All About Adhesive Vinyl | Your How To Guide

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I get quite a few questions on how to apply adhesive vinyl and although it is woven throughout other projects that I’ve done, I thought it best to have a general post that gives step-by-step directions on how to apply adhesive vinyl.  I’m going to do a bunch of posts that I’m going to tag as Cricut Basics. It will include easy-to-follow, step-by-step directions.

I’ve tried to be as thorough as possible with this post – it may be overkill but treat it as a good reference. I’ve included a few tips and tricks as well. Keep this as a reference for future use.

Types of Adhesive Vinyl

Adhesive vinyl is vinyl that is sticky on one side. There are 2 basic types – permanent and removable.

Adhesive Vinyl Project Ideas

Adhesive vinyl can apply to quite a few surfaces. It doesn’t work well on fabric or silicone – but most other surfaces are fine.

Permanent:
Glass – jars, glassware, the glass on picture frames or old windows used for displays
Stainless Steel – water bottles, tumblers
Plastic – bucket lights, cups, etc.
Permanent labels – your child’s lunch kit, binders, etc.
Wood – signs

Removable:
Wall decals or cupboard decals. stencils, temporary labels and anything you don’t want to commit to permanent vinyl. I’ve written a whole blog post on various removable vinyl projects. Be sure to check it out.

Flat surfaces work best as you will get maximum surface adhesion. Textured surfaces may not adhere well so keep that in mind too.

Preparing Your Adhesive Vinyl

1. Prepare your graphic – either within Cricut’s Design Space or in another program and then uploaded it to Cricut’s Design Space.
2. Place your vinyl GOOD SIDE UP on a mat and cut.
3. Have your machine cut the vinyl. Most likely you will be using the vinyl or vinyl + setting, but specialty items like the foil and glitter have a special setting in the custom part of the dial.

When cut, it may be hard to see the lines, but held at an angle, you could probably see the cut lines. By itself, it looks just like a piece of vinyl.

Weed Your Adhesive Vinyl

Weeding involves removing what you don’t need – all the excess. So it is the vinyl all around the graphic, as well as certain things inside the graphic.

There are lots of weeding tools out there. Cricut has its own, but I have also gotten picks from the dollar store, as well as dental-type tools from an automotive supply store. As well, a pin or needle will help you weed. I’ve also heard of people using the tip of a mechanical pencil.  I’ve tried a variety and must admit that I always come back to my Cricut one. The handle is comfortable and it never has a problem grabbing all the excess vinyl.

Certain colours or intricate designs can be challenging to weed. I know that for myself, weeding black vinyl, especially at night can be challenging. There are a number of different things that you can do or use in order to help you weed.

Start in one corner and gently pull off the background – the part of the vinyl you are not going to be using.

I find it best to weed small sections at a time. I like to keep some scissors nearby so that I can cut off chunks at a time. While it may be fun to try and pull everything off in one, gigantic piece, be careful that it doesn’t accidentally stick to your work. It is very sticky and when you try to detach it, it may pull up some of your graphics. If a bit of my graphic comes up, I push it back down with my weeding tool. More intricate graphics will require slower and more careful weeding.

Be careful of the little bits of your graphic. What always gets me are the dots over the letter “i” and punctuation like commas and periods. Make sure they stay down.

Don’t forget to weed the “insides” of your graphic.

You’ll be left with the graphic of the vinyl and the backing. Typically the backing is a white, glossy sheet.

Use Transfer Tape to Pick Up the Adhesive Vinyl

So now you have to “pick up” the vinyl so that you can transfer it to what you want to put it on.

There are various brands of transfer tape. Some vinyl manufacturers also make transfer tape. Cricut makes their own transfer tape – it is quite sticky.

There are also some clever sources of transfer tape including painter’s tape, shelf liner and book cover liners. These last few can be purchased at the dollar store. These tend to be low tack – meaning not super sticky (especially in comparison to the Cricut brand). I have some 3M transfer tape that is similar – it’s also low tack.

Some transfer tapes are clear while others are somewhat clear (translucent). For some things, you may wish to be able to see your graphic clearly when applying. The 3M transfer tape that I use (the big roll) is translucent – I can basically see, but not in great detail. But I can see enough (especially if it is coloured vinyl, even white) to be able to apply a small graphic to something.

The Cricut brand transfer tape has grid lines which are supposed to help you line things up nicely. But to be honest, I’ve never been able to get the transfer tape onto the vinyl straight in the first place, so it doesn’t matter. Some people have found the Cricut brand too sticky – if that’s the case, you can remove some of the stickiness by dabbing it with your fingers or applying it to some fabric repeatedly.

The type of transfer tape that you use, can depend on the type of vinyl you are using. I find that the low-tack transfer tapes work well with regular adhesive vinyl. Sometimes I can even get a few uses out of them – meaning I can use them a couple of times before they are not really sticky anymore.

With heavier or thicker vinyl, like glitter, I find a stickier transfer tape, like the Cricut brand, better.

Lay your transfer tape on top of the vinyl. For larger graphics, I start on one end and roll the transfer tape on.

Once your transfer tape is on, use a scraper to burnish (rub really hard) to make sure that the vinyl sticks to the transfer tape.

Scrapers come in a variety of sizes. I personally prefer the small and large Cricut ones.

Again, the brand of transfer tape will be a factor here. Quite often I find that with Cricut brand transfer tape, since it is so sticky, I can just rub with my fingertips and I don’t need a scraper at all. Whereas the low tack tapes require a good rub. If you are reusing your transfer tape a second or third time, you may need to burnish harder too.

Starting in one corner, gently lift the transfer tape up. The vinyl should be stuck to it. Sometimes I need to keep a small scraper handy to help coax it up. Sometimes it just needs an extra rub. Notice that I am holding the transfer tape back at a 180-degree angle.

Once it is on the transfer tape, you are ready for application.

How to Apply Adhesive Vinyl

1. Make sure the surface that you are putting the vinyl on is clean. Clean with rubbing alcohol to ensure no oils or glues are on the surface.
2. With the vinyl still on the transfer tape, gently put the vinyl on the surface. I say gently because it will give you some leverage to reposition as necessary. If you press it down right away, you may have to live with it.
   

3. Once you feel that it is level and in the right spot, press the entire graphic down with your fingers. Then with a scraper, burnish the entire graphic design
4. Pull up one corner of the transfer tape and pull back slowly and gently at a 180-degree angle. This is much like how you got the vinyl to stick to the transfer tape – it’s just the opposite now. Again, I keep my small scraper handy to help coax things to stay down. Sometimes you need to give it an extra rub.
   

5. Optional: just for good measure, once the transfer tape is off, I like to give it another burnish. I layer a piece of parchment down first so that I’m not burnishing directly on the vinyl.

Care for Your Adhesive Vinyl Product

As mentioned in the beginning, there really isn’t any such thing as “permanent” vinyl. It will break down and come off eventually. Any determined individual who wants to pick at it will eventually pull it up. Permanent vinyl, like what I use from Avery has a 5-7 year lifespan outdoors when subject to the weather elements.

Sometimes heating the vinyl will help the adhesion. I’ve heard of people using a hairdryer to give it a blast of heat. When I put vinyl on mugs, I bake them in the oven for a bit. You can read about how I do that here.

That said, let the vinyl cure for 48 hours. This means, try not to touch it and keep it dry. Let it set.

Once it’s been cured, here are some tips for cleaning and care.

Here is a tag of care instructions that I include with my vinyl products like water bottles, mugs and glassware. You can easily make these using your Cricut.

Whew! That was a lot. I told you it would be comprehensive but I wanted to make sure I covered everything for you. This is pretty much all you need to know about adhesive vinyl. If you feel I’ve missed something, please comment below and I can add it in.

Now that you know all about adhesive vinyl, be sure to check out my blog for project ideas.

Want to remember this how-to guide for adhesive vinyl? Be sure to save this to your favourite Pinterest board.