Trick-or-Treat DIY: How to Create Halloween Décor Using Heat Transfer & Adhesive Vinyl

Load the color of vinyl correlating to the word you are cutting onto your cutting mat.

Repeat until all of the words are cut from their respective colors and then weed away the vinyl surrounding your words.

Then, take your weeding hook to weed away the smaller pieces from inside of the letters.

You will then cover each word with transfer tape and give each one a brisk rub with your scraper tool. You want to make sure the vinyl can be easily lifted when you peel back the transfer tape.

Transfer one word at a time to your bucket.

You will want to do a quick pass with your scraper tool to make sure the vinyl is fully adhered to the bucket and then peel away the transfer tape.

Your bucket is done! Now, on to your sign.

Download your free cut file from the Craftables SVG library and open it in the Studio. Since I knew I wanted to do multiple colors of heat transfer here, I adjusted the page to match the size of my wood sign and I went ahead and assigned a color to each object to make cutting easier.

Don't forget to mirror your design! I copied the whole design before mirroring and moved to the left side so when it came time to assemble all of heat transfer pieces on the wood sign, I had a reference of where everything should go. This is an instance where assigning colors in the Studio can be really helpful! I copied the mirrored version to the right side and ungrouped.

That way, I could turn on my "show cut border" and move all objects of one color to fit within that border. I then cut all objects of one color at a time and repeated until I was done with the full design.

Load the heat transfer vinyl in the color that you have arranged to cut onto your cutting mat with the shiny side facing down.

When you are done cutting all of the pieces from all of the different colors, begin to weed.

Once everything has been weeded, use scissors to cut each individual object out and cut as closely to the object as you can to keep the ironing portion of this easy. Arrange everything on the wood sign. Iron over the whole thing for 10 seconds.

Then, place a teflon sheet over the full design and iron for an additional 15 seconds. You will then need to wait a few seconds for everything to cool before peeling the carrier sheet away from the vinyl.

Once the carrier sheets feel cool to touch, peel them away. I then placed the teflon back over the whole sign and gave another quick pass with the iron just to be sure everything was fully stuck.

I had so much fun using so many different colors of vinyl and I love the variety of colors offered at Craftables for both adhesive and heat transfer vinyl! This project could also work for Christmas or even a birthday party. There are so many color combinations that you could use—the possibilities are innumerable!

Heat transfer vinyl can be used on many surfaces. Have you ever used it on wood? Or check out this post using HTV on leather! You can also check out this post where HTV is applied to shoes. Be sure to check the Craftables Blog often for fun and creative ways to use both adhesive and heat transfer vinyl.

I hope your Halloween is as cheery and bright as your decor!

Happy crafting!

xoxo,

Caitlin