EASY CRICUT VINYL PROJECT

easy cricut vinyl project where I take a charger plate and cut some vinyl with the cricut maker and attach the vinyl to the charger plate. An easy quick cricut vinyl project.

Now here is a really easy and budget-friendly DIY Easy Cricut Vinyl Project. I believe even Santa would approve since Reindeer’s deserve their very own treat plate!

I picked up this sparkly red charger plate at Hobby Lobby when it was 40% off. Instantly I thought of Rudolph’s shiny nose so bright! You could even use a dollar store plate or charger for this project as well.

Let me show you the steps to create this easy Cricut vinyl project for Reindeer Treats! There is even a video below if you prefer to learn visually, I know I do 🙋‍♀️

Supplies

Table of Contents

Any plate you prefer (I used a 13″ Charger plate)
Premium or Removeable Vinyl ( I used Cricut’s Premium Vinyl)
Cricut Weeding Tool Set
Transfer tape
Cricut Explore Air or Cricut Maker
Optional plate stand
Optional Portable Trimmer (I love this trimmer)
My modified Cricut Design Space File

The Process

I am happy to report the process for applying Permanent or Removable Vinyl is very easy. It’s one of those processes where once you’ve done it, it just becomes easy peasy the more you do it.

It’s actually one of the main reasons I love to provide video for my blog posts as it seems to be extremely helpful. There are only a few steps to the process as well.

Cut vinyl with a cutting machine
Weed vinyl
Apply transfer tape and burnish the image
Apply the image and peel off the transfer tape
Admire your creative potential! ☺

Designing

I’ve created this file for you. Basically, I searched images in Cricut Access and used the slice and contour features to create the image I had in my mind.

I love how easy it is to create any project when you are an access member. They have thousands of images and you have many ways to personalize them.

This design was created from 3 different images by using contour and slice features

Grab my Cricut Design Space file here if you have not already

Resize the file if your plate is different than my 13″ plate then click on “Make it” in the upper right-hand corner.

You will then see the screen where you can click on each mat on the left to check if you want to re-arrange any images to a different location of the mat or to a different mat entirely.

There is also an option to “mirror” your project but no need to on “this” vinyl project, so you can ignore the mirror slider bars on the left.

I decided on the second black mat, If I moved my images a bit I could save on my vinyl material. I love to find ways to save material when I can! 🤑

Cricut Design Space Mat — Just click on the images and drag them where you want them to go

Re arrange images on mat — I was able to move the 2 words on one line and then place the eyes and nose just below on one side.

Once my mats were arranged I clicked on “Continue”

Click on “Browse materials”

Click on the “All Categories” drop-down choice and choose which vinyl you are using. I am using Premium for this easy Cricut vinyl project.

Once you select which vinyl you are using you will see the screen to load your fine point blade in clamp B and load mat and press go on your Cricut machine.

material set to premium vinyl then load tools and mat

Cutting

Place the vinyl shiny side up on your green Cricut Mat

Place the mat onto your Cricut and click on the double arrow and load the mat (see small picture)

Then press the flashing GO button (see small picture)

press the flashing go button on your Cricut

Once the cut is complete click on the unload button and turn your Cricut mat upside down to easily remove the vinyl

unload mat and turn mat upside down to remove vinyl — It’s a good habit to remove your materials “especially paper” with your mat upside down

Hot TIP for taking your Cricut vinyl out of the plastic tubes. I show this process in my video too!

Be sure to “NOT” pull the vinyl out of the tube from the inside piece from the middle of the rolled-up vinyl. Eventually, this will harm your vinyl. Not to mention cause frustration.

It’s much easier to place 2-3 fingers on the inside of the roll and turn your fingers so the vinyl gets just a tiny bit smaller of a roll then simply pull out the whole roll. ✔

To get the roll to go back in the tube easily, simply roll the vinyl up a bit smaller than the tube and place the roll in the tube and let go and it will form back into the tube perfectly. Then place the lid back on the tube roll. ✔

Cricut Premium Vinyl Roll and how to remove properly from roll

carefully insert fingers to tighten vinyl inside roll then remove vinyl roll

Load your remaining colors of vinyl color by color until cutting is complete.

Weeding

Once your vinyl has finished the cutting process, it’s time to weed the material you will not use from each image. Some refer to this as the negative part of the image.

weed vinyl — Weeding with a weeding tool makes the job easier and faster!

Once all your images are weeded it’s time to apply a piece of transfer tape to each image. This will allow you to transfer your beautiful cut design onto the product you want it to go on. In this case, the plate.

Apply

Cut and apply transfer tape

I find it best to cut a piece of transfer tape about the same size as your image, not smaller. Then pull back the backing of the transfer tape about an inch. Just enough to get the top of your image to be covered evenly with the transfer tape.

Then turn the image to the side and with one hand pull the backing off and the other hand smoothing out the transfer tape onto the vinyl image. Be sure to watch the video if you are new to this process. It will make much more sense I’m sure 😉

Hot TIP Be sure to save the backing paper you pulled off the transfer tape as you can “re-use” transfer tape over and over until it loses too much stickiness. Once you’ve transferred your image to your plate, simply put the sticky transfer tape back on the backing paper until ready to use again 😉

pull off the transfer sheet backing while slowly move hand on top of the transfer sheet which is now on top of the vinyl image. This makes it easy to apply Cricut vinyl.

Then burnish the transfer tape to the vinyl image so it will want to stick to the image instead of the backing paper on the next step. I find it really helps to turn the image over and burnish the backside 😊

it's good to burnish on the back side too

Once all vinyl images have their transfer tape on them and burnished it’s time to prep your plate so the vinyl will adhere perfectly. This is super easy with a lint-free cloth or a coffee filter and I put rubbing alcohol in a little squirt bottle for easy spraying.

clean plate with a lint free cloth or coffee filter with rubbing alcohol

Simply spray with the alcohol and wipe with a lint-free cloth. Once the plate is dry you may apply vinyl.

If you have any hand lotion on your hands it’s a good idea to wash your hands before working on your project as well. Scrub a dub dub! 🛀

Applying the vinyl is just like applying the transfer tape, Yay! Easy!

How to easily apply Cricut vinyl with ease

line up your image to your plate and peel off some of the transfer tape to apply — Line up where you want your image to go

start at top and smooth as you go — Peel back a little of the transfer tape to adhere the top of the transfer tape and vinyl to the plate

turn sideways as you remove the backing and smooth the top as you go — I like to then (personal preference) turn my project sideways as I did putting on the transfer tape. Then as before pull backing away with one hand and smooth with the other hand as you pull slowly. Be sure to see the video if you are new to this process.

Once the image is on the plate, burnish it evenly onto the plate, then slowly pull away the transfer tape and ensure the vinyl image is only sticking to the plate. If any of the vinyl still sticks to the transfer tape, simply rub your finger onto it again and then proceed again.

burnish onto plate then pull back transfer tape

I used sparkle vinyl for the inside of the reindeer eyes. The picture comes out kinda funny looking but in person, the Reindeer’s eyes have a cute twinkle ✨

I simply peeled off the sparkle vinyl with my fingers and stuck it to the back of the black portion of the eyes. This way when I applied the black eyes and nose the sparkle vinyl shows as the inner part of the Reindeer’s eyes. Too cute!