autometrik

need help cutting vinyl decals by hand

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i'm new at this,   and just trying out making my own vinyl decal stickers by hand,    since i don't have a cutter yet,    and i bought some rolls of single color adhesive vinyl,  a roll of transfer tape,   and everything else needed to do it,    i traced a logo over my computer screen on a piece of thick card stock paper and then i placed that over a piece of vinyl and traced around the outlines of the logo with a pen real hard,  where it pressed the outline lines through onto the piece of vinyl,  enough where i can see it,   then i taped the piece of vinyl down to my cutting mat,   and i started to cut the outline with my exacto knife and a ruler,   and then i just realised that i was confused about one thing?,      if i just cut through the outline into the vinyl,   then it will just cut right through the vinyl backing paper too,     and from videos i've seen,    they cut the letters on the piece of vinyl,  but somehow they cut it with just the right pressure,   where it only cuts the vinyl layer,  not cutting all the way through the backing paper?,     and end up with the vinyl letters cut out but still attached to the full piece of backing paper,     and then they apply transfer tape over the top of the vinyl letters,    and burnish the transfer tape against the top of the vinyl letters,   and have a finished product,   where someone buys it and they peel away the top transfer tape with the vinyl letters stuck to it,   and it all peels away from the piece of vinyl backing paper.

i don't understand how you cut vinyl sticker designs by hand without cutting through the vinyl backing paper too ?,      an example of what i mean is in this short video on youtube,  where shows a guy cutting a vinyl logo sticker by hand,   and he cuts all the letters but they are still all on the backing paper,   and he did'nt cut through it.

https://youtu.be/nq6vdmpum-I

any help you can give me to understand how to do this,   would be appreciated

- Jonathan 

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  Check out a crafters forum.   That would take a ton of experimenting, which you don't know how many hours he spent or how much vinyl he wasted trying to get 1 right.   Practice, practice, practice.   Waste vinyl. waste vinyl.   I would never try to sell one of those to a customer.   This is why we cut with a vinyl cutter. 

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i had a feeling i was going to get answers like that,     cause i know its not the best and most proper way of doing it,    but i just wanted to know from a newby perspective,   for someone who does'nt yet have a cutter machine and can't afford at the moment,      i was giving it a try,  doing it by hand,   as a first attempt,   since thats the only way to do it without a cutter machine,   even know i realise its kind of overboard tedious to do it that way,      but i still don't have an answer as to how people cut vinyl by hand without cutting through the backing paper ?,     i guess now i'm curious and its just stuck in my mind,    but it probably is just like you said,    they practice, practice, practice like hell,   over and over until they get it right,    wasting away vinyl materials.

when cutting my logo,   mine ended up cutting right through the backing paper,   but what i did was i popped the cut pieces out of the piece of vinyl,   and peeled the surrounding scrap vinyl around it,   and then i traced the outline of the logo through the hole in the vinyl backing paper onto a piece of plastic coated freezer paper,  and peeled off the sticker and stuck it over the outline on the freezer paper,     then put a piece of transfer tape over the top of the whole thing and burnished it good,  and it worked that way,    but its more than most would want to do.

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Autometrik, just keep in mind that NOBODY here is going to give you support or encouragement for making decals (or text) by cutting them by hand.

Everything you are talking about is a waste of breath on your part.

You say -- "I still don't have an answer as to how people cut vinyl by hand without cutting through the backing paper?"

Simply put -- we don't cut vinyl by hand.

 

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Cutting by hand is possible, but it's tedious. If you're not cutting anything too huge, consider getting a table top, hobby, cutter like a Cameo or something. If you're cutting larger, longer, or plan to simply just do more - save yourself some serious time, then get a cutter.

As for slicing by hand and not cutting through the backing, it's possible, it just takes practice. I find the need to do that when I fail to cut relief lines through a design i'm working and don't want just one huge piece of negative space I need to weed. I've also had years of practice to know how much pressure to use on the various materials and colors.

Amazon has a great Deal of Day right now for a Cameo package - I think it would well worth your time to put a few bucks in that direction if you're going to be cutting smaller things and doing it often.

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2 hours ago, autometrik said:

 QUOTE > practice, practice, practice like hell,   over and over until they get it right...<

Practice at 'Hand-Trimming' vinyl is fairly fruitless if your Goal is to get a Cutter.

Your Practice time would be better spent working with Imaging  Software and Vector Graphics, IMO.

There are a few Free Programs such as Inkscape and Sign Blazer that may Better advance your Knowledge Base.

2cents.

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I am right where Scarecrow is. Using (or owning) an actual cutter is only part of the spectrum and there are plenty of other parts of the puzzle to begin learning while you save some pennies to buy a cutter. I have seen one or two hand cut graphics done that were passable in a grade school atmosphere. You will never reach a point that you can sell those hand cut to earn the price of a cutter. You wouldn't want to anyway because your future clientele aren't going to be impressed with the hand work when the little old lady down the street with a circut can work circles around you. (DON"T BUY A CRICUT save more and get a real cutter)  Years of practice by hand would be inferior to even the most bottom line of cutters. Sell some lemonade or mow lawns for some cash and buy a cutter. In the meantime learn a program that you will need to be proficient in when that time comes anyway. I CAN emphatically say that if you desire to cut vinyl and are willing to learn the "ropes" (meaning the vector graphics and then the cutter use and then the application techniques) you will have the time of your life. It's "freakin' awesome dude" to quote the vernacular. 

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I can't even imagine cutting decals by hand. That's crazy talk... but I kind of like the thought. Some of the things I do require me to cut vinyl by hand. It's never anything intricate like a logo, but I do sort of pride myself in my steady hand and precise knifework. So while I don't encourage you to follow this path because I think it would take years to be good at it, I'll still give a tip or two.

It's easy to cut just the vinyl by cutting lightly. You really have to bear down fairly hard to cut both. Try using about the same pressure on your knife as you use with an ink pen and paper.

In my experience, you won't be able to cut anything very well until you find a knife that works for you. I can't do anything with an exacto knife. I've used everything large and small. I bought one of those knives with about 30 different blades and found that they're all useless. My favorite knife is something like the NT Cutter knife with 30 degree blades. The standard angled blades are just as useless to me as a butter knife, but the 30 degree blades are amazing. It's the only blade I can freehand a straight line with or cut curves that are smooth and don't look wavy. Your favorite knife may be something completely different, but you probably have to find it. It's probably not what you happen to have laying nearby.

 

 

 

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Does anyone remember the old days of hand cutting vellum for silk screening?  I think the stuff was called maskease or easymask.  A green gelatin on clear plastic and you had to cut the gelatin and weed it without cutting the plastic carrier.  Then you chemically melted the gelatin to the screen, but I don't really remember how.

For a while in the 70's and 80's a lot of the schools in Illinois made every 7th and 8th grade student take HomeEc and Industrial Arts.  It was really a great program, at the end two years everyone,  boys and girls, new how to cook, sew, create a budget, do basic wood working, draft and silkscreen.  Took me nearly the whole quarter to draft the design and cut the screen for my T-shirt. Cutting that stuff was a nightmare but you were sure proud of your work when you were done.

A few years later I stumble across "photo reactive masking" in a DickBlick catalog and couldn't believe how much time I could have saved, LOL.

 

 

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Hahaha, Shane, you're showing your age ... but I'm right there will you! Now days, they I don't think they even teach that stuff anymore. So sad for the new millennial generation.

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Haumana, you are so right. They hardly teach any type of life skills any more at school and the kids aren't learning them at home.  Our son was a Residence Assistant in college and he had a ton of stories about how unprepared this generation is.  College kids who literally didn't know that they had to go to the store to buy toilet paper.

OMG! First it was silk screen vellum and now I'm complaining about teenagers!  By the end of the day I'll be yelling at some kids to get off my lawn!!!

 

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its weird,     i thought i already replied on here,    but i must of typed my reply in the message box,  but did'nt press submit,    but when i went back to the page,  my text was still there to send,      so sorry,    it probably looked like i was just being rude and not saying anything back,   but i just thought i already sent my reply on here.

i was'nt saying i wanted to cut vinyl by hand for the long run,   for years or anything,   i was just doing it to try it out and see how it is creating stuff like decals,   but of course i plan on getting a cutter soon,    but your right,   i should use my time practicing using software until i get a cutter.

i graduated from the art institute of dallas in 1995,   in visual communications program (graphic design/fine art/photography/ad design),   and they did'nt teach much in depth computer stuff back then,   and we did alot of stuff by hand,   like in ad design class we made newspaper type ads in black ink on illustration board and taped layers of clear overlays and amber overlays to make a print-ready ad,   cutting small detailed objects out of amber overlays with exacto knifes and stuff like that,     and i've even had jobs doing tedious stuff by hand,   in printing/pre-press departments and photo labs,    so i guess i'm kind of used to that kind of thing,  where it does'nt bother me as much,   but of course i would rather choose to do it with a cutter instead,   and would'nt want to do everything all by hand if i got into selling product.

another thing i've done that is overboard tedious is making my own t-shirt designs by tracing a logo off my computer screen onto a piece of plastic-coated freezer paper,  then cut the logo out of the freezer paper with exacto knife,    and iron the freezer paper lined up onto the t-shirt,    and apply silkscreen ink with a foam brush inside the logo area,  putting a couple different layers,  letting each one dry fully,   then heat-setting it with an iron,    ironing over a thin undershirt over it all,   and it is like a real shirt,   but its doing it the hard way.

after reading online,  i realised i can get a vinyl cutter for alot cheaper than i thought they would be,   one site recommends getting either a Silhouette Cameo 3 or a Cricut Explore Air 2 for beginners.

but the comparisons showed that the Cricut Explore Air 2 has to be connected to the internet in order to use the design software and cut stuff with it,   but the Silhouette Cameo 3 does'nt have to be connected to the internet,  and i like that better,  cause you never know when your internet might stop working or have problems.     and you can get the Silhouette Cameo 3 on Amazon for $189.99,   which is more affordable for me,    and i plan on getting something like that pretty soon,   in the next few months,  after i sell more stuff of mine on ebay,  (cause thats the money i use to blow on stuff on the side).

maybe part of my problem trying to cut the vinyl stickers by hand is that i'm just using a regular exacto knife,  with the pointed triangular blade,   which even bends side to side and not real sturdy,    i was looking at different types of cutting knifes or exacto type tools at Hobby Lobby,  where i bought my rolls of adhesive vinyl,  transfer tape,  cutting mat and other stuff,   and i only saw one tool with a wide blade with an angled edge with a big knob handle,  but looking at it,  i figured i could use my utility knife to do the same thing that thing does,  so i did'nt get it,   and there was another tool which is meant for cutting around curves and rounded things or tight corners,  which had a tiny blade,  but i did'nt think i needed that either,   i just bought a curved pair of big tweezers,  and a regular exacto with a wide rubber grip.

i am not familiar with all the other types of knifes or cutting tools,  i know theres lot of different kinds,  but probably only available at certain specialty shops or ordering online,   but hobby lobby did'nt have much options,   theres a place in dallas called Asel Art,  which is the best art supply store in the area,  but they close kind of early,  and were'nt open that day,  so i had to go to hobby lobby,    but i also did'nt check Micheal's arts & crafts store or Joann's Fabric Crafts store.

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If the blade is clean/sharp enough, you really don't need to us that much pressure to cut through the vinyl. Admittedly some vinyl is easier to cut than others.

Maybe what you need to check out is a swivel blade. They come in different shapes, sizes and brands, but that will help you so you're not rotating the vinyl a bunch.

I like xacto's, olfa, and fiskars; and have different blades/cutters/scissors for different purposes. But if you're going to be cutting stuff by hand for a little bit, it doesn't hurt to have a better tool to work with!

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