Say Thank You with a Personalised Wedding Favour

Instructions

Job Setup

1. Open or create your design in Silhouette Studio and select the mat option, you can cut each colour without the mat if you prefer but as I was using some small pieces rather than full sheets or rolls I needed to use the mat, this also allowed me to cut both the chrome and the rose gold at the same time. You will see that I have created boxes around the lines of text, this is to make them easier to weed later as mirror vinyl can be quite fiddly. I cut the Silver Frost separately as it is a different thickness meaning that the blade needed to be adjusted to avoid cutting through the backing paper.If you are making multiple glass and bottle decals arrange the shapes so that you get the best use out of your material. Assign colours to your shapes in the software so that you can identify which shapes you will cut on each media. When you position the shapes on the screen make sure you leave a small area clear in the upper left corner so that you have space to perform a test cut without cutting over your design. Click on the 'Send' menu.

Cutter Setup

2. Place a piece of your first vinyl onto the mat if using, making sure it is positioned as shown on your screen or load your sheet/mini roll into the cutter. Remove the tool from the cutter and check that there are no bits of fluff or vinyl stuck to the blade. If you have a ratchet blade, dial the depth setting to that shown on your software or use the usual setting if you have worked with this vinyl before, then replace the knife into the holder. Perform a test cut and weed it to check if the settings are correct and adjust and retest if necessary. Reload your mat into your cutter, select the relevant material onscreen, check that the shapes that you want to cut are highlighted and start cutting. Repeat with the second vinyl, don't forget to perform a test cut and adjust and check your blade again otherwise you may slice through the backing paper.

Weeding

3. Peel your mat away from your cut vinyl and weed out the excess material. Take care here as the letters are small and mirror vinyl can be fiddly to weed, the silver frost should be a doddle! You may notice that I haven't completely weeded the vinyl, if you have particularly intricate shapes it is often easier to weed them off of the app tape or, as in this case, once you have applied them. This way it is less likely that you will dislodge or lose small shapes, however you must remove the excess vinyl immediately or you risk damaging the vinyl underneath.

4. Apply your application tape and squeegee down firmly from the top and the reverse, trim around the edges if required then carefully peel the tape with the lettering away from the backing making sure that you don't leave any shapes behind. Position on top of the frosted rectangle, squeegee firmly one more, then gently remove the application tape, almost folding it back on itself to leave the letters in place.

5. Weed away any remaining excess vinyl, clean and dry your bottle (and glass) to remove any dust or greasy fingerprints then gently peel your sticker away from the liner and position it onto the bottle. It's easier if you stabilize the bottle on a towel (or squeegee as I've done here!) to stop it rolling around. If you prefer you can use application tape to transfer the sticker, additionally you can spray a light film of water or application fluid onto the bottle so that you can float the sticker into place.

6. Repeat the same process for the glass, this time using just a single layer of vinyl and application tape. I used clear tape here but actually a paper tape would probably have been easier as it is more conformable which would have helped with application onto the complex curves of this glass. In this case I anchored the graphic at the top and snipped the tape in places to allow it to drape around the glass instead of buckling and creasing.