Mint Studio™ is the software program you use to run your Silhouette Mint™ custom stamp maker.

If you need to download or update Mint Studio™, you can find it on the Silhouette America website’s software page. Go to silhouetteamerica.com and choose Update Software.

Find Mint Studio™, download and install it, and then you’re ready to make custom stamps!

We cover a general overview and specific features in other tutorials, but this tutorial will show you how to create a simple design and send it to your Mint. Your design page in Mint Studio™ begins with an existing stamp size. You can choose from seven different stamp sizes in the Stamp Settings panel. We will start with a 30 x 30 mm square stamp.

Use these zoom tools at the top to get your workspace to a desired zoom level.

You have a few options for designing in Mint Studio™. One of the easiest ways to start is with ready-made designs you can purchase in the Silhouette Design Store as well as the preloaded designs that came with your Mint. Not every design is appropriate for Mint Studio™, so stick with 2-dimensional designs without overlapping colors.

Any designs you buy from the Design Store while visiting the store from Mint Studio™ go to your Library. Go to your Library with this book icon on the left.

You can scan through all of your designs, but if you know generally what it’s called, so you can use the search bar to find your design. Let’s find a Season’s Greetings design. Double click to open.

This is bigger than the stamp size, so we need to scale it down. Select the design. Now you can drag a corner handle, open the Scale panel to choose exact dimensions, or click this “Fit to Stamp” button on the Scale panel or at the bottom of the screen.

You can create or add additional elements with the text and drawing tools on the left.

We want a solid fill on this rectangle.

Go to Object > Align to find options that help you center the design elements.

Don’t worry about the colors. It will all print without color, and you add inks after the stamp has been produced. When you go to Filter, which is the icon that looks like a painter’s palette, you’ll see how the stamp will be printed.

Library designs you purchase are bitmap images in Mint Studio™, so adjusting the filters ensures the design is fully visible. It looks like this particular design isn’t picking up the entire image, so we will select the design and decrease the brightness, and that picks up the design better.

We’ll talk more about these filters in another tutorial, but feel free to play around and change the effects. We are also going to resize this design just a bit smaller to make sure it all gets printed on the stamp. To resize while keeping the design centered, hold your Alt key (or Option on a Mac) while dragging a corner handle. That looks good, so we are ready to make our stamp. Click the leaf icon to Send to Mint.

You can see the design is automatically mirrored for you. Make sure your Mint machine is turned on and connected to your computer, and this panel tells you each step to printing your design onto a stamp.

Step 1. We just came from our Filters, so that’s all set.

Step 2. Click this button with your mouse to “Start Mint.”

Step 3. Mint Studio™ reminds you which stamp sheet to use, which is important.

Insert the stamp sheet into the Mint as shown on the illustration, with the slightly pointed end and arrow going in first. The dark stamp material should be facing up. The Mint machine will automatically pull it through while printing as soon as you insert the sheet into the Mint. After the Mint is finished, the printed stamp is ready to be pulled off the carrier sheet, be applied to a stamp base, and get inked up.

That’s the basic process of creating a design and sending it to the Mint. Be sure to check our other tutorials on how to use the specific features in Mint Studio™.