How to Transfer Vinyl

I was so proud of the very first cut of vinyl I made.  By some miracle I pushed the cut button and when the machine spit out that perfectly scored sheet of vinyl I was HOOKED!  

I am telling you, when you learn how to do this vinyl thing the right way, it is SO ADDICTIVE!

You will soon have 3/4 of the smooth surfaces in your home covered with the stuff.  I figured out how to week vinyl, got that very first sheet all cleaned out...and then stared at it wondering how to get my cutouts from the glossy white paper that backs vinyl to the freshly painted block I was planning to use.  What is a crafting nut to do...Google.  I googled, it answered.  After reading tons of posts and articles, I learned that I needed some sort of transfer paper to make the move.  Many said you could just use contact paper.  Basically that was all I found..use contact paper.

At first, I did.  I had a roll of white contact paper inherited from somewhere that had never been touched.  I placed that contact paper on top of my vinyl and smoothed it out.  Bad idea.  It totally stuck to the vinyl.  I read more and one lady said to stick the contact paper to your couch a bunch of times to make it less sticky, then use it.  Did that.  It was OK, but certainly not something I could sell.  

Finally, I ran down to Hobby Lobby and bought a $10 roll of transfer paper, about 6 feet of it.  It worked well for getting the vinyl off the backing and transferring it to the wood, but when I did try to use it to sell vinyl, I found that the transfer paper wouldn't stick to the vinyl backing itself and had to buy a bunch of masking tape to keep the two together for transporting.  If you are just making things for around the house, go for the craft store stuff you can buy with a coupon.

If you plan to try and sell your work, get the real deal online.  The first roll I bought was 100 feet long, 12" wide, and sells right now for $33 on Amazon.  I personally love to work with the seller Vinyl Ease.  The really do sell a great product.  I just bought a 300 foot roll at the start of this season for about $43.  So for $10 more you get three times the length.  Fabulous!  I think I have about 100 feet left right now.  

Anyway, get your roll and find the open seam.  Pull out a foot or two of length like you would packing tape or something like that.  

For this example, I will just pull out enough to do one 12x12 sheet of vinyl.  Normally, I have 20+ sheets weeded and end up pulling out 5 feet all along my table at one time.

Don't cut anything yet.  I like to place my scissors or some other non-rolling tool under the roll so it stays where I put it.  That way I can concentrate on getting my vinyl on without any bubbles.  It takes two hands to do that!

I can't photograph it very well with one hand :0}  But basically I put one corner of the vinyl sheet down meeting corners with the transfer tape.  While still holding the rest of the paper in the air, I line the rest of that bottom edge of the vinyl up with the bottom edge of the transfer tape.  Once you get the bottom all lined up, press the vinyl paper on top of the sticky transfer tape pressing from the bottom up.  

Once you get it down completely, smooth your hand over the whole sheet so that it is completely in contact with the transfer paper.

Now cut it off.  Normally I do use scissors, but the exacto knife was just sitting here and my scissors are all the way across the room.  Yep!  Lazy.  I know.  It still works though :0}

Turn that sheet over and cut into individual pieces, being careful to stay away from the vinyl with your scissors.  Now just rub down any of those whiter areas.  They are just air bubbles.  No big deal.  Now you are ready to either use that vinyl, or if you are selling, pack it up in an envelope and mail it out.  

Up next, what to do when applying Transfer Tape GOES WRONG!

oH my!!!

Never So Easy To Win $25

{image source}

Guys, The Motherhood contacted me today about an easy way to win a $25 gift card!!!

All you have to do is fill out this 5 minute survey on SurveyMonkey and you will be entered into a drawing for one of 20 gift cards to be offered.  I just took the survey and it was easy.  Yes, yes I do use canned fruits and vegetables.

just click HERE for SurveyMonkey

The Motherhood is researching moms using canned fruits and vegetables at home and they want to hear from you.

Take the survey, and at the end, enter your email address.  TheMotherhood gives you their word they will not use your email address for any other reason than to contact you if you're a winner.  What do you have to lose!?!  This is just for research.  You only have the next five days to get 'er done.  The opportunity ends November 26th, 2013.

 I LOVE the Motherhood's projects and have seen many of my friends and family win their drawings. Take this quick survey and maybe you will be the next winner!!! 

Think of it as potential Black Friday Mad Money...

How to Weed Vinyl

I was weeding out a custom order today and thought it the perfect example of how I work my vinyl.  

First of all, I use a self healing mat and an exacto knife.  I have purchased the hooks and scrapers sold with the electronic cutting machines, but nothing is as sharp as a good old exacto knife.  I go through a TON of blades.  I like them very sharp in order to work quickly.  Guess who caries them???  Everyone!  I have recently purchased exacto knives and blades at:  Walgreens, Cub Foods {grocery store}, Walmart, Target, Hobby Lobby, Joanns, Michael's, and Home Depot.  I never knew before this season of Nativity Vinyl, but exacto knife blades come in different sizes!!!  That little factoid is good to know if you are running out to purchase replacement blades.  Check to see what size your little handle takes...or just take it with you.

Whatever you do, get one!

The reason why this particular project makes for a perfect example is because it has all sorts of little pieces to pick out.  We in the vinyl world call it "Weeding" when you pick out all the unwanted specks of vinyl from your masterpiece.  Small letters are something I find particularly vexing, especially for the small ornaments.  If you are planing lettering or numbers on your project, prepare for frustration and go ahead and just cut out extras to begin with.  More on that later...

Now, just having an exacto knife will do nothing but shred your vinyl.  The important thing to know is that you will mostly use the blunt side of the blade.  Rarely will you find use for the sharp side.  

The next part of that, is that you always want to be behind the vinyl pushing it up...not at the front of the scrap pulling it out.  That will just cut the scrap even smaller and make more work for you.  

***Disclaimer*** I am left handed!  Crazy, I know.  Please, please, please try to imagine these hands opposite if you are right handed like the rest of the world.***

I like to start with my least favorite pieces, or the pieces that are the hardest or most annoying to remove out of the way first thing.  That is why I chose to remove the VERY thin scraps between the rings of the outer circles shown above and below.  Note that I have my exacto knife, blunt side up, pushing the scrap of vinyl out of it's spot.  

For a long piece like this, I generally get it poking out of it's home with the knife, then grab it with my fingers and pull it the rest of the way out.

Now, for the little pieces, I just stab them and push them out of place.

For this particular design, I have 8 small pieces inside the nativity area alone.  I do not remove each piece from the blade before continuing on...I just keep stabbing until the thing will stab no more.  It reminds me of those trash picker-uppers the cartoon characters used way back when...who was that?  Daffy Duck...Sylvester and Tweety.  I can't remember.  I just remember how cool it looked to poke trash with that stick and wished I could be a trash poker some day.

Guess what?!?  Dream Realized!

I now get to stab my own little weeds and get paid for it.  Ha!

OK, here is my picture showing you all the little pieces all stacked up on my knife blade.

First thing, PLEASE excuse my yucky black spotted nails.  I rubbed glaze on a couple glue gun stands today and can never get it all off.  Second, when my blade is full, I CAREFULLY grab the vinyl scraps with my finger.  Basically I wipe them off onto my finger, again I use the blunt side of the blade.  Yes, I have cut myself before.  No, not very often.  Once you get a big piece of vinyl on your finger, you have a layer of protection from the blade and are pretty safe to keep staking your little "weeds" on top.

I will show you what else you can do with your scraps in a minute.  Here I am about to stab the center of that zero.

Stab and push forward/upward.  Bam!  Cleaned out zero.

That tiny little triangle inside the A???

Stab, lift, done.

So if wiping these little weeds on your finger is just too creepy to you, you can totally press them into the extra vinyl around the outside of your design.

Usually you just have to touch the vinyl and the little bits will just stick.

Alright, once I have the little pieces out, I go for the big ones.  It all works in that idea, get the annoying ones first, then feel free to enjoy picking out the big areas.  It really is fun.  I am telling you, vinyl is addictive!  Especially when you get it positioned on your project and see just how fabulous it looks.  You won't be able to wait for your next vinyl adventure.

So anyway, notice how I stabbed {remember I am left handed} from the far left edge, blunt edge of the blade up, and pushed the piece out and up.  If you are right handed, I would start on the far right edge of the piece and move towards your left.  It just works better.

See, now I just add that honken' piece to the tiny stack of weeds already on my finger and keep going.

Stab far edge, push, lift...

OK, go slow around letters.  Sometimes they are perfectly still.  Other times letters hitchhike with your scraps and the trouble begins.  You will be searching through weeds looking for the 1/4" S.  Even if you find it, vinyl is extremely stretchy so it is really hard to unstick it without destroying it {if you are using quality vinyl anyway ;0}

Looks good!  The coast is clear.  Pull the rest of that bad boy off and move on to the other side.

Love it.  Add that scrap of missing letters to the pile.  I feel like a kid when I look at the scraps where letters once were and want to keep them cause they look cool.  Nerd.

Time for the other side.  Hold your breath...that's it...keep it coming.  Numbers STAY THERE!

Voila!  We have a perfect year {snicker}  I wish!

When the pile gets a little large you can start a landfill on the table.  Just don't push it down too hard or you will be prying vinyl scraps off the table in the end.

There you go!  One completed weeding and you didn't even need your gardening gloves.  

OK, so I like to work in quadrants when weeding larger sheets like this 12x12 sheet of black vinyl.

Now, when I was picking out one of the next nativities, this pesky little "T" did NOT want to stay put.  I pulled the vinyl up slowly, which was good because I was able to see that the T was in motion before things got irreversible.

If this happens to you, once again ignore my dirty craft-tainted fingers, and roll that vinyl scrap back into place.  Press everything down, then pull the scrap up again.  My T was still lifting up, so I just used my fingernail to hold it down while I removed the scrap.  If you dont' have any fingernails to speak of, you can totally use another exacto knife to, kind of laying down on top {blunt side please!} of the letter until you get that scrap up.  You may have to go back and slide it back into place. 

OK, now I will just show you me going through this sheet like magic.  I cheated on this one and did three rows of two instead of keeping to my quadrant plan.  What can I say?  I am a WILD CHILD!

That is pretty wild to my husband.  Engineers.  Gotta love 'em!

OK, I turn the vinyl sheet so the next quadrant is under my lamp and then I weed away.  Two quadrants done!

Now, I should mention my lamp.  I have the best light in the whole wide world.  It is pretty close to this one:

Except it cost only $20 from Costco around Christmas time about 8 years ago.  They still get them in about this time of year though.  If you don't have one, put that first on your Christmas list.  It is totally fabulous.  I have a little white extention cord attached to it and just move it around the house about twice daily to whatever work area of choice is the favorite that day.  

Anyway, I just shine that above my vinyl work and then I can see things so much better.  So, for supplies, you need a self healing mat, an exacto knife, and a good light source, Ott Lite or not.  I have found if you position your lamp past your vinyl piece you are weeding, then shine it back toward me I can see the vinyl seams the best.  Go ahead.  Get even crazier and move that lamp around.  You will see what I am talking about.

OK, just two left.  Wait for it...

Done!

Awesome.  A sheet like this I weed in 5-10 minutes, depending on how many drinks I have to grab for children or how many times I have to get up to answer the door ;-}

Wait!  We are not done!!!  We have to take the outside scrap off! 

I stab with the exacto knife right close to the bottom edge of my project.  For some reason the bottom works better than from the top.  Like with my manger scenes, there is that pointy star at the top and if I pull the scrap vinyl off from the top I tend to get caught on the stars.  It seems to be the same with letters and numbers.  They are flatter or wider at the bottom or something so it really does work best to take the scrap off from the bottom.  Do I sound like I am babbling now?  Wow!  It is Way past my bedtime!!!

OK, stab that vinyl, blunt side toward the edge.  With this part you really only want to separate the vinyl from the backing so you can grab it and pull it off with your fingers.

Lift slowly making sure everything is staying where you want it.  If lifting this whole sheet at one time is too stressful, lightly run your exacto knife from top to bottom between your rows of cutouts before you pull that outer scrap off.  It will make rows of vinyl so you don't have to keep track of so many pieces at once.  Just don't cut all the way through the backing too.  You want a nice square piece for your transfer paper in the end.  

*more annoying little facts only I obsess about* Weed out the inside of your letters and numbers first.  I have found that if you pull the outer scrap off from around letters and numbers, then try to take the centers out, most of the time the tiny little letters and numbers start sliding an moving all over the place.  Just trust me on this.  Weeding vinyl has become as normal to me as breathing lately.

Last rule, you must take all your scrap pieces, engulf them in the huge outer scrap you just took off, and roll it up like a ball and throw it at someone.  Really.  It is an official law.  I am a law obeyer.

My husband also loves this about me ;0}

Alright.  I am going to bed.  I have more to do tomorrow than I ever want to think about.  I will, however, come back and show you how to use this stuff.  It is called transfer paper or transfer tape, and I will even tell you where I get it.  You can't do vinyl without it!  At least, you can't do vinyl WELL without it.