How to Fix A Goof!

Well, lucky me, while trying to show you how to apply transfer tape to vinyl, I happened to make some pretty nice bubbles!  While it doesn't happen too often any more, it can be really nice to have some support when stressful little air pockets arise like these ones :0}

Well, here is what my roll looks like when I have a bunch of sheets all rolled up on transfer tape waiting to be cut into strips.

Emmalee wanted her hand in the picture so everyone could see her on the blog :0}

I just chomp along down the line, cutting the sheets apart into nice mailable 2x3 nativity pieces.  

It is quite rewarding to have a nice little stack like this at the end of your work session.

Slightly less thrilling is having a couple rows with huge lines of tape not meeting the vinyl paper.  Ugh!

How do these goofs happen???  Well, typically it happens when you are placing that first edge of vinyl paper to transfer tape.  If the edge of the vinyl paper is not pulled taut, or my favorite, when the top of your vinyl sheet hits the transfer tape before you were planning cause you are still trying to line up that bottom edge.  Don't worry.  You will discover soon enough what I am talking about.  My only object with this blog post is to talk you through fixing the problem and getting on your merry way.

Here is one nice little bubble.  No crying.  Its OK.  It is simple enough to fix. 

Because the bubble was simply between vinyl designs, you can just lift the transfer tape from the backing paper until you have passed the bubbled area, then lay the tape back down.  

Bam!  

Bubble gone.

Now, this guy is what you call a compound bubble.  Not my friend.  Not anyone's friend!

First we will address that big bubble.

It runs just about the whole length of the sheet.  No tears for this one either.  Just do like I showed you before and lift the transfer paper and put it back down.  Whew.  Got that one.  However, there is still another bubble.  This one is bad.  This one is in the actual vinyl design.

See it!  It is that white spot there.  My first thought would be to try and push it out to the white area where there is no vinyl.  It has worked before.  If this were a thicker...no...if this were a hardier design, I might try it, but these nativity stables are not super accommodating.  

Let me show you what I do to fix this.

First, I like to limit the work area.  I cut ever-so-lightly into the transfer tape to cut just that section from the row.  There are perfectly adhered vinyl pieces above and below this one.  There is no sense in involving them in this mess.  With a smooth slice above and below this nativity, I can avoid causing further chaos.

OK, if you wanna cry a bit before doing this, now is the time.  Once we start with the scalpel, we won't want to take a break to grab tissues or anything ;0}

I have done this several times.  It really does work.  Take your exacto knife {another reason you want to use an exacto instead of the picker tool}.  We are going to lift the shortest part of the design {from the bubble to the edge} off of the transfer tape.  That involves working this blade, dull side facing the direction you are moving, from the bubble to the edge.  Remember that vinyl does stretch.  Work slowly.  Lock the children in their bedrooms before you start :0}  You don't want to be interrupted while you do this.  Shimmy that knife and eventually you will make it to the edge.  In most cases you will not have to touch the vinyl, it will just fall back in place like the transfer tape did above.  You will want to keep the vinyl edge well above the transfer tape and reattach the vinyl to the tape from the bubble site back out.  

Use your finger to rub that design to the transfer tape.  YES!  We did it!

Bam! 

 All Better.  

Got that stack finished. 

 Woot!  Woot!

Now, every so often in SewCakeMaker land we suffer a much more heinous bubble incident.  This sucker is HUGE!  We are talking multiple spots of vinyl touching tape in all sorts of improper spots.  This is when you put on your big girl panties...or big boy panti..no...boxers?  Whatever.  This means business!

Or, just take the easy way out like me and just cut the bubble out.  Yep.  That is it.  You do need to make sure to only cut the surface of the tape, and not run your blade deep into the design.

But it is totally possible.  There, cut open.

Now just put one flap back down, layer any excess flapage on top of that...

Aaaaaaand, there you have it.  Totally useable.  No problem.  I am sure you can come up with much worse bubbles if you tried, but these were all simply natural disasters resulting from a partially distracted vinylist.  Me.  I am not know for being the most precise, but I have figured out how to fix things when I mess them up.