How To Cut Vinyl With Cricut: A Step By Step Guide With Pictures
Whether you are a beginner or professional, using a Cricut machine to cut vinyl for you can be life-changing if you use vinyl in your projects a lot.
But cutting vinyl using a Cricut machine can seem confusing at first. However, completing the process with a guide handy once will help you get the hang of it quickly.
This blog post talks about the step-by-step process of cutting vinyl with Cricut without any hassle. Scroll down to learn the correct way of cutting vinyl.
Steps to Cut Vinyl with Cricut Machine
The Craft world has two types of vinyl, i.e., heat transfer vinyl and adhesive vinyl. The heat transfer vinyl is used for creating beautiful designs on t-shirts, pillow covers, and similar items.
To use heat transfer vinyl, you need to apply it on the surface by putting heat and pressure. For this, you can use household iron or a heat press. In comparison, you can use adhesive vinyl as stickers. You do not require heat or pressure for this kind of vinyl.
Here’s how you can cut vinyl:
Step 1: Create a Design for Your Project
Open the Cricut design space and create a beautiful design for your project. Then add your image to the canvas. But if you don’t want to create your design, you can select a pre-made design or upload your SVG file.
After that, press the “make it” button to move to the next step. Next, separate the design pieces into mats by colors displayed on the Prepare screen. If the design does not look the way you want it to, go back to the canvas screen and “attach” them. At last, click on the continue button.
Step 2: Place Your Vinyl on the Cricut Match
The step requires laying the mat on a clean and flat surface. Then remove the transparent plastic sheet. After that, lay the vinyl on the mat with the paper liner facing down.
Then use a scraper tool or brayer to get rid of any air bubbles. Furthermore, keep the cutting mat in the machine. Also, draw the edges of the mat using a tool. At last, load the mat onto the machine by pressing the load button.
Step 3: Choose the Right Material Setting
This step requires you to go back to the design space. At this time, you can choose an ideal cut setting depending on the type of vinyl. You then need to set base material by following displayed instructions.
Choose vinyl in your favorites list or browse all materials to navigate the entire materials list.
Then load the correct cutting blade on the machine. You can choose a five-point blade to do better vinyl projects. Complete this step by pressing the go button.
Step 4: Weed the Design
Once the cut is complete, you can press the load button to unload the mat. Then using a weeding tool, you can remove extra vinyl from the negative space around the design. This way, you can eliminate excess material you do not want to use for your project.
To get better weeding results, you should remove the extra vinyl pieces while it’s still on the mat. That’s because the mat can hold the vinyl in place. Also, using the pointed side of the tool, you can remove parts of the image that you do not want in the final result.
At last, lay the cutting mat upside down so that you can properly take off the mat away from the vinyl. Peeling the mat makes sure that vinyl does not curl or get bubbles.
Step 5: Prepare the Surface of Your Project
After peeling the mat from vinyl, you need to prepare the surface for your project. So, clean and dry the surface properly to remove any dust or oil, which could prevent vinyl from adhering to it.
Step 6: On your Vinyl Design, Apply Transfer Tape
Moving further, cut a larger piece of transfer tape to get full coverage. Then peel the paper back from the transferring tape and place the tape on the project surface. Here, you can use grid lines to keep the design in the right position.
In addition, use a tool, ideally, the Cricut scraper, to smoothen out the tape.
Doing this will make sure that transfer tape holds on the vinyl design properly.
Step 7: Take Off Vinyl Design and Transfer Tape from Paper Liner
To get better results, you need to peel the transfer tape and vinyl design away from the paper liner at a 45-degree angle. Make sure the transfer tape is lifting away the vinyl design properly.
If your vinyl design is not sticking to the transfer tape, you can smoothen it out by laying the tape back.
Step 8: Apply Vinyl to the Project
You need to apply vinyl design to the project surface at this stage. Taking the help of a grid line, you need to make sure that the transfer of design is done perfectly.
Once your design is placed at the desired spot, you can start pressing on the vinyl to stick it to the project surface. Then use the scraper tool to smooth the surface. It will remove any air bubbles that might have formed during the process.
Step 9: Remove the Transfer Tape
At last, you need to remove the transfer tape by peeling it away from the project’s surface. Try to keep the peeling angle at 45-degrees to lift away the design properly. At last, you can see stunning vinyl designs.
If your vinyl is not peeling from the transfer tape, you can smooth the surface by laying the transfer tape back down. Then try again.
Once the tape is completely removed, the pretty actual design on the surface is revealed. Let the vinyl sit for 24 hours before getting it wet. Giving time to the vinyl is crucial because it offers the best long-term results since vinyl creates a strong bond with the surface.
Materials You Need for the Process
As you have seen the step-by-step process of cutting vinyl with Cricut, let’s check the materials required for the work.
1. Adhesive Vinyl
It comes in a pack of different popular colors, where each sheet is 12 inches by 12 inches. These colored vinyl sheets can last for around four years. And the black and white sheet can last for six years.
2. Cutting Mat
This mat comes in four different colors, but you can choose between LightGrip and StandardGrip to get the best result.
3. Weeding Tool
Purchase this Cricut toolset, which includes 5 tool piece sets. It contains one spatula, one weeder, one scraper, one pair of scissors, and one pair of tweezers.
You can eliminate the extra and unwanted vinyl pieces that you don’t want in your final project using the weeding tool.
4. Transfer Tape
It is available in four different sizes and two styles, from which you can select one. This tape has a light-printed grid on it that will help you align the vinyl design on your project correctly.
If you are using glitter vinyl, you must choose strong grip transfer tape. But if you are working with other types of vinyl, regular strength clear transfer tape will work.
Conclusion
We hope you liked this guide. Cutting vinyl using Cricut is fun, and you can do it correctly by following the steps that are mentioned in this post. To get the best result, replicate each step without fail.
Also, you can purchase the materials required for the vinyl project to get desired results. Make sure that you are only purchasing the items that are best suited for the type of vinyl you are using. Getting items for cheap is always great but can sometimes compromise the quality of your projects.
