How to Use Cricut to Make Graphics for Car Windows
- 1). Wash the outside of the card window that you intend to place the graphic on with glass cleaner and paper towel. Make sure there are no bug bits are dirt left on the window.
- 2). Load the cartridge into the Cricut machine and place the keypad overlay over the keypad of the machine. The keypad overlay comes with the cartridge. Turn on the machine.
- 3). Measure and cut a piece of vinyl to fit on your cutting mat. Some mats are 12-by-12 inches while others are 6-by-12 inches. Cricut does have 12-by-24-inch cutting mats, but a graphic that large will only fit on the back windshield of a car and would take up most of the windshield, so it is not recommended that you use that size cutting mat.
- 4). Place the vinyl on the cutting mat with the backing paper face down, lining up the bottom left corner of the vinyl with the bottom left corner of the cutting area of the mat. The mat indicates for you do to this. Rub over the vinyl to firmly adhere it to your mat. Place the mat at the opening of the machine in the direction indicated on the mat. Press the "Load Paper" button on the machine.
- 5). Select the design or text that you want to cut with the mat. Set the blade depth to six, the pressure to two and the speed according to the intricacy of the design. Choose a lower speed for more intricate designs and a high speed for very basic designs. Press "Cut."
- 6). Wait for the machine to finish cutting. Press the "Unload Paper" button. Remove the mat from the machine when it stops moving. Place the mat on your work surface and peel the excess vinyl from the mat leaving only your design.
- 7). Cut a piece of transfer tape large enough to cover the whole design. Lay the transfer tape over the top of the design and rub over it with a jumbo craft stick to adhere the vinyl to the transfer tape. Pull the transfer tape up making sure the vinyl pieces come with it.
- 8). Peel the backing paper from the vinyl. Place the transfer tape, with the attached vinyl design, on the card window over where you want the decal to be. Rub over the vinyl pieces with the jumbo craft stick to transfer the graphic from the tape to the card window. Peel back the transfer tape at a 45-degree angle.
- 9). Rub over the vinyl against with the jumbo craft stick to remove any air bubbles from under the vinyl and to ensure it is thoroughly adhered to the window.
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