Vinyl Cutter

To see the process of making this sticker, watch my Youtube video here: https://youtu.be/dVDFX_aLuvI

Materials

• Vinyl
• Contact paper

Workflow

Obtain Image

Go to the silhouette laptops

Find desired silhouette picture/style

Click on the image

Click “View Image”

Right-click on the image

Go “Save Image As”

Save it somewhere where you can find it (desktop) and under a name that you will remember

Obtain Vinyl

Get a piece of vinyl from either the rack or the scraps pile

Cut out only what is needed

Put the vinyl on the cutting mat

Use a green squeegee to ensure it is applied completely flat

Prepare the Vinyl Cutter

Align the cutting mat with the arrows on the vinyl cutter

Press “Load Cut Map” to load the vinyl cutter

Using Silhouette Studio to Cut

Open Silhouette Studio

On the desktop, right click on the file

Go “Open in” and find Silhouette Studio and click on it

The image will appear in Silhouette Studio

Use the move tools to move it around according to where you positioned your vinyl on the cutting mat

Change the size of the image by dragging the corner of the image, if necessary

Click “Select Trace Area”

Drag a box around the image

Apply any filters necessary so that the whole image is highlighted yellow

Under the “Apply Trace Method”, select the first option, “Trace”

Move the original image away and a red line will appear around the image, and this is where the laser cutter will cut.

Go back and apply different filters so that the red lines are where you want them to be, if necessary

Go “File” and “Send to Printer”

Obtaining the Sticker

After the cutter has finished, unload the cutting mat by pressing “Unload”

Ensure that it has cut correctly and the shape looks right. If not, go back and try again

Get contact paper

Cut it to an appropriate size surrounding the sticker

Use a green squeegee to put the contact paper flat onto the sticker

Peel off the contact paper and sticker

Remove any parts that will not be part of the sticker with tweezers

Remove the excess vinyl from the cutting mat

Replace the cover sheet onto the cutting mat immediately

Take the contact paper and sticker and place where desired

Use a green squeegee to ensure the sticker has adhered

Peel away the contact paper