How to Apply Adhesive Vinyl

Hey there, creative friends! Today on our crafty adventures, we're going to learn how to apply adhesive vinyl to a stainless tumbler to make an adorable personalized gift with our vinyl cutting machine! If you've never worked with adhesive vinyl before, no worries! I'm going to take you step by step through the process, so you'll feel like a pro when working with adhesive vinyl decals!

Materials and Tools for this Project:

• Cricut Maker ( or other cutting machine )

• Oracle 651 Gold Adhesive Vinyl

• Transfer Tape

• Tumbler or Mug

• Cricut Weeding Tool

• Cricut Scraper or Credit Card

• Rubbing Alcohol

• Lint Free Cloth

Here, I have already cut an svg design on gold adhesive vinyl. If you're not sure how to load an svg design into cricut design space to cut your design, you're in for a treat! We'll be releasing a tutorial later this week on how to upload svg files to Cricut Design Space.

Once your design has finished cutting, gently pull the sheet of vinyl, with the backing still intact, off of the cutting mat. I find pulling it slowly at a 45 degree angle works best, so the design doesn't curl too much.

The next step is to weed the pieces of adhesive vinyl that won't be included in the finished design. I like to start with the small inner pieces, like the insides of letters, and once I've finished that, I pull off the large outside piece.

Here we have our weeded svg design, ready to apply to our tumbler!

The key difference when working with adhesive vinyl, is that you'll need transfer tape to lift your weeded design from the backing, so you can apply it to your blank tumbler. For this step, you'll want to cut a piece of transfer tape that is just slightly larger than the design you'll be applying.

Tip: My favorite transfer tape is actually clear contact paper! It has just the right amount of tack to pick up adhesive vinyl from the backing, and I never have to worry about my designs getting stuck to it and not releasing onto my cups! You can grab it from Amazon HERE!

Once you have cut your transfer tape slightly larger than your design, peel away the backing, and apply it adhesive side down over your cut out svg design.

To make sure your design all lifts properly, you'll want to take your cricut scraper, or a credit card to burnish across the transfer tape and the design, so you can be sure everything is adhering nicely.

After burnishing the transfer tape to your design, slowly lift the transfer tape from the vinyl backing. Your cut out vinyl svg design should lift easily with the transfer tape.

Tip: I find that for intricate designs, slowly peeling the transfer tape at an angle is the best way to avoid any snags or tears that can sometimes occur with delicate pieces of vinyl.

Now you're ready to apply your adhesive vinyl design to your tumbler! Thoroughly clean the area you want to apply the adhesive vinyl design to with rubbing alcohol and a lint free cloth - don't skip this step, so you'll have the longest lasting results.

Without letting your transfer tape or the design touch the tumbler, line the design up where you'd like it to be placed. Once it looks just right, gently lay the transfer paper starting from the left and slowly working to right to prevent any air bubbles from forming.

Time to burnish again!

Burnish over the transfer tape and the adhesive vinyl design once more, to help your adhesive vinyl properly adhere to your tumbler. This step will also help to smooth out any air that could've gotten trapped behind the vinyl!

We are soooo close friends! Time to peel away the transfer tape to reveal our beautiful new tumbler!

Peel the transfer tape slowly at a 45 degree angle to reveal all of your hard work!

And.... There you have it! Our beautiful tumbler is ready for flaunting, and we have successfully applied an adhesive vinyl decal for a personalized touch!

If you found this tutorial helpful, be sure to become a part of our VIP tribe, where you'll get FREE svg designs, new tutorials, and cricut and silhouette tips each month! Right away, you'll get a free svg and our Ultimate Heat Transfer Vinyl reference guide delivered to your inbox! Check it out>>

Now that you know how to apply adhesive vinyl to your own tumblers and mugs, it's time to get creating! Get some design inspiration over at Lemon Lily Creative's SVG Shop! See these designs and more!

Take me to the SVG Shop!