How to Make Vinyl Stickers

These DIY Vinyl stickers are a great alternative to regular paper stickers because you can stick them to items that might need to be washed or will be in contact with water like cups, glass or car windows.

There are a few key things when making vinyl stickers. The main difference when making vinyl stickers is the design.

Materials for Vinyl Stickers

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The reality is any type of permanent adhesive vinyl works for stickers.

I would just recommend getting an assorted set. That way, you have many colors to work with.

All permanent adhesive vinyl can withstand some water although none will survive the dishwasher. I have not found a huge different in the brands and their ability to battle the elements.

There are many many great deals on assorted vinyl sets from Amazon.

I also recommend transfer tape for vinyl stickers especially if the designs has a lot of floating pieces. Vinyl is also thin and flimsy so it’s easy to get it tangled up when transferring without transfer tape. I buy this transfer tape from Amazon frequently.

Vinyl Stickers Designs

When making vinyl stickers, one thing to keep in mind is the negative space.

Will your sticker be a cut out of the shape or letters? Do you expect to use transfer tape to get the sticker on the glass?

Vinyl is really flimsy and super hard to transfer by itself, especially for larger designs.

When making designs that don’t require transfer tape, the entire design needs to be intact and continuous.

For example, in this robotic face design, I made a continuous stick to put on these wrapped cookies. In doing so, I removed the rectangular strips and triangle in the forehead.

Transfer Tape for Vinyl Stickers

I would recommend using clear transfer tape for all vinyl stickers regardless of the design.

Here are some great deals on clear transfer tape from Amazon.

Using transfer tape for Vinyl stickers is super easy.

First weed the negative space of the vinyl cutout. Then place the transfer tape on the remainder of the design. Scrape with a credit card or dedicated scraper. Peel back the base paper and place the transfer onto the end item.

Transfer tape works on the basis of relative stickiness. The transfer stickiness is less than the stickiness of the vinyl.

This usually works unless you are trying to stick it to really textured surfaces like wood or canvas. My best advice is to use your tweezers to pin down the corner of the vinyl piece if you are having trouble sticking it.

Also, when layering multiple colors in one sticker, use clear transfer tape to align the design to its original layout.

DIY Vinyl lettering

Vinyl letters is tricky because not all letters in the alphabet are continuous in every font.

If I am making vinyl stickers with letters, I like to use all caps because most capital letters in most fonts do not have separate pieces.

When making designs that contain multiple letters, consider how they will keep together.

This thank you sticker I designed in the same robotics theme was used as a tape for my gift bag. I wanted the whole design to be continuous so it would be better at keeping the bag closed.

This required moving the letters close to each other so the words were continuous.

How to weed small vinyl lettering

Small letters are hard to weed with the traditional method because the surrounding vinyl tends to pick up the letter. I would instead recommend reverse wedding where you put the whole design onto transfer taper and then pick off the background. The transfer tape has a little more grip on the letters and will more likely hold it in place while you are removing the background vinyl.

How to make multi colored vinyl decals

The easiest way to make multi colored vinyl decals is to print on printable vinyl. I would not recommend printing on vinyl for projects that require a lot of washing. Even though the printable vinyl paper is waterproof, the ink is not and doesn’t last long with lots of washing. This set of waterproof printable paper are great for these mutli colored vinyl decal projects.

I would recommend instead to layer different colors in your design if you want a multi-colored vinyl sticker if that is possible.

How to make vinyl decals with Cricut

Making vinyl decals with the Cricut is super easy. If you don’t have a Cricut cutting machine, check out my article on best Cricut Machine for Beginners.

How to mirror vinyl on Cricut

Mirroring on the Cricut can be done in 2 ways.

You can use the Flip tool in the top toolbar in Canvas View. Be sure to flip horizontal.

You can also just turn on Mirror when you Make It.

Can all Cricut machines cut vinyl?

Yes, all Cricut machines use the fine point blade which is the blade recommended for cutting vinyl.

I have found when using the non-Cricut branded vinyl, it is better to apply less pressure when using the Vinyl cutting setting so you don’t cut through the back paper.

Layering vinyl in Cricut Design Space

Creating different layers for cutting on different color vinyl in Design Space is done by using the colors drop down in the top tool bar.

It doesn’t matter what colors you use. The shapes you want to cut with the same material just needs to have the same color.

You can also add the vinyl sticker to smoother wood. If the wood is rough, try sanding the part where the sticker goes first.

If permanent vinyl can work on wood surface if you just want something more temporary. If you want something more long lasting, I would recommend getting some HTV (Heat Transfer Vinyl) and ironing it onto the surface.

All of these Vinyl Decal Sticker SVG and printable PDF templates featured in this tutorial are free and available in my resource library.

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