How to cut
2 Color Vinyl
2 Color Vinyl Decal Cutting How-To
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what does that boat is up so today we're
going to go over how to make two color
decals such as this one the same method
applies for multicolored decals so you
can go as many colors as you want the
same method will work so first things
first you got to draw up your design of
the computer and let's go do that now
alright so bear with me I don't have
screen capture software so this is what
we're going to do you know just camera
point at the screen but this next
technique is going to vary depending on
what your design is when if you're
drawing up a custom design you're going
to want to plan out your design to make
it easier to layer you'll get used to it
you'll figure out what works what
doesn't but for this we're going to do a
simple text design we're going to keep
it easy for your first one and it'll
give you the gist of everything you need
to know
so I've already you know written out my
text basically as you can see here my
software likes to make the O's solid but
if you click up here to see what's
actually going to cut it's actually
going to cut out the circles of the O so
I know it looks like they're not when
you go back to this way but it is so
basically you want to take your design
keep everything exactly where it's at so
when you're doing two colored decals
you're doing a technique called layering
you're essentially cutting everything on
different colored sheets of vinyl
picking it up off one sheet and laying
it over top of the other so in order to
do that and keep everything lined up
perfectly you need some sort of
reference point so I use squares
some people use diamonds you can use
most shapes something with hard corners
that you can easily line up though so I
take a square basically you're going to
want to work on square sizes you don't
want them too big you don't want them
too small so kind of figure out a size
that works for you and what you want to
do is go above your work leave enough
room in between the square and the work
so you can cut out your decal you know
once the transfer tape is on so make
sure it's high enough above so it
doesn't get in the way basically what
you're going to want to do is just put
two squares so what I do is I reference
where my square is on the y-axis and I
make sure so this first one
I don't know if you can see first one on
the y-axis is point is one point 308 so
I want to make sure this one is 1.30 8
that just make sure that visually when
you go to put them together later your
eyes not going to be messing with you
you know seeing one that's a little bit
off of the other so once they're both in
the same spot what I like to do is I
like to put a weeding line around it
depending on whether or not your
software does this so what the weeding
line is is as you can see just puts a
little cuts around the actual object
you're cutting out in its entirety that
way it's less waiting for you you can
rip off the full sheet and you're not
and then you can come back and do your
detailed weeding and you're not worried
about pulling letters off or any of that
I'm actually going to scale this up to a
larger size before I cut it that's the
size decal I want like I said this will
work with any size but now I got to take
my squares back down to a more
manageable size prob about an inch and a
half I'd say all right now I'm doing
large decals like this I tend to do them
one at a time in case you know I screw
up because you can screw up a whole
sheet but if you're doing little stuff
you can do this exact same technique for
multiple decals at once you know just
keep your squares up at the top here and
it'll keep all of these in line but bear
in mind if you're just a little bit off
when we're layering that square it's
going to exponentially grow as you get
towards the bottom so if you're just a
little bit cockeyed this bottom one over
here is going to be way too far off so
until you get good at it I'd stick with
doing just one at a time practice
practice practice and then once you get
good you can layer multiples at a time
so I'm now going to load my vinyl
now really shouldn't matter which color
you use first unless you came up with
some really weird design that requires
you're actually laying colors over top
of each other I don't recommend that so
I'm going to start with the white first
but like I said it doesn't matter you
should by now know how to load your
machine if you're trying to do do to
color decals but if not I like to set it
in I have all these reference points
here so to make sure you're straight you
want to get just enough of the blade
that you know you're not going to go
past when you're cut your design but you
want to be far enough over you can use
you know the full width of your vinyl so
I cut make sure that my end cut here is
really straight so all I have to really
do is line it up with one of these
straight lines on here it's the us
cutters is the SC 34 inch cutter just
make sure your viral straight lined up
make sure it's locked in place and
you're good to go so depending on your
software this technique is going to be
the same as mine are different I'm using
sure cuts a lot Pro so I'm going to go
to cut now over here you see my design
down here you have an option to cut by
color if you don't have this option
you're going to have to come back to
your design so say you want to just cut
the white right now what you're going to
have to do is come in and essentially
select the blue delete it this is all
layered together so hold on so you're
gonna have to essentially select the
blue delete it leave everything else in
play cut it come back put the blue black
delete the white and and you know that's
the hard way of doing
luckily they came up with an easy way
and essentially
this thing will do it by itself so
basically I so my software come in I see
my design down here you can either cut
general or cut by color I want to cut by
color so I want to keep every single
color except for the blue so what I'm
keeping here is I'm keeping my weeding
line which is going around I'm keeping
my work and the it which are going to be
white obviously they're black on screen
because you wouldn't see if it was white
and then I'm keeping my reference
squares that I'm going to use to layer
let's go ahead and hit cut and we'll
take it from there
[Music]
ah
[Laughter]
[Music]
what my settings you said it everybody
is going to be different
I cut only Oracle six five one final
Oh
we'll go ahead and cut our white make
sure you get a straight cut I always
like to line a vinyl up on both sides
put these reference marks that they give
you so you know I'm one two three four
over here and go for over in the back
lock it back down and slice it all clear
so now we'll load in our teal remember
always leave I mean I guess depending on
the machine but with my machine you got
to leave it on when you're loading your
different colors or any kind of vinyl
because the blade drops when the machine
shuts off so if you try and slide your
vinyl in you're going to cut along that
edge wherever it runs under the blade so
I run my teal in lock it down another
thing I like to do is turn the Machine
off and back on in between cuts that way
it erases any memory it has the last cut
and you can your start fresh
so now we're back over on the computer
we're gonna go back to cut once again
we're leaving everything in place this
is important
back to cut now what we want to cut is
just the blue as well as our weeding
line again and our squares so you'll see
here we've deselected the black as we no
longer want that color now we're going
to come back in and we're going to cut
just our blue our squares and our
weeding line so once again we hit cut
[Music]
alright alright so we're ready to start
weeding here's where you're going to see
the benefit of adding that weeding line
to it so we're going to take our corner
it's hard to do with a camera right in
front of me peel it up so it works you
know it's more important when you have
actually a large batch or a larger
design or you know more intricate design
with more waste but come through we
doubt our for pickup center though okay
the four is done now we need to work and
the it same thing as our weeding line
come through take out the center uh all
right that's the simple design so it's
easy to weed so let's get to the next
step so something to keep in mind if
you're using a cheaper vinyl the white
on the cheaper vinyl has a white
background with this Oracle 651 they put
a blue background so you can actually
see the squares so if you're using cheap
vinyl which I don't recommend you're
going to want to make sure you layer
with your white first and layer the
white color on top of another color
otherwise you're going to have a hard
time lining up your squares so we're
basically going to be doing is we're
going to apply our transfer tape onto
our first color peeling it up and then
using our squares that we added we're
going to line those squares up with the
squares on our second color and it's
essentially going to lay down our first
color exactly where we want it on the
whole design I have a transfer tape
roller and all that this is quick and
dirty so that's how we're going to do it
I like to stick it onto the end of the
table it gives me a nice piece to grasp
on to slide my piece in it's important
you lay your transfer tape down right
because any weird imperfection or bubble
it's going to show up and it's going to
screw up
you're laying across it all right I
remember this transfer tape is going to
become final transfer tape so take care
of it you don't think I switch it out at
the end
[Music]
okay now this part is important and it's
going to help you so I'm going to peel
back your design as if you're going to
apply it make sure it's laying nice and
flat and take the backing paper line it
up on your design but make sure that no
backing paper is on your squares we want
the squares to stick we don't want
anything else to stick yet so make sure
that your squares are off of the backing
paper so all you're going to have is
just that on it and you take your second
piece here lay it down flat there's
other ways you can do this if you're
nervous see if I have some line around
if you're worried about it and it's your
first time and your paper is you know on
a small piece so it's on the roll it's
going to be it's gonna have a curve to
it so what you can do to make it easier
is you couple pieces of tape down
to help hold yours on flat so that
there's any weird bow in this or a weird
curve these squares aren't going to line
up with these squares because it's going
to be bent or something's going to be
off you want this flat so when you take
your next piece and lay it over top the
square is actually line up because this
is going to be it with our transfer tape
here so what you're just going to do is
line up both the squares directly on top
of each other don't just press one side
down you know get one side lined up keep
an eye on the other side and kind of do
a little back and forth until you get it
just right then at that point when
they're both lined up perfectly lay them
down and I like to come through hit the
top with our squeegee and what you're
basically going to do fold this over and
then slowly work its way back and let it
just drop nicely in place come through
squeegee it again and there you have it
you got a nice two colored layered base
you see how nicely the 1-squared laid
directly on top of the other if you're
off a little bit you're going to notice
it in your design so you'll see how well
these that just line up with each other
because of that so all that's left now
is to trim your design into a sellable
decal and you're done if you have any
more questions or you would like to see
something else demonstrated just go
ahead and leave it in the comments and
I'll try and get everything answered for
you guys and try to make any more videos
that can help you guys out thanks please
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