11 Cool Things You Can Do With Your Vinyl Cutting Machine

Vinyl is one of the most used materials in the design industry. It is a type of PVC that has got as many variations to its properties such as weight and texture among others.

More so, it has got as many functions including car branding and making prints on various items. The techniques used for the different functions may vary slightly but many of the principles remain the same.

One of its usages involves an electronic gadget called a vinyl cutting machine. This machine is specially designed to cut out anything that is designed on its software with specific reference to vinyl.

Table of Contents

So let’s see how creative we can get with vinyl machine and material.

1. Make Motifs For Home Decoration

Cut out big fonts on thick vinyl for colorful motifs which you could stick to the wall or even mount on an equally colorful frame. This could be the number of your favorite baseball player’s jersey number or your son’s age on his bedroom door.

A big W could be used to provide signage to the washroom and B for the bathroom. You could also use smaller fonts for small sentences or phrases like ‘keep out’ or ‘home sweet home’.

These colorful displays are more appropriate for parts of the house such as the kitchen and bedrooms. The art could also cautiously and creatively be used in the living room.

How To Do It?

Heat press your cut out font or message onto canvas which you can dye to match your design then mount this onto a frame of your choice.

You could also directly stick the cut out items onto the wall where appropriate; the bathroom door is a good example.

The motif could also contain printed font which would require a printable variety of vinyl.

2. Decorated Cups For A Kids’ Party

You could make cool stickers or fonts to stick onto party cups for a kids’ party. The stickers could be personalized if there is a guest list and every kid get one with his or her name printed on the vinyl.

It could also be names of different action figures that the kids love.

How To Make It?

For this, just cut out the figures and stick to the cups.

You could also cut out printed vinyl that has got your design printed on it to put onto the cups.

3. Make Prints On T-Shirts

This is probably one of the most common applications of Vinyl in the name of Heat Transfer Vinyl. This technique produces good quality and durable vinyl prints that normally outlive the fabric printed on.

To do this you will need;

T-shirt
Heat press machine
Cutting tool
Cutting board
Weeding tool
HTV

Steps To Doing This

1
With your tools and materials make your design.
2
Transfer it onto the vinyl before cutting it out.
3
Then use the weeding tool to remove excess vinyl and place the design on the t-shirt before putting it onto the heat press machine.
4
Press for the required time and let the item cool down or else the print may get damaged.
5
Carefully remove the carrier paper to reveal the design.

4. Design Fun Informative Charts For Kids

These charts could be counting charts, alphabetical charts and shape charts that could even be used to give instruction in class.

They could also contain messages such as bible verses, quotes or slogans from favorite action figures and so on. The variety of colors that Heat Transfer Vinyl comes in makes it suitable to make such items for children.

5. Make Signboard

Different types of vinyl have got different heat resisting properties and as such certain types of vinyl can even be used to make outdoor signage. Signs for various indoor functions can also be made from vinyl.

Process Of Making This

1
Design your signboard on graphics software on your computer. Remember to correctly scale your design.
2
Get it printed or transfer the design onto the Heat Transfer Vinyl and cut it out on a cutting mat.
3
Heat press the sign on hard canvas.
4
Mount the canvas onto an aluminum frame.
5
In turn, mount the aluminum frame where the signage is needed.

This type of signage is very suitable for places like hotels and hospitals where you could customize the signage for directions and various hazards.

6. Paper Craft Designs

The good news is that the vinyl cutting machine can also be used to cut other materials that do not strain its blades. These include paper and types of plastic.

This tool therefore is a treasure for persons interested in paper crafts as it can provide ideas and solutions to existing dilemmas.

There is more than one way the vinyl cutting machine can be used in paper craft, but here is one example.

7. Seasonal Greetings Card

1
Design a cut out pattern before getting ready to put your card into the vinyl cutter.
2
Make sure your design is well scaled; make one for the front of the card and one for the inner part of the card.

Remember these are two separate designs to be printed onto one card. The design on the front should be presented right side while the inner part should be presented to the cutting tool mirrored as it is going to be cut from the back side of the card. You don’t want your design to appear upside down.

3
After cutting the design, get another piece of cardboard of the same texture and cut it into the exact size of the card and cut it into two. Stick one side right at the back of the card so that you see the cut out design with the new color in the background. Same to the front.

That was just a simple illustration but these kinds of designs are normally very attractive and can get quite complicated. You will always find more designs and instruction online or from literature form various book stores.

8. Make A Stencil

You can make a stencil to use for different purposes like screen printing, accessory for daycare kids to help learn how to draw patterns and for different geometrical functions.

9. 3 Dimensional Objects

This is for more seasoned persons in the trade and may seem quite complicated. This cutting tool can be used to design and cut out the structure of a 3D structure.

You can either make the pattern on the machine if it has sufficient provisions for that or transfer a design form another computer.

What the machine does is to mark the areas that need to be folded and removes the extra cuttings.

10. Decorative Covers For Phone And Laptops

These are vinyl decal items that have become extremely popular accessories for the two electronic items.

These decorative pieces are normally sold with an adhesive backside that sticks very easily to the item. They are very common for personal decorative functions as well as corporate branding for different organizations. They are also given out as souvenirs for marketing purposes.

The best vinyl cutting machine plays its role here by cutting out the required shapes of the decorative accessories.

11. Make Car Accessories

There are very many uses for cut vinyl here. It could be a sticker with a message like ‘keep your distance’ or decorative shapes and designs that are used to spice the look of the car.

Some of the tint used on cars have got several layers of tint that have got creatively cut designs that are highlighted by the different shades of the tine. A vinyl cutting tool would make this work very easy.

Wrapping up, it is amazing how a tool initially designed to perform a limited number of functions can become so useful not only to persons involved in the direct trade associated with the tool but others form totally unrelated fields.