Vinyl decal business is a great way of earning money for those who want to showcase their creativity through their work. It doesn’t need much expertise, but there are some things you need to know when working from home.
So here are some of the basic steps that a newbie in the vinyl decal business needs to know.
Step #1: Create Your Artwork
This is the most important part of the entire process. Creating your original art requires skill and creativity. The more creative and skillful your art is, the more your designs are likely to sell. When you are working with easy designs like plain texts, the designs are easy to convert into stickers using the vinyl cutting program.
You can also create your own shapes and symbols using software like Adobe Illustrator and create vector art for cut vinyl. No matter what you chose to design, you will have to turn it into vector art so the vinyl cutter can print it.
Step #2: Convert Your Artwork into Stickers Using Vinyl Cutting Program
When your artwork is prepared, upload it to the vinyl cutting program. Using this program, you can format, size, frame, scale, and manipulate the image as you like. Then the image is sent to the vinyl cutter. Usually, vinyl cutters come along with the Vinyl Cutting Program. In case your program does not have a vinyl cutter, you can download it online.
Step #3: Set the Blade
First, you will have to the select blade pressure and depth. For some vinyl cutting machines, you will have to shove the blade down physically. For others, there will be a button which will do it automatically. The blade will have to be adjusted every time you have to change the type of vinyl you are using. This is because the quality and thickness vary from roll to roll. Read the instructions carefully before starting because every cutter is different. This step is perfected only after a little practice.
Step #4: Cut Your Art and Weed Your Vinyl
Most vinyl cutters connect to your computer through the USB port. Once the driver has been installed and the connection has been established, select the right port in the cutting software and switch to online mode. The cutting may take from a few seconds to a few hours depending on the complexity of your design. Easy decal designs are cut within a few minutes. After the cutting is done, remove the cut section from the roll.
Depending on how intricate your design is, cutting may take hours or seconds, but most modest decals are done in a few minutes. When the cutting is done, use scissors to detach the cut section from the roll.
The cutter cuts do not remove all the negative parts of the image. Therefore, you will have to remove the remaining irrelevant pieces of the design by hand. If the cutter blade is set up properly, your design will weed easily.
Step #5: Finally, Apply Transfer Tape
To complete your sticker, you have to put the stick on it. Select a tape that stays flat unless you want the edges of the decal to trap dirt. If you are planning to put your sticker behind the glass, apply the tape of the front side of the sticker. Press the transfer tape onto the vinyl decal nicely using a hard and flat tool.
If you are a MAC user, the vinyl cutters you can go for are SignCut and DragonCut. After this, you have to load the vinyl. Since every vinyl cutter works differently, you should read the instructions before you start.
