Beginner's Cricut Guide: How To Layer Vinyl

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Cricut How To Layer Vinyl for Beginners Pinterest Pin. Has images of adding Cricut Transfer Tape to my cut out design, my Cricut Maker 3 cutting my vinyl, and a picture of my finished design (a sticker that says Treat People with Kindness).

Layering vinyl is such a fun way to add more to your designs and take them to the next level! Starting out a lot of the designs I wanted to make seemed to involve layering different colored vinyl, so I was determined to learn how to do it right away. Here are some steps on how to get started with layering vinyl! Soon enough you will be upping your design potential.

Materials Used:

1. Maker 3 Machine

2. Cricut Premium Permanent Vinyl

3. Transfer Tape

4. Tool Kit

Steps:

1. Prepare your design: Start by creating your design in Cricut Design Space. For mine I decided to make a decal for my laptop. For may design I kept it simple and just did a phrase and the offset the text to give it that pink border. Keep in mind that layering involves creating multiple layers of vinyl on top of each other, so you'll need to plan ahead and choose colors and designs that will work well together.

An image of the decal in Cricut Design Space. The decal says TPWK (Treat People With Kindness) with the letters in white and the background is pink.

2. Cut your vinyl: Next you will cut your project out. I started by cutting my vinyl with my scissors to the size of my design, to limit the vinyl waste.

Two vinyl pieces placed on Cricut Cutting Mat. They are placed next to each other.

I then put my vinyl on my mat to match where my design is in Design Space.

Cricut Design Space with my design separated. The background is in a different place than the text which matches where I put the vinyl on the mat.

I then chose my base material to get my machine to start cutting.

Cricut Design Space screen where you choose your base material, so the machine knows the pressure to cut

*When my design was done cutting, I realized that one of the vinyl pieces was the wrong size, so I did have to recut that. Mistakes happen, it wasn't too bad!

I ended up making a mistake and I cut my holographic vinyl piece too small, so when my Cricut Maker 3 cut out the design, it only cut out part of it. I ended up having to do this cut again

3. Weed your vinyl: Carefully remove any excess vinyl from your design using a weeding tool. This will leave only the parts of the vinyl that you want to use for your design.

Weeding out my vinyl using a Cricut Weeding tool

4. Apply the first layer: You can either use transfer tape to transfer the first layer of vinyl onto your surface or apply your top layer on to the bottom layer like I did. Use a scraper to press the vinyl onto the surface, making sure there are no air bubbles.

The final decal layered on top of one another. I put the holographic vinyl "TPWK" on the pink vinyl piece

5. Repeat with additional layers: Once the first layer is in place, repeat the process with the additional layers of vinyl. Be sure to align the layers as precisely as possible so that the final design looks seamless.

I am transferring the decal onto my laptop using Cricut Transfer Tape

6. Enjoy your design: Your layered vinyl design is now complete! Whether you created a custom t-shirt, wall decal, or other project, you can enjoy your new creation.

Final design. I placed the decal on my laptop and this image shows the decal on my laptop case

Layering vinyl definitely widens the creative horizon and now I feel like I can do so many more projects!

Check out these other blogs for more inspiration and other tips!

1. Working with Multiple Colors of Cricut Infusible Ink: Art Tote Bag

2. Print Then Cut Updates // Cricut Design Space Tutorial

3. Cricut Rainbow Reflective Iron-on // Dog Shirt Tutorial

Cricut Beginner's Guide to Layering Vinyl Pinterest pin. Images of the Cricut Maker 3 cutting vinyl, layering transfer tape and of the finished "Treat People with Kindness (TPWK)" decal