen menu seems fairly responsive and intuitive. 6. New blade holder. Theyve switched the old clamp/key turny method of holding the blade (or pen) with a slide mechanism that is SO NICE. I did not expect this to be such a great addition, nor did I realize how fussy and inconvenient the old design really was. This feature is lovely and well thought out. 7. Dual carriage. Ok, I havent put this through its paces quite yet. I tend to do a lot of straight cutting basic card stock, so I dont often switch to pens, fabric blades, deep cut blades, etc. However, this feature is really well designed and intuitive. Its color coded and laid out very clearly in the software, so you have a lot of control over the settings. Im working on some designs that will use both cutting and sketching, so I think the dual carriage will be a great help when I do find I need it. That said, its important to keep in mind the sides dont work at the same time - theyre attached and move together. So, one side will cut and then, when its finished the other side will write. You wont be able to save time by running two tasks silmultaneously. Cons: 1. Autoblade isnt really all that "auto". I expected to stick material in the mat and go. Nope. You still select the material from the preloaded list in the silhouette software, and the blade just "auto" adjusts to those settings. It saves a bit of time, but not as much as expected and not quite as wonderful as hyped. Theres absolutely no sensing or measuring of whats on the mat; you have to select and change the material settings manually. 2. My Bluetooth was a royal PITA to set up, but I think this may be an ongoing Mac issue with a failure to discover Bluetooth devices and not an issue with the cameo specifically. Turning the Bluetooth on on the cameo end was easy. However, there is an update needed to pair the silhouette software with the new cameo 3, but when you "check for updates" through the software itself, its not an option. You have to go to the website and look for it, which seems like an oversight they can quickly fix. When theres an update available, I expect the software to at least be able to find it. Fortunately, after the initial set up issues, I havent had any problems. 3. The touchscreen menu has speakers so you hear a click when you touch a button. This would be awesome, except mine didnt even last two hours. The sound is gone. Theres a menu option to turn it off and on, but that doesnt fix the problem. I also tried shutting the machine off and on, but that also didnt fix the issue. While sound was nice, its not worth it for me to return because of this issue. However, I question the quality when a simple feature like speakers or sound breaks almost immediately. Hopefully its a quirk not representative of the overall quality, but Im wary. 4. Did it get louder? It definitely didnt get quieter. These things are ungodly loud. You wont be watching tv and cutting things at the same time. So, is it worth buying? I would say yes, absolutely. Silhouette machines are useful and fun without a steep learning curve. They do what theyre intended to do and their software is light years behind competitors. Seriously, the silhouette software was THE deciding factor for me when comparing brands. Ive used 3 or 4 different softwares and silhouette is my favorite. It works. Its easy to use. It lets you do what you want, when you want. Although, worth noting, it doesnt let you save SVG files - you can open, alter, and cut SVG files with the designer software upgrade, but anything you save is saved as a .studio file. There are work arounds, but just something to be aware of if you plan to share custom designs with people who use different brand machines. So, is it worth upgrading? Maybe. Once I got everything set up, I enjoyed using it more than the old, original cameo. The features theyve added are nice, even when theyre maybe not QUITE as nice or as useful as I wouldve hoped. The autoblade, Bluetooth, dual carriages, touch screen, new holder clamps, etc, are all features that make it faster and more enjoyable to use, but I wouldnt say theyre necessarily nice enough or different enough to justify the price tag, unless money is no object or your work or workspace demands it. If youre currently not able to keep your machine out, for example, because it needs to be within a couple feet of your computer, then perhaps the Bluetooth capability alone would be enough to justify the purchase. In summary, its a nice machine and pleasant to use, once everything is set up. The new features are very welcome, but not really as revolutionary as they might seem. I would say, though, the cameo 3 is nicer to use than the original cameo. Its a little bit easier and a little bit quicker. If you use the machine often enough, those improvements may be worth the $250 price tag if youre upgrading or contemplating new vs used older version. However, I dont think any of the features are nice enough or big enough game changers that someone should feel they have to upgrade. At its heart, the cameo hasnt changed much since inception. And, lastly, Im a small bit wary of the quality and longevity of the cameo 3, given the immediate speaker/sound issues. Im afraid it may be indicative of larger quality control issues. Ill update if/when my opinions change. Update: Ive been using it for 2 or 3 weeks, and I continue to have random Bluetooth issues. My computer says its connected, silhoettes own software says its connected, but still sometimes cut jobs sit in limbo, cued but doing nothing. Clearing it and resending it does nothing. Turning off the machine and closing the software sometimes resolves the issue and then it works totally fine. I dont think this is a mac issue as other times its totally fine, and it always shows as a connected device. It seems to be a problem with communicating with the machine. If you plan to buy this specifically for bluetooth, perhaps consider waiting until these issues are resolved. Or just dont expect it to work every single time.

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