Hey, guys! Recently, I've been engaging in a joyful decorating process for my car! Putting your personalized decoration and stickers on the back window of your car is pretty funny, easy, and satisfying, especially since I just got my first car and kept seeing various car stickers near me. And I really think that the car decals do help me show up my uniqueness to another extent.
So, here, I'm going to share with you a detailed tutorial about making car decal stickers with adhesive vinyl. In this guide, you will find out what is a car decal, what vinyl to use for car decals, how to make car decals with Cricut, how to apply car decals.
What is a car decal?
First, we're about to figure out what a car decal is. I bet you must have seen many kinds of adorable and awesome stickers on the sides, the windows, the bumper, and the hood of cars. Many of them are made from special stickers featuring strong adhesion so that the stickers can hold up well in places no matter what the weather is like.
These car decals can be a good and stylish way to perform your unique personality and show the main realm you're good at and interested in. A way of getting your new mind-like friends!
What vinyl to use for car decals?
But pay attention; there are several types of crafting vinyl on the market, like heat transfer vinyl, printable vinyl, and adhesive vinyl. Some are unsuitable for outside uses because of their stickiness and durability, and others cannot work with smooth surfaces and glass. Therefore, before you get started making your car decal stickers, make sure you're getting the right vinyl for cars.
Consider this, in this tutorial, we will adopt adhesive vinyl, or you may call it permanent vinyl, as the decal material. Technically, this vinyl is pretty sticky and durable, and vinyl for cars can display vibrant and rich colors for your designs, making it ideal for making custom car stickers!
How to make car decals with Cricut?
How to make decals for cars? Now, it's time to put your car decal ideas into reality! Let’s dive into the details about how to make a car decal with the Cricut app, how to make bumper stickers, and lastly, how to remove a car window decal if you don't want it anymore or made a mistake.
First, you need to prepare these necessary items in advance.
1. A computer with an editing program.
2. A cutting machine.
3. A cutting mat.
4. A pair of scissors. (That's optional, depending on whether or not you need to cut the finished design out of the vinyl to avoid waste.)
5. Adhesive vinyl of your ideal colors.
6. A weeder
7. Transfer tape.
8. A scraper.
After you finish your preparation, you can feel free to select one of your favorite images online and edit it with an editing program. Normally, I use Cricut Design Space to cut down the images. You can choose the image from just the Design Space app or an outside location like Google and drag it into the app to finish the rest work. ( NOTE: Check if your selected image is the suitable form for the app. )
Remember to pick up simple line images rather than complex, colorful ones so the final results can be clearer and more beautiful on your car. And the cutting and weeding process can be easier.
Upload your image into the canvas area. Choose "Simple line."
Click the cutting parts to make it transparent, with the background checkered.
Connect your cutting machine to the computer
Stick your vinyl for car decals on the cutting mat's corresponding place so you won't make the wrong cut. Load the material and mat into the cutting machine.
(Do not mirror the image.) Send the cutting code to the machine. And start cutting.
After cutting out your ideal design, now it turns to weed the excess parts of your design away.
Use the weeder to pick out excess parts and leave the final image on the vinyl.
Until this step, your vinyl decals for cars and bumpers are already finished. Making decals for cars is funny!
How to apply car decals?
Next, it's about how to apply car decals.
Cut your transfer tape into a proper shape that fully covers your weeded image.
Stick the transfer tape over the image and use a scraper to remove the bubbles. Make sure your image has adhered firmly.
Peel off the backing carefully. (Note that there are two kinds of backing. One is paper backing that is easy to damage and leaves sticky residues. Another is PET backing, which is convenient to see through during the weeding process and strong enough to keep your design intact.)
Clean up the spot you will put on the sticker, ensuring no dust and marks.
Stick your transfer tape with the image on the correct spot. Use the scraper to scrap them again, making the image stick firmly and completely.
Finally, peel off the transfer tape, and everything is done! Just enjoy your final result!
And if you're making the mistake of tearing the image apart while peeling off the transfer tape, or you want to change your vinyl car decals, you can just use a hair dryer to blow hot wind towards the spot to peel the vinyl for cars off.
Then use a wet towel with hot water to wipe away the sticky residues. Remember not to use a scraper for scratching the car. That would be a huge loss.
Recommended adhesive vinyl
In the end, I guess most of you are wondering which adhesive vinyl would be your best choice for vinyl car stickers. I worked with Cricut, Siser, and HTVRONT adhesive vinyl before. All are great, but meanwhile, there are also differences among them. Check and choose what you like.
Cricut and Siser are thinner, very sticky, and easy to weed! But they both come with a paper backing and a paper pipe to hold the roll shape, which is much possible to deform during shipping.
HTVRONT comes with strong and sticky PET backing. But it's a little thicker than the above two, which may need a heavier force when setting the cutting parameters to ensure a smooth weeding process. Still, HTVRONT adhesive vinyl may seem to be a great choice of vinyl for cars.
That's all for making decal stickers for cars. What are you waiting for? Just give it a try!
