How to Put HTV on Wood Ornaments

Day 8 of my 12 Days of Cricut Christmas Crafting is how to put HTV on wood ornaments.

I love Christmas ornaments. You can never have enough! I especially love making them. Making them just adds that extra bit of personalization. Today we’re going to try something a little different – something I’ve never done before: HTV on wood ornaments.

Now I’ve made my fair share of ornaments using my Cricut – glitter ornaments, acrylic blanks, glitter acrylic blanks, glass ornaments, just to name a few. All of those had one thing in common – I used adhesive vinyl. Now it’s time to try something different – HTV on wood ornaments.

I love the look of wooden ornaments – they have that nice, rustic look to them. There are different kinds of wood ornaments available from various places including craft stores like Michaels, as well as online retailers like Amazon. Some look machine made – they’re perfectly round and smooth.

I was lucky enough to have a friend who had some birch branches in their yard. They were kind enough to cut them into rounds for me. I love how imperfect they are. They have that natural look to them. I was so happy to be given a big bag of them.

Now you can put adhesive vinyl on wooden rounds. I had previously done that. It works well. Check out my blog post All About Adhesive Vinyl for tips and tricks. But did you know you could apply HTV on wooden ornaments? I thought I’d give it a try and was really pleased with the results.

I didn’t do anything different when it comes to HTV. In fact, I pretty much just followed my usual cutting and applying techniques as outlined in my blog post, All About Heat Transfer Vinyl. You may want to carefully check after pressing to make sure it’s fully adhered. If your wood ornament is not completely flat you may need a second, quick press.

So why would you choose one type of vinyl over the other?

Adhesive Vinyl vs. HTV on Wood Ornaments

Colour – I would choose colour over type of vinyl. If you are looking for a specific colour, I would go with that.
Sheen – most of my adhesive vinyl is glossy. If you want a glossy look, go for adhesive vinyl. If you want a matte look, go for HTV. Unless of course, you have matte adhesive vinyl and prefer that.
Weeding – depending on the design, I personally find it easier to weed HTV. So using HTV allows me to have a more intricate design and/or thinner fonts.
Application – getting adhesive vinyl to stick to smooth wood was easy. Getting it to stick to my wooden round cut from nature was a little trickier. Both were smooth, but there was something about the real wood that made it a bit trickier. It wasn’t impossible but just took a bit more – especially with smaller/thinner fonts. With the HTV, I simply used my Cricut Easy Press – I did have to press for about 5 seconds longer to make sure it stuck but that was it. Application of the HTV was definitely easier and less fussy.

Either application works, but I think I personally prefer the look of the HTV on the wood ornament. I think I like that matte look better. What do you prefer?