How To Make Vinyl Decals At home
If you want to enhance the look of your home, clock, photo frames or to make easy money without incurring much expense, the Vinyl decal is the answer.
You can successfully paste unique designs on different objects if you follow the instructions and guideline mentioned in this article.
Making your own Vinyl decal at home is not a complicated process, you will only need one from the two techniques involved. You either have to cut your decals out of a solid color, from a patterned sheet that is made from a vinyl backed with adhesive or you can print them on an adhesive backed vinyl which is specially designed to use inkjet inks.
Things you will need to cut your Vinyl decals at home:
1. A computer
A computer is very important to have because if you select a design of your choice, you will need to edit it the way you want. You can create your own design using Photoshop in the computer to make your work faster.
Also, you can scan designs which you cut from a newspaper or any other source into the computer for editing.
2. The Plotter
This is a very sharp blade which you can use to cut your vinyl with. It is designed to be large so that it can cut through rolls of vinyl that is up to three feet or more in width.
3. A printer
To produce your own decals at home, you must get hold of your own printer. Printers that are used for the decal printing usually come in various sizes.
They are quite different from office printers because they are specially built to produce an equal distribution of the unique ink that is used for printing stickers, decals or signage.
The decal printer is specially built to be time-saving due to the sharp blade that is built next to the printer's head. This feature proves to be very useful when you are producing a lot of stickers at home.
4. A scanner
This is used to scan a hard copy of a design into the computer in order to edit it to how you want it.
5. Sharp tipped knives
These are like hobby knives which come in handy when you want to cut the rough edges of your decal. You can use them to smooth the areas missed by the printer also you can use it to cut out excessive Vinyl.
6. The Squeegee for Vinyl
This instrument has sharp edges which you can use to apply your decals equally without mistakenly trapping the air bubbles beneath. You can even use it to place the transfer tape on the decals before sending it to customers.
7. The appropriate work surface
A very large work surface is the best when you are cutting your decals. Some of the cutting mats are self-healing, even those that have grid lines or markings ensure an easy and successful separate alignment of the decal pieces.
8. The Transfer tape
Making use of the transfer tape is a very easy and cheap way of making home decals.
Before driving to the next, watch the video first!
Step By Step guide on how to make Vinyl Decals:
Choose your design
The first thing you must do is to choose the design you want to use. If you already have a logo in mind, that is great but if not, you can create from scratch to make it very unique.
However, the fastest is to select an existing design. You can get a design from a newspaper or you can create one using Photoshop.
Scan the design
If you cut your design from somewhere, then you will have to scan it into the computer. This will help you to carry out the next step which is design editing. But if you selected it online or created it in Photoshop, you will just go to editing immediately.
Edit the design
Editing has to do with the necessary adjustments you will make in the shape or colors of the design. Also, you have to resize the design so that it can fit the space of your item.
Increase the decals on a page.
Well, this will help you to minimize the waste of vinyl paper. The truth is that the paper is very costly and you can use one single sheet to make multiple decals as long as you avoid design overlap.
Do a mock print
You can do a mock printing on a white paper to make sure that the color comes out well and the shape is also right for the target space. Before printing, make sure that you have placed the paper very well to avoid mistakes.
If you are confused about the side to use, use something to mark one side of the paper so that you can be sure if the paper will face down or up.
Print the sheet on Vinyl paper
The next is to print the sheet where you posted many decals on the vinyl paper. If your design is a multiple layer type, you can print the same image in two places.
However, if you find out after printing that the ink is not sticking to your vinyl paper, it means that the side you loaded in the printer is the wrong side.
Read our vinyl paper choosing guide to choose yours one.
Preserve your printed decal sheet
In order to protect your decals from fading, you need to laminate the sheet. Press the sticky side of the laminate sheet down to your decal sheet and feed through the laminator preferably a cold-press type of laminator. Remember to trim those excess laminate out before putting it in the machine.
Cut the decal and apply
After laminating your decal sheet, you can start cutting the decals one after the order and placing them on your object. When you place it on the object, use your X-Acto knife to trim off the excess sides. Then peel the backing from your vinyl sheet and stick your decal to the object.
Well, making a vinyl decal at home is very simple and easy if you follow these steps.
So get your tools today and start sticking up designs on your objects. It is that simple. No need to spend your money again.
