Now that we’ve gotten a simple 1-piece vinyl project under our belt, let’s move on to one with multiple pieces in a single design. If you haven’t done projects 1-6, I highly recommend you do. As we go in order through the lessons, I add new concepts each time and each lesson assumes you have practiced the techniques of previous lessons.  To start with project #1, go here. Today we’ve going to make a vinyl decal with a teapot design. Working with this design will teach you why you need transfer media when using vinyl.

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Materials:

Adhesive vinyl

Transfer tape or paper

Project surface – I’m using a glass canning jar, but you can use anything. Try to find a curved, cylindrical surface. In other words, we want it to be the same width all the way down.

Weeding tool

Squeegee

Scissors or craft trimmer

String and tag (optional)

Step 1: Prep the surface

As with any project, proper preparation produces a premium product. (Alliteration anyone?). See my hints on surface prep in this post.

Step 2: Start a new file

When you start a new file, the page size will be either the default page size for your machine (12”x 12” for a Cameo) if you have just opened the software, or the size of the last page size you set up during your current software session. Go ahead and set it to the 12” x 12” size. I’ll remind you later to make sure it’s actually the size of your vinyl.

Also leave the cutting mat selection on to the mat you are using. We aren’t ready to cut without the mat yet.

Step 3: Add the shape to the page

Find the shape “Tall Teapot” in your library and add it to the page. This one is already filled with color so we don’t need to do that step.

Notice that this shape has 5 distinct pieces: knob, lid, upper rim, main body and lower rim. They have been grouped to keep them together. If I ungroup, I can move the 5 pieces.

Play with that a bit, then hit undo until you get back to the original grouping. Or, you can always delete the pieces and start over by putting the shape on your page again from the library.

HINT: When you go into the library again, notice that the teapot is highlighted. The last shape you added to the page will always be like this. It can be helpful to know this if you have several similar designs.

Step 4: Resize the shape

Measure the area of the project surface you’re going to put the teapot on. Resize your design to fit, making sure to keep it proportion by using the corner boxes or locking the aspect ratio. I suggest making it no smaller than 2.5” tall.

Step 5: Create a weeding box

This step and the next are going to help with 2 things: using your vinyl most efficiently and making weeding easier. Since we’re still working on a relatively small scale, it’s not absolutely necessary. But the concepts I teach you here will help in any vinyl project. A weeding box helps you weed the area around the design more easily because you’re removing the background in smaller sections.

We’re going to use the Draw a Shape tool to create a rectangle. Look at the icon bar that goes down the left side and find the one that looks like an empty rectangle. It’s the 4^th one down .If you hover over it, you’ll see that a menu of shape options pops out to the right. It’s a rectangle that we want to draw so make sure that’s the shape that’s highlighted and click on it.

Move your mouse over to the drawing area. Left click and drag to draw a rectangle that’s at least ½” larger than the teapot on all sides. Notice that as you draw your shape isn’t proportional because we aren’t holding down the shift key. You can alter the dimensions by the way you move your mouse.

HINT: If after you draw your rectangle, your software keeps drawing them over and over, you haven’t set up the preferences I recommended. See this post for info on that. 

You can get the rectangle the correct width or height, then use the side boxes to adjust, or adjust with your scale measurements. We don’t need it to be exact here, so use whichever you like.

Select both the teapot and the rectangle and use the Centralize icon to center the teapot inside the rectangle. Make any size adjustments needed to the rectangle. Select both pieces and group them.

Step 6: Set the page size

In our last project, we cut our vinyl to a size slightly larger than the shape and loaded that on the mat. This time, I want to teach you another trick. We’re going to cut a piece of vinyl the full width, remove the weeding box and lift our design off the backing. That will make it easier to use the rest of the vinyl the next time. Don’t worry if you can’t visualize it yet – we’ll go over all the steps.

Set your page size to at least ½” taller than your weeding box, but keep the width the size of the width of your vinyl (9” or 12” are the standard widths of vinyl you can buy).

Step 7: Position the design on the page

Let’s learn another alignment feature. Since we grouped our teapot and weeding box together, they are being treated for now as 1 design. That’s going to help us in getting the design where we want it on the page.

Select the set and look up at the icons in the Quick Access Toolbar. Notice that even through it’s only 1 set, our alignment options are available. Why in the world would we want that? How would we align just 1 object or one set of objects? It’s actually quite useful, because it allows us to use those alignment tools in relation to the page.

• If I select Align Middle (middle one on the second row), it will align the set to the middle of the page horizontally. That means the weeding box will have equal space above and below it on the vinyl.
• If I select Align Left (first one on the top row), my set will be placed at the very left edge of the set page size. I can then use my right arrow key on my computer keyboard to scoot it just a bit to give me a small margin.

HINT: I always like to leave a little room around my designs on the page. I do that so in case I don’t load my material on my mat perfectly or have my mat a little too far left or right when I load, my full design will still get cut.

Step 8: Cut the decal

Use your scissors or craft trimmer to cut a piece of vinyl from your roll or sheet. You want it to be the full width of the roll and the height you set up in Step 6.

We’re ready to cut, so let’s go through the steps:

• Vinyl, matte set as material type.
• Action on Cut.
• Correct tool (Auto-blade) selected.
• Settings for blade number, speed, force, passes (should only need 1 pass) checked and adjusted as needed.
• Line Segment Overcut on.
• Cut Preview checked so you know ahead of time what will cut and what won’t.
• Vinyl adhered on mat.
• Blade loaded and locked correctly.
• Mat loaded.

HINT: If you cut too deep, the vinyl can get pushed into the backing and make it harder to weed the design.

If you haven’t been cutting vinyl today, do a test cut. There are so many variables to cut settings that you want to check each time. Remember to set the teapot and its weeding box to No Cut while you do a test cut.

Once you’re good with your settings, delete your test cut shape, set the teapot and weeding box back to Cut and cut the teapot. Be sure to check the cut BEFORE you unload to make sure it’s cut all the way through.

Step 9: Weed the design

For now, leave the vinyl on the mat. You can place your mat cover over the sticky area if you like. Doing this keeps the cut vinyl more rigid and flat, so it’s easier to weed and to apply the transfer media.

HINT: Smaller pieces of vinyl in particular can roll up on your table, or attach to the transfer media (due to static) when you may not be ready.

What you want to weed out is just the weeding box rectangle we created around the teapot. Starting at 1 corner, begin peeling the rectangle off the backing paper. When you get close to the teapot, go slowly to make sure it’s staying on the backing. If necessary, use the tip of your weeding tool to hold the teapot parts down as you remove the rectangle. Make sure to weed out the inner piece — that hole in the handle — but don’t toss it.

If you’ve removed it carefully, you can save the rectangle to use as a stencil for glass etching, painting, etc. Be sure to include that piece from inside the handle. Since you’re backing paper is still part of the piece of vinyl you cut, you can’t easily use that to store it on. For now, use the shiny side of your mat cover to keep it. Once you’ve applied your transfer media, you can switch it over to the backing paper of that. Wax paper will also do in a pinch.

HINT: Keep some vinyl backing paper around after you finish a project to save background pieces like this in the future.

Step 10: Apply the transfer media

Cut a piece of transfer tape or paper slightly smaller than the rectangle but larger than the teapot. We want to lift our teapot, but not the rest of the vinyl, so cutting the transfer media slightly smaller makes this easier.

Position the transfer media over the design. Use the hinge method I showed you in the last project if you like.

Burnish the transfer media over the vinyl and lift the teapot off the backing paper.

See how the pieces are altogether on the transfer media? That’s why we need it. It keeps the pieces together at the correct spacing and alignment. You could lift these pieces one by one and apply them since they’re small, but keeping them aligned and spaced correctly is much harder than it sounds. Once we get into longer pieces and words, it’s pretty much impossible.

Notice that the piece of vinyl you cut to put on the cutting mat is still a long rectangle, even though some of the vinyl has been removed.

Since you left the vinyl on the mat, you could load it again and cut something else just to the right of the weeding box. Or, the next time you need to cut something this size, it will make it easier to see just how much space you have. Or, once you learn to cut on a roll without the mat, you can still load the vinyl because the full width is still there. You didn’t cut a chunk out of it.

Step 11: Adhere the decal to your project surface

Since your project is cylindrical, you want to keep it from rolling as you apply your vinyl. Here are a few ideas:

• Lay it in your lap.

• Place heavy books on either side of it on your worktable. Just make sure the books aren’t as high as the object.

• Lay it on a soft pillow that’s on a table. It will sink down into the pillow without rolling.

Once again, we’re not going to stress over getting a perfect alignment on our surface. We’ll focus on that later. Hover your vinyl over your project surface, bow it in the middle, touch the middle down first and then work outward.

This should be almost the same as working on a flat surface. Burnish the top of the transfer media and carefully remove it.

You did your first decal!

You just cut and applied vinyl in a multi-piece design. Way to go! If your project surface is tall or wide, you could add the teacup and shorter teapot. Fill the jar with teabags, tie on a tag and you have a simple gift. Or show off your creation on your kitchen counter.

Next time, we’ll learn about —

• working with shapes with multiple internal pieces we need to weed
• a method for getting the design on straight
• simple layering

I’d love to hear your feedback on how your first vinyl projects are going! Comment below.