Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Silhouette: Getting to Know You Online Class REVIEW

I'm excited to share with you my experience taking Kerri Bradford's new online Silhouette Class, available at Jessica Sprague. 

The class consists of 5 videos, available all at one time and is self paced. One of the highlights for me was getting such a generous assortment of Kerri's original designs, approximately 30 in all. The quality of the recording is excellent including the picture quality and sound levels.

The class begins with a tour of the general layout of the Silhouette Studio Software. Kerri does an excellent job explaining the function of each section of the basic tools and keyboard short cuts. She makes sure to translates all her instructions to the SD model as well as the Cameo, so owners of older models will really appreciate that. The instruction in the first section is very basic and brand new owners will feel very comfortable getting to know their machine, as the title says.

After the basic tour, Kerri continues with a library tour, she includes a  review of subscription plans. In task 3, you learn to import other files and she reviews how to organize them in "your own way".
Lesson 2 covers the basics of drawing, moving and scaling designs and she encourages people to take basic shapes and combine them into new shapes and to use them creatively. She also covers align, replicate and weld tools. Lesson 3 covers among other things, the very popular text to path feature and Kerri makes it simple to understand with her easy demonstrations. She reviews altering texts in a number of different ways, including creating a bold font from a standard font. Lesson 4 covers preferences and in lesson 5 it all comes together with a nicely detailed mini book project.

I really enjoyed the class and although I am a more advanced user, I found it enjoyable to see how Kerri uses the software and how she approaches her designs and most importantly, I learned a few new things too! I highly recommend this class for any new Silhouette users and I believe many who have had their machine a while would benefit as well.
If you have any question regarding the class, please feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll post an answer for you right away!
To sign up for the class you can click here.

8 comments:

  1. Signed up after seeing your review - thanks!

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    1. I gave myself the Silhouette for Christmas and it has yet to be out of the box. I watched the first lesson last night and I agree, Kerri does a great job and makes it all very understandable. I'm breaking that bad boy out and getting started now!!!

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  2. Oh thank you for the review of this class. I received my Cameo a couple of weeks ago and have yet to take it out of the box. But I received an assignment that is going to push me to go ahead and take it out, so I think this would be an excellent class for me to take. I considered it when I first saw it, but thought oh I can pick up any tips and tricks via You Tube, but this would be a much more organized and cohesive way to learn all about my new baby! Thank you so much for the review!

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  3. I am taking it also. I thought I was intermediate to advanced, but found out differently. I am learning so many things I didn't learn all on my own. Love this class and would recommend it to everyone

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  4. I have had my Silhouette for over two years. The first two times I tried to use it the mat had issues. After Silhouette sent me a new one agreeing that their was a problem with some of them, I was so frustrated I never tried it. I am now afraid of my machine. I will check this out and maybe I will finally learn to use it - better yet, not be afraid of it!

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  5. ok, you convinced me! I just signed up! YAY! Thank you!

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  6. Thanks for the review, Lisa. I've been recommending it just knowing what I do about Kerri Bradford and Jessica Sprague classes in general (even though I'm not taking the class myself). It sounds from your review like Kerri has broken it down in a similar way to what I teach for my basics class, so it sounds like I may be doing things right! I will keep recommending this class for beginners who don't live in my area.

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Thank you for commenting, it's great to hear from you!