Layered Vinyl Sign

After a little bit of practice with the vinyl cutter we received a request to make a couple of car magnets.

The customer sent us their business card design.

We then drafted several designs based on the original for how it could look as a car magnet.

I then focused on the most complex elements and ran a test to see how complex layering different colored vinyl might be.

The red lines are the cut lines that the vinyl cutter will trace.

My first attempt at layering, not too bad but I had some adhesion issues. To transfer vinyl to the magnet a transfer tape is used to keep all the little bits in place.

First attempt, lost one of the sunbeams!

Once I was comfortable with the transfer and layering process. I was going to go for a two color/layer version. But my wife convinced me to go all in and do the four color version.

And there it is! Not bad for a first try. The biggest issue I had was bubbles under the green layer. I tried the soap water trick to keep the vinyl from instantly sticking and give me some time to adjust the position before squeegeeing it down. But I used too much water and it became trapped behind the vinyl. I read a tip online that the bubbles will go down after a few days so after checking with the customer we waited a week and the bubbles did indeed go down.

Thank you so much Upstate Lawn professionals for entrusting us to make these signs and giving us a chance to learn something new! Please give them a call if you are in need of their services!