Materials
- Adhesive or heat-transfer vinyl
- transfer tape
Software and equipment
- Cricut
- Silhouette or another vinyl cutter
- weeding hook
Vinyl decals are cut through the vinyl but not the backing, then the unwanted vinyl is peeled ("weeded") away. Good decals have bold letters and a box around them.
What you will learn
- Sizing text so it can be weeded.
- Adding a weeding box.
- When and why to mirror heat-transfer vinyl.
After the tutorial
Upload the SVG to your cutter software, set the material, cut, weed, apply transfer tape and press or stick the decal. See vinyl cutting and weeding.
Steps
The same steps appear in the studio, where each one is checked against your design.
- 1
Add your text
In Create, click Text under Quick add. Type your word in Properties → Text and set Cap height to about 25–35 mm so the letters weed easily.
- 2
Add a weeding box
Click Rectangle and size it a few millimetres larger than the text all round. Centre it over the text. The box makes peeling away the waste much easier.
- 3
Pick your vinyl
Press Esc. In Material, choose Adhesive vinyl for stickers or Heat-transfer vinyl for fabric.
- 4
Mirror for heat-transfer vinyl
Heat-transfer vinyl is cut from the back, so switch on Mirror output in Fabrication if you use it. Adhesive vinyl is not mirrored. Confirm when you have decided.
- 5
Check and preview
Open Check & output. Details thinner than 1.5 mm are flagged because they cannot be weeded. Then open Generate files → Preview.
Final result
Compiled by the same engine as the studio: 2 parts on 1 sheet. Red is cut, black is engraved.