Tag: Vinyl decals

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Easy Personalized Bachelorette Water Bottles With Cricut

personalized vinyl water bottles

Have you seen all those cute personalized bachelorette water bottles on Pinterest and Etsy? They are so adorable! They also can be pretty pricey. If you’re on a budget for your wedding and like to DIY items, this easy Cricut tutorial is for you! You’ll learn how to make vinyl decals, transfer them and create super adorable bottles and tumblers for your bach!

I am planning my sister’s bachelorette, and I wanted to create adorable water bottles that we can use by the pool and such. I love to DIY my projects and thought; let’s try making it myself. I’m so glad I did because the result was a fraction of the cost, and I didn’t sacrifice quality at all! Each bottle comes out to less than $3.00 each. 

All the other bridesmaids loved the bottles too. 

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something I may earn a commission. Thanks!

Easy Personalized Bachelorette Water Bottles  (Tutorial)

Materials: 

Permanent Vinyl ( I used this Rose Gold Vinyl)*

Cricut

Light Grip Mat

Weeding Tool

Water Bottle** (I chose clear for my project)

transfer tape

 

Notes: 

*This vinyl comes with a protective clear sheet. Remove this before you place the vinyl on the circuit mat. 

**This tutorial works with water bottles and tumblers. If you’re using a different bottle than the one I used, you can use a measuring tape to figure out your decal size. 

Instructions

There are 4 steps to making your personalized bachelorette water bottles.

  1. Create your text/cut file in Cricut Design Space. 
  2. Cut your vinyl decal with Cricut
  3. Apply transfer tape to your decal
  4. Apply decal to your water bottle. 

Here are detailed instructions for each step.

How to Make Vinyl Decals with Cricut

For my bottles, I decided to use Metallic Rose Gold Vinyl. I absolutely love how shiny and glossy this vinyl is, and it comes out so pretty and elegant. It’s gorgeous, and I can’t stop looking at it!

To make your personalized bachelorette bottles, you’ll start by making your decal with your Cricut. 

Choosing a Decal Size

There are two ways to make decals: 

  1. Use the same width for your size. 
  2. Use the same font. 

When you use the same width, longer names will appear smaller and shorter names will be bigger. With this option, decals will have different heights. 

With option #2, your decals will be cohesive. For my project, I decided to go with option 2 because I am placing my decals vertically and wanted the same height for them. 

Instructions

  1. Open up  Cricut Design Space.  Choose a new project.Cricut Design Space New Project Screen
  2. Select Text from the panel on the left. how to add text in cricut design space
  3. Type your desired name into the text box. For this example, we are using “Vanessa. “Typing Name into Text box in Cricut Design Space
  4. Change your font to 72 pt and Christmas Farmhouse. 
    1. Christmas Farmhouse is a licensed font. I got mine from Creative Fabrica membership. Creative Fabrica is a wonderful website to get fonts. If you don’t want to pay for the membership, you can look for a font that is available for personal use or use a font that is already in your system. Cricut Design Space Text
  5. Highlight and Ungroup your text (This will let you move each letter around). Ungrouping text in Cricut Design Space
  6. Move the letters to attach them so that the name is cohesive. You can skip this step if you are okay with the spaces between the letters. I wanted my writing to be script. text in cricut design space
  7. Select your text and weld (bottom right-hand corner). This puts your text back together as one piece. weld text in cricut design space
  8. Change the color to match the vinyl color. For this project, I chose a rose gold color. change color in cricut design space
  9. Select Make it from the upper left-hand corner. make it in cricut design space
  10. Change the size to match your vinyl. I used 12 x 12. Once the proper size is selected, hit continue from the bottom left corner. change material size in cricut design space
  11. Change the dial on your Cricut to Vinyl. 
  12. Remove clear protective covering from your vinyl—place vinyl on a light grip mat. 
  13. Load your light grip mat into the Cricut by aligning your mat and hitting the arrow button.
  14. Select Make It on your Computer and the flashing C on your Cricut. 
  15. At this point, your Cricut will cut the name. When finished, unload by hitting the arrow button. 

How to Weed Your Vinyl Decal

Using your weeder, carefully lift the edges of the vinyl up. Use the weeder to help peel away the excess material. 

weeding vinyl

 

How to Transfer Your Decals 

Now that you have your decal weeded, you’ll prep it for transfer to the water bottles. Cut the same size transfer tape as your decal. Carefully remove the carrier paper backing from the clear transfer tape. Take the transfer tape and place it directly on top of your decal. You can now move onto applying your personalized decal to the water bottle.

vinyl and transfer tape

vinyl with transfer tape

Vinyl Application Instructions: 

  1. Clean the application surface area with alcohol or soap & water. Dry thoroughly.water bottle with personalized vinyl name
  2. Using a squeegee/scraper or credit card, press firmly on the back of the decal to ensure that the decal sticks to the application transfer paper (clear tape).
  3. Peel the paper backing away from the decal very slowly. If the decal is still on the carrier paper, use the credit card again to firmly rub until the decal lifts on to transfer the paper completely. Go slow and press firmly from all directions. 
  4. Apply decal to cleaned and dry area, pressing firmly using squeegee or credit card to adhere decal to application surface. Be sure to go slowly to avoid any bubbles. It’s best to start pressing from the center outward. 

personalized vinyl water bottles

Notes: 

  • This vinyl is permanent. 
  • Handwash surface only. Decals are NOT microwave or dishwasher safe.

Tips and Tricks

How to Avoid Air Bubbles On Your Vinyl

Sometimes you will see air bubbles pop up when you transfer your vinyl. Here are ways to get a smooth transfer. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial for personalized bachelorette water bottles tutorial. If you make these bottles, I’d love to see your creations. Tag me on Instagram @by.bindi. 

Want more Cricut tutorials for bachelorette favors? Try making these confetti hearts to add to your favor bags or bridesmaid proposal boxes. Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to stay updated on the latest blog posts. 

Looking for cute ready-made wedding favors? 

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How to Make Personalized Vinyl Decals with Cricut

Have you seen those cute personalized vinyl decals and thought, “Hey, I want to try to make this at home?” 

Well, you can with this beginner-friendly DIY guide!

Personalizing items is so much fun! It’s probably one of my favorite DIY Cricut projects. In this free tutorial, you’ll learn how to make personalized vinyl decals with Cricut that you can use to decorate any item you want!

Why should you make personalized vinyl decals?

You can use these name decals to personalize coffee mugs, wine glasses, and much more! They are great for jazzing up drinkware in your home. This past new year’s I made my own 2021 champagne flutes and didn’t have to buy them!

They’re also great for bachelorette and wedding DIY projects. Creating custom gifts is so easy. 

Personally, I also sell these on my Etsy store and I have sold many of these worldwide. 

What are you waiting for? Let’s get started!

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something I may earn a commission. Thanks!

How to Make Personalized Vinyl Decals With Cricut

Supplies List: 

Vinyl

There are many types of vinyl out there and what you use will change based on your project. I use Oracle 651 for my permanent vinyl projects and Oracle 631 for temporary vinyl. These types of vinyl work with hard surfaces such as glass. 

Oracle 651 brand is great to work with and it can be used outside as well. For this tutorial, I used Oracle 651 in gold. 

Note: Oracle 651 is not an iron-on vinyl. This won’t work with T-shirts and fabric. 

Transfer Tape

Transfer tape is used to remove your personalized vinyl decal from its carrier paper to help you transfer it to your project surface. 

Cricut

Cricut Mat

Weeder

A weeder is used to help you remove the excess bits from the carrier paper. 

Notes: 

When you first start out with creating your personalized vinyl decals in Cricut, you want to stick to clear legible fonts and larger sizes. As you get more comfortable, you can move to a cursive font. This is because smaller fonts and scripts are delicate and harder to weed. It requires more expertise and patience. 

Instructions:

Open a new project in Design Space:

how to make personalized vinyl decals in circut design space

Click the text box from the left-hand panel:

how to add text in cricut design space

Write your desired name. For this tutorial, I’m using my name (Bindi). 

how to make personalized vinyl decals in cricut design space

Change font in the top panel. For beginners, first, start with an easy thick font.  Once you get comfortable with the process, you can experiment with other fonts. I chose Arial and Bold for style. 

how to change font in circut design space

Next, we will change our size. 3 inches width is the smallest size you should go with as a beginner. Note that if your name is long, it will appear smaller as it will have less height than a shorter name. Here are some examples of how names change based on character length. It’s important to take this into account when you are determining the width size. 

how to change text width in cricut design space

Here is the name Alexandra with a width of 3 inches. You can see it’s a much smaller font to make it fit. 

cricut design space, longer character names have shorter height compared to shorter character names

Once you have your text the size and font you want,  set the color to match your vinyl.  I changed mine to gold. 

how to change color in cricut design space

Select Make it in the right corner.  

how to make personalized vinyl decals with cricut

On the next page choose the size of your vinyl.  Mine is 12 x 12. Move to next page.  

how to make personalized vinyl decals in cricut design space

Change the dial on your Cricut to Vinyl. 

Load your mat and hit the flashing C to cut your project. 

Once Cricut finishes. Cut the name from the sheet of vinyl and start weeding. 

How to Weed a Vinyl Decal:

Using your weeder, carefully lift the edges of the vinyl up. Use the weeder to help peel away the excess material. 

Troubleshooting 

Sometimes, you may see some cutting problems with Cricut depending on the type of vinyl you use.  

I have had issues with Paper Studio and Glitter vinyl not cutting through because they are thicker.  In these instances, you will need to experiment.

You can increase the cut pressure by selecting custom on your dial and browse materials.

how to change material settings in cricut

Play around with the settings and add multi-cut if needed.  

how to change material settings in cricut

I’ve also found success with the Iron-On setting.  

When you are ready to apply to a surface, apply transfer tape to the decal. 

Vinyl Application Instructions:

  1. Clean the application surface area with alcohol or soap & water. Dry thoroughly.
  2. Using a squeegee or credit card, press firmly on the back of decal to ensure that the decal sticks to the application transfer paper (clear tape).
  3. Peel the paper backing away from the decal very slowly. If the decal is still on the carrier paper, using credit card again to firmly rub until decal lifts on to transfer paper completely. Go slow and press firmly from all directions. 
  4. Apply decal to cleaned and dry area, pressing firmly using squeegee or credit card to adhere decal to application surface. Be sure to go slowly to avoid any bubbles. It’s best to start pressing from the center outward.

Vinyl Decal Aftercare and How to Seal Your Vinyl Decal: 

Please note that your item after the vinyl application is NOT microwave or dishwasher safe. You can handwash your items for maximum longevity. 

If you would like your vinyl decal surfaces to be microwave and dishwasher safe, there are some things you can do to seal the vinyl.

  • Epoxy Resin:
    • This is one of the more popular methods to seal vinyl. Vinyl stays put and resin keeps the decal’s vibrant colors. 
    • The downside is that epoxy resin is toxic and very tough to handle. Using this method requires a lot of preparation and time. Follow proper instructions and make sure to use gloves and a ventilating respirator mask to avoid breathing fumes. 
    • This tutorial is a great resource if you’re looking to use this method. 
  • Mod Podge:  
    • Mod Podge is dishwasher and microwave safe is used to paint over your decal surface. 
    • This sealant is water-based so it is non-toxic.
  • Spray Sealant: 
    • A spray sealant helps with building an even coating on your surface. You’ll need a liquid polyurethane spray. 
    • Use in a well-ventilated area and wear proper masks. 
    • This is a good sealant spray. 
  • Crystalac Brite Tone: 
    • This is a great epoxy alternative as it’s non-toxic. 
    • It goes on in thin layers so it can take time to build-up to the thickness you like. 

Hope you enjoyed this step-by-step guide to make personalized vinyl decals with Cricut. How did your decals turn out? Comment below or tag your photos on Instagram – @By.Bindi. I would love to see your creations.