This morning I decided I  had to cut vinyl on my cricut.  I have about 5 or 6 packages of Provocraft vinyl.  Three of them 1 pink and 2 blue I got on clearance at Joann’s for $1.99.  I could not leave them there at that price.

I was fearful of cutting vinyl because I thought that it would be difficult or complicated.  The instructions that come with the vinyl say to cut it on pressure of 2 and blade depth of 6.  It is called a kiss cut because it only cuts the vinyl and not into the paper backing.  I have a 12×24 mat but I just used my 12×12 since I did not want the cut to be very large.   I hope you don’t mind, but I took a lot of pictures because it turned out great and I thought that it might help anyone else wanting to cut vinyl for the first time.

My first picture is where I have the extra vinyl partially peeled away.  I cut the pieces off as I went, that way they were just out of the way and I could work in small sections.

I realized right off that I had to work slow.  I thought that I could just quickly peel the extra vinyl off like it was a paper design.  The following picture is what happened to the first butterfly.  The wing stretched and distorted a bit before the vinyl cuts broke away from each other.

I got my cricut tools out and used the scoop from then on and it worked perfect to help lift off the excess vinyl.  I also found it handy to use my magnetic cutting mat.  It helped keep the vinyl flat so I could work with it.  You could leave the backing attached to your 12×12 or 12×24 mat while you are peeling off the excess to keep it flat as well.

This is the entire project after I peeled away all of the excess vinyl.

I wish Provocraft would have included transfer tape with the rolls but I did buy a roll.  I only cut a 4 1/2 x 12 section of it off to use to do my transfer.  I am putting my butterfly creation on my sliding glass door that goes out to our patio.  The transfer tape worked great.  I put up the butterfly and leaves first and then I cut the 4 1/2 x 12 transfer tape in half and re used it for the butterflies.  I also heard that you could used clear contact paper instead of transfer tape so I tested it on the last butterfly. (the one where the wing was a bit distorted)

This is the clear contact paper.

This is the Provocraft transfer tape.

Here are both applied to my glass door.  The left one is the contact paper and the right butterfly is the transfer tape.  The contact paper and the vinyl transfer tape both worked the same.  I did not notice any difference at all between either.  They both picked up the vinyl off the backing well and when I attached and burnished to the glass, both peeled right off leaving the vinyl in place.  I don’t see any reason why you can’t use the contact paper especially since a huge roll of it at Wal-Mart is less the five dollars, plus you can use the contact paper to try glass etching…(check back soon and I will have some glass etching info posted)

I wanted my first vinyl project to be a cow for my daughters room since she loves them so much.  I even bought the black and white vinyl but did not do it because I thought that it would be to complicated.  I am definitely going to do it now that I am not afraid… Here is my first project completed and I can not wait to try to cut something else.

The design is 2 different svg’s that I have posted in the past.  The original butterfly and leaves svg was posted a while ago.  I decided to change out the butterfly for one that matched my decor a bit better.

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