Last year, I shared my vinyl Tinker Bell and Tigger decals that I made. I found digital coloring pages and worked with them so that I could cut vinyl using the patterns. Tigger was easy peasey, all orange. But I wanted a multi-colored Tink. I spent hours trying different processes I'd found online to get the pieces lined up properly, but nothing really worked well. Most of them used registration marks. I tried those and they were a pain in the butt. The registration pieces were bigger than some of the color areas, like the eyes and mouth. I wasted more vinyl than I liked. I ended up not doing anything I saw online, I just kind of muddled through making my own process. My final project, shown in the link above, took hours and hours to do. A lot of problems.
When I cut out the pieces, I cut out extra. And I thought I'd give it another go. And I stumbled upon something that's gonna make this so much easier.Beacon 3-in-1 glue. Yep, my glue.
Got out my little light box, cut a piece of clear transfer tape with its backing to a little larger than the size of the finished design. I used painter's tape to tape the Tink pattern (the black and white sheet of paper) in the right orientation to the back of the transfer paper. I pulled the clear transfer tape up from the backing, like a flap. I taped the edges of the backing to the light box. I could see the Tink pattern as clear as day. I trimmed excess tape from the vinyl sections (see the fourth photo down in the previous link). I pulled the top of the transfer tape back and put a small amount of Beacon's on the back of a cut vinyl section. (This was a backing to backing situation.) I put that where it belonged on the bottom backing, using the Tink underneath as a guide. Then I put the adhesive flap down on this vinyl piece, did the thing with the scraper to attach the vinyl section to the adhesive. For the smaller pieces, I had to be really careful not to use too much glue. I was able to take the backing off of the vinyl piece without any difficulty. Then I did the next piece. The glue doesn't dry quickly or set on this backing, put it held the paper in place. I was able to slide the vinyl piece with ease and once I had it set where I wanted it, flap down, top down, rubbed the top and the vinyl piece stayed attached to the the transfer tape.
It took me less than ten minutes once I got started.
I'll take video of the process since I was so happy I found something that works. If it helps anyone else, that would be pretty cool.
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